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I stood, picking Marlowe up with me carefully so as not to spill her drink. I respected the hell out of Archer, but his priorities were pissing me off. “Then you can discuss this during your turn.”

Archer started to push back from the table but Cam barked at him to let me be. The table erupted into tense bickering, but I couldn’t let it affect me, and I couldn’t let it affect Marlowe, either.

I brought her into my room and closed the door. “I’m sorry, I’m sure it was important, but…”

She shook her head. “I get it, and you’re right. I need to make the best use of my time tonight, and right now, I just want to be withyou.”

I was glad it was dark in the room and she wouldn’t see me blush. “You mean it isn’t just because I’m next on the list?”

“There’s a list?” she snorted. Shit, was she amused or pissed?

“Yeah, it was Elias’s idea,” I said quickly, happy to give him all the credit for what might have been a bad idea. I didn’t want to waste any second of our time with her angry at me.

She threw her head back and laughed, and the slight tension in my chest released with a small sigh. At least she wasn’t mad. “That sounds about right. So, what do you want to do?” she asked, raising her eyebrows suggestively and taking another sip of her coffee.

I carefully set her back down on her feet. “I’m down for whatever. We can just talk, or cuddle, or if you want to sleep, that’s cool, too. I just… I just need to touch you and smell you.” Marlowe finished the rest of her drink while I watched, holding her hand up to stop me from continuing. She winced as the heat of it burned her tongue and then set down the mug. “Do you think I just asked for caffeine for fun?”

Her hips swayed as she walked over to me, unbuckling my belt and pulling it out through the loops. She dramatically dropped it on the floor and then worked on removing my pants.

I swallowed the lump forming in my throat, my hands trembling. Why did I still feel so nervous around her? I was a grown alpha, and yet Marlowe really did have me feeling like an inexperienced pup sometimes. Even my cock didn’t quite know what to do—it was as though I would blow my load the second she even so much as looked at it.

But I liked it when she took charge. When she told me what to do and what she liked. I certainly knew a thing or two in the bedroom, but for the rest of my life, I was only going to be sharing it with Marlowe. All I wanted to know was how to please her.

“You look way too good in a suit, it’s practically criminal.”

Okay, she liked me in a suit. I’d have to find more excuses to wear one.

Her small fingers nimbly undid the buttons on my shirt. Watching her eyes grow hungry because of me made me even more turned on, and by the time I was down to my underwear I couldn’t keep any of my composure. “Can I touch you?” I asked.

She stopped, her head slightly tilted and looking at me quizzically. “You don’t need my permission. Or…” she paused,chewing on her lower lip. “Do you want my permission?”

I closed my eyes and nodded. “Yes, I would like that very much.”

She stood on her tiptoes and wrapped her hand around my neck, bringing my ear down to her lips. “I want you to kiss me Julian, and then you’re going to eat me out until I come. Next, you’re going to fuck me so hard I’ll be walking bowlegged for a week. And finally…”

My chest was heaving, my hands flexing at my sides in anticipation.

“…You’re going to bond with me.”

I took her face in my hands and slammed my lips against her, pushing her back to my bed until she fell down in a fit of laughter.

“Julian!” she gasped, a smile growing on her face. “Yes, just like this!”

I ripped Cam’s shirt apart, buttons flying. Whatever, I’d buy him a new one. I stood up only for a moment and pulled down my boxer briefs, my cock pulsing as Marlowe bit her lip. Her eyes eventually wandered back up to my face. “Show me exactly what your body can do tonight.”

Fuck, she was too perfect. I kneeled in front of the bed, grabbing her thighs and resting them on my shoulders as I got to work.

22

ELIAS

Iglanced nervously at my phone. It was a quarter to eight and Marlowe was asleep in my arms, my knot still deep inside her. Archer had put a bag of clothes together for her so she wouldn’t have to waste any time packing, and Nolan was putting some cookies and brownies he’d baked for her in a large container.

I was too afraid to wake her—not just because she looked so peaceful, her face free from the worry of the impending Rite, but also since any movement could re-stimulate my knot and I’d be locked in her for longer. Not that I felt particularly inclined to fall in line with the Conclave’s pathetic attempts to take our omega away from us, but Linda was doing us a huge favor in keeping Marlowe safe from those assholes until this whole shitshow was over.

The thought of them with their hands all over her made me too angry for words, and I pulled Marlowe tightly into my chest. We’d knotted from behind and now laid on our sides, spooning on the large bed I’d claimed as my own in her father’s house.

I fought the impulse to just say “fuck it” and skip town with her. How long would it take the Conclave to know we were missing? We could be hidden away in a beach house in Costa Rica by then.