Page 86 of Trust No Alpha

“I love you, too.” I pressed my forehead to his.

“That’s why we can’t. Not right away.”

“I won’t accept that. I’ve been experimenting. I found I can take pleasure from penetration.”

“What?” He tilted his head back, staring into my eyes. “When? With who?”

“What?” Then I realized what he was asking. “Oh, not that! It was no one. No one but myself.” I flushed all over to say aloud what I had done. But he’d seen me through the Burn and after, all of me, and in almost every naked position imaginable.

I tugged my lower lip into my mouth and lowered my voice. “I might have borrowed one or two of your things from—ah—from your bag of toys.”

“I don’t remember loaning them to you,” he replied, voice flat.

I flushed again. “You did. You offered them to me during my Burn and I shoved them all onto the floor.” I leaned back, changing my tone. “I remember rejecting them then, but I don’t remember you rescinding the offer altogether.”

“You little shit.” But his voice was affectionate, and he planted a kiss full on my lips.

“Please. I want to try it.”

“Try it?”

“Yes. Full penetration with you. During the Burn. I want you to knot me and see if the mate-bond will form. I already feel like I can’t be away from you for even one minute. Our minds seem attuned. And our bodies, well, I don’t even need to say it.”

“Are you insinuating we fuck all the time?”

“I am.” We did spend a lot of time in bed. “So what do you think?”

“About penetration?”

I nodded.

“Sweetheart, I’m sorry. I will say this one more time. I can’t do it during the Burn. I won’t and you damn well know why!”

“Not ever? Is that what you’re saying? Because that’s the only time the mate-bond can happen.”

“You are correct. Which is why I am looking for a place to move us far away from your father’s clutches.”

“But I didn’t know that meant you would never try with me. You kept saying we’d discuss it later!”

“That’s because you’re still so vulnerable about all this. I didn’t want to get into it so soon after your return. But I guess now we’re having that discussion.”

“Yes. We are.”

“And my final word on the matter is I will not risk you.”

I stood back a step and spread my arms. “Me? Risk? Look at me! I’m not a tiny Omega. I don’t need protection. I fought off Father and won. I puthimin the hospital. I fought Mathias. I’m big. I can take care of myself. And I have an Alpha constitution, not an Omega’s. If you black out and start going crazy on me, I can fucking take you!”

“Oh you think so?”

“I know so.”

In that moment, Thorne reached out and grabbed my arms hard. With a swift kick, he swept his leg across mine. Hooking it and taking me off balance, he threw me to the floor.

I landed ungracefully on my ass, looking up at him with part fury and part amusement that he had just done that.

“Fuck!” I sat on the cold tile staring up at him.

“So there you have your answer.”