Page 49 of Forced By the Alpha

Beth hesitated in the doorway, though the shower was calling her name. “Why do you like her? No offense, but she seems awful in pretty much every way apart from her looks.”

Jonah laughed. “Yeah, she’s gorgeous, but the truth is there are a lot of sides to Em. She hasn’t been showing much of those other ones lately. I’m afraid you bring out the worst in her.”

“So, she was nice before I got here?” Beth asked, doubtfully.

“Let’s go with nicer. Nice is a stretch,” Jonah said, settling down in front of Beth’s door to read. “Hey, are you okay? That was a hard fall, and you’ve got the baby and all. Should I have a doctor come by?”

Beth shook her head, rubbing her still flat stomach. “I’m alright, thank you. Just my hip and my pride took a blow, but that pride has been taking a beating for a while now. It’s resilient.”

She shut the door and shed her clothes, dropping them into the laundry bin before starting up the shower. Her face and arms were streaked with dirt, somehow, and her hip was already turning colors. Beth stepped into the hot water and closed her eyes, letting it wash away the day.

What would Devon choose? She was his mate, the mother of his child, but Emma was his sister. Could she ask him to choose between them? It was an impossible choice. Even if Devon did choose Beth over Emma, would he ever forgive her for having to give up his sister?

Digging the dirt out from under her nails, Beth couldn’t help but turn her hand over and look at the palm that had reached out and struck Emma. It had been warranted, she’d thought, at the time, but now she regretted it. There had been better ways to deal with the situation.

She smoothed conditioner into her lengths, the scent of lavender filling the shower, and twisted her hair into a clip. When she turned around, Devon was there on the other side of the glass shower door.

“Can I join you?” He asked. “I knocked, but I don’t think you could hear me.”

Beth realized she’d frozen upon seeing him. There was something about being caught in the shower, fully nude, that made her feel more vulnerable than if he’d pulled her clothing off piece by piece. But she wanted him, needed him there.

“Yes,” she said, pushing the door open for him.

He yanked his shirt off overhead in one smooth motion, and Beth’s mouth went dry, tracing the downy line of fur that stretched from his navel down. She busied herself with rinsing her hair, but couldn’t keep her eyes away when he kicked his pants off, and his briefs a moment later.

Always, her anger took the backstage when her desire rose. She couldn’t hold both at once, that aching need for him consumed everything, even common sense. When he stepped into the shower, she moved into his open arms.

“Is the lavender working?” He murmured into her hair. “Jonah recommended we buy that scent, said it's supposed to be calming.”

Beth laughed. “Somehow, I think it takes more than aromatherapy to keep someone calm when kidnapped. I’m afraid it’s not quite doing the job today, either. My sister-in-law hates me is a little above lavender’s pay grade.”

His hands slid up her sides, so large they nearly engulfed her. He tugged even tighter against him and she felt safe as always in his arms.

“I’ll find a way to deal with her,” Devon said, exhaling the words. He sounded exhausted.

“Can we talk about it another time?” Head against his chest, she closed her eyes and let her fingers move blindly down his front.

She found his cock half-hard and dragged her fingers over it. They had problems to deal with, and Beth was tormented by the decision that Devon had yet to make. However, for the moment, her body’s desire was clear.

He inhaled, surprised. “Are you sure?”

His fingers wrapped in the hair at the base of her neck and tugged, tilting her head back to look at him. He liked to read her that way, when she couldn’t look away, and he knew her answer from her expression alone.

In a moment, his cock was achingly hard and warm in her hands. Breathless, she slipped from his grasp to her knees, tasting the precum that beaded at the head. Devon leaned back against the wall, hands on either side of her head. She looked up and found him staring at her, enraptured, pupils blown.

She lost herself in the pleasure of it, of undoing him with her mouth and her tongue and her fingers. Everything but him faded away.

Later, as they lay in bed draped with their towels, she propped herself on her elbow to look at him. Eyes closed, his light brown lashes shadowed his cheeks. Sunset was falling outside, and he was bathed in its glow. She wanted to capture the image of him just as he was then, and hold it forever, to keep it no matter what came next for them both.

It was a special kind of torment to find love with an enemy. Mistrust does not easily yield to faith, and the thread of it ran through everything, even then. When all of your loved ones are at odds with one another, how can you maintain your closeness? Everything conspired to pull them apart. At times, even her own heart begged for her to flee.

She couldn’t predict him, even though she could read him, had grown familiar with his expressions and his mannerisms. There was still so much she didn’t know about him, yet she was his, and he was hers.

“I can practically hear you thinking,” he said, cracking one eye open. “Want to talk about it now, or do you need to stew on it some more?”

She didn’t want to talk about it and spoil the moment, but it was only going to keep her awake if she kept it to herself.

“Do you ever feel like the world doesn’t want us to be together? That each time we overcome some obstacle, it’ll find another to throw at us?”

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