Page 50 of Knot Your Business

Jasper’s flash of blond hair shines in the midday sun as he perches on the seat next to me, his elbows braced on his knees and his chin resting on his clasped hands. He doesn’t look over at me, keeping his gaze firmly on the ocean. Like he instinctively knows that I need a chance to look him over before we discuss the last week.

How is a Beta so in tune with what an Alpha needs?

Because he is perfect for you, that voice whispers inside me.

The thought sours as I think of the Omega’s picture in the packet and his unwillingness to send her off to someone else. Why are we not enough? Why am I not enough?

I force myself away from the thought.

My gaze catches on a small bruise just under his ear, hidden enough that most people wouldn’t notice it, especially since his hair has grown out over the last few months. Something suspiciously similar to jealousy slinks through me, and I have to breathe through the instinctive possessiveness that wants to claw out of my chest. It might just be from Rylan.

Except that Rylan was here when I came home this morning, and he was not. He was with the Omega.

Rylan didn’t have any more information about what they were discussing than a simple, “Trying to find common ground.”

It’s clear they spent the night fucking. I swallow down the growl that wants to climb up my throat.

Cazzo.

“I’m not sure if I should start by asking why you decided to leave for nearly an entire week without even texting me or by telling you she’s moving in,” Jasper says after a while, his gaze still on the water. His shoulders are rolled forward, and his knuckles are white where his chin rests on them. His heartbeat races in his neck, so fast I can see it from here.

The urge to comfort him rides me hard, to alleviate from him the worry and stress of what he fears is happening between us.

I don’t let the words escape my lips.

“I do not get the courtesy of being included in such plans?” I ask instead.

His jaw clenches, and he breathes through his nose.

“I guess we’ll start with the first one, then,” he mutters. “I wanted to talk with you all fucking week, Dom. You came back while you knew we would be gone. How am I supposed to have a conversation with you if you’re intentionally avoiding me?”

The words come out more hurt than angry, a layer of bitterness I’ve not heard between us before. My chest tightens, but I breathe through it.

“You know I don’t want to match,” I say.

He sighs. “But we have, and you promised me when I agreed in the fall that we would do our best to make it work. They get one chance, Dominic.”

The words taste like ash on my tongue, and I despise it. “And yet the Council gives ample chances to have them reassigned. It’s not their only chance.”

Jasper stretches his neck, his eyes fluttering closed. “Is it her that you don’t like? Or would you have gone back on your word regardless of who the Omega was?”

Would I be fighting this so intensely if she didn’t have such a history with my lover? The sensations from the last time I was around a scenting Omega roar to the surface, my dick jumping behind my zipper and my scent bleeding out from me despite the suppressors. Fuck, I hate being so out of control, my body responding when I’d rather not—responding even when I have no true interest in the person causing the reactions.

I don’t offer a response, but that proves to be answer enough. His shoulders drop, and he shakes his head. When he finally looks over at me, it’s distrust written on his face rather than anything else I’ve ever seen him wield.

“You know that I love you,” he says after a long silence, his gaze still caught between sorrow and anger. “And that I wasn’t sure this would even work between us. But I took the leap. I trusted you. Now I’m asking that you do the same for me.”

The insulated bubble I’ve created over the last week cracks under his attention and his words. I lean forward, twisting so that I’m facing him entirely. He doesn’t back away from me, though his gaze grows more wary as I close the gap between us.

“You are so quick to forgive her trespasses?” I ask, leaning over until there’s barely a gap between us at all.

His throat ripples again, and he shakes his head. “It isn’t that simple.”

I palm his throat, smirking as his breath catches. “She left you. And yet after one night of fucking her, you’re ready to pretend it didn’t happen?”

I trace the small bruise she left behind. He shudders in a breath, his eyes dilating under my touch. “We’re both very aware that it happened,” he whispers even as he tilts his head, letting me see the bruise in its entirety. The need to mark over it, to mark him is a rising wave in me.

I resent it. Fuck, do I resent it. But I don’t fight it. I bite over the spot, my dick leaping at the low, strangled sound my lover makes.

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