Page 216 of Captive Omega

Vaughn said a beautiful woman with a knife in her hand was a weakness of his. Garrison laughing from his gut is a weakness of mine.

Then he buries his hand in my hair, slanting his mouth over mine in a lush kiss, and I discover a new weakness. Garrison Brewster knows how to kiss every brain cell out of my head.

Footsteps pound down the stairs as we come up for air.

“I thought I heard… Resa!”

I’m in Vaughn’s arms as he lifts me, hugging me.

“You came back!” His grin isn’t that of a spoiled kid on Christmas morning. It’s waking up to the never imagined it would ever in a million years happen dream present.

“I might have missed you. Just a little,” I say, hugging him back.

Then I spot Blaine in the doorway and my smile fades. I’d hug him too, but Blaine doesn’t do hugs. “Maybe it was a little more than that. Hi, Blaine.”

“Hi.” He smiles. “We missed you too.”

“Uh, what’s going on with the painting?” I ask as I pull away from Vaughn.

Frost let me into the house when I’d told him I’d wanted to surprise Garrison, Vaughn, and Blaine. I’d walked into a mansion that smelled of paint fumes.

“We decided to work on a few projects,” Garrison says.

“Like?” I ask him.

He shakes his head. “Another time. Let’s take this somewhere else. We’ve been painting a lot, and you shouldn’t be inhaling all these fumes.”

I raise my brow as Vaughn laces his fingers with mine. “And you shouldn’t be falling asleep inhaling them.”

A new expression softens Garrison’s hard features. “You sound worried.”

I look him in the eye. “Do I? Maybe that’s because I am.”

He dips his head, claiming a sweet kiss.

I pull away when I recall what I did. “I shouldn’t have kissed you without permission. You thought you were asleep and?—”

“Resa,” he gently interrupts. “You always have permission to kiss me.”

The intensity in his gaze makes me look away. “I have some stuff I need to say.”

Vaughn tugs. “Outside. It’s a beautiful night in the garden and there are no fumes out there. Want me to carry you?”

I aim a reluctant smile his way. “You’re always trying to carry me.”

His kiss is a deeper one than Garrison’s, but I lean into it just the same. “Hold you, bloodthirsty omega. The correct terminology is I always want to hold the woman I love in my arms.”

Tears clog my throat, and I blink rapidly. If I don’t gain control of myself—and of this moment—I won’t say what I need to say.

“Resa?” Vaughn is concerned. They all look concerned.

I don’t know why it took me so long to see what was right in front of me, and I nearly didn’t see it at all. What if Henry hadn’t met Emily? What if I’d walked away from Pack Lucas and I’d lost them forever?

“The garden.” I lead the way outside, but two steps later, grind to a halt when I remember what happened out there. “Wait. Is it?—”

“It’s safe.” Vaughn assures me.

“We cut that tree down. No one is scaling it to point anything into our backyard again,” Garrison says tightly.

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