Page 91 of Knotting With A Stranger

I cling to his muscular arms, my forehead pressed against his, as pleasure builds to an impossible peak.

“Let me feel you come apart. Let me see what I do to you.”

He thrusts into me, over and over, and I’m meeting every movement with my own, my breasts bouncing. He leans in and claims one in his mouth, and the teasing of his tongue on my nipple has me groaning for more.

The orgasm slams into me fast and sharp, sending me into a convulsion of euphoria. Shaking, I cry out, but he’s stealing my screams when he claims my mouth.

Pleasure crashes through me with such force, tears spring to my eyes. James follows me over the edge with a growl that’s more animal than human, his arms tightening around me as his body pulses inside mine.

Inside me, he’s thickening. Growing. Knotting… with strangers I barely know, yet somehow, they already own me.

He hisses, and his body shudders as I feel him flood me with his cum, stretching my insides as he locks himself in place.

“James,” I gasp, clinging to him as my body trembles with aftershocks.

“I’ve got you,” he murmurs, his arms strong and steady around me. “I’ve got you, Lily.”

I collapse against his chest, utterly spent. My limbs feel liquid, and my mind is blissfully empty of anything but the sensation of being held, being filled, being... claimed.

“You were perfect,” he says, his voice a low rumble against my ear. He strokes my hair, his touch gentle despite the inferno of what just passed between us. “So responsive. So beautiful when you surrender.”

The truth is, there was surrender on both sides—his control just as undone as mine by whatever this is between us.

James reaches over to the control panel, turning on the jets. The water warms almost instantly, bubbling around us in a soothing caress.

“We aren’t going anywhere for a while,” he says, a hint of a smile in his voice. “Might as well get comfortable as we might be here for about half an hour, maybe less.”

Nodding, I settle more comfortably against him. The physical pleasure has subsided to a warm glow, leaving room for other sensations—the steady beat of his heart against my cheek, the gentle rise and fall of his chest, the lingering scent of cedar and dark chocolate that seems to emanate from his skin.

“I’ll look after you now,” he murmurs, his lips brushing my temple.

My head is fuzzy from heat, release, and the strange, powerful connection that seems to bind us together. I’m not sure if I heard him right, not sure if he meant it the way it sounded.

As I cradle against him, I wonder how things will be between us when the heat finally subsides and reality comes crashing back in.

I push those thoughts aside, grateful to feel semi-normal without the ache deep in my stomach.

For now, I let myself sink into the moment—the warmth, the closeness, the way they hold me like I’m something precious, something lasting. A girl can dream, right?

21

JAMES

It’s barely past five in the morning, but I’ve been awake for the past half hour, hearing no noise from the storm as though it’s gone to sleep.

Beside me, Lily sprawls across the bed, one leg draped over mine, her face half-buried in the pillow. Her wild curls spill across the sheets, dark against the white cotton. I ease out from under her, careful not to wake her, and pull the covers over her exposed back.

“Fucking bed hog,” I mutter with a grin, watching as she immediately annexes my vacated space.

God, she’s beautiful. The kind of beautiful that made those eighteen months feel like eighteen years. I haven’t touched a woman in nearly two years—six months before prison, then the entire stretch inside—and my body is still humming from last night. Fucking her finally. The way she stared at me, challenging and holding on to me as if her life depended on it. Despite her words and actions, I know deep down, she is an Omega longing to be loved, to be protected by an Alpha.

I move to the window, staring out into the darkness. Everything is so still. I can’t make out much beyond our property line, just vague shapes and movements that could be animals seeking shelter or branches breaking free.

Looking back at Lily, something tightens in my chest. This is it. What I’ve been craving, what I dreamed about during those endless nights when the walls pressed in too close. Not just any woman—her. This mouthy little baker with her quick wit and her stubborn independence. This Omega who fits against me like she was made for me.

I could make a life with her. Build something real, something lasting. Give her everything she deserves—security, pleasure, a partner who matches her fire with his own. And if Archer and Hunter want a piece of what we have, I’m surprisingly okay with that. They’re my brothers in every way that matters. We’ve talked about it before, in those late-night conversations that skirt the edge of too personal—sharing an Omega, building a pack together. The idea should make me jealous, possessive, but instead, it just feels... right.

But there’s that shadow hanging over everything. The lies. Not outright falsehoods, but sins of omission. She knows about them now, yet it still sits heavily on me, seeing she hadn’t admitted to fully forgiving me yet.

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