Page 37 of Strawberry Moon

After the way I’d treated him, it sure fucking was. But that’s what it was, the thing stopping me up, turning my limbs to heavy stone so I wouldn’t throw myself at him and wind around him like a snake.

“I just wanna do right by you,” I ground out, my brow puckering.

With my eyes still closed, I could still sense him crawling up on his knees, edging closer, until his bent legs locked with mine. His knee wedged between mine, and he wiggled closer. I felt the bob of his cock against my kneecap. A twitch, and his dick rested heavy and hot against the top of my thigh. In a tiny move of his hips, he rocked against me, almost like an impulse, like he didn’t really mean it.

My eyes shot open, and he was right there, biting his lip. Already, his plump lower lip was slick and flushed, reflecting the moonlight.

“I want that.” He swallowed too. I wasn’t the only nervous one here. “I want you to do right by me.”

I grabbed his leg. For one second, I needed him to stop moving, stop teasing me with that damn sweet dick of his.

I held his eyes as he shivered in my grip. Color flooded his cheeks, but he didn’t back down.

“Please, Alpha.”

That was it. One whisper, and my brain shorted out. I rose onto my knees, and he did too. He met me in the middle, our chests hit but we kept pressing, needing to get closer, to wedge ourselves inside each other until none of the things that kept us apart mattered.

My mouth crashed into his, and he opened up beautifully. With a gasp, his lips parted. He let my tongue inside, pliant as I tasted his teeth, grazed the roof of his mouth, sucked his tongue into my mouth.

His hands clawed, pressing against the small of my back and holding me still. The dip between my hip and lower belly gave him a place to thrust, and lord, did he. He rocked against me, moaning, thrusting so hard I almost thought he wanted to fuck me.

Fucking hell, I’d have let him. One word, and I’d have gotten on my knees for Archer Sterling. Given him anything and everything he needed to feel safe and in control.

But there was no control here. He dropped his head on my shoulder. His soft hair tickled my neck, and I bit his. Not hard enough to break the skin, but my teeth were a tease that sent him keening.

“It aches,” he whined.

And I smelled it then, that sweet slick dripping down his thighs, preparing him for the brutal spread of an alpha’s knot. My knot.

I wanted my knot buried in him. Locked in his writhing, spent body. His forever.

With one hand, I traced the curve of Archer’s back. He had good posture. Strong, firm muscles.

He was beautiful.

When I reached the base of his spine, I took one of his cheeks in my palm and squeezed gently. He whimpered into the curve of my neck.

“It aches here, sweetheart?”

I felt him nod. Hardly needed an answer, when my fingers slipped across the slick coating his crack.

I brushed a kiss across his temple. “I can help with that.”

My wolf and I had different ideas of what that help looked like. Archer needed an alpha, sure, but that didn’t mean me. I’d do my best by him, of course I would, but this wasn’t about me.

It’s about us. My omega. Needs us.

I shook my head, and though Archer gave me a confused look, he let it go. I pulled him against me, and he made a high, tight sound as I staggered to my feet, pulling him with me. When I lifted him, his arms went tight around my shoulders. His supple legs curled around my hips.

Carefully, I lowered him back on the boulder. Dazed, he blinked up at me.

“You need food?”

He shook his head.

“Water?”

“Only need you, Alpha.”

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