Page 34 of Pack Favero

Anger flashes across Hunter’s face before he grits, “It’s Hunter.”

“Right. Sorry,” Barnes mutters distractedly, waving at the biology professor while he tugs my hand in an indication that he’d like me to follow.

I do, sending Hunter another falsely apologetic glance, before following Barnes through the library and passing several tall shelves stacked with books upon books. I’m racing across the floor, Barnes’s speed is a little quick for my five-foot-five frame boosted by four-inch heels, but the alpha doesn't slow down in the slightest. Not until we’re walking through the office door that goes mostly unoccupied unless a student needs a quiet place to study. Since the library is usually quiet as a church mouse, the room is barely used.

I’m a little breathless by the time he shuts the door, locking us inside and the rest of the world out. Resting my hands on my hips, I stare wide-eyed at the alpha before blurting, “Why are we in such a hurry? I can’t walk as fast as you, with your long legs and lack of heels.”

Barnes doesn’t answer, not when he locks the door, not when he turns to stare at me with wild, intense eyes that makes my breath stall in my chest and my heart palpitate before beating at a pace much more rapid than normal, and not when he marches over to me in two long strides, backing me up against the lone table that resides in this room.

“Barnes?” I whisper, breathless with anticipation as I peer into his sapphire eyes filled with a myriad of emotions, mainly heat, hunger, and a furious need that damn near turns the blood in my veins to lava.

Shaking his head, Barnes leans into me, pressing his hands into the table on either side of my hips, his nosealmost brushing mine as his breaths cascade over my lips. He doesn’t say anything for a long moment, only the sounds of our breathing filling the air along with our combined scents, mine sweeter and stronger with the need thrumming through every atom of my body.

Finally, just when I think I'm about to go crazy in the silence, Barnes speaks. “I had a very enlightening conversation with a smug Viking bastard before I finally found you. I don’t suppose you know what he might have told me?”

My eyes widen and I slap a hand over the slow grin that starts to grow, giggling into my palm. Humor enters those intense, dark-blue eyes of his, and he shakes his head, his nose bumping into mine as he does.

“For five minutes, Freckles, I had to listen to that bastard gloat about how he tasted you first, how he made you moan against his mouth, and how good you felt pressed against him while he devoured you. And what do I get? A quick peck to the lips and a smile,” he continues, gaze boring into mine, need and amusement, and a whole lot of sexy emotions filtering through them like a movie reel.

Giggling behind my hand, I mumble, “In my defense, Alek kissed me first, and it wasn’t in front of the creep I can’t get rid of today.”

Barnes pauses at that before nodding slowly, narrowing his eyes on me in a playful move I wouldn’t have expected from my usually serious alpha. His smiles are rare, as well as his laughter, but this side of him I’ve only seen once, and that was when he first started visiting the library in my first week at North U. I love it as much as every other aspect of his personality, and I’m biting my lip when he playfully growls, “So, you’re saying I need to make a move first to get the kiss I really want?”

Stifling another giggle, I shrug. “Only one way to find out, wouldn’t you say?”

Heat flares in his eyes and he drops his gaze to my hand before reaching for it, tugging it away with a gentleness that contradicts the look on his beautiful face. As soon as my lips are free of their prison, Barnes swallows hard and shakes his head slightly before quietly declaring, “I’ve wanted to do this since the first moment I saw you sitting behind that desk, with your pretty hair pinned in a bun at the nape of your neck, your burnt-orange shirt revealing the creamy skin of your chest, and those heels that ruin me every time I see you in them.”

Before I can open my mouth to say absolutely anything, Barnes is cupping the back of my head with one hand while the other yanks me to him, his arm banding snugly around my back as his lips fall to mine with an explosion of passion, need, and a desire so deep that I feel it all the way to my toes.

Hands dropping to his waist, my fingers clenching tightly against the material of his shirt, I moan against his mouth as he completely devours me just as thoroughly as Alek did not ten minutes ago. I drag him closer, as close as he can possibly get, feeling every hard ridge of his body. And I mean every. Hard. Inch.

Growling against my mouth, shocking me enough with the sound that I gasp and perfume, my banana-split-and-caramel scent thickening around us with the sudden burst of arousal that floods my system, Barnes tilts my head back further. His fingers tangle with the loose waves of my hair as he licks, bites, and sucks at my lips, kissing me like a man starved.

It’s fiery passion.

It’s pent-up, bone-deep need.

It's breathtaking longing coming out in hard, earth-shattering kisses.

It’s absolutely everything, and a needy whimper slips free of my lips, trapped between our ravaging kisses as Barnes destroys me second by second with lips made of sin.

I have no idea how long we stay in the small, empty office, devouring one another until we’re breathless and the room is filled with the scent of my undeniable need and his intoxicating scent. What I do know is that my mind grows lightheaded the longer we taste one another, my hands ache from how tightly I cling to Barnes’s shirt, and there isn’t an ounce of me that wants it to end.

Sadly, work calls, and Barnes eventually slows our wild, frantic kisses to something more sensual, slow, and sipping. With one last kiss, he pulls back, just as breathless as I am. With his eyes closed, a slow grin breaks out over his gorgeous face, and one of my own stretches my lips in a mirror image I have no control over.

“That was everything I was expecting and more,” he whispers, pressing a more chaste kiss to my lips before he moves his head back and opens his eyes to look down at me. I love what I see in his eyes the moment his gaze connects with mine, a matching happiness and excitement that melds with the need that courses through both of our bodies, and my smile widens at the sight. Chuckling, Barnes rubs the tip of his nose against mine, before quietly muttering, “As much as I’d love to draw more of those sounds out of you and keep you in here to myself, we should probably finish the workday like we’re being paid to do.”

“Party pooper,” I whisper, biting my lip when his chuckle turns into a proper laugh, that turns into a groan before he uses his thumb to remove my lip from between my teeth.

“You shouldn’t do that, Freckles,” he rumbles, his chest vibrating with his words as he traces my lower lip with his thumb. “You’re dangerous for a man’s self-control.”

I hum, licking my lower lip, stealing the lingering traces of his taste. He watches every move, his eyes darkening until they resemble pools of midnight, and I swallow hard beforewhispering, “We should probably get back to work.”

“Probably,” he agrees, nodding as another slow smile breaks out over his face, stealing my breath and heart all at once. “Agree to a date with me this weekend and I might let you leave this room.”

“That’s not incentive for me to agree, Barnes. What makes you think I want to leave this room?” I tease, grinning wildly as he groans and drops his forehead to my shoulder, his shoulders shaking as he laughs.

“For months I took you for being shy and timid. I almost feel like an idiot for getting you so wrong,” he grumbles, kissing my shoulder before finally pulling back with a deep breath. “Since we do have to leave this room, I’m going to assume your answer to a date is yes.”

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