Page 73 of Alpha Exile

Just before he can, Kieran reaches between us and slides Roarke's shaft out of me. There's a snarl against my neck, but Kieran strokes him through it, and he releases himself onto our bare skin. A moment later, Kieran follows him, working himself to a breathless release with his hand.

Then he groans, pressing his forehead to mine, and slides a kiss across my lips. His mouth settles on my ear, and he murmurs, "I thought it would be wise not to come inside you, given everything."

"Thank you." I turn my head and kiss him, then turn the other way and kiss Roarke, whose mouth is gentle even as he holds me possessively against his naked body. "Are you there, my love?"

Stretching back, he blinks down at me, his blue eyes clear and focused. In a low voice, he mumbles, "We all need a fucking shower."

And I laugh, dizzy with relief and impossibly grateful, tears sliding down my cheeks.

He's back. He's mine again.

There's so much more to figure out—including, of course, the nagging fact that Roarkedidcome inside me—but I have him back. He's real, he's here, and even though he still seems to be waking up, at least I know he's my Roarke again.

My beautiful, summer-eyed boy.

They let me down to my feet together, and we open the shower door, turning the water back on. As it steams up the shower and I start to step inside—the guys motioning for me to go first—a familiar voice floats through the door.

"Now that the three of you are done, mind giving us an update? Based on the sounds I heard through the door, I'm guessing everything is okay," Finn says, humor in his voice, "but it would be good to have a verbal confirmation. Instead of, you know, some grunts and moans. Not that I didn't appreciate them."

I laugh, shoulders trembling, as a grouchy Roarke calls back, "I really didn't miss you one single bit."

Thirty

Kieran

Ifeel him stir from across the room, and slide my eyes open to find his blue eyes staring back at me, his expression deep and full of shame.

My heart races as I consider all the things that shame could be about. Truth be told, I'm not sure how I feel about what happened yesterday—in all my wildest dreams, I never imagined that my best friend would get down on his knees and dothattome.

Probably because I wouldn't have been able to dream it for long before losing control.

Last night he slept in Delilah's bed, the covers pulled over both of them, while I tossed and turned restlessly on an air mattress on the floor. Delilah offered me the pullout coach in the living room, but I didn't want to have Roarke out of my sight. Over and over again I woke up from horrible dreams where he wound up dead, or worse, possessed forever. Only the fact that I could slide my eyes open and see him in the darkness, his tousled hair buried next to Delilah's on the pillow, calmed me.

"You really didn't have to sleep on the floor," he murmurs, stretching out and slowly disentangling himself from Delilah. She snuffles and flips over, curling against the other edge of the mattress while Roarke slides down to sit next to my spot on the floor. "The bed is king sized. I'm sure we could've made room."

"I'm a sleep kicker," I murmur, pushing up so we're staring eye-to-eye. Roarke's gaze flits away from mine and back, as if he's unable to look at me for long. "I once kicked my aunt's dog so hard in the middle of the night that he bit my foot, remember? Something I didn't want to repeat."

"Yeah. I remember that."

Roarke is silent for a long moment, and I fall into that silence with him. It's hard to believe after yesterday that we actually have him back. Some part of me was so certain I'd lost him for good that I don't know what to do now that he's back.

Though I definitely hadn't planned on letting him suck me off in the bathroom while Delilah watched.

"I'm so sorry," Roarke blurts out suddenly, leaning forward and lowering his voice as Delilah stirs in the bed. "I'm ashamed of what I did. The way I acted. It was—I was awful, I'm sorry."

Licking my lips, I carefully ask, "What are you sorry about?"

He gives me a puzzled look. "The way I attacked you. I tried to kill you. And Delilah..." Trailing off, he swallows. "I had sex with her while I was out of my mind. I'm—I'm not even sure it was fully me who did it. Then I tried again, and when you stopped me, I was so furious."

"It wasn't your fault," I murmur. "We forgave Bastian for what he did while he was out of his mind, so of course we forgive you too."

"But itwasme who had unprotected sex with Dee yesterday in the bathroom." He shudders. "And I made you do the same thing. If you hadn't had the foresight to pull out... I'm sorry I did that. And that I just—came on to you without warning."

My stomach churns, and I glance over Roarke's shoulder to see Delilah watching us, a crease between her brows.

"It's okay, Roarke. The truth is, you didn't do anything that I didn't want. Thatwedidn't want," Delilah nods her head in agreement with my words, "and at the end of the day, we were all in that bathroom together."

Those blue eyes roam my face, keen insight in them. "So you wanted me to—to touch you?"

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