Page 68 of Knot in Bloom
The drive back to her apartment is different now. Charged. Her hand finds mine across the console, and every time I glance at her, she’s watching me with an expression that makes my pulse quicken and my jeans uncomfortably tight.
When we hit a red light, I turn to look at her properly. The way the streetlights catch her hair, how her lips are slightly parted. Without thinking, I reach over and tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, my fingers lingering against her cheek.
“Caleb,” she breathes, and there’s something in her voice that makes my alpha instincts stir.
“I know.” My thumb traces across her cheekbone, and the simple touch makes my cock throb. “I feel it too.”
The light turns green, but the moment stays with us for the rest of the drive. Her scent in my truck grows warmer, richer, and I have to concentrate on the road instead of how much I want to pull over and show her exactly how much she affects me.
When I park outside her building, neither of us makes an immediate move to get out. The air between us feels thick with possibility and want.
“Caleb?”
“Yeah?”
“When you call the realtor—and you should definitely call the realtor after we snooped around—you should tell them it’s perfect.”
Something warm spreads through my chest. “You think it’s perfect?”
“I can picture us actually living there.”
When we reach her door, I don’t immediately step back like I usually do. Instead, I move closer, close enough that she has to tilt her head back to look at me. Close enough that my scent wraps around both of us and I can see her pupils dilate in response.
“Thank you,” she says softly, but her voice is breathless now. “For showing me the house. For including me.”
“Thank you for seeing it the way I do.” My hand finds her waist, settling there naturally. The simple contact makes my body respond with fierce need. “For wanting the same things.”
She looks up at me, and in the soft glow of the hallway light, I can see her pulse fluttering at her throat. “What do we want, Caleb?”
“Each other. A life together. Something permanent and real.”
The awareness that’s been building all evening crackles between us now, impossible to ignore. When she steps closer, eliminating the last inch of space between us, every restraint I’ve been maintaining starts to fray.
“Would you like to come up?” she asks, her voice carrying an invitation that makes my pulse jump. “For coffee. Or... not for coffee.”
The way she says it, the heat that blooms in her scent when she looks at me, makes my body respond with fierce need. Every alpha instinct I have snaps to attention.
“Sadie.”
“I know we said we’d take things slow. But seeing that house tonight, imagining all of us there together...” She reaches up, her fingers tracing along my jaw, and the simple touch makes me want to groan. “I don’t want to wait anymore. Not for this.”
The simple touch undoes something in my chest. I frame her face with my hands, watch her pupils dilate in response to my proximity. “Are you sure?”
“I’ve never been more sure of anything.”
Her apartment still smells like the vanilla candles she lit earlier, mixed with her natural honeysuckle sweetness. But now there’s something else in the air. Want, thick and intoxicating, mixing with my own arousal until the space feels electric.
The moment her door closes, I’m aware of how different this feels from Monday night. Then it was spontaneous, driven by desire we couldn’t contain. Now it’s intentional. A choice we’re both making.
And I’ve been aching for her all evening, my body wound tight with need.
“Come here,” I say softly, and she moves into my arms like she belongs there.
The kiss starts tender, careful. My hands frame her face like she’s something precious, and she sighs into my mouth. But when she pulls me closer, her fingers fisting in my shirt, something shifts.
“I’ve been thinking about this,” she confesses against my lips. “Since Sunday night. Wondering what it would feel like to have more.”
“More?” My voice comes out rougher than intended, and I can feel my control slipping.
