Page 49 of The Alpha's Silent Mate

“You promise?”

In his eyes, I read his fear that he’ll lose me, so I stroke my hands up his back and bury them in his soft blond hair. “I promise.” And then I press on his scalp so he knows what I want.

He lowers his head, and his lips find mine. As a fresh wind blows through the cabin, he slips back inside me.

13

Shay’s gaze caresses the side of my face. It’s the only way to explain how it feels when he looks at me.

I don’t even need to turn my head in his direction to know he’s doing it.

“I think this is fast becoming my favorite thing to do in the world,” he murmurs.

“Watching me bathe?” I ask, lifting my head from the cloth I’m swiping over my thigh and to the bed, where Shay returned after he’d filled the tub for me.

I know what he means. Since we’ve been here, Shay hasn’t dressed, so seeing him sprawled out naked on the bed with his eyes full of heat is the reason I’ve spent most of my bath focused on my washcloth.

Watching him is fast becoming my favorite thing to do, too.

“Hmm.” His gaze lowers to my breasts. “I think I prefer to do something else more.”

After we spent most of the night in bed making love, and then again this morning, only rising when the sun was high in the sky, I can guess what that might be.

“You’re insatiable,” I murmur.

“What I am is hungry,” he says as he rises from the bed.

My gaze dips to take in his body, and as always, my mouth goes dry. I will never tire of touching him, or of him touching me.

“And so are you,” Shay continues as he stalks toward me. “I can feel it.”

His words draw my eyes back to his face. “Yes.”

After grabbing the towel that he left for me at the end of the bed, he halts a few steps away. “Come here.”

The old Lexa wouldn’t have wanted to expose herself in front of someone like that, but this Lexa is with her mate, a man she knows wants her as much as she wants him. So I rise from the bath and turn to face him.

Shay doesn’t move. He doesn’t take his eyes from my body, and I’m sure he doesn’t even breathe.

He just stares.

“Shay?”

I get no response, so I take a step out of the bath.

Before my foot can touch the floor, he’s there, wrapping the towel around my back as he draws me against his body.

“I’m getting you wet,” I murmur as my breasts press against his bare chest.

He slides a hand around my jaw and touches his brow to mine. “You’re making me want to stay here with you forever.”

I blink. “What?”

His eyes search my face. “I don’t know how I’m going to go back to just being alpha.”

As I study him, I recall his story about wanting nothing more than to stay in the kitchen as a boy. “Is that what you want? To stay here and let someone else be alpha?”

Shay’s sigh is full of frustration. “No. Yes.” He shakes his head. “Being alpha is who I am. I don’t think it’s something I can turn away from.”

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