Page 84 of Running on Empty

“Nest or bedroom. Decide. Now.” I chuckled at his rough tone, at the desperation there, reaching up to stroke Ash’s face, but he shook me off. “I’m holding on by a fucking thread here, omega, so decide before I do for you.”

“I like this Ash much better. When you pull the fucking stick out of your arse, you act like an alpha should.” I tapped my breastbone. “Focused on me. Can you maintain that, Ash? Can you stop your fucking brain from ticking over all the time and just be with me?”

He held me without effort, yet somehow I was sure I was becoming heavier by the moment, because it wasn’t just my physical weight he was carrying, but everything that had come before. I searched his face, willing him to make the right choice and as if to confirm my worst fears, Jax started to shift restlessly. But Ash, the bloody bastard, he smiled slowly.

“My fucking brain will always be ticking over.” I let out a huff of breath at that, all my optimism threatening to die a sudden death. “I can’t stop that.” But when he pressed my back into the wall and his body with it, hope flared to life again. “But maybe I need something much more productive to focus on.”

I could feel him then, as his hips slowly ground into mine, the most elemental form of recognition a man could give a woman, any doubts I had fleeing, as he rocked himself back and forth against my groin.

“My brothers are always bitching about me ordering them around, but what if it was this.” I never expected Ash’s lips to curve into this kind of smile, one full of devilish delight. “What if instead of trying to keep you fuckers safe, I worked to keep you satisfied?”

I’m not afraid to admit I searched his face, wanting what he said to be true, but unable to believe it.

“Now, I’ll ask one more time, nest or bedroom?”

“Nest,” I said, without question. “I need you.” My eyes flicked to the others. “All of you in my nest.”

“Big mistake,” Ronan said with a grin. “Because once you let us in, we’re not ever leaving you alone in there again.”

“Promise?”

I meant that to be a challenge but it came out as a yelp, as Ash jerked us away from the wall, then tossed me over his shoulder, striding down the hall until he kicked open the door and laid me down on the bed.

Chapter50

Ronan

When all three of us laid our omega down on the bed, I experienced a moment of quiet. Evenheshut up for once, if only for a few heartbeats. There was an almost ceremonial air to us drawing back, standing at the edges of our omega’s bed, each one of us watching her shift restlessly on the mattress.

“You better not just stand—”

Stevie’s voice was high and breathy in the way she got whenever something was turning her on, all her former fire dampened by this. Her eyes flicked to me as I jerked my shirt up and over my head and we liked the way she watched us very much. It was as if we could feel her gaze trailing over our skin, a little foreshadowing of what was to come. But as I moved, so did my brothers, baring themselves to her.

I stripped off quickly, the others’ eyes narrowing as they saw what I was up to, but she was my mate right now, not theirs until she’d accepted them. So I dropped down onto the bed as they were still wrestling with their clothes, and then my entire focus narrowed down on her.

“Ready, beautiful?” I asked her, splaying my hand across her chest, placing it over the heart that was all mine. “You’ve been dreaming of this too, right?” She nodded quickly. “And what did you see in those fevered little dreams?” I smoothed my hand up her belly, feeling the muscles flex as I pushed her shirt up. “Was I in them?”

“Sometimes,” she admitted, then shot me a cheeky smile, but the effect was ruined as I revealed her breasts. Her brows knotted, her pants coming faster and she wanted to move, to make me please her, because right now, she couldn’t trust any of us enough to wait.

“What about me?” Jax dropped down on the bed beside her, watching her with hungry eyes.

“Yes.”

“And what was I doing?”

Jaxy kept his tone light, his fingers tracing lazy figure eights all over her skin, like the beast inside him didn’t want to tear every scrap of clothing off.

Just like mine did.

Yesss…I heard the hiss ofhisvoice inside my head, followed quickly by a rapid flicker of vision. Over my Stevie was a rapid flicker of images superimposed. Her back arched as both our mouths tugged at her nipples. My mouth on hers, devouring it, before she pulled away to kiss Jax. Our hands moving together to slide between her thighs, opening her up as—

Yes, that, I agreed with him and so I moved.

I kissed Stevie long and slow, as if reacquainting myself with every inch of her sweet little mouth, not pulling away until her eyes were hazy and unfocused.

“What were we doing?” I repeated my brother’s question as she just blinked.

I nodded to Jax and we slid our hands up her ribs, getting closer and closer to the sweet swells of softness we’d watched so damn closely when she was grown. Stevie walking around the house without a bra on, her breasts bobbing each time she put clothes up on the line or went out to the mailbox. Even the way they shifted when she poured drinks at work, our growls keeping the worst fucks at bay, even as we leered at her in the exact same way.

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