Page 182 of Knot That Serious

Then he rustled around underneath the bed, pulling out the manilla folder, the contents of which he had been working on for a bit.

He handed it over, and watched her brow dip in confusion before she took the papers, arms still curled around the pillow.

“I’ve been working on it with Jack and Beckett’s help,” he began, studying her expression as she opened it. “I wanted to make sure it was as close to perfect as possible before I showed you.” Raj bit the inside of his cheek as she studied the plans. “I mean, there’s still so much to do—this is really just an idea, if anything at all, and—“

“Raj,” Eli said softly.

“Yes?” he choked out.

“Shut up.”

Raj swallowed his response. “Okay.”

“Is this what I think it is?” she asked.

His heart was thudding against his chest, nerves running amok. “It depends. Do you think it’s house plans for a pack house? ‘Cause that’s what it is.”

“A pack house?” she breathed, papers rustling as she flipped through the different plans, the overview and each room’s layout. “You designed this?”

“Yeah,” he croaked out, because he couldn’t read her response, and god damn, maybe Jack was a cheating little fucker, because it would be really fucking convenient if he could feel what was going through her mind.

“You designed us a pack house, and you still haven’t asked me to bond yet?” Eli asked, finally lifting her gaze to him, a smile twitching her lips and a single brow arched. “You’re gonna give a girl ideas, Raj—Raj!” She repeated his name a little louder when he dropped to his knees in front of her. She had to lower the papers to see him.

“I had these big plans to woo you with dinner and the nest pillow and the plans and… a bond! That’s what I was going to do this evening: ask you. If you wanted that. With me?” He shook his head. “Then you were already here, and that’s not what I rehearsed, so I decided to wait, but now you’re all here,” he said, waving his hand at her. “And adorable, and the love of my life, and making French toast—“

“Because I want to bond you, too!” she interjected. Raj froze, felt his eyes grow wide. Eli cleared her throat. “My big plan was to seduce you with French toast and ask if you wanted to bond,” she said, voice softer.

Raj parted his lips, closed them when he couldn’t decide on a word, and then opened them again. “You mean, we were both going to ask about a bond?”

Eli nodded, and Raj tried to remember how to breathe, grappling for Eli’s hands before holding them both in his own. “Eli,” he began, very serious suddenly. “Would you like to bond with me? Bites and all?”

Her eyes were watering and Raj wished he was in a suit, something proper. But… “Literally nothing has gone to plan since the moment I met you, and I’m okay with a lifetime of that, if you are,” he said.

Eli tugged at his hands. “Yes! Yes, of course I want to bond with you. Now get up here.”

Raj’s knee cracked as he stood and Eli made a face at him before pulling him onto the bed with her.

“In front of…” He grabbed at the tag on the pillow before reading the name. “Toastie? Toastie’s innocent eyes?”

Eli giggled at him and tossed Toastie to the corner of the bed. “He can wait,” she declared, and slid her hands up his shoulders, over the back of his neck, and higher.

Raj shivered at her cold little fingers on his scalp, but her happy sigh as she released his hair from the band was worth it. “There,” she said, proud of herself. “I love your hair so much,” she said, combing her fingers through it.

“I love you so much,” he retorted.

“Well, that’s a given. You’re making me look bad,” she said, frowning up at him.

And he just… had to have her, so he dropped his head and slotted their lips together. She sighed into the kiss, parting her mouth beneath his. She still tasted of syrup, their tongues brushing as her hands curled into his hair and held him to her.

His palms and knees pressed into the bed on either side of her, and slowly, he let his weight collapse on top of her.

When their kiss paused for a beat, he felt her chest expand against his. He dropped his head to her neck, the unmarked side, and pressed his lips there.

Eli’s breath caught, but he continued south. “Something tells me that spot is claimed already,” he said softly. Beckett and Jack just… belonged together. On either side of her neck.

Raj… Raj wanted his mark somewhere secret, just for the two of them.

Sinking lower, Raj made himself a space between her thighs and kissed every inch of her skin he could reach, testing out his teeth in a few places just to hear her breath go weak.

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