Page 132 of Knot For A Moment

“And I think you want the ceremony,” he said with a grin.

The sound of the garage door opening startled me. Jace stopped the car and hauled the door open, pulling me out from beneath Ash. “I’ll bond with you any time and any place, baby girl. Whether that’s with you in a pretty dress or just up in your nest. We’ll talk about it when we’re all together, okay?”

“Yeah.”

Chuckling, he pulled me closer. “And if we’re going to do that, I need to make a call.”

Butterscotch overwhelmed me. And cookies. I inhaled, letting the scent of him overwhelm me. I hoped it never got less intense. For the rest of our lives I wanted to be able to close my eyes and drift, carried away by scent alone.

His hand came up between my legs, holding the vibrator in place again. It had slipped. Not vibrating right now, but I was still sensitive. He smirked. “You danced through a heat. Think you could do an entire show with one of these right on your pretty little clit?”

“No.”

“Hmm,” he released me. “That wasn’t very convincing. Something we’ll have to think about.”

“Unless you want me breaking an ankle because I’m falling off my pointe shoes, it’ll still be a no.”

“Then maybe a performance just for us.”

That—

I bit my lip. That could be fun.

“I’ve got to make some calls, and I’ll be watching.”

Before I could even ask him if he was sure, Ash had me off my feet and into the house. He pressed me into the back of the elevator like he had for my heat, but this time it wasn’t the nest we went to. It was his bedroom.

We paused in the doorway momentarily, Ash letting me slide down his body and look. He pressed close behind me, lips dropping to my shoulder. Soft and easy.

“Ash,” I whispered.

“Yeah?”

I turned to him, stripping his shirt over his head and looking at all his tattoos. Stark branches of a tree across one shoulder. A lion that turned into dissolving shadows on the other. Dark pools of ink draining into veins on the inside of his wrist. His mother’s initials over his heart. My doodle on his ribs.

Placing my fingers right over that tattoo, I looked up at him. “Do you remember the night I found you in the studio?”

“I’ll never forget it.”

It was our second year at school, and I hadn’t seen him all day. Until I got a call from Asher’s friend, Will. They grew up together and were still friends. He couldn’t get through to him, and he thought I was the only one who could.

I went to the dance building and found Ash in the dark, dancing, music so loud you almost couldn’t hear anything. So loud he didn’t hear me, and I startled him. He had me up against the mirror in a second before he realized it was me.

He’d nearly collapsed, showing me the side of him he never showed anyone else. I held him while he cried. Later I found out his mother had died, and he took on all the guilt of it, because he’d left her there even though he didn’t have a choice.

All that darkness in him, he ignored it and pushed it down. But it was darkness that had beenearned. It wasn’t darkness that lived in his soul. Merely the echo of dark things. And that? I wanted it too.

When he grabbed Craig, I knew where the anger came from. I loved every second he protected me.

“I’ll tell you as many times as you need me to,” I said. “But I know you. I know everything, and I don’t need you to hide it.”

“I don’t want to hurt you, blue. I’m not that man. I swear it. I’ll never be like him.”

Gripping his face, I pulled him down to me. “No, you won’t. Not once have you ever done any of that shit. And don’t get me wrong, I love the fuck out of the part of you that pampers me and is gentle with me. I love it when you’re sweeter than your scent. But that’s notallof you.”

He stared at me, vulnerability showing in his eyes.

“I want all of you. Like hell am I going to live a life with you pushing down every instinct you have because you’re afraid of being something youare not. All those things you said to me in the heat? At Pavilion? I want them. Not just the words. You pulled me out of my own head, now let me do the same. Stop thinking and fuck me the way you want to.”

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