Page 58 of Knot For A Moment

Somehow my legs were around his hips and we were moving. My back hit the wall of the elevator. Outside myself I realized we weren’t alone. The others were here with us.

Good.

I didn’t have to wait.

My hands shoved the leather jacket off his shoulders. He hadn’t even put a shirt on beneath it, miles of bare skin and muscle along with the scent of chocolate and dough and batter. God, I was going to come from his scent alone.

The doors to the elevator slid open on a floor I’d never been to before. The top one.

Ash carried me through the hall and pushed a door open. Then he stopped and put me down. I stared at him, confused about why he wasn’t touching me anymore. A whine and a cry came out of me to be met with a smile. Wait…

Gabriel had said a nest. They had anest? My heat brain had skipped right over that like it was nothing.

Like Ash saw my realization, he smiled wider and turned me around into a wonderland.

The small round room in front of me was a dream. Delicate golden lights lined the edges, almost like we were caught in a storm of fireflies. The cushions in the nest looked like a sunset. The darkest navy blue of full night to the nearly neon pinks, purples, and oranges I loved. They lookedso soft. A pile of blankets in similar colors was at the edge of the nest. I caught a glimpse of some metallic gold here and there.

My mouth dropped open in shock. For a moment my mind was clear. “What… how did you know?”

“You thought I didn’t remember?”

“It’s perfect,” I whispered. Emotion rose in my chest. “Buthow?”

“The whole story is best for later, baby girl. But Roman came home and helped get it ready for you.”

“You did?” I turned to him. His eyes were turned away, like he was embarrassed. “For me?”

“For you.” Those same eyes filled with want consumed me. One corner of his mouth tipped up. “But you owe me a dance. Because I missed act two.”

“You can have as many as you want.” I twisted myself up to kiss him, and I wasn’t nearly tall enough. He had to meet me halfway. I was ivy climbing on his stone wall.

Pain and fire ripped through me, taking away my moments of clarity. Hands found my shoulders and unlaced the back of the costume. “Out of the dress, baby girl. It’s far too white for what’s about to happen to you.”

Safe. I was safe, and my Alphas were here. What Jace said came back. It took brains and bodies different lengths of time. That night it had taken my body longer. This time it was my mind.

I stepped out of the costume and shivered out of my tights, entirely naked with them for the first time. These were my Alphas. This was my heat. It all clicked together in my head, and I became a nova.

Gabriel closed the door behind him, and I finally fell into true heat.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

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SLOANE

Itumbled into the cushions with need and instinct driving me. Pillows shifted and blankets spread themselves like I wasn’t the one moving them. I just knew they had to be where I put them because otherwise it wasn’t right and I needed it to beright.

At the same time, I shuddered, pain wracking my stomach. I’d been like this too long. I’d never resisted a heat like this. How did I fix it?

Asher looped an arm around my waist and flipped me, tossing me onto my back on soft velvet pillows. “Time to stop thinking, sweetheart.” Then, softer. “Time to have the heat we should have had a long time ago.”

I wanted every single one of them more than I wanted my next breath, but it was right that Asher was first. After everything, it had to be him.

His lips met mine a second before he thrust inside me, both of us groaning.

Finally.

The tension that had simmered between us sang. Like the delicate humming strings of a symphony in an empty theater. Nothing but him and me and the way it was meant to be.

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