Page 54 of Ready or Knot

She smiles, and my heart soars. “I did.” Her voice is soft and a bit raspy, and it has my dick hardening in an instant. I run my thumb across her cheek, and she turns into my touch. “I thought I heard Jude.”

“They’re both here. We wanted to take you out tonight to celebrate you getting accepted,” I tell her. She sits up after a moment, and I move my hand to the back of her head, keeping her from hitting the edge of the desk. She glances down at the state of her clothes, her lack of bra obvious, and her cheeks darken with a blush.

“I’m not really put together well enough for a dinner out,” she whispers, frowning.

Logan clears his throat. “I brought the bag you had packed in case of your heat.”

She smiles, looking up towards him, and I see him smile back, just as soft as hers. “Thank you,” she says, slowly moving to stand, her hands still clutching my shirt to her belly. As she steps around me, I reach up and adjust her skirt, eliciting a low groan from Jude. Standing, I grab her bag, keeping one hand on her back, and guide her to the bathroom.

Logan chuckles. “I see you over there, man. You act all high and mighty, but you’re struggling the most, aren’t you?”

“Shut the fuck up, Logan,” Jude mutters.

“If you don’t feel up to it, we can go home instead,” I murmur in Faedra’s ear. She shivers, whimpering, and turns into me, resting her head on my shoulder. She takes a deep breath before saying anything, her hands digging into my stomach.

“I’m fine,” she says against my shoulder. I set her bag on the vanity. “Just...just figuring out my new normal.”

I nod, setting a finger under her chin and guiding her lips to mine. The kiss I give is gentle, but she whimpers again all the same.

Fuck, I’m hard.

Offering a smile, I pull away, tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear, and then back out of the space, closing the door gently behind me.

Jude’s staring at the closed door. “She’s been like that all afternoon?”

I grunt an affirmative. “It got worse after we knotted. I thought she was going into her heat at first with the way she was talking about her body feeling, but her temperature wasn’t any higher than normal.”

Logan whistles. “We’re going to be lucky if she doesn’t drop into her heat in the next couple days, aren’t we?”

Jude nods but voices a disagreement. “I think it’s a reaction to weaning off the suppressors. She’ll probably even out over the next few days now that’s she’s finished the step-down dosing. Coming into heat so soon after getting off of them is rare.”

I lean against my desk and throw back the rest of my whiskey. If anyone would know, it’s Jude. That man is a walking encyclopedia.

“I hope you’re right,” I say, setting the tumbler next to the keyboard. “Her going into heat while we’re on the trail would be rough at best.”

Twenty-One

FAEDRA

Dinner passes in a blur of laughs and soft, near constant touches from the men. My cheeks ache from how much I’ve been smiling as Jude opens the door to the condo. He catches my hand, squeezing it as he feathers a kiss against my temple, and then walks deeper into the space, stretching his neck and pulling out his phone.

Carter grunts as I frown. “It’s probably one of his graduate students looking for guidance before we’re gone for the next several days.”

Right.

He runs his hand down my spine. “You’ve got everything prepped for tomorrow? It’ll be an early day so we can get up there on time.”

“I packed everything the way you showed me,” I confirm.

He nods, kisses the pulse point under my ear, and then heads to his room, his footfalls silent on the stairs. Blowing out a breath, I grab the information packets from my bag before stowing it on one of the hooks. Logan walks with me into the great room, his grasp on my hand gentle. He tightens his grip as I set the packets on the island and then turn towards the living room, pulling my hand to his lips and brushing a gentle kiss across the back of my palm.

“You need anything?” he asks, and I shake my head. He nods, crossing the space and opening the door to his office, leaving the door ajar as he settles into his chair and pulls a binder from the drawers behind his desk. I pull the clip from my hair, massaging my scalp, and grab the small bag that has my quilting pieces in it.

I only manage to sit and look out the windows for a few minutes before I’m too antsy, and I close my eyes, trying to figure out what has changed to make me feel so off kilter since getting back from dinner. After several deep breaths don’t seem to help, I put away the quilting supplies, not trusting myself to keep from bleeding on the project again. The restlessness gets worse, so I head to my room, leaving my phone and the packets on the kitchen counter. My skin absolutely crawls by the time I close the door to my bedroom and lean back against it, closing my eyes and breathing deeply. A soft knock on my door a few minutes later has me freezing.

“You good, Red?” Logan’s voice is muffled, but the concern layering the question is clear enough.

I twist the doorknob and open the door as I adjust to stand in the small gap. Logan’s normally carefree smile is gone, replaced with a deep frown. His shoulders are held tight, his hand clutching the doorframe tight enough to whiten his knuckles. Biting my lip, I shrug. Logan cocks an eyebrow, crossing his arms and leaning against the threshold. The faint scent of sandalwood reaches me, and I inexplicably relax.

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