Page 64 of Ready or Knot

“I’ll go get the water started,” I say. She grabs my hand before I can turn around, and I cock an eyebrow.

“It’s Violet,” she says, flashing me the screen of her phone, a notification obscuring the picture Doug took of the four of us before we started the thru-hike. I squeeze her hand as she glances at her phone and sighs. “Actually, it’s Jasper. She’s in heat apparently.”

She tosses her phone onto the foot of my bed and then strips out of her shirt. I have her in my arms before she can manage a gasp.

* * *

JUDE

“Can I join you?”

Faedra’s voice is quiet, blending into the darkness of the library I’ve made of the loft. I glance at the time.

Is she always up so late? I haven’t heard her, but I know she’s been sleeping with Logan most nights, and he tends to have the earliest night routine of all of us. I save the document I’m working on and close my laptop, setting it on the table beside me so that I can hold out my hand to where she stands at the landing of the stairs. She clenches a dark blue tablet case to her chest. Her hair falls in a sleek sheet over her shoulders, and she’s opted for a loose fitting knit dress in a deep green that compliments her hair and makes her freckles more pronounced.

“Of course,” I say, keeping my voice the same volume. She flushes, her chest darkening, and then she crosses the loft and takes my hand, letting me guide her onto my lap without a word of protest.

“What were you working on?” she asks after a minute.

“My department chair assigned me another intro class, and I didn’t have an updated course syllabus.” I run a hand down her spine as she fidgets a bit on my lap, finding a better position and then pulling out her tablet. She opens an editing software, selects several menu options, and then hums as a dialogue box appears stating that the import is in progress.

“How many photos did you take?” I ask, and she blushes.

“About a thousand,” she says. I cock an eyebrow, and her blush intensifies as she glances at me. “But this batch is about two thirds of that. The other set I won’t be editing for potentially printing them. At least not as large. I’ll probably print a few and put them up in my room.”

“Why won’t you be printing them larger?”

She ducks her head.

That’s enough of that.

I tuck my finger under her chin and turn her towards me, her green eyes fluttering open as she blows out a breath. She pulls her phone from a pocket of her dress.

I hadn’t even noticed her dress has pockets. The action rucks the hem a few inches up her thighs, and my cock is immediately interested, pressing against the soft fabric of my sweats. She taps a few times on her phone and then turns it to me.

It’s a picture of me on the hike, my flannel shirt tied around my waist, my jeans marked with the mud from her tumble and the scratches on my arm mostly scabbed. I’m at the edge of our camp, my pack no where to be seen as I take a drink of water. The positioning of the sun has it looking like someone added a filter.

It’s stunning.

“Faedra,” I murmur, shifting my gaze from the photo to her. She’s biting her lip, her eyes shy and her cheeks a deep red. “You haven’t edited that?”

She shakes her head.

I blow out a breath, rubbing a hand over my jaw, the prickling of my beard a small comfort.

“That’s phenomenal. You could sell that to a magazine. National Geographic would be foaming at the mouth if the others are half as good as that one.”

Her smile is resplendent, and I bask in it, moving to cup her cheek, tracing some of the freckles along her nose and lips. They’ve gotten darker the last several days we were out in the wilderness, and I crave being able to trace them with my tongue. My body goes tight at the thought, my cock twitching.

“I don’t want the whole world to see it,” she admits, breaking me out of the fantasy. She sets the phone in her lap and props her hands against my stomach. A race of heat flashes down my spine, and I hold back a groan. “That side of you is something we get and no one else, and I’m content to keep it that way.”

When I nod, she goes back to the tablet, checking on the program and then pulling up a photo. It’s mesmerizing. Watching her edit the photos is soothing in a way that I’ve only really experienced when lost in my own research. My laptop stays closed, the half finished syllabus pushed aside until tomorrow as I allow myself to focus on her, a feeling of contentment making me smile.

When she yawns, relaxing farther into me, I feather a kiss to her temple and cup her knee. “It’s after midnight,” I murmur. “And we just got back from the trip this afternoon. You should sleep.”

She hums, tapping on the tablet a few times before turning off the screen and putting it back in the cloth carrying case. “Can I sleep with you?”

My cock jolts, but I ignore it. No way am I going to suggest knotting when she’s barely awake.

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