Page 186 of Entangled

The back of his fingers brush over my abdomen like a brand, and I shudder, my skin flinching at the unexpected contact. I’m so touch-starved that if his fingers dipped any further to find my cock, I’d probably come in his hand.

Eden shifts again beside me, breathing fast, and knowing she’s getting turned on by me,by me and Jasper, makes my balls throb harder.

I’ve kept my promise to her, and I haven’t touched myself after I promised Jasper I wouldn’t. And with Jasper around me, willing and available, it ishard. The whole experience has made me decide that I really should stop making promises on behalf of my poor, neglected dick.

Jasper leans in, hovering over my mouth the way I did to his moments before.

“If you don’t want to kiss me, dear boy, that’s quite all right. Never say I’m an unobservant dominant. I’ll be sure to remember how little you enjoy my mouth.”

I freeze, then quickly lean in, chasing his mouth, but he releases my sweatpants and steps back.

“No.No, no.” I laugh nervously. My cock is stiff and begging for attention, and that cruel shine in his eyes tells me he’ll follow through on his word. I’ve been imagining Jasper sucking my dick since the day I met him. He can’t deprive me of thatnow, not when it’s finally a real possibility.

“I love your mouth,” I assure him. “I want it on me. A lot. All the time. I didn’t mean it. You know I didn’t mean it, right?”

Jasper just gives me a slight smile and turns to Eden. The delicate tendons in her throat stand out in stark relief as her gaze travels over his face. His smile takes on a lick of satisfaction I could read a mile away.

Helovesthat she’s turned on by him.

A fact I would also appreciate more if I wasn’t fixated on a starving future without kisses, or without Jasper’s hot mouth around my cock.

“Jasper, I didn’t mean it,” I say again, a little frantically.

He ignores me. “Enjoy your night, Eden. If you have some time later, it would be lovely to take a walk with you.”

Some of the foggy lust fades from her eyes, and she smiles shyly up at him. Her skirts swish about her calves.

“I’d like that,” she says. She touches his arm gracefully. “Thank you for your speech. You can’t know what it means to finally feel a part of something.”

I expect some sort of elegant dismissal, but he stares down at her hand. Artless spots of color appear on his cheekbones.

“You inspired me,” he tells her, and Eden ducks her head to hide her smile.

My selfish panic fades as I take them in.

No way. My eyes slide between them. Noway.

My heart stutters.

They’re looking at each other.Reallylooking. Not reserved or polite. Not even in simple lust. They’re looking at each other the way they look at me.

Only with about sixty percent less exasperation.

I caught Jasper brooding over his speech in his study this morning, apparently not even registering the Reapers’ recruitment call for more farmhands that was blaring on repeat over our HAM radio.

He said that he and Eden had finally talked. That they’d “cleared the air.”

This air isnotclear. It’s frothing with heart-shaped bubbles and heady pheromones. This air is full of possibility.

A smile teases my lips, yearning aching in my chest. If this is what I think it is... if Edenisn’tturning me down, and if they’re looking at one another likethat...

I rock up onto my toes in excitement, and they startle out of their adorable little bubble. Eden adjusts her glasses, and Jasper straightens his shirt.

This ache might actually crack my chest open.

“I love you,” I whisper as I watch them both, and their stunned eyes snap up to mine.

Eden’s gaze slips to Jasper, uncertainty falling over her expression, and I wince, realizing she thinks I’m talking about him.

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