Page 54 of Knot Here for You

We lay there, kissing, stroking, for a while, letting our breathing return to normal, before I pull away from him with a groan and go to retrieve a towel from the bathroom to clean us both up. I consider using my shirt, but I don’t want to risk losing Vee’s scent, not until I know I’ll be able to replace it.

God, I’m thinking I might not shower for as long as I possibly can, just to keep the smell on my skin.

When I return to Davis’s room, he’s stretched out on the bed, arms folded behind his head as he stares at the ceiling. I crawl up next to him and he looks at me as I clean him up. “She’s our scent match.”

I pause in my ministrations, flicking my gaze up to his. “Of course she is.” I wasn’t sure before when she wouldn’t let us get close enough to really smell her, but the bloom of her perfume in that narrow hallway made it apparent to me.

A furrow appears between his brows. “Do you think she knows? Being on suppressants will dull her sensitivity to pheromones. Maybe she doesn’t realize.”

I toss the towel toward his laundry basket and he makes a disgruntled noise when it falls short by a few feet. “I’ll pick that up tomorrow.”

“Sure you will.”

I stretch out next to him, resting my head on his chest, listening to the sound of his heartbeat. “I don’t think it matters if she knows we’re scent matches or fated mates. She knows the connection is real, Davis.”

I feel him nodding as his fingers drift through my hair. “You’re right. She knows we belong together.”

I take a deep breath, blowing it out across his nipple and goosebumps rise on his skin in response. “She doesn’t think it matters though, baby.”

He shifts to look down at me. “What?”

I lick my lips and meet his gaze. “I’m pretty sure she thinks we bonded with Yasmin, that we already have an omega.” He just stares at me with a wrinkle on his brow. “She saw our mating mark, and she assumed it was from an omega. From Yasmin, I would guess.”

Davis’s head slams back against the pillow. “Fuck.” He glares at the ceiling. “I knew we should have waited for her. Fuck.”

Guilt throbs through our bond. Davis suggested we wait. He wanted to bond with me and Vee at the same time, solidifying it all at once, feeling whole. I’d agreed originally. I also wanted her to be a part of it, as interwoven in our relationship, as important as we are. But as the years marched on, I needed that bond. Needed at least one of my mates to be connected to me. So we’d done it, bonded without her.

“Shit,” Davis’s wide eyes land on me. “I bet she saw Topher’s and thought the same thing. No wonder she’s been so fucking resistant to hearing us out. In her mind, there really is no point to it.”

I nod and press a kiss to his skin, right over his thundering heart. “She wouldn’t be able to tell we don’t smell like an omega since she’s on suppressants. I can see her avoiding all news about our pack, of any omega and alpha pairings at all. So, I think she’s been operating under the assumption for the last seven years that we really did pick Yasmin over her.”

The thought makes my chest throb painfully.

I let out a surprised sound when Davis sits up suddenly, dislodging me from his side. “We have to tell her. Right fucking now. We have to let her know that didn’t happen. That we only want her.”

He leaps from the bed and hurries to his closet. When I don’t immediately follow him, he comes back to scowl at me. “Get your ass out of that bed. We need to go.”

I stretch out in the position he was in earlier, on my back with my hands folded behind my head. “Baby, it’s three in the morning. I don’t think she’ll be receptive to anything we have to tell her right now.”

Davis stares at me for a moment longer, then sighs, chin dipping toward his chest. “You’re right.” He pads over to the bed again, before climbing in next to me. “You’re right. We should let her sleep tonight.”

I gather him into me and press a kiss into his hair. “We’ll tell her tomorrow,” I promise, sliding my hand up and down his back. “She’ll have to listen to us after that.”

Rule 14: Keep your cards close to your chest, until you can’t

I made a mistake last night. A big fucking mistake.

I shouldn’t have kissed Asher. I shouldn’t have even danced with him.

It was a moment of weakness I will forever regret. Because at that moment, I felt like he was mine and I was his and we belonged together. My omega rejoiced, clapped, danced a fucking jig and rolled out the welcome mats when he thrust his fingers inside me.

I’m pretty sure she thought the orgasm he gave me meant we were mated.

And now, the morning after? I feel even goddamn worse than I did before. The sting of a fresh rejection—that claiming bite on Asher’s chest was like a slap in the face—and the reality of what happened last night hitting like a Mack truck full of a ton of bricks.

What the hell was he thinking doing that with me when he has a bonded omega at home? What the hell was I thinking doing that with him? I know better. I deserve better. And as much as I hate to say it, Yasmin deserves more than to have her bonded mate cheat on her. I didn’t even think it was possible.

The last thing I want is to be the other woman, the dirty little secret. So no more of that. Never again.

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