Page 70 of Believe it or Knot

My lips brush the top of her head. “But you would never hurt someone to get want you want, would you, conejita?”

“No. I wouldn’t threaten someone else, even if it meant I could keep you.” She shakes her head. “I’d like to think I would handle it with a little more grace than he did.”

“Well, we’ll never have to find out,” I promise her. “We’re keeping you.”

Her head tips up, aqua eyes wide as she looks at me, scanning my face for some sign that I’m not being truthful, that I’m lying. She won’t find it.

I want to keep her, know that we will, because I honestly can’t imagine life without her, Can’t imagine going back to the time before her lovely, sweet smiles, and gentle nature. I’m more than a little concerned that she’s still having these sorts of thoughts about us, about how we feel about her, but it’s not something I can address solely on my own. We need to prove it to her as a pack.

But surely there’s something I can do to help her now. To show her how I feel about her.

My girl’s eyes widen slightly as I lift her, shifting her so she’s straddling my lap, facing toward me. Her little hands come to a rest on my chest as she eyes me wearily. Like she’s not sure where this is going.

Silly little beta.

Surely she knows how much we want her. Crave her.

My fingers brush over her upper arms and the bruises forming there, up to her neck and her cheek, where I’d been worried that she would bruise. But the mark from Patrick’s hand seems to be fading. Doesn’t change the fact that none of that should have happened to her.

My fault.

“Lo siento, conejita,” I say softly, brushing the tip of my finger over her full mouth. “So fucking sorry. He never should have gotten that close to you. Mi culpa.”

She shakes her head. “It’s not your fault.”

I hum my disagreement. It’s entirely my fault. My job is to keep my pack safe, and I failed.

“Rafe,” she says, voice firmer. “Look at me.”

I lift my gaze from where I’d been staring at her mouth and meet her eyes. Her hands slide up to cup my jaw and I nuzzle into her palms, unable to resist the softness of her skin. “I’m fine. I’m safe. You got to me before he could do anything. It was… It was only a couple of minutes. I promise I’m fine.”

When I shake my head, her fingers tighten, stopping the motion. “I’m fine, Rafe.” She reassures me before bending and pressing her mouth to mine, taking my lips in a kiss that lights me up inside.

It shouldn’t be surprising. Every time I kiss Sorrel, even that first barest brush of my mouth on hers has felt like someone lighting a flare in my chest. Igniting my blood and making it difficult to think of anything beyond getting inside this girl.

When I moan, she presses closer, arms winding around my shoulders, her soft tits pressing into my chest as I pull her to me. One of my hands presses between her shoulder blades, the other goes to her low back, her hip. Urging her to roll against my cock, which has been half hard this entire time, and is now at full mast. She whimpers at the first grinding motion, fingers tightening where they grip my flesh.

My hand on her hip urges the movement again, and this time I thrust up, meeting her. Her mouth pulls from mine so she can suck in a gasp of air. “Oh, fuck,” she moans.

“Oh, fuck is right.”

She kisses me again, working her hips over my length. The feeling is so good I see stars exploding behind my eyes and I haven’t even come. “Rafe,” she murmurs, against my mouth. “Will you-”

She doesn’t finish and buries her head against my shoulder, pressing hot open mouth kisses against my neck. I swallow thickly. “Will I what, conejita?”

She doesn’t lift her head and so when she speaks, I feel it against my skin. It reverberates all the way through me into my very bones, takes root. I’ll never remove the memory of Sorrel Forbes murmuring to me, “Will you touch me?”

My fingers tighten on her, reflexively. “I am.”

A shuddering breath and another roll of her hips. “Will you fuck me?”

My fingers tangle in her wild wavy hair and pull her back so I can look up at her, gauge her expression to figure out if she means it. “You sure?”

She nods as best as she can with my fist in her strands. “Yes. I want to feel something good after what happened earlier.”

I can’t help the smug smirk that pulls at my lips. “And you think I can do that for you?”

Her head tilts, gaze narrowed. “If you aren’t up for the task, I suppose I can wait for Liam and Gray to get home. Or I can call Gage. He certainly made-”