Page 30 of Lunar's Ruined Alpha

He’s trembling. I’m shaking, too.

It’s too much. I forgot it would be like this. That to touch himwould feel like the world was simultaneously falling apart and being built anew all at once.

How could we have been so stupid when we were young? How could we have not seen it right away?

Would it have changed anything? Does it even matter?

I drag my teeth along his bottom lip. He lets out a greedy snarl and, in one quick motion that I don’t anticipate, lifts me off the ground, twists around, and sets me down on the edge of the kitchen table. I catch a glimpse of his vicious, single-minded gaze as he drops his head to the curve of my throat and suckles what will soon be a bruise into the delicate skin of my neck. I bite my lip to muffle the whimper that threatens to escape me, wrapping my legs around his waist tightly.

“Rowan,” I gasp. “Rowan, we—we can’t.”

Even as I say it, my mind offers me images fueled by the howling Mating bond. It yearns to be reconnected, to be accepted, and it wants us to commit the final act to secure it back together. It wants us to Mate, and therefore, I can only think of how incredible it would be to feel him inside me. To give in to my base instincts and let my animal nature take over. In my head, I throw caution to the wind and let him rip my clothes off. In my head, he bends me over the table and takes me with unforgiving thrusts that make me forget my own name.

But, in reality, I know that can’t happen.

“We can,” he grunts into the warm skin just beneath my ear. I feel his teeth scrape against my earlobe, causing me to shiver. “Let me—fuck, Alina, let me show you how much I…I can’t even think straight, I want you so bad.”

How much he what? What was he going to say?

I pull back from him, breathing fast. He allows only inches of distance between us, hooking one hand under my thigh to keep my leg wrapped around his hips.

“Noah is upstairs,” I remind him.

“We’re being quiet, aren't we?”

I give him a look. Pump the brakes, a voice screams in the back of my mind. Put an end to this before it can go too far.

Recklessness takes over, though. It just feels too good to be close to him. It feels so painfully right to be overwhelmed with his scent.

“Rowan…”

His pupils are blown, making his eyes look nearly black. He’s barely keeping a hold of his control, and it doesn’t help that I just sighed his name like that.

“Let me taste you,” he breathes.

Was he not just kissing my mouth? My neck? What else could he possibly want to taste?

My stomach flips when I realize what he means.

“Our son is—”

“Upstairs, yes. Stop using him as an excuse. I can hear him up there, and he’s fully absorbed in his music, headphones on. We’re alone right now.”

I swallow hard. My head spins. Let me taste you.

It’s been so long since I’ve been touched like this. Since I’ve been savored on his tongue. The wolf within growls with need, filling my veins with hot impatience that he isn’t already devouring me.

Goosebumps prickle on my arms. Still a little breathless, I reach up and brush a stray strand of dark hair off his forehead.

This is the part where I extricate myself from his arms. Where I put my foot down and revisit the earlier argument. This is the part when I’m practical and reasonable, where I remember my own sense of self-respect.

Instead, I shiver lightly and tangle my fingers in his hair, pulling his lips back to mine. Rowan moans in the back of his throat. Heat pulses between my thighs.

“Alina…”

“Yes,” I whisper against his mouth. “Please.”

With my consent granted, Rowan doesn’t hesitate. His hands slip from my waist, his fingers hooking into the tight band of my leggings. I lean back on my hands to lift my hips off the table. He peels them off, taking my underwear with them.

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