Page 95 of Knot on the Market

The confession makes him shudder, his hold on me becoming almost possessive. "You have no idea what you do to me."

"Then show me," I challenge, pulling back to meet his eyes.

For a moment we just stare at each other, the air between us charged with possibility. Then Julian's careful control snaps completely, and he's kissing me with a hunger that steals my breath. His hands are everywhere, my back, my hair, my waist, mapping my body like he's trying to memorize every detail.

I hear the front door open, followed by familiar voices calling out greetings. Dean and Callum, probably here for dinner like they have been most nights. We finally break apart, both breathing hard, I can see something has shifted in his expression. The uncertainty is still there, but it's overshadowed by determination and want and something that looks like wonder.

"Lila?" Dean's voice carries from the entryway. "You home?"

"Kitchen," I call back, though I don't move from Julian's lap.

We're decent enough, clothing mostly in place, though my hair is probably a mess and Julian's shirt is wrinkled from my hands. But there's an intimacy to our positioning that will be obvious to anyone who looks.

Footsteps approach, and then Dean appears in the kitchen doorway, Callum right behind him. They take in the scene. Me in Julian's lap, our obvious dishevelment, the laptop closed and pushed aside and I watch understanding dawn in their expressions.

But instead of awkwardness or jealousy, what I see is heat.Want.The kind of hunger that makes my mouth go dry and my pulse quicken.

"Looks like we missed something interesting," Dean says, his voice rougher than usual.

"Julian was overthinking," I explain, not moving from where I'm settled. "I helped him... refocus."

Callum's gaze travels over us with obvious appreciation, lingering on the way Julian's hands rest possessively on my hips. "Generous of you."

"I'm a giver," I say with mock innocence, which makes Julian laugh.

"We can see that," Dean says, moving closer. "Question is, what are you planning to give us?"

The bold question sends heat racing through me, and I feel Julian's grip tighten in response to my sharp intake of breath.

"Depends," I manage, my voice slightly unsteady. "What do you want?"

The look that passes between all three of them is loaded with meaning, and I realize something fundamental has shifted. We're not dancing around the attraction anymore. We're acknowledging what's been building between us, all of us.

"You," Callum says simply, his voice rough with honesty. "We want you."

The admission hangs in the air between us, weighted with possibility and promise and the kind of raw want, that makes rational thought impossible.

"Then you have me," I say, meaning it completely.

And as three pairs of hands reach for me, as I'm surrounded by warmth and want and the overwhelming certainty that this is exactly where I belong, I realize Julian's research was wrong about one thing.

There's no protocol for this. No spreadsheet that can map the variables of four people falling into something beautiful and complicated and entirely their own.

Sometimes the best things can't be quantified or analyzed or predicted.

Sometimes you just have to trust that love will figure itself out.

All of us together.

Chapter 29

Dean

Iwake up in Lila's bed and it feels like coming home.

Not just the physical comfort. Though her mattress is definitely better than mine, and the way she's curled against my side with her head on my chest makes every nerve ending sing with contentment. It's the rightness of it. The way her scent wraps around me like a blanket, green apple and white musk mixed with traces of all three of us alphas that speak to something deeper than just shared space.

We're becoming something. All of us together. And last night proved it.

---