Page 71 of Follow Your Instincts

“May I kiss you goodnight?” he asked.

I nodded. Two first kisses in one day? Yes, please.

He leaned in and pressed a careful kiss to the outside corner of my lips. It was not nearly what I wanted. He went to pull away but I grabbed the back of his head, pulled him in again and crushed my mouth to his.

He responded immediately, grabbing my hips and pulling them flush against his. I felt the hard ridge of him and moaned into his mouth. He took the opportunity to sweep his tongue inside to stroke against mine.

His kiss was devouring, all-consuming. He groaned and gripped my hips punishingly hard, before sliding his hands to cup my ass and press me even tighter against him. I rocked into him and broke our kiss to breathe. He dragged his lips along my jaw and down to my neck, where he scraped his teeth against my pulse. Slick flooded my panties.

“Maggie,” he groaned. He panted against my throat, then slowly slid his hands back up to my waist.

“We should probably go inside,” I whispered into his chest, soaking up his scent. He chuckled but didn’t let me go. We stood holding each other and catching our breath. I wanted so much more, but this was also nice.

“Are you two just going to bang on the porch, or would you like to come inside first?” Ben opened the front door and was smirking at us like this was somehow his doing.

“You are so nosy,” I said, laughing.

“I do think Maggie should come inside,” Lucas said, appearing over Ben’s shoulder. “It’s starting to get cold.”

“Yes, fine, we’re coming,” Lachlan said. He let go of my waist but grabbed my hand instead.

“I think Lachlan was keeping her plenty warm,” Soren said as we entered the living room.

“Jealous?” I asked, sticking my tongue out at him.

“Watch it,” he growled, his eyes flaring with heat.

“I think we’re all just thrilled that Lachlan is going to stop being such a grumpy bastard all the time,” Ben said.

“Ha ha,” Lachlan said, and kissed the back of my hand. “Before we all go to bed, I just want to make sure everyone is on the same page… Maggie and I talked about her heat.”

He squeezed my hand and looked at me expectantly.

“And?” Ben said.

I laughed. “If you guys are okay with it, I’d like to spend my heat here with you.”

“Fuck yes!” Ben yelled and swung me up into his arms and I yelped at the twinge of pain in my ribs. He set me down gently again with a murmured apology.

Soren was smiling as he tucked my hair behind my ears. “I’m really glad you trust us, baby girl. We’ll take good care of you.”

I turned to Lucas. He was the only one I was nervous about, since this decision would probably lead to some questions from the rest of the pack. He was smiling, though, as I tucked myself into his arms.

“Is this okay?” I whispered.

“Sugar, I’m here for you, whatever you need. I’m just sohappy that you’re staying,” he whispered back.

I leaned back to look at him, and he kissed my nose. “Me too.”

Chapter 27

Soren

Afew more days passed without any leads, and Captain Harcourt put Jacobs on the Heitzig case. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t change a fucking thing. Greta was still missing, the stolen jewels hadn’t appeared in any pawn shops or surfaced anywhere else, and he’d generated just as many leads as I expected: zero.

None of the employees of the store, or members of the Heitzig family, had any obvious influxes of cash. The store windows and shop cases had been repaired and looked exactly as they had before. With the only witness missing, there wasn’t much we could do.

“It has to be the owner,” Jacobs said. “He did it for the insurance.”

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