Page 28 of Knot Gonna Lie
His lips parted, searching my face like he couldn’t believe I meant it.
“You’re…honestly not upset?”
“Not over this.” I shrugged, warmth blooming low in my belly. My body already ached for him, and there was no use pretending otherwise. “I still choose you. Just promise me you’ll make it right with your brother—as soon as you can.” A smile ghosted across my lips. “You’re still the same man I want. I don’t care if your name is Eli, Luca, or Frank.”
“Not Frank.” He frowned, shuddering as he stepped forward and ran the back of his hand against the choker around my neck. “That old name has not aged well, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”
“Not even our enemies?”
He sent me a brilliant smile through the mirror and placed his lips near my ear. “Not even them.”
Leaning back, I pressed myself against him and savored how we appeared standing together in the mirror’s reflection. We radiated elegance—power—and hunger, burning with yearning.
“When are you going to help me out of this dress?” I peered over my shoulder and rubbed against his hardness. “Or am I going to have to ask Maia or Stella for assistance?”
“Don’t say such things,” Luca growled, his words carrying a hint of commanding bark. “You know I’d be more than willing to do it for you.”
Part of me wanted to test his limits, to see what he’d do if I pushed further. But I resisted that impulse. I’d play with him another day. Right now, I craved the mark I’d been dreaming about all this time.
“Then do it, AlphaLuca,” I whined, unable to wait any longer. I could feel my body heating with arousal as wetness bloomed between my thighs. “Claim me as yours.”
“Stand still,” he purred, eyes darkening as his tropical aroma engulfed me, setting my body ablaze with desperate need. “I don’t want to damage this beautiful dress of yours.”
I nodded, rendered speechless, as I watched him pull away and unbutton his tuxedo jacket. One by one, his nimble fingers worked each button until none remained, then he smoothly removed the garment with enough elegance to prove he’d been dressing formally his entire life.
He tossed jacket, vest, and tie onto a nearby chair and kicked off his shoes. Then, slowly, he unfastened the upper portion of his white dress shirt and rolled the sleeves to his forearms before returning behind me.
“This choker,” he purred, running both hands lightly along its edges. “Do you remember what I told you?”
“To wear the choker to show the other alphas what they’d need to earn,” I murmured, closing my eyes and savoring the electric shocks his touch sent straight to my core. “It would be poetic if you were the one to remove it.”
“Are you ready?”
The commanding tone in his voice demanded I open my eyes to meet his gaze.
“I am more than ready.”
Slowly, his hands unclasped my choker, freeing my throat from its beautiful constraints. It felt like a weight lifting from me, allowing me to breathe deeply again. I watched as he placed the expensive jewelry on the table beside us with reverent care, as if afraid of breaking something precious.
Without words, he stepped closer and wrapped his arms around my body. His hands pressed against me—one holding my stomach, the other cupping my breast. He placed featherlight kisses against the juncture of my neck as his heavy breathing tickled my sensitized skin.
I watched him through the mirror as he squeezed my breast, feeling the familiar warm tingle of arousal shooting up my spine like lightning. My mind reeled as my body responded to his ministrations. Whether it was his aroma wrapped tightlyaround me, flooding my senses with promises of pleasure, or the thunderous purr radiating from him wherever we touched, I couldn’t move.
All I could do was stand there and watch my alpha’s hands hypnotically massage my breast while the other traced gentle circles below my navel. I wouldn’t have known such an unexpected place could feel so divine, as if his comforting gesture prevented me from becoming overwhelmed too quickly.
I watched in a trance-like haze as his hands moved to my dress’s back. One by one, he undid the intricate button-hooks—starting mid-back and working downward to just above my tailbone. With each loosened fastening, the sudden freedom from such tight confinement sent small gasps through my parted lips. When he released the final one, the dress instantly fell from my shoulders and pooled around my feet like spilled emerald wine.
I stood nude—any underwear would have been soiled repeatedly from my frequent arousal, and a thong would have been even more maddening—as Luca lifted the expensive garment from the floor and draped it carefully over the chair’s back beside his own clothing.
“You are a jewel—a star, Elara,” Luca purred, returning behind me with a bottle, which I assumed was lube. I hadn’t missed the obvious tent in his dress pants, clear evidence of his arousal and what was to come. “I want nothing more than to place my mark on you so no other soul in this universe could steal you—my treasure—away from me.” Holding my gaze through the mirror, he trailed two fingertips along my neck’s side, making my body shiver like wind through leaves. “Unless you object, I want to claim you here, on your neck’s juncture, so you’ll never need to wear a necklace again—and if you do, you’ll be reminded of me whenever it presses against my mark.”
“Do it,” I whined, wanting nothing more than his mark branding my skin. “I want you.”
My skin burned, every nerve alight with a hunger that clawed at my core. The air in the nest was thick with my scent—ripe, sweet, and teetering on the edge of my heat. Luca’s presence behind me was a furnace, his broad hands anchoring me as they cupped my breasts, fingers teasing my sensitive peaks. My bare ass pressed against the rigid heat of his cock, straining through his trousers. A needy whimper escaped me, as I gripped his thighs, nails digging in, urging him closer, letting him feel the tremor of my need.
“So impatient, omega,” he murmured, voice low and rough. His thumbs grazed my nipples, slow and deliberate, sending sparks skittering down my spine. “If you’re this desperate now, what will I do with you when your heat consumes us both?”
I tilted my head back, my moan stretching into something raw, needy. “You’ll be the one begging, alpha. I’ll have you crawling for pack mates by the end of the first day.”
