Page 45 of Ruin Me Knot
Chapter Twenty
Leah
Gabriel’s words burrow deep, softer than I expect, carving a path through the twisted wreckage inside me. They find a place in that charred, empty mess and settle there. A light flickers to life in the same spot. A glow so unfamiliar I don’t believe it’s real.
His unruly auburn hair shines in the soft light. Freckles dust across his cheeks and forehead, adding to the soft glow about him. His mouth curves like he’s swallowing laughter, teasing, alive. The line of his jaw is clean, the flicker in his eyes is full of pride and something deep beneath that telegraphs itwants me close.
He’s impossibly handsome. Citrus flames flickering through dark cloves wrap around me. Every part of me is pulled toward him. An ache crackles under my skin, and the part of me that only surges to life in my heat washes through me, caressing me with a soft urge even though the normal flames aren’t fogging my mind. This is all me. All me wanting him.
Needing him.
The knowing of those two things bursts to life. I want the taste of his mouth, the shape of his hands on me, the sound of his voice rasping out my name. Longing rises, swallowing every doubt. I drift toward him, fingers brushing up his jaw.
He doesn’t move. Doesn’t even breathe. His eyes flare and he holds so still as I reach for him until my palm finally settles on his cheek. His skin is warm beneath my palm, the rasp of his stubble sparking down my arm.
"Can I…kiss you, Gabriel?" My voice is small. There’s no hiding my uncertainty.
Awe blooms, lighting the hazel in his eyes so they glow. "Leah, you’re killing me," he whispers, like I’m some holy ache. "But in all the good ways." His lips curve, his pupils darken, hunger and adoration braiding together. "Tell me how you’re feeling, Sweetheart. Is it your heat again? Is that why you want to kiss me?"
I shake my head and hair brushed to a fresh shine falls around my shoulders. I have no fever, or fog. Only the clean, honest ache of wanting him. "No heat. I just…want to kiss you."
"Omega. You honor me." His voice is gravel and wings burst to life deep in my abdomen.
His fingers slide around my nape, and he slowly closes the distance between us, giving me chance after chance to move away. I don’t want to. I want to be here. I want his lips on mine.
This choice is mine.
Urgent, electric desperation rocks through my body but want holds me steady as his lips finally brush against mine. Gabriel’s body stills. For a single heartbeat it’s all breath and waiting, his mouth trembling against mine, holding back somuch want it’s painful. His fingers flex gently at my nape, keeping me close but not trapping me, like he’s afraid to scare me away from this delicate, impossible thing.
My heart trips over itself. The first press of his lips is shockingly soft. There’s no demand, no hurry, just the slow bloom of excitement. My body tightens, then unravels, opening hungry and loose for him.
Gabriel draws me in, mouth slanting deeper, and the shiver that moves through me isn’t fear. Nor is it shame. It’s a rightness that hums through my body, imbuing it with new life. There’s no room for doubt. No fog of haze that makes me feel what I don’t want to feel. The radiant glow burns brighter, and the press of his lips grows bolder. His tongue slides along the seam of my mouth, teasing. Questioning. I part for him, letting his tongue slip inside, the taste of him as intense and sweet as he is.
He kisses me as if there’s nothing but us, no world but our mouths, our scents, the gasp and tug and slide. My lips tingle, slick with the mingled heat of our breathing, my body glowing under the weight of his honest hunger. I give everything I have to this moment, wanting to drown in the rightness of his kiss, in the electric, perfect now.
Our kiss tapers off. Gabriel’s lips linger on mine, dragging out the goodbye with gentle, weightless pecks. He rests his forehead against me, close enough my breath stirs across his cheek, mingling with the sigh he lets go.
His eyes flutter open, pupils wide and soft. He looks wrecked, skin flushed high along his cheekbones. His thumb brushes my jaw. "You’re perfect, Leah. Such a beautiful soul. So fucking good for us."
A good kind of shiver steals through me, bringing my nerve endings awake in a new way. New hunger rises within me. Another hunger angles inside me, just as demanding.
My gaze snags on Jax’s liquid fire. Want. Need. Alpha.
Gabriel’s chuckle spills over me. "Go on, Sweetheart. Kiss your other Alpha. He wants you just as bad."
The invisible cord snaps me toward Jax. I swivel where I’m straddled on Ronan’s lap as I lean toward my other Alpha and close the distance between us, bolder now.
I burn for Jax, every beat of my heart pounding hot and heady in my chest. It’s not just hunger. It’snecessarythat I kiss him, too. The glow inside me pulses, richer, a new intense color blooming.
The velvet thunder of Jax’s purr rolls from deep inside him. The thrum hums up my spine and spools apart. I can’t breathe. I don’t want to. I want to live and ache and unravel in the sound.
I can’t look away from his mouth, the shape of hunger on his lips, the way his focus blazes hot and certain on me. I can only chase that luminous craving. Jax leans in so slowly it kills me. "Are you sure you want this, Sunshine?"
I settle on the truth because nothing else will fit. "Please, Jax. I want to kiss you more than anything."
His purr stutters as he closes the distance and locks his lips to mine. I’m blooming everywhere, my heart liquid as I open for his kiss.
He slides one hand along my jaw, thumb stroking my cheek, the touch both gentle and unapologetically certain as his mouth claims mine, bold enough to make my thighs clench tight. Ronan groans and I realize that his cock is hard and pulsing under me and nothing but sweet rightness makes the world spill away.
