Page 91 of Knot Their Safe Haven
My hand traces lazy patterns along Velvet's spine, mapping territory I've dreamed about for seventeen years.
The jersey fabric of her plum dress is soft beneath my fingertips, thin enough that I can feel the heat of her skin, the subtle shifts of muscle as she breathes. She fits against me perfectly—her weight negligible but grounding, her scent wrapping around me until every inhale is black orchids and satisfaction.
Alexis moves through the kitchen with practiced efficiency, assembling something at the counter that involves fresh berries and the distinctive hiss of whipped cream from a canister. The morning light catches her profile—sharp jaw, aristocratic nose, the kind of beauty that comes from generations of good breeding and better business deals.
"Dessert for breakfast?" Velvet questions, though her voice carries more curiosity than judgment.
"Fruit cup with fresh cream." Alexis presents the bowl with flourish—strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries arranged like jewels, topped with a perfect swirl of whipped cream that'salready beginning to soften at the edges. "Simple pleasures don't need complication when you have quality ingredients."
Velvet accepts the bowl with both hands, studying it like she's never seen fruit before. "I don't usually eat sweet things."
"Preferences change," Alexis observes, leaning against the counter. "Especially when your body is healing. Sugar helps with recovery, gives you energy for... activities."
The pause before 'activities' is deliberate, and I watch pink creep across Velvet's cheeks. She selects a strawberry with delicate fingers, the red fruit disappearing between lips still swollen from sleep.
The sound she makes—soft, surprised, pleased—shoots directly to my cock.
"Oh." The word comes out breathy. "That's...really good."
She takes another bite, and this time the moan is deliberate. Her tongue darts out to catch juice before it can drip, and I have to focus on reciting market projections to keep from getting fully hard with her still perched on my lap.
"Someone's struggling," Alexis observes with amusement, watching me with knowing eyes.
"I'm being provoked." The words come out rougher than intended.
Velvet giggles—actually giggles—the sound so unexpected and delightful that my control fractures further. She turns slightly, offering me the spoon with a berry covered in cream.
"Share?"
I lean forward, maintaining eye contact as I accept the offering. The fruit is perfectly ripe, the cream fresh and barely sweetened, but all I can focus on is the way her pupils dilate as my lips close around the spoon. She pulls it back slowly, deliberately, and I notice the small dot of cream at the corner of her mouth.
Decision made before conscious thought engages, I lean in and lick the cream away. Just the tip of my tongue against the corner of her lips, barely contact, but her sharp inhale tells me she felt it like lightning.
"Alessandro." My name on her lips is half-scolding, half-plea.
"You had cream," I explain innocently, though my hand on her thigh tightens possessively.
We're frozen in that moment, faces inches apart, breathing the same air, when movement in my peripheral vision draws attention. Alexis has circled the table, moving with predatory grace that makes my instincts pay attention despite the omega in my lap.
Her hand slides around Velvet's throat from behind—not squeezing, just present, fingers splayed across pale skin in obvious possession. Velvet's head tilts back automatically, exposing the column of her neck, and Alexis doesn't waste the opportunity.
The kiss is nothing like I expected to witness.
Alexis claims Velvet's mouth with the confidence of someone who's never been denied anything. There's no hesitation, no careful exploration—just pure want transformed into action. Velvet makes a sound I've never heard before, something between surprise and surrender, her body melting back against Alexis while still pressed to my front.
My cock throbs insistently, fully hard now despite my best efforts. The visual alone—my omega being kissed by my pack mate, female Alpha claiming female omega—would be enough, but it's the sounds that destroy me.
Soft gasps, the wet slide of tongues, Alexis's dominant growl when Velvet tries to pull back for air only to be drawn back in.
My hand on Velvet's thigh grips hard enough to leave marks through the dress. The other hand finds her waist, holding her steady while she's kissed within an inch of her life by someoneshe met twenty minutes ago. The scent in the air shifts—Velvet's arousal mixing with Alexis's satisfaction, creating a cocktail that makes my Alpha brain scream.
When Alexis finally releases her, Velvet's lips are swollen, eyes glazed, chest heaving. She looks thoroughly debauched and we haven't even left the kitchen.
"See?" I manage, voice gravelly with want. "Saying I can't kiss her, but you barely finished introductions before kissing her like today's our last day on earth."
Alexis snorted, but I saw the telltale tension in the set of her jaw, the way her nostrils flared just slightly with every shallow breath she drew. The effect of the kiss lingered not only in Velvet, whose body shivered in my embrace, but in Alexis herself; her pupils blown wide, cheeks flushed with the effort of keeping her cool. She wiped her thumb across her lower lip, then gave me a sidelong look that practically dared me to comment.
"If you're jealous and horny, just say that," she said, voice pitched low, her words curling around the morning air like cigarette smoke.
