Page 124 of Heat & Deceit
“I think I can manage that,” he says with a devious twinkle in his eye. “You have no idea how much I want you.”
My chest warms, and I hold my breath as his hands track over my body, feeling strangely forlorn as he removes the ropes. With great care, he collects the rope and returns it to the hook on the wall. I watch his every movement, wondering if I’ve always been into something like this or if it’s Javi.
When he turns and lets his gaze slip down my body, taking powerful step after powerful step to sweep me into his arms and press a bruising kiss to my lips, I know, without a doubt, Javi is the only one I’d do this for.
Thirty-Three
JAVI
We make our way to where Rome and Ly are in the living room, crowding around a laptop. Ly jumps up as soon as we enter the room. Nova squeaks as he sweeps her into a tight hug, squeezing her tight enough to make my chest rumble in warning. He shoots me a haughty look but loosens his grip, running his hands over her hair and resting his forehead against hers.
“Hey, brat.”
“Asshole,” she murmurs, but that only makes Ly smile like a dope.
Oh, he is so far gone. I’m hardly one to talk. I subtly sniff my hand, playing it off as wiping my hand over my mouth. Her slick seeped through the many layers of clothes, and damn, if I don’t want to drown in a sea of lilac and cherry blossoms because of it.
Ly inhales, but like me, knows better than to act on that base instinct of wanting to pin her against the wall and knot her. If it were any other omega, we might do it, but we care too much about Nova to do something that might make her hate us.
I don’t know when I began to realize that Nova was it, but there’s something about her. She’s different from the omegas the dating agency matched us with. She’s not here for the money. She’s not demanding to be spoiled without reason. Her past is dark and tragic, but when I look at her, I don’t see any of that.
All I see is Nova.
And I want to do everything within my power to make her realize she deserves happiness. She deserves safety. She deserves the world.
Anyone who is dumb enough to deny her that will be destroyed. My fists clench as an image of her pinned against the wall flashes through my head. The beta is already dead, but I find myself wishing magic were real and we could bring him back to life, just to kill him all over again.
The Hell Hounds tried to take that moment from us. They didn’t expect me to know my way around a gun—most people look at me and see a rich, entitled alpha—and they certainly didn’t expect me to snatch the gun right from Knox’s hand and shoot the beta square in the head.
Unlike the first time I killed a person to protect someone I love, I didn’t throw up.
That beta had tried to take Nova, and even though she doesn’t bear our marks, Nova is already ours.
A hard line forms between my eyebrows, and I turn to Rome. “What did you find?”
“Nothing useful.” He turns the laptop and replays the security footage. A lone masked figure races across the screen, breaking the nest and scattering it across the driveway. It’s a clear threat.
I don’t understand how they know about Nova, though. That’s new, even to us. Whoever did this has been watching us. Caroline Fritz made that post after Ly ditched her. Could it be her? My jaw clenches at the unknown. I guess I should give her father a call.
“We can’t do much with this,” Rome points out. “But we can add an extra layer of security at the gate. We could call a company to post security.”
“Security?” Nova asks, voice small as she turns in Ly’s arm to look between me and Rome. “Is it really that serious?”
“No,” Ly tells her.
I scowl at him. “They broke a nest. What do you think that means?”
His eyes flash. “I know what it means, but you’re going to scare her away, and she just barely got here.” His arms tighten around her.
“I’m not scared,” she lies.
Here we are, already failing at the fundamental principle of being an alpha. First and foremost, we’re meant to be protectors.
I avert my gaze and clench my jaw. “We’ll find out who did this and bury them.”
Rome mutters his agreement.
Her scent wraps around me before her hand finds my chin, tugging my face in her direction, making me look at her. “You can’t kill everything that threatens me.”
