“I didn’t know you wanted me to,” I replied.
“Yes, you did.” I glanced up at him, his head dropping down by tiny increments, getting closer and closer. “You had to have. We were always touching you, always dragging you onto our laps, breathing in your scent.” He did that just now, nosing my hair out of the way. “You could feel our need for you.”
“Because Dad told you to.”
“No.”
“Because we grew up together.”
“No, you know that isn’t true. The Mitchells grew up with the Whites and Amanda was best friends with those boys until they revealed.” His teeth locked down tight. “Then they dropped her like a stone.”
“Because…” My brain, that buzzed with feel-good hormones, fought to find another reason, even as I knew he’d demolish it just as swiftly as the others.
“Because you felt so good in our arms. Because your body fitted against ours. Because we watched your perfectly formed arse in those damn skirts and shorts you always used to wear and jerked off to the memories of it, alone in our beds. Because your eyes flash like emeralds when you’re mad. Because you never let anything stop you from becoming what you were supposed to be.”
His mouth was almost on mine, his hand tipping my jaw up until I was at the perfect angle, and then he moved closer.
“Because with every fucking fibre of our bodies, we knew that you were ours, Riles. When our beasts came out, when we found our fur, we found you right there with them. I saw our destiny before us.”
“Right before it was ripped away…” I said, almost in a whisper.
“But we’re back together now. How many people can say that? To have something so perfect when they were just kids and then find their way back to it.” His hand went to my cheek. “The guys told me shit might not be the same, and it isn’t.”
I stiffened then, but he darted in, pressing a kiss to my mouth.
“It’s so much more intense. Before, it was like a toothache—a persistent thing in the background. But now?” He kissed me, slowly parting my lips with his, kissing me again and again, groaning when I started to open for him. “Now, it’s like the throbbing of my heart.” Another kiss, snatching any response away from me. “The breath in my lungs.” Kisses, so many kisses. “The wind in my fur, the ground under my paws.” More kisses, more as he pressed me up against the wall, his body surging closer. “And I’d give every single one of them away for just this.”
The reason why I was the closest to Colt was because he was never one for posturing. He knew what his position was in the town, and he didn’t feel the need to deny it or flaunt it. Colt just was who he was, and that had always been focussed on me. So when his lips brushed mine, what came with his touch was a terrible sense of inevitability.
Of course his breath, my breath were sucked in the minute we touched, because we’d been waiting for this for so long. We’d secretly traced the shapes of each other’s mouths during class or conversations, on the bus or in my room, not letting the other see. We’d longed to replace the taste of our lunch with the taste of each other. And we needed this, that I felt as sure as my heartbeat. My hands were in his hair, his tightening around my waist, pulling me closer, as he rocked his body against mine and sucked my bottom lip. Then his tongue slid between them, seeking more, seeking me.
“Fuck…” I hissed when I pulled away, although not very far. His grip was like iron, and he wasn’t letting me go anywhere. His head was already dropping lower, seeking more. “Colt…”
“Mm…?”
Fuck, Colt’s kisses were way more potent than the gin I’d been drinking. They clouded my mind as they got deeper, fiercer, making me ache.
“Colt…”
“Fuck, Riley…I can’t get enough.”
But it was when his hand slid down, cupping my butt then holding it still as he thrust his hard-on against me, that I forced him to stop.
“Colt?”
He blinked slowly, seeming to need the time to come back to himself, and when he did, his eyes were the brightest of silver.
“Hey,” I said. “You know we can’t go too far with this, right?”
When he smiled, I found myself feeling ridiculously relieved to see it.
“We can’t have sex until you’re ready, Riley.” He tapped his temple. “We feel it in here. Like, now?” His eyes dropped to my lips. “You like being kissed. You might like being kissed elsewhere…” His smile faded somewhat, something darker and more intense rising. “But that also scares the shit out of you.”
He straightened up, the silver receding in his eyes.
“I’m making you feel good and scared all at the same time, and I only want one of those things. Just pleasure. I’m sick to fucking death of pain, and I’ll never let you get hurt. When the pleasure stops and the fear or pain starts, I’m done. If you just want to lie down and I hold you in my arms until we sleep, trust me, I’ll be fine with that.”
“Jesus, I think I know why the omegas were such bitches at school,” I said. “If I knew I was supposed to get all this” —I gestured to him— “and missed out, I’d be pissed.”