Chapter 64: WHAT SHE TASTE LIKE
ROWAN
Ryker was here.
That son of a bitch was here.
The scent of fur lingered in the air, it was his distinct smell and it made my wolf snarl and push against my ribs demanding I do something violent. I could smell my brother everywhere in this room, could trace where he had been, what he had touched, what he had done.
Amaris looked guilty.
She was not even trying to hide it, just standing there wrapped in that robe with her hair a mess and her eyes red from crying and guilt written all over her face.
I moved closer before I could stop myself and she tensed but did not back away. I grabbed her wrist and pulled her toward me, lowering my face to her neck.
She tried to step back. "Rowan—"
I yanked her hand to steady her and buried my nose against her skin, inhaling deeply.
Ryker was all over her, his scent embedded in her skin in a way that only happened when bodies pressed together for extended periods. When sweat mixed and breath mingled and two people became indistinguishable from each other.
He fucked her.
My brother had actually fucked her.
Rage flooded through me viciously and I had to clench my fist to keep from punching something. I pulled back to look at her, at this girl who had somehow crawled under my skin and made me forget every rule I had built my life around.
"How long have you been fucking him?" The question came out harsh.
She glared at me and yanked at her wrist but I refused to let go, my grip tightening. "How dare you—"
"I asked you a question," I cut her off, pulling her closer until her chest slammed into mine. "How long have you been fucking him?"
"Let go of me Rowan," she demanded, pushing at my chest.
I looked down at her, at those amber eyes flashing with anger and and protesting like she wasn’t guilty. We both knew she was. My head lowered slowly and I inhaled her scent again, trying to separate her from the smell of my brother.
There. Underneath the fur I could smell her. Peaches and lavender shampoo, sweet and clean and the tip of my tongue tasted her skin. I had expected her to shriek but she did not.
I pressed my nose to her cheek and then moved lower, stopping just short of her mouth. She swallowed hard and I watched her throat work.
"I thought you gave me your word," she whispered.
"That was before I could smell him all over you," I countered, my voice dropping. "He has had you."
"You don’t know that," she protested weakly. "You are just speculating."
"Maybe," I agreed, "but it makes me wonder."
She had gone still in my arms, her breathing evening out despite the tension radiating from her body. I was not holding her that tightly anymore but she had stopped struggling to pull away, she just stood there looking up at me.
"Wonder what?" she asked.
"What you taste like." I whispered right in her ears.
The admission made her cheeks flustered pink and I watched her eyes widen, I watched her process what I had just said.
"Amaris, you don’t get it," I continued, my forehead dropping to rest against hers. "I am not myself around you. You don’t know what you do to me."
She gazed at me and the resolve in her expression crumbled. "I didn’t ask for any of this. And Rowan, you have a fiancée."
The reminder should have been enough to make me step back, to put distance between us, to remember all the reasons this was wrong. But it just made the rage pulsate through my veins because she was right and I abhorred her for being right.
"Is that why you gave yourself to Ryker?" I challenged. "Because I am engaged?"
She did not respond and the silence was answer enough.
I looked at her, really looked at her, and whispered the warning I knew she would not listen to. "Amaris, Ryker will ruin you. He is my brother and I know him better than you do. For your own good, avoid him."
"What about you?" Her voice came out small. "Shouldn’t I avoid you too?"
My hands moved to her waist on their own, settling there like they belonged. I hated the person I became whenever I was around her, hated that the calm collected version of myself dissolved into this possessive jealous thing that made terrible decisions.
"I want to say yes," I admitted, my thumbs brushing against her sides through the thin fabric of her robe. "But I don’t want you to."
She winced, confused and warring in her expression. "Why?"
The question was simple but the answer was complicated, a lot of variables all mixed up in mate bonds and duty and the fact that watching her with Ryker made me want to break things.
"Because I want to have you," the words came out before I could stop them. "I don’t want Ryker to."
The admission shocked me as much as it shocked her because I had not planned to say it, had not even fully acknowledged that truth to myself until it was already out in the open.
Her lips parted and I watched the movement, watched her tongue dart out to wet her bottom lip, and every bit of control I had left started crumbling.
I was drowning in the desire of how much I wanted her. How badly she made me lose control.
It is not by will I am standing here with my hands on her waist thinking about what it would feel like to kiss her again, to taste her, to make her forget Ryker ever touched her. To do more than kiss her.
My wolf was howling at me that she was ours, that Ryker had no right to claim her first, that I needed to do something before it was too late and she was completely lost to me.
"Rowan," she breathed my name and it sounded like a nudge or maybe a plea.
My head dipped lower, my mouth hovering over hers so I could feel her breath against my lips and see her eyes starting to close in anticipation.
This was wrong.
I was engaged to Lila. Amaris was supposed to mate with my father. We were about to cross a line that would destroy everything.
But I did not care.
My mouth was a breath away from hers when the door flew open.
We both startled and jumped apart like we had been electrocuted, my hands leaving her waist as I spun to face whoever had just interrupted.
Nia stood in the doorway glaring at us with an expression that promised murder.
"Oh shit," I muttered.
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