Page 31 of The Case of the Missing Love Stone

Then his expression changes, more vulnerable than I expect. “What if I scare her?”

I stop moving.

Wes’s body remains hard against mine, but the intimacy shifts.

“You will,” I say.

His brow furrows.

“She will scare you too. That’s what happens when someone matters before you understand why.”

His thumb moves along the side of my neck.

“You’ll listen,” I say, continuing. “I’ll help when the two of you get stubborn, and she’ll call me on my own nonsense too.”

“Likely.”

“And we will keep choosing one another while she decides whether she wants to join us.”

His bond settles against mine.

Wes kisses me again, softer this time. “I love you.”

“I know.”

His eyes narrow.

I smile. “I love you too.”

Then I roll us.

Wes lands beneath me with a surprised grunt. I settle over his thighs, take both our cocks in hand, and move until his control begins to fray. I drag my hand up and down his length and squeeze at the swelling base of his cock where his knot wants to grow.

“That’s it,” I tell him. “Let go for me, Alpha.”

His hands grip my hips.

I stroke us together, watching pleasure strip the last of the tension from his face.

Wes comes first, hot across my hand and stomach, his growl low enough to vibrate through me. I follow seconds later, bent over him with his mouth against mine.

For a while, we stay there. Breathing. Touching.

The room smells like cedar, cardamom, cinnamon, and us.

Wes reaches for the tissues on the nightstand and cleans my hand before his own body. I catch his wrist and finish the job for him.

Afterward, he draws me against his side beneath the flowered quilt. I rest my head on his chest.

“The hotel will charge us if you tear that quilt,” I say.

“I didn’t tear it.”

“You considered it.”

His hand moves through my hair.

Music from the square drifts faintly through the windows. Sweetheart Haven continues selling forever below us while the case files wait on the table.