Page 86 of The Case of the Missing Love Stone

“It was chronological.”

“An inferior system.”

Scarlet laughs.

There it is again. Happiness.

I bring her hand to my mouth and kiss her knuckles. She looks at me with an expression so open that an old wound inside me goes quiet. I don’t feel like the man she chose because I was easier to trust than an alpha. I don’t feel secondary. I feel like she’s mine in the way Wes is mine, like we chose each other.

Wes gathers her skirt in both hands and pushes it slowly up her legs.

She watches me while he does it. Wes may be the one removing the layers, but she gives each one to both of us. Her gaze holds mine as his fingers reach the waistband of her underwear.

She lifts her hips, and Wes draws the fabric down. The underwear slips over her knees and ankles into his hand. He folds it over the arm of the couch.

I glance at him.

“They’re pretty. She’ll want to be able to find them later,” he says.

Scarlet stares at the underwear folded neatly over the arm of the couch. Her eyes soften, and her body settles more fully against mine. Then she reaches for Wes and pulls him up for a kiss. He rises enough to meet her, kissing her while I keep one arm around her waist.

When they part, Wes shifts onto the cushion beside her. I slide out from behind Scarlet and kneel in the space we cleared in front of the couch. Wes draws her back against his chest, one arm around her middle while I settle between her thighs. She is naked between us, her armor beside her in a careful stack.

Scarlet reaches for me before I can touch her. Her palm rests against my cheek. I turn my face and kiss the center of her palm. Her fingers brush my lips, curious and almost shy, which is a fascinating contradiction in a woman currently naked.

“You’re thinking too loudly,” she says.

“I’ve been told it’s a gift.”

“It’s distracting.”

“From?”

Her gaze drops to my mouth.

Fair enough.

I kiss the inside of her wrist, then the soft crease of her elbow as I work my way lower. Behind her, Wes cups one breast and brushes his thumb across her nipple. Scarlet arches against his chest, her hips shifting closer to the edge of the cushion. I kiss the inside of her thigh while Wes lowers his mouth to her shoulder and then her breast.

Scarlet’s fingers slide into my hair before turning her face and kissing me. Her tongue twists against mine while Wes’s mouth closes around her nipple. The first sharp sound she makes breaks into the kiss, and I swallow it. Scarlet tastes like tea and want, and the last of the tart berry candy she pretended not to steal from my pocket earlier.

“You took my candy,” I whisper.

Her lips brush mine. “Prove it.”

“There is evidence.”

“Circumstantial.” She smiles into my mouth.

The woman beneath the defenses is warmer, playful. She is no less sharp, only no longer cutting. I’m falling in love with that version too.

Scarlet exhales against my mouth, and I pull away from the kiss long enough to watch Wes slides one hand between her thighs. His fingers move through her slick, parting her pink pussy slowly.

“I love how wet you get for us,” he says.

I know she will try to make a joke if we give her enough room to think. Wes doesn’t give her the room. He strokes her clit with slow, deliberate circles while I kiss along her throat.

Scarlet’s fingers tighten in my hair. “Roman.”