Page 110

“You’re doing this on purpose,” I snapped at him.

“Sorry?”

“You know exactly what you’re doing. Give me my ring.”

“Your what?”

“Deacon!” I yelled at him.

The assistant bank manager tapped on the door to ask if we were all right. Deacon was laughing too hard to speak, so I had to answer, as sweetly as possible, that we were both fine.

Once he’d retreated, I glared at the man I loved. “Now. Right now.”

“You’re very bossy for an omega.” Deacon shook his head. “I thought you were all supposed to be docile, like rabbits.”

“I’m as much of a wolf as you are, alpha, and if you don’t want me to eat you, you better fork over the ring.”

“The only one who’s getting eaten is you, omega.”

I shivered hard. His chuckle in response was filthy, and his smile made me catch my breath. I turned away from him, needing a moment to get myself under control.

“You’re ready to let me have you right here, right now.”

My whimper was loud in the small room.

“Well, since I can’t do that and still bank here, look at this.”

Slowly, I turned around and faced him. He was down on one knee, holding up a box with an enormous platinum ring with channel-set stones. It was exquisite.

“Oh, Deacon,” I breathed.

He grunted. “That noise with the whole ‘oh, Deacon’ thing isn’t helping anything. We need to go home now. I want you naked in bed, so say yes so I can put this on your finger.”

“Yes,” I murmured. “So much yes.”

He took it out of the box, slipped it gently onto my finger, then surged to his feet, took me in his arms, and kissed me breathless.

I liked that he appeared a bit shaken himself. When he dropped the ring box back into the safety-deposit one, I argued that I wanted it.

“Why? You’re never taking that ring off, except when you shift, so what’s the point?”

No argument to be made.

Back outside, I let him drive, as I was a bit too distracted, holding my hand at different angles, watching the light hit my diamonds. At home, he parked out front, opened my door as I was unlatching my seat belt, pulled me from the seat, and dragged me from the sidewalk by my wrist, through the front gate, and up the walkway to my front door.

I didn’t care that I was being manhandled. I loved it. He was so intent on me, on having me, that everything else paled in comparison.

Inside, as he was turning off the alarm, I bolted for the bedroom. I was laughing when he caught me, the two of us tumbling down together onto the bed.

“I’m ready to be eaten now,” I whispered.

“That’s good,” he whispered back before he took my mouth.

It was a rush, the two of us trying to pull off shoes and clothes without our lips parting. We bumped, and I bit his lip too hard and made it bleed a bit, which, from how dark his eyes got, I understood was a huge turn-on. He finally had to stop kissing me to go to the nightstand and grab the lube, but he was back in moments, wrestling me down onto the sheets again.

“Oh.” I gasped when I was mostly naked, my open dress shirt the sole piece of clothing left, now straddling his thighs, my hands on his gorgeous chest. “I got so excited I didn’t even think about the fact that you’re hurt and––”

“I’m not hurt,” he growled at me, holding the back of my neck in a tight grip and easing me down to him. “Let me show you.”