"Are you shy, pretty girl?" he rumbles, his voice a low vibration against my ear. "Because all this flushed skin is driving me wild." His lips brush against my temple. "Makes me want to see how red I can make you."
The breath leaves my body in a shaky exhale that turns into something embarrassingly close to a whimper as hot slick rolls down the inside of my thigh.
Raff’s nostrils flare and his wicked smile grows as he watches Cliff nuzzle the curve of my neck, right below my ear, then he presses a kiss to our mating bite. Then another. Working me over with sweet nips and gentle kisses, and I feel my head tip to one side without deciding to do it.
"You were so brave today," Cliff says against my skin, his voice so low it barely reaches the air between us. "Challenging Anton, then sharing with us about your past." His hands press firmer against my stomach. "Thattook a lot."
My throat tightens without warning.
I wasn't expecting that.
I was braced for hands and heat and sweat, and instead I got four quiet words that land somewhere so much deeper than any of that, and my eyes sting before I get ahold of myself.
"I've never told anyone," I admit, my voice coming out smaller than I intend.
Raff reaches up and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear, his gray eyes moving over my face. "We're not anyone, baby," he says simply.
I look at him for a moment, at the quiet certainty sitting in his gray eyes, and something that has been wound tight in the center of my chest for three years loosens by one small, significant degree.
"No," I say softly. "You're not."
Cliff's lips press to the side of my neck again, slower this time, and his arms slide fully around my waist, crossing over my stomach and pulling me back into him until there's no space left between us. He holds me there, not moving, not pushing for anything, holding me with the kind of steadiness that makes me feel like the ground has finally stopped shifting under my feet.
“You’re such a good omega.” Raff leans in and presses his lips to my forehead, holding them there for a moment. When he pulls back, his eyes drop to my mouth, and the tenderness in them shifts into something warmer and more deliberate, and the air in the room changes by a single degree. "I’m so proud of you," he says softly. Then he tilts my chin up and kisses me again.
It starts slow and careful, his mouth barely moving against mine.
Raff's hand slides from my jaw into my hair, fingers curling at the base of my skull, and I lean into it, opening for him, and the kiss deepens until my hands find the warm skin of his chest and press flat against it.
Cliff's lips find the curve of my shoulder from behind, inching upward toward my neck. His hands slide from my stomach to beneath my tank top, his palms spreading wide as he cups my breasts.
His thumbs brush over my nipples, and they instantly harden into tight, sensitive points.
Electricity courses through me as he circles them, the rough texture of his thumbs against my skin sending jolts straight to my core. My back arches instinctively, pressing my breasts deeper into his hands as a soft gasp escapes me, pushing into Raff’s mouth.
Between the two of them, I don't know where to focus.
Every time my attention settles on Raff's mouth, it gets pulled back to Cliff's hands, and every time I lean into Cliff's warmth at my back, Raff does something with his tongue that drags me forward again. I'm caught perfectly between them, suspended in the middle of all that heat and patience, and my body doesn't know whether to melt or combust.
Raff breaks the kiss and pulls back just enough to look at my face, his chest rising and falling faster than it was a minute ago.
I blink and my tank top is pulled over my head, hitting the floor somewhere behind Raff. The cool air of the room touches, my bare skin for exactly one second before Raff leans down and closes his mouth over one nipple. I gasp loudly as my hands fly to his shoulders.
"You have perfect tits," Cliff growls against my ear, his voice roughwith desire. His hand slides up the front of my throat, tipping my head back against his shoulder. He looks down at me as Raff captures my other nipple, sucking hard.
A moan drifts from my throat, and Cliff’s eyes flash.
"I love the pretty sounds you make,” he growls, then his mouth is suddenly on my mating bite. The second his lips touch it, our bond flares open, wide and warm, and what comes through is so purely him.
Want and tenderness and something fierce and protective underneath both of them, that my eyes close and my whole body goes liquid.
"I've got you," he murmurs against the mark. "Both of us have you."
Raff's tongue flicks my nipple, as his hands slide down over my stomach to the waistband of my shorts, his fingers curling into the fabric slowly, giving me every opportunity to say no.
But I arch my back instead, and both alphas move at once.
Cliff grips my hips and lifts me as Raff pulls my shorts down and off in one smooth motion, taking my underwear with them. But before I can fully process that I’m completely naked, Cliff pulls me back against his chest, and suddenly I'm lying in the middle of the bed with his long legs on either side of my body.
