"Thanks. I needed that."
"Get your own,” he says, smiling.
"Yours tastes better." I turn him around by the hips andlean down to kiss him properly. He lets me, his free hand finding the front of my shirt, fingers curling into the fabric. When I pull back his eyes are still closed for a second, his mouth curved slightly at the corners.
"You're in a good mood," he says.
"I slept well." My hand drifts down, grabbing a handful of his perky ass. "Someone wore me out."
Adam's nose crinkles as he smiles wide. "You'rethe one that woremeout. I might not be able to sit for a week." He pretends to frown.
"Sorry about that." I kiss his forehead. "I didn't expect my knot to partially inflate."
I move to the coffeemaker and Adam leans against the counter beside me, pulling his mug to his chest.
"I looked it up," he says casually.
I glance at him. "What?"
"This morning. While you were still asleep, I looked up an alpha knotting a beta." He takes a sip of his coffee, his eyes sliding sideways to mine over the rim. "It's actually pretty rare for an alpha to knot a beta without an omega in the room." He pauses, and I can hear it underneath the casual delivery. The quiet pride of someone who has discovered they are the exception to a rule. "It basically never happens."
I look at him for a second. At the way he's trying very hard to seem like he's simply sharing an interesting piece of information he happened to come across.
I set the coffeepot down and cup his face in both hands, tipping it up.
"Adam."
"What?"
"You have always made my body do things it has nobusiness doing." I kiss him, savoring the feel of his soft lips against mine. "That's not new."
His cheeks go warm. He ducks his head the second I release him, suddenly very interested in his coffee again, but he's smiling. The real kind.
It's the best thing I've seen all morning.
Then I feel something in the back of my mind.
It's faint at first. A low hum of wakefulness, like something surfacing slowly. Then a flutter of deep uncertainty.
Elowen is awake.
And two minutes later, she appears at the bottom of the stairs.
She's wearing one of Raff’s shirts, her dark hair loose and slightly tangled from sleep. Her feet are bare on the hardwood, and she's moving carefully, like she doesn’t want to draw too much attention. Her eyes find me first, then Adam, and she offers a small, tentative smile.
"Good morning," she says.
"Morning." I hold up the coffeepot. "Want some?"
Her face does something quietly relieved at being offered something so ordinary. "Yes, please.”
I pour her a mug and set it on the island. She moves to it slowly, pulling out a barstool and sitting with both hands wrapped around the ceramic, her shoulders slightly drawn in. Through the bond, I feel her trying. Trying to seem easy and unbothered and like she wakes up in strange packs' kitchens every morning of her life.
She's not pulling it off entirely, but I appreciate the effort.
"Did you sleep okay?" I ask.
"Really well actually." She gives me a real smile this time, small but genuine. "Your beds are obscenely comfortable."
