I reach toward his face, though I stop myself before I touch him, and my hand hovers in midair as my gaze flits back and forth between his eyes. "I want to see you. I'm sorry. But I need it."
The words come out apologetically, my lip trembling, my insecurity just as intense as my fixation because what if he says no?
What if my mate turns away?
Others have before.
It’s not inconceivable that he’d abandon me.
The blistering list of my own imperfections blazes through my head.
Colter stares at me for a long moment, and a terrified tear drips from my eye.
I pushed too hard. I've ruined this moment. Ruined our future together because he'll never trust me again. Out of the blue, I'm just demanding something because my hormones are raw and on edge. Eight thousand worries crawl through me like insects, covering me in traumatic shivers. Eight thousand rejections.
But then Colter gives a single, solitary nod.
My lungs freeze, and I don't blink in case he changes his mind.
Slowly, he reaches up behind his head. A second later the mask falls away, and I see his face, full of pockmarks and raised lines, crisscrosses and rough patches of red skin on his cheeks. My poor alpha has been through hell and back.
Even though the sight is tragic, it brings a happy smile to my face. Because it’s him.
Really and truly him.
He’s showing me a part of himself that he won’t share with the world.
And that’s such a fucking gift.
Tears spill, and I put every ounce of gratitude I'm feeling into my tone when I say, "Thank you, love."
"It's not too…" He cuts off, hesitant to ask what I think of his face.
Fuck his face. I fucking love HIM.
"Kiss me," I order, grabbing at his forearm.
When he leans back down and seals his lips against mine, my heart leaps in a way it never has before. His skin presses against mine as his hand wraps into my hair, twining through the strands, and I swear I can feel our souls fusing, feel that deep torment of self-loathing soothed by a connection so fiercely deep that nothing in the universe could rend it apart.
Our kissing grows deeper and more frantic as time goes on until Kylian's voice bursts through the bubble we're in.
"Now that the romance thing is all set, are we ready to get back to fucking?"
Colter and I pull apart, laughter shaking our chests as we turn and censure Kylian with our glares before sharing soft smiles with one another. His eyes sparkle with a light I've never seen in them before, and the fact that I might have helped kindle it is the most precious thing in the world.
But Kylian drags a finger up my inner thigh and then draws a literal question mark over my pussy. "What do you want, my pretty obsession?"
Ripping my gaze from Colter over to him, then to the other side of the room, where Ridge and Luka are openly stroking themselves, I say, "I want you all."
"Fuck. Yes!" Kylian punches the air before he moves me so he can slide my panties off.
Then he tosses both my legs over his shoulders and dives back down like a man with a new life purpose.
"Colter, will you…" I blush as I ask in a whispered undertone, slightly embarrassed to say what I want aloud. "Will you titty fuck me?"
His hand in my hair pauses for a second, but then it tightens as an intense smile transforms his scarred face.
Without another word, my giant mate untangles himself from me, braces his hands on either side of my head and then swings a thick leg over my torso so that he's straddling my chest. Carefully, he lowers himself so that his thick cock is positioned right between my breasts. And then one of his huge palms is in front of my face.
