Page 170 of Lyric & the Heartbeats

Had Javier said that aloud? How improper.

“Don’t worry about it,” Henry said with a smirk on his features. “She clearly doesn’t mind, or else she wouldn’t be so open around you.”

Javier nodded, disposing of the plates, trying to organize his thoughts in a more polite direction.

“Javier,” Henry began. “Why do you think I asked you to continue with us?”

He paused stacking bowls. “Because of my food?” he guessed.

Henry chuckled. “Okay, yes, you make the best damned private chef I’ve ever seen. But also… Lyric likes you. And since she’s…”

“Your omega, you’ll make sure she’s happy, yes?” Javier filled in the blanks.

His mind raced in a hundred directions. Lyric was magnetic, drawing him to her even while he tried to remain professional.

“You’re allowed to loosen up around her, is all I’m saying.”

“Hint taken,” Javier replied, his mind reeling with too many thoughts to form a coherent response.

Javier didn’t know what to do with this new information, but as Lyric’s giggle followed him off the bus and back onto his own truck, he couldn’t help but grin.

Henry was a sly one. Javier was just glad he had the alpha’s approval.

Now all he had to do was earn Lyric’s.

Lyric’s heart pounded as she tugged her beta and alpha through their nest and toward her private one. Emerson’s presence—like his scent—was as evident as a storm brewing in the distance and growing ever closer with a spark of electricity in the air.

The tension between him and Nohen had finally reached its peak.

Lyric shut the door behind them and leaned against it with her hands tucked behind her back.

Nohen was a little shorter than Emerson, but only by a few inches, and still much taller than her. But seeing them side by side, the promise of what was to come on the horizon, made her a little breathless.

“Are you guys done with the innuendos? The flirty glances? The teasing banter?” she asked. “Can you please just fuck?”

Nohen coughed into his fist, hiding his smile from Emerson, who crossed his arms and looked down at the beta. “I dunno. Can we?” the alpha questioned.

Slowly lowering his fist, Nohen glanced up and met his gaze. The tension between the two spilled out, overflowed until it reached Lyric by the door, and she swallowed, their scents overwhelming her.

The blooming flowers of Nohen’s gentle scent was swallowed up by the storm of Emerson’s, blown away until she had the urge to cross the room, bury her face in his back, and pull him into her.

“Yeah. Fuck yeah,” Nohen answered, voice hoarse.

Lyric’s stomach flipped, and her skin pebbled with bumps as the tension brewing between them finally struck like a lightning bolt in the form of a harsh kiss. Emerson reached for Nohen, fisted his hands in those short curls just like Lyric liked to do, and pulled him forward. Their lips smashed together, and Lyric went breathless at the sight of them.

She squeezed her hands together as desire pitched south, making her stomach tight.

Emerson ravaged Nohen, lips and tongue and teeth, and Lyric wondered if she had ever had the same dumbstruck expression on her face that Nohen did once they separated.

Nohen’s lips curled up into a drunk smile, and at once, they both glanced in her direction.

“I hope you don’t think you’re only going to watch.”

Lyric’s pulse increased as she stared at the two of them. “Okay,” she said, voice weak with desire.

It was Nohen who reached out and snagged her arm, his grip sliding down from bicep to wrist, and then threaded their fingers together once she brought her arms out from behind her back.

“Don’t act like you haven’t been waiting for this,” Nohen teased near her ear.