Page 172 of Knot What I Expected

For one breathless second, neither of us looks away.

She feels it too. I fucking know she does.

After that, urgency drives me into her again and again. I feel her channel squeezing, tightening all around me. Then Gabby yells, her body shaking with the force of her orgasm.

I follow her over the edge. And I come with a roar that shakes the whole damn room. It goes on and on as the knot grows and grows—her pussy milking me for what feels like forever.

And through all of it, that magic keeps burning.

Not scorching.

Not consuming.

Binding.

Firelight seems to flicker behind my closed eyes as the mate bond settles around us, weaving together two separate threads of magic until I can’t quite tell where mine ends and hers begins.

Monster goes silent.

Not suppressed. Not beaten into submission.

Peaceful.

Holy fuck.

I’ve never felt him like this.

Then I feel her.

Not her body.

Gabby.

A whisper of emotion brushes against me through the newborn bond—wonder tangled with fear, vulnerability wrapped around something warm and hopeful.

And instinctively, something inside me reaches back.

I’m here.

I don’t know if she hears the words.

But the way her arms tighten around me makes me think maybe she feels them.

Afterward, when the frantic edge finally begins to fade, I keep her close.

I don’t know how long the knot will hold us together. I didn’t bite her. Didn’t give her my mark.

Not yet.

Not until she understands what she is to me.

And I don’t exactly know what the bond forming between us means. But I know what it feels like.

Peace.

Firelight.

Passion.