Page 17 of Knot Your Romeo
The words break through the haze of desire, reminding me who I’m with and what he represents. I plant my hands against his chest and this time I shove him hard enough to make him stagger back a step.
“You’re not my Alpha,” I say fiercely, wiping his taste from my lips with the back of my hand. “You’re just a selfish boy who wants to have everything without paying the price.”
Something dangerous flickers in Romeo’s eyes. “Careful, Omega. You’re walking a very thin line.”
“What line?” I demand, my anger finally overriding my fear. “The one where I’m supposed to be grateful for your attention? The one where I should accept whatever scraps you’re willing to throw at me while you play house with your perfect Beta girlfriend?”
“Cerise isn’t perfect,” he mumbles, and there’s something almost vulnerable in his tone. “She’s what I’m supposed to want. What makes sense for someone in my position?”
“Then have her,” I snap. “Stop playing games with me and commit to the girl who obviously adores you.”
Romeo laughs, but there’s no humor in it. “You think it’s that simple? You think I can just choose to stop feeling this?” He gestures between us, his expression twisting with something that looks like pain. “Every time I touch her, all I can think about is you. Every time I try to claim her the way an Alpha should, my body rejects her.”
The admission hangs between us, but it’s unwanted. I don’t want to know about his relationship problems.
He stares at me. There’s conflict in his eyes. Desire warring with resentment, his need fighting against something that looks almost like self-hatred.
“That’s not my problem,” I say, though my voice lacks conviction. I need to try harder.
“Isn’t it?” He steps closer again, and this time I don’t retreat. “We’re scent matches, Jolie. Whether you like it, or not, my biology recognizes you as mine. And yours recognizes me as your alpha.”
“Biology isn’t destiny,” I quote from Professor Benson’s lecture instead of telling him the truth. I won’t complicate my life any further. “We have choices.”
“Do we?” Romeo’s hand comes up to cup my face, his thumb tracing the line of my cheekbone with tenderness. “Because right now, all I want to do is mark you, claim you, make sure every Alpha for miles knows exactly who you belong to.”
Heat floods through me at his words, my Omega instincts responding to the possessive promise in his voice despite my brain’s protests.
“And then what? Hide me away so you go back to Cerise and pretend I don’t exist?”
“Then I do whatever it takes to make this bearable for both of us,” he says quietly. “I can’t claim you publicly, Jolie. My family has expectations, obligations. Cerise comes from the right background, has the right connections. She’s what I’m supposed to want.”
“But she’s not what you want,” I retort.
“No.” The word is so quiet I nearly miss it. “What I want is standing right in front of me, and I can’t have her. Not the way I should. Not the way my Alpha demands.”
There’s genuine pain in his voice now, a vulnerability that makes my chest ache despite everything. For the first time, I see past his cruel facade to the conflict underneath. Romeo isn’t just being selfish. No, he’s trapped between his biology and his obligations, between what he wants and what he thinks he should want.
“So, what are you suggesting?” I ask carefully, not sure why I need him to spell it out once again.
His expression hardens, the momentary vulnerability disappearing behind his usual mask of cold control. “I’m suggesting we be realistic about what this is. You need an Alpha’s attention, and I need an Omega who can actually satisfy my biology. We give each other what we need without the complications of a public relationship.”
“You want me to be your mistress because you can’t knot your girlfriend,” I say flatly.
“I want you to be practical.” His hand slides down to rest against my throat again, not squeezing but making his point clear. “This pull between us isn’t going away, Jolie. We can either manage it, or we can both suffer in silence while our biology tears us apart.”
I stare up at him, taking in the sharp angles of his face, the desperate hunger in his gray eyes, the way his scent is stronger the more he is with me. He’s beautiful and dangerous and everything my Omega instincts crave. He’s also offering me exactly what Blake threatened to do to me. Give me a life as an Alpha’s secret pleasure, being used when convenient.
“What about Cerise?” I ask. “What happens to her in this arrangement?”
Romeo shrugs, as if her feelings are irrelevant. “She gets what she wants.”
“And that is?”
He gives me a look that tells me if thinks the question is stupid. “The status of being my girlfriend, the social connections, the security of my name. What she doesn’t get is the biological side of our relationship, which she can’t handle, anyway.”
“And she’s okay that you’re prepared to knot another woman?”
“She won’t know about it.” His smile is wide and dangerous, like he is daring me to tell her. “As far as Cerise is concerned, I’mjust a caring alpha who would never expect her to take a knot. She’s not exactly complaining about not having to deal with knots and marking bites.”
