A slow, knowing smile unfurled across the blond's delicate features—dangerous, mesmerizing, and far too powerful for Clyde to resist.
He leaned in without a fight, as if pulled by a force older than instinct itself. Ryley whispered something against his ear, soft enough to be a secret, sharp enough to cut straight through him.
Spellbound, the Alpha lifted a hand and brushed the back of his knuckles down Ryley's cheek, reverent in a way that contradicted everything he pretended to be.
"As you wished," Clyde murmured.
Ryley melted into him, arms circling his waist, face pressed against the steady rise and fall of Clyde's chest.
"Can you feel my heart?" he asked, voice thin with nerves. "It's beating too fast. I don't know why it feels… louder." His brown eyes flicked up, wide and uncertain. "What's wrong with me?"
Clyde huffed a faint laugh. "Sure it's not the little one causing it?"
