Ian whined, trying to coax Brad’s tip inside himself. Brad caught Ian’s waist. Leaned in, biting lightly on Ian’s shoulder. “Want it?”
“Stop asking and fuck me.”
Brad throbbed. He shoved his blunt tip against Ian’s entrance, just holding it there, seeing how long he could resist the temptation.
Ian sat back on him, and his body opened around Brad, swallowing Brad into his tight heat. Ian moaned.
Brad swore. Slipped his arm around Ian’s chest, and pushed into him. Groaned when Ian’s body squeezed around his cock, pleasure singing in his veins.
It always felt like bliss, sliding into his omega. Having Ian’s body accept him, clench around him.
Ian rocked back onto Brad, friction humming between them. Brad lost his grasp on his thoughts. Just focused on sinking into Ian, burying every last inch into his omega, marking Ian as his.
He dragged his wrists down Ian’s chest. Thrust hard into him, savoring the way Ian scrabbled against the floor, his cock straining between his legs. Brad squeezed it. Stroked Ian firm and slow, so Ian writhed, his precome smearing over Brad’s fingers.
Ian was so hungry, and he needed Brad.
“Gonna fill you with seed,” Brad growled, punctuating his words with thrusts. “Put another baby inside you.”
Ian groaned and fucked himself on Brad’s cock, desperate now. Brad shuddered. Needed to show Ian how well they fit together, how much Brad wanted all of him.
So he pulled Ian snug against his chest, sitting Ian down on his cock. Brad slipped his hands under Ian’s knees, and hauled him off the floor.
Then he stood so they were both in the mirror, Ian spread open, his chest heaving, his cock flushed and straining.
“B-Brad?” Ian gasped, twisting his fingers into Brad’s hair.
“Want you,” Brad rasped. “All of you. Look.”
He stepped close to the mirror, so Ian could see himself spread open, Brad’s cock buried inside him. Ian’s tip dragged against the mirror, leaving a smear of precome on the glass. He whined and blushed, reaching down to cover his cock.
“Don’t,” Brad said. “Let me see.”
Then he raised Ian, sinking Ian back down onto his cock. Pleasure hummed through their bodies; Ian bit hard into his lip, and Brad shivered. Couldn’t hold on for long.
He wanted to set Ian down, pound deep into him, knot inside. Make Ian his.
“Show me,” Brad growled. “Show me you want this.”
Embarrassed, Ian pulled his hands away, Brad’s thrusts jerking his cock. Brad held him steady, snapping his hips to fuck deeper into his omega. Ian panted, his chest heaving. “Brad, please,” he gasped, his nails biting into Brad’s shoulder. “Harder.”
“This is us,” Brad panted. “I love you.”
Brad kissed Ian’s scent gland, sucking on it. Then he bit down hard, drawing blood.
Ian tensed, crying out. His breath shuddered out of him, and his nails bit into Brad’s shoulders. His cock grew a dark red, like he was close. “B-Brad—Need. P-please.”
He was Brad’s. Brad growled, carrying him over to their bed. He dropped Ian down and mounted him, fitting his cock back inside his omega. Fucked into him, good and hard.
Ian arched, trembling. “M-More.”
Brad gave him more. He built up his speed, his cock pulsing, the need in his body so tight that he couldn’t think about anything else, but Ian. Ian against him, Ian around him, Ian, his most perfect omega.
He felt the moment Ian came, when Ian cried out and clenched, his cock pulsing in Brad’s fist. Brad caught some of Ian’s come. Fucked hard into his omega, thinking about Ian’s pleasure, his sweet heat.
Brad’s own climax crashed down on him, a white-hot explosion of pleasure that surged through his body, sizzling his nerves. He plunged into Ian, gasping, releasing his seed deep into his omega.
Brad sagged forward, bracing his weight on his arms so he wouldn’t crush Ian. He panted, pressing his forehead to Ian’s back, breathing in Ian’s scent.
Mine.
“Want my knot?” Brad rasped, really so he could hear Ian say yes again.
“Please.” Ian rolled his hips up, snug against Brad. Brad’s knot swelled inside him, locking them together.
It felt good, being this close to his omega. Knowing Ian would stay in his arms for the duration of the knotting.
Brad kissed across Ian’s shoulders, nuzzling his nape. Then he glimpsed the drying blood on the crook of Ian’s neck, right over his scent gland. His chest squeezed; he’d never given anyone a bonding mark before. “I bit you.”
Ian breathed out slowly. “Yes, you did.”
Brad covered Ian’s heart with his palm, feeling every single thump of it. With that bite, he’d laid his claim on Ian. Ian was now his bondmate, and it felt incredible.
He’d been dreaming of this for some time, wondering if Ian would let him leave his mark. And now Brad had gone and bitten him without asking.
Feeling the slightest bit of guilt, Brad said, “Sorry. Should’ve asked you first.”
Ian huffed. “It’s okay.”
“Is it really? You don’t mind? I thought… you weren’t sure about getting together.”
Ian chuckled, leaning into the bed, his body wrung out and damp with sweat. When he next spoke, there was a smile in his voice. “Maybe it’ll help me remember better.”
That made Brad smile, too. “If you wanted, I could leave more marks. Every inch of your skin. So everyone will know you’re mine.”
Ian blushed, shoving lightly at him. “That’s inappropriate, Brad. I’m a professor.”
“So just the secret parts, then?” Brad grinned, stroking down Ian’s chest, to his inner thighs. Accidentally smeared the come on his hand all over Ian’s belly. “Oops. Lemme clean that up.”
Ian laughed. “We’ll shower after this. It’s no big deal.”
“It’s gonna get crusty on the bed.”
“Like I haven’t already come on your sheets multiple times!”
Brad laughed, wrapping his arms around Ian. He rolled them onto their sides, stroking down Ian’s arm. Touched the scent gland at Ian’s wrist, wondering if Ian wanted to be marked there, too.
And maybe he hoped Ian would return the marking, so Brad would know he was just as wanted.
Ian sighed, hugging his knees. Brad sat up on the bed. Shuffled them around and rolled Ian onto his back, so he could look down at his omega, his knot still buried in Ian. With each movement, Brad’s knot slid inside him, sending a hum of pleasure through their bodies. They both groaned.
“Are you doing that on purpose?” Ian asked, his cheeks flushed.
“Maybe.” Brad stopped when he had Ian’s legs spread, leaning in so their faces were an inch apart. “I wanted to see your face.”
Ian gave him a hesitant look. So Brad sighed, pressing their foreheads together.
“You look good, you know.”
“I’m supposed to believe that today, I know.”
“Why do you hate yourself so much?” Brad asked. He touched Ian’s damp, wispy hair, kissing him softly on the lips. “I’ve never met anyone who just… doesn’t want to look at himself in the mirror.”
Ian gave him a crooked smile. “What’s there not to hate?”
“Everything. I already told you what I love about you.”
“It’s hard for me to see that sometimes. Most times.”
“Why?”
Ian opened his mouth, but he didn’t have an answer. “Just… everything, I guess.”
“Explain it to me,” Brad said. “So I can understand.”
To his credit, Ian tried a couple times, starting and stopping. “Sometimes it seems as though everyone’s better at life than I am. You see the other professors in the college, with their nice cars and big houses, and all their wealth. And… and they have families. They have perfect lives. They have walls and walls of certificates. I don’t.”
“You have me,” Brad said.
Ian met hi
s eyes, cracking a smile. “I guess.”
But that didn’t explain the scars, did it? Brad touched them carefully. “Is that why you have these? Aside from the bills.”
Ian glanced at the rings of scars on his upper arms, running his fingertips over them. “I think… I’m defective. I try my best. I want to be better, and it’s just… not enough. Do you ever feel that way?”
Brad remembered his own regrets. The kids he couldn’t save in the fire. His mom dying. He remembered the helpless feeling, and wondered if Ian had felt that way his entire life.
“You had to be good enough,” Brad said. “Your mom would’ve told you that.”
Ian smiled sadly. “I wasn’t good enough for her.”
Was that possible? Ian’s gaze was honest, regretful. Brad thought about his own mother, Mom’s warm smile, her saying he’d done great with his tests, with the football team in school. His dad had frowned, but Brad’s mom had always been there for him. “What about your dad?”
Ian shrugged. “He wasn’t around a lot. There was just my mom.”
Brad exhaled. Imagined Ian alone, faced with disapproval, and a parent who was hardly there. “Who gave you compliments, then?”
Ian thought about it for a long moment. “There was a teacher in middle school. An old science teacher—Mrs. Irvine. She said she hadn’t seen anyone make it through a high school chemistry textbook like I did.”
He said that with a wistful smile. Brad’s heart ached for him. Ian hadn’t had anyone, had he? His whole life had been filled with loneliness, unlike Brad.
“I don’t think she realized it, but Mrs. Irvine’s words made me feel a lot better. That was when I thought… maybe I could be a teacher. So I could help students when they needed it.”
Brad remembered the hours they’d spent in Ian’s office, Ian going through textbooks and assignments with him, always patient. He thought about the tiny smile Ian always wore, his encouraging words.
Then he thought about the support that Ian never had, and something in his chest grew tight, angry.
“Someone should’ve been there for you,” Brad muttered, narrowing his eyes. “You shouldn’t have had to resort to this.”
He touched Ian’s arm, and Ian looked away.
“I wish my mother had been kinder to me,” Ian said, smiling wanly. “You don’t tell a child he won’t be loved.”
Brad held his breath, dreading Ian’s next words. “That’s what she said to you?”
Ian looked away. “I asked her if she loved me. She said she did, and then she slapped me.”
Brad stopped breathing. Imagined Ian as a tiny child, facing that. Imagined Ian by himself, crying. Then he growled, his chest burning. Who the fuck did that to their own child?
“I don’t think it’s ever left me,” Ian said. “No matter how hard I try to convince myself otherwise.”
“How old were you? When—when she did that.”
Ian shrugged. “Maybe five. I just… sometimes I think about it. It’s not something you forget easily. It’s funny, isn’t it? The memories we retain as we get older. Sometimes they seem like such small things, but they stay with us for life.”
“That’s no small thing,” Brad seethed, needing to punch something. “That wasn’t your fault. You couldn’t have known.”
“I know it isn’t.” Ian sighed. “But I’ve also spent years thinking about it, trying to see what I did wrong. And the more mistakes I saw, the more convinced I was that… I was just inadequate. It’s kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy, I guess. But I can’t escape it.”
He hugged himself, curling his hands instinctively around the scars like he wanted to hide them again.
“Why’d she even do that?” Brad asked. “I mean… she’s your mom. She has to love you.”
Ian shrugged, his eyes downcast. “She told me I was never wanted. She said my biological father was scum—the alpha she’d met before she married my dad.”
Brad leaned in close, his heart conflicted. Ian’s past… that was all sorts of wrong. Brad wanted revenge for Ian’s sake. Wanted to comfort Ian. Heal those old hurts. “She still alive? Your mom.”
Ian glanced warily at him. “She is. Why?”
“I’m gonna go set her straight.”
Ian breathed in sharply. “No, please don’t.”
“Why the hell not?”
“It won’t change anything.” Ian shrugged, looking away. “She’s just… not someone who changes her mind easily. I’ve tried. And I just… she’ll think terribly of you, too. You’re young, you know.”
The look in Ian’s eyes—he looked resigned, like he’d given up. Brad growled. “Doesn’t excuse what she did to you.”
“I guess not.”
Brad wanted to charge down to Ian’s mom’s place, and hammer her door down. But Ian was right—whatever Brad did to her now, it wouldn’t solve the decades of scarring that had already taken place. Ian would be better off if Brad mended those scars, instead of beating up the person who had caused them.
So he gathered Ian in his arms, and pressed kisses all over Ian’s face. “You know you’re loved now,” Brad murmured, looking into his eyes. “You have me. And Gwen loves you, too. And the baby.”
Ian gulped, blinking hard. “Yeah. I know.”
“So one day, I want you to look at yourself, and know you’re a beautiful human being.”
Ian chuckled. “That’s possible?”
“Yeah. It is.” Brad kissed him on the lips, slow and lingering. “I’ll help you.”
“That sounds a lot easier than doing it myself.”
Brad dragged his wrists down Ian’s arms, pressing Ian into their bed. “Probably. But I’ll also hang around and tell you that forever. You’re perfect.”
Ian blushed, and Brad nuzzled him, stroking his hair. Cradled Ian close to himself, grateful that he’d found his omega, that Ian seemed to want to think better of himself, too.
There was still a long journey ahead of them, but for now, they’d taken the first step.
18
Ian
“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” Ian said, his heart thumping. “You remember what your father said.”
Brad pressed a slow kiss to Ian’s lips, the points of his teeth dragging against Ian’s skin. “Yeah, I remember.”
“So you’re coming to class anyway?”
“I’m already in your office, aren’t I?”
Brad backed Ian against his office door and kissed him again, slipping into his mouth. Ian groaned.
Four months of Brad, and he still hadn’t had enough.
While Gwen had been recovering from her surgery, Brad and Ian had packed up the things in Ian’s apartment, and moved them into Brad’s place. They’d set Gwen up in her own room, moving her sticker wall sheets next to her bed. Then they’d bought new bookshelves and a closet for her, and Gwen had been delighted when she was discharged from the hospital.
She was recovering well. Over the last two months, she’d gone from lying in bed to peeking in the fridge, looking for things to eat.
Some days, Ian couldn’t believe he was now sharing a place with Brad. Living with his alpha, waking up to Brad, making dinner for all of them.
They’d settled into a routine. Brad worked a full shift at the station, and Ian wouldn’t see him for twenty-four hours. Then Brad would return home, sleep off his exhaustion, and he’d pick Gwen up from school. He’d help her with her homework while Ian wasn’t around, and he’d be home when Ian got off work, playing his violin, or reading his textbooks.
Sometimes, Ian would come home to find Gwen riding on Brad’s back, Brad crawling around the apartment like a horse. Sometimes, he’d find Gwen with one of Brad’s violins cradled under her chin, Brad teaching her the chords.
Brad was turning out to be the perfect father. Sometimes, Ian regretted not telling him about Gwen earlier. Then he’d remember that Brad had been insisting on paying Ian’s bills, to the detriment of his own bank account. And Ian would feel t
orn, all over again.
“I’ve been keeping up with the coursework—you know that,” Brad said, kissing him. “I’m gonna get good at this, Ian. I want you to know I’m getting my Master’s not because you’re my omega, but because I actually put in the hard work.”
Ian chuckled. “You’ve been putting in some... hard work, too.”
Brad laughed and kissed him again, grinding their hips together. “Gonna get you all hot and bothered when we get home. Give you my knot.”
Ian groaned, but he couldn’t resist the way Brad kissed down his neck, his breath warm on Ian’s skin. “The walls aren’t thick enough. Gwen asked me why I was yelling at you last night. Then she asked what ‘fuck’ meant. Oh, gods.”
He covered his face, his skin prickling with embarrassment.
Brad coughed. “What did you tell her?”
“That—that it was a terrible word that adults say to each other. And then she wanted to know why I was saying it to you.”
Brad laughed, low and rumbling, the sound slipping down Ian’s spine. “You tell her I was plowing inside you?”
“No!” Ian smacked Brad’s arm. “I told her you did something terrible.”
Brad rolled his eyes. “Yeah, and you came three times. You were shaking by the end of it.”
Ian blushed, his hole squeezing at the memory. That was one of the best things about living with Brad—waking up horny in the middle of the night, touching Brad, kissing him awake so Brad could slide into him.
Sometimes, they fell asleep while they were still knotted together, and it had become... something normal. As though it was something Ian deserved to get used to.
“Well, I need to go to class,” Ian said. “And I need you to leave the office first so we aren’t walking out together.”
“You say that like people can’t smell me on you,” Brad rumbled. He stroked his wrists down Ian’s cheek, leaving a trace of walnut on Ian’s skin. “Mine. Can’t wait to have you in bed later. Make you come.”
“Say that any more, and I’ll start to think you’re in this for the sex.”
Brad chuckled. “Not true. You know that.”
Ian kind of knew it, too. And he couldn’t believe how fortunate he’d been, finding an alpha like Brad. “Get going. You’re going to make my head swell.”
Omega Teacher’s Secret Page 20
