“I know a place,” I bantered as I turned into what to a random person would look like a closet, but I knew to be the back staircase to the second-floor storage area.
“A stairwell?”
“I couldn’t very well do this on the dance floor, could I?” And before he could ask me what I was talking about, I dropped to my knees, fumbling with his zipper as if it were some newfangled device. My need was so heavy, just the task of getting the button through its hole became a challenge. I needed to scent him, taste him, make him mine.
I faintly heard a thud as I finally got his pants open and pushed them down. If I were a betting man, I’d have put all I had on it being his head hitting the wall, for it coincided with my first brush against his bare, very hard and impressive cock.
My tongue popped out. I needed to taste him, and as I licked him from root to tip, swirling around to gather the drop of pre-cum there, his moan of pleasure had me losing any preconceived notion I’d had to tease him slowly and draw out his pleasure.
One more swipe along the tip and I was taking him in my mouth as far as I could manage. He was gifted, and I couldn’t manage all of him, but he responded to me as if I had. Good omega. Mine.
I pulled back, popping off the tip and instantly mad at myself for letting him go so quickly. I took him in my mouth again and began to bob, sucking in my cheeks as I journeyed back to the tip before beginning again, my fingers dancing around his eager hole, yet not breaching it as I brought him closer and closer to release. My other hand pressed against my cock, trying to relieve some pressure. I wanted so badly to twirl him around and sink into him, but this was not the place. It was risky enough doing what we were. We could be caught at any moment.
I kept my ministrations up, savoring every moan, gasp, and mumble I earned from him, until he was spurting down my throat just as some voices echoed behind the closed door.
I stood a little too quickly, almost tripping as I yanked his pants up and feebly attempted to tuck his shirt in.
“Your turn.” His sated voice had me so desperately wishing that were true.
“Sadly, we have company,” I mumbled into his ear as I scented him deeply.
“What?” Reid gasped as the door opened and in fell two very preoccupied wedding guests. “Oh.”
Oh, indeed.
Chapter Nineteen
Reid
“I’m ready to go.” I wasn’t even pretending to be subtle.
We’d danced, eaten our dried-out chicken, and even waited for the cake—carrot cake, at that. Who does that? I was ready to go home. Not home home, but someplace to be alone with Kayson. I had to leave at three a.m. to catch my flight and needed at least four hours sleep to not fall into a drowsy coma, so in my estimation we had about three hours left, and that just wasn’t even close to enough.
Days wouldn’t have been enough.
Was I ready to pack up and move to Mapleville? As I sat beside him, enveloped in his scent—absolutely, but no decision like that should be made in a lust-filled haze or even in the dawn of a new relationship. The last thing I wanted was to rush things to the point of destroying them.
Except, with Kayson, it didn’t feel like rushing, it felt like progressing the way we should, and as much as that should freak me out, it didn’t. It made me feel better about the whole thing. Why couldn’t Kayson live locally so we could just go with the flow instead of this inadvertent speed courting we seemed to have embarked on.
“Me, too.” Kayson stood, holding his hand out for me. He was every bit as ready to be done with the wedding festivities as I was. Thank freaking goodness.
We quickly agreed the hotel was our best option since I needed to leave stupid early. It wasn’t the cozy abode Kayson called his own, but it would do. In my gut, I knew we needed to talk, but talking was the last thing on my mind. I wanted to make love to him all night long, or for the few hours we had before sleep became a necessity.
We were back at the hotel and in my room within ten minutes. That was the bonus of a town as small as Mapleville. Everything was close together, in town, anyway. The rest of the residents were scattered in the rural beauty that was the region.
“I have wanted to get you alone all night.” Kayson ran his finger down the side of my neck.
“And I, you.” I kissed him soundly before leaning my head on his chest.
“We need to talk.”
Normally, when I heard those words, it was craptastic news. Being dumped, someone having the C word, or a client going under. It never meant I won the lottery or let’s buy an island. But, as Kayson said the words, I didn’t feel trepidation. I felt hope.
“I know,” I agreed, taking a step back, knowing if I didn’t get the business part of things done before we talked, I was going to end up standing in section Z, hoping for a seat not next to the toilet. “Let me check into my flight first, and we can go from there.”
I turned on my phone as I spoke, and it was on only a few seconds when the notifications began to explode. None from the ex, as I now called him because his name gave me the heebie-jeebies after the stunt he pulled, but clients, the weather, and the leasing company.
I opened it up, and my mouth fell open. What should’ve been good news felt remarkably not.
“What?” Kayson’s arm wrapped around me, his worry obvious.
“It looks like I have my apartment still. The new people failed the credit check.” Why didn’t that sound happier coming from my mouth. Kayson. Kayson was why.
“Are you going to take it?” His voice was too calm, too even, too ambivalent. He sounded so un-Kayson. Was he feeling the same as I? He’d never hid his growing affection for me, but that wasn’t the same as let’s get married and have all the babies.
“I kind of should? I think?”
Dread. The thought of re-signing filled me with dread.
“It is pragmatic.”
“Yet, you sound like I kicked your puppy.” As did I. A couple of days earlier, this would’ve been the best news ever. Coming on Valentine’s Day, it felt like Cupid pulling the arrow out and saying, just kidding.
“Because I want you here.” He turned my face toward him with a tap of his finger on my chin. His eyes told the truth of his words even if I couldn’t hear and feel his sincerity as he spoke them. “I know it is too soon, and asking you to move here is freaking crazy at best, but there it is.”
“It is crazy. I was considering it, though. When I thought I had to move.” And still. But, now, it felt rushed, or maybe not. I didn’t even know. There were too many emotions, and his scent, and the feel of his body touching mine. Nothing was making sense.
“And, now?” His voice quivered. The last thing I wanted was to hear him that way, not when I knew I was the cause.
“And now I’m thinking I need to not rush decisions.”
“So it’s not a no.”
“It’s not a no,” I said adamantly. It was far from a no. I needed to get my shit together. If I didn’t manage to do that first, I wasn’t worthy of him. And we both needed to be beyond sure. We were caught up in the moment, the fabulous, amazing, how-is-this-my-life moment, but life is made up of many moments. “The new lease is month to month.”
“So we aren’t goodbye.”
“No. Not goodbye.” I kissed away a tear that had escaped his eye. “This is good, though.”
“How so?”
“It means if I move here, it is because we want this and there will never be that little doubt that I came because I needed a place.” My words were true except the “good”—nothing about this felt good.
“True. I can still pout, though.” He half smiled.
“You can try, but if you do, I’m going to have to kiss it off your face.” Not that he was going to be able to keep his lips off me for very long. If these few hours were all we had until who knew when, I was going to savor every second of them.
“I think I’d better pout a lot, then.”
“Sounds like a plan to me.”
&n
bsp; Chapter Twenty
Kayson
“I’m firing you. Go away.”
For the third time this week, my aunt fired me.
“What’d I do, this time? Did I ring up the customers a little too sadly? Did I look out the window too long and you thought I was pining for someone? What?”
I shouldn’t have sassed her that much, but enough was enough.
Yes, I was pining and sighing and a little pitiful.
Sue me.
Okay, maybe she actually should fire me. My flower arrangements had looked like shit ever since Reid left.
Pathetic was the word that best described me now. I could’ve written or emailed Reid, but somehow I wanted him to make the move this time.
“You didn’t do anything.” She sighed and pulled her stool to sit next to me. “I just want you to go after him. I thought maybe if I fired you, you would go and get him.”
“Listen to yourself. I miss him like hell, but don’t you think if Reid wanted me, he would’ve called or emailed or sent a postcard...something?”
She scoffed and flipped her hair. “Don’t be a diva. It’s only been a month. He had loose ends to tie up.”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m trying to get better about it, but if you keep bringing it up every five seconds, I can’t.”
Aunt Viv pushed a stray hair behind my ear. I hadn’t had it cut since right before Reid came into my life.
I just didn’t see the point.
“Kayson, you can’t give up. I’ve seen you two together. There’s no denying the chemistry—there was love there.”
“Was,” I pointed out.
“Is.”
I threw my head back. “Aunt Viv, I don’t know what to do. Going there and offering myself up to him like that...isn’t it pathetic? Won’t I look like some desperate lovesick puppy?”
She said nothing, so I looked over at her. A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “What do you think love is, Kayson? It’s breathlessness and desperation. It’s lung-seizing, heart-stopping, thigh-throbbing pain and pleasure. Love is feeling your chest empty as they walk away and then refill when they return. It’s swaying together during a song and then swaying together rocking a babe to sleep. Love is the good and the bad, the pathetic and the bold, the sick puppy and the ravenous lion.” As she finished the sentence, her voice cracked and tears flowed down her cheeks. In all my self-loathing and depression, I’d missed that something was happening to Aunt Viv right under my nose.
“What is it, Viv?” I dropped the aunt when we were being serious.
“Henry asked me to marry him, and I accepted. But I can’t bring myself to be happy when my boy isn’t happy.”
Well, wasn’t that enough to make me feel like a grade A jerk.
“Aunt Viv, I’m sorry. I’m so happy for you. After Uncle James, I didn’t know if anyone could make you love them. When is the date, and where is the ring?”
She shrugged. “No ring yet.”
“No ring? What kind of guy is he?”
She blushed. The only time Aunt Viv blushed was when she was thinking about something dirty, and apparently about Henry.
“It happened in the heat of the moment.”
Dirty bird.
“I see.”
Best not to ask any more questions about that.
“Wouldn’t it be worth it, Kayson? To put yourself out there, bared to him, open your chest to the one you love. Even if he stomps on your heart, wouldn’t it be worth taking a shot?”
I stared at the lilies in front of me. They were on the brink of plant death when someone dropped them at the shop, and now they were some of the biggest lilies I’d ever seen.
There’s something empowering about taking a chance on something that’s on the edge of nothingness.
“What time is it?”
Aunt Viv checked her diamond-encrusted watch. “About two. You missed your coffee break again.”
My stomach pulled into knots, and my heart pumped in my chest harder and harder as my decision became clear.
Hell yes. I could risk it all.
At least I would know.
“I can get there by eight in the morning if I leave now.”
Aunt Viv jumped up. “Drive the Jeep. Don’t you dare show up in that flower van. Stop for coffee, and take these.” She shoved two dozen fragrant, long-stemmed red roses in my face, fresh out of the refrigerated section.
“Okay. Should I pack a bag? I don’t know what to say.”
“No to the bag and…” A tear came out of her eye. “Open your heart and let it bleed. Let it do the talking.”
I’d driven most of the night. Contrary to Aunt Viv’s advice, I did stop at home and pack a bag. I put T-shirts, sweaters, pants, and all the hope I had in the world into that duffel before jumping into the Jeep and praying Reid would listen to me and not freak out.
I told myself this was my last chance. After this, I would let him go.
After this, he might not ever be mine.
At two in the morning, I stopped at a gas station for a cup of sludge and something to eat—anything. My stomach was running on caffeine, and being a jittery mess certainly wasn’t going to help my case.
If he could just see me, hear my words, know that I loved him and my love wasn’t some flighty thing that went away when he did…
It would have to be enough, I decided right there in front of the hot dog roller machine. Loving Reid would be enough. Knowing what I felt was true and sincere, even if he didn’t reciprocate would have to be okay with me.
“You buyin’ or just sniffin’?” the attendant asked me in a scratchy voice.
“I’m buyin’.” I grabbed a granola bar and a banana instead and let the sludge be.
Six hours later, my eyes could barely focus on the address I’d scribbled down on the back of a receipt before leaving. I turned down the radio, you know, to concentrate more, and buckled down.
I had to find him.
It was the only way my heart would beat correctly again.
In front of me, to the left, was a group of condos. I checked the address and, sure enough, that’s where he lived.
A pit grew in my stomach as I put the Jeep into park and looked at my fate straight in the face.
“Here we go.”
Not even bothering to look at my hair or my clothes, I hopped out, keys in hand, and looked for A4.
The first building was A, and soon enough I found number four.
I raised my fist ten times before mustering up the guts to actually knock.
Once I did, the only thing left to do was listen. I heard footsteps inside. Closer and closer they grew, until the door opened and my heart stopped.
I inhaled and held it.
“Kayson…” Reid breathed, something clutched in his closed hand. He was dressed casually, a look I’d never seen when he stayed in Mapleville. A Captain America T-shirt stretched across his pecs while a pair of navy lounge pants threatened to show me that coveted vee I had cherished with my mouth more than once.
He looked pale.
And almost in shock.
“Reid...I…”
All the words I’d planned and practiced were stuck.
“Kayson...I’m...I’m pregnant.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Reid
When I left Kayson, tears in both our eyes, I’d planned to call him daily and see if we could build from our insanely intense short time together. I left him sure I would be back there a month later, ready to build our life. I left a little bit of my heart with him as I flew back home.
And then I got to the airport. The airport where Topher the shit was waiting for me, and I don’t know if it was my lack of sleep or my emotionally weak state after leaving Reid to—well leave, but I sat there soaking in every logical thing he said to me and by logical, I mean manipulative. In hindsight, I saw it clearly, but at the time he made sense.
This was too rushed, and I had connections in the city I’d never be able to rebuild in
a small town, and I was on the rebound. He managed to amplify all the worries I had and sound so fucking reasonable about it, that by the time I got off the plane, I had talked myself out of ruining my life by choosing Mapleville.
I was a fucking idiot.
Then, a week later, when I came to my senses, I got sick, puking all the freaking time. And then when I was feeling well enough, I chickened out because it had been so long and I had treated him so poorly by ignoring him that I deserved to die alone.
Did I mention I was an idiot?
And then I got sick again and again, with only a day or two reprieve, and the reality bomb exploded. I was puking. I was making insanely moody life decisions. I was sleeping all the time.
So I marched down to the pharmacy, waited at its door until it opened, and bought not one, but all the pregnancy tests they had on the shelf, which was a stupid-ass move, given I had not a lot of money and a possible baby coming, but I needed to be sure before I decided what to do next.
I’d barely peed on the first stupid stick then the doorbell rang. According to the box, I needed to check it between two and five minutes after said pee, or else it would be inaccurate. I could already see the double line, thirty seconds in, but not being in the right time frame, I tried not to let that get me too excited.
Which was another thing that made no sense. Why was I excited about being a single dad? Or was I living under the delusion that Kayson would take me back after I’d treated him so poorly. I knew kids were in his pile of things he wanted to do one day with his life, but now—with me—after I acted such the fool...
The ringing turned to knocking, and I jogged to the door, hoping it wasn’t Mrs. Jones getting locked out again. That was an entire day of hearing about her corns that I’d never get back. I swung the door open and found myself looking Kayson in the eyes. My Kayson. My alpha. Mine.
Before I knew what I was doing, I babbled that I was pregnant, threw the stick at him, and bounded back into my bedroom, where I curled up on the bed. Pretty much the antithesis of what any grown-up would do when faced with such a situation. I wanted to blame it on the damn hormones, but my own inability to face reality was the true culprit.
Roses for His Omega Page 8
