“There’s a lot less to hug,” he chuckled, and the sound reverberated in my chest.
“A lot less.”
“But you look younger, almost.”
My ears heated at the tips. “Is that a good thing?”
I pulled back a little to look at his face. I couldn’t say the same for Chris and not be lying. The crescents under his eyes were sunken and bluish. As a football player, he’d always had a tan, but that glow to his skin was long gone. Probably too many hours in a plane, or an office, or alone in his house.
I realized I didn’t even know what he did for a living, only that he seemed to travel a lot.
I hoped he spent his time alone in his house, and at the same time I didn’t.
Gods, I missed him.
“On you, it’s a good thing.” He began to let go, and I cringed at the loss of his warmth around me.
This many years from high school and I was still drunk on the quarterback. Go figure.
“Coffee,” I repeated to myself, trying to get back on task.
“Coffee would be good.”
He sat down at my table as I poured two cups. I loved my barista-style table but when Chris sat at it, it seemed more like a tea party table for a toddler. “Still no sugar but more cream than coffee?” I asked.
“Yes. You remember. The only thing I remember about your coffee was that you poured sugar in, instead of using a spoon.”
I laughed it off, but the truth was, I didn’t like him remembering that about me.
“Well, now I’m a Splenda and a splash of heavy cream kind of guy.”
He nodded and watched me sit down after sliding him a cup. “I’ll have to make a note of that.”
“Of what?”
He laughed again. “Of how you take your coffee.”
I pretended Chris remembering how I took my coffee wasn’t the most sigh-worthy moment I’d had in a long time by stirring my cup vigorously.
“Hey, Tak?” he asked after taking a tiny sip, not near enough to wake anyone up fully.
“Yes?” I asked, a little too eager.
He ran his finger along the rim of his cup. “Do you remember that night after prom?”
Of course I remembered. That was the night his date dumped him, claiming it would never work when he went off to college. And that was also the prom I didn’t go to.
The tux I’d rented hadn’t fit.
Chris had spent the night in my room, which was an almost-everyday occurrence, but that night stuck out for me.
“I remember you coming to my window, drunk as a skunk and crying over…what was his name?”
Oh, I remembered his name.
“Derek,” he said with a bitter tone.
“Yeah. I remember. You passed out on my bed, and I had to sleep on the floor. I was afraid you’d puke on me.”
He moved his cup around and looked at the ceiling. “As I recall, we made a promise that night.”
I stopped breathing. The edges of my vision started to blur while my face heated. No, he couldn’t be talking about the promise we’d made. It was late. He was drunk and crying.
There was no way Chris remembered those solemn words I spoke that night.
“How do you know? You were drunk off your ass. I’m surprised you even remember sleeping at my place.” I laughed it off, trying like hell to think of a subject to turn the conversation to—anything but the words I thought were between me and the night.
“I remember, Tak.” He reached across my antique maple table and with his pinkie, played at my fingers. All I could do was stare.
“You have a mate,” I stated. I’d seen some pictures of him on Instagram but didn’t know if he had a mate or not.
I sucked at bluffing.
“I don’t. I have a job that keeps me moving everywhere, but no one to call home.”
I bit the inside of my cheeks. Chris Jacobson was single and in my kitchen and talking about a promise we made years ago, and I was no longer a chubby nerd who didn’t have a shot. Truth be told, I wouldn’t be so nervous if I was chunkier.
This wasn’t happening.
“No one to call home?” I said, focusing on the words that stuck out.
He shrugged. “Yeah, wherever your mate is, that’s where your home is. Right? I mean, you have a mate, don’t you? I scent another male in your home, but I see no ring or pictures.”
I bit down on my bottom lip. “The only males that come in here are customers and Will, and he doesn’t count.”
Chris squinted. “Why doesn’t he count?”
“Um, because he has a wife.”
He perked up. “Oh, so you are single. And I am single. And we said we’d get married if we were still single when we turned thirty.”
That’s when everything began to go dark and a ringing sound pierced my hearing.
The last thing I saw was the light above me and the sound of my chair scraping against the floor.
Chapter Four
Chris
Unholy hells, what did I do? Why had I blurted out the promise we’d made back when we were dumb kids? Back when I was a football and track and basketball star—I had four letters on my jacket, actually—and Tak was my good friend and an utter nerd. Shoving to my feet, I raced around the table to where he’d tipped over backward and hit the floor. Tak’s eyes were closed, a lock of hair falling over his forehead, cheeks ashen.
“Shit. Tak, buddy.” I patted his cheeks, hoping to get a response but afraid of moving him in case of back or neck injury. I leaned in close, trying to make out his condition, something which I was supremely unqualified to do. Kneeling back up, I patted my hip pocket, feeling for my phone. I had to call for help. But the damn thing wasn’t there. Because I hadn’t found it by the truck, or remembered to stop by the phone store on my way out of town. Overeager a little?
What if he died because I couldn’t call the paramedics? Adrenalin buzzed in my veins, making my fingertips and toes tingle and my ears ring. “Tak.” I gave him a little shake. “Wake up so I can see if you’re alive.” Genius for sure. But his eyes stayed closed, his lips slack. Was he even breathing? I bent closer, putting my face close to his.
“Don’t you want to kiss the groom?”
I jerked back, tumbling yet another chair to the floor, my clumsy acrobatics accompanied by the deepest, sexiest chuckle I’d heard, ever. Propping myself up on my elbows, I found myself looking up into Tak’s grinning face. The beard scruff on his jaw caught the light, and although I really did think he’d fallen over in shock… “You’ve staged a remarkable recovery.”
That dimple barely showed through the beard and I tried to remember if I’d even seen it before. The glare of steel braces sort of drew the eye, and his cheeks had been a lot fuller before he’d lost weight. If he’d looked back then like he looked now, I’d have noticed. “Here.” He held out a hand and I grasped it, but instead of letting him help me up, I gave a sharp jerk, sending him tumbling onto my chest.
“Oof!” His nose was buried in my shirt, maybe bent a little. “Why’d you do that?”
I laced my fingers through his hair, holding his head close to me. “You had it coming. Letting me think you were dead, and before the vows, too.”
“Vows?” When his lips parted in protest, I smothered any words to come with a deep, slow kiss.
He tasted like butterscotch, and I remembered those Butter Rum Life Savers he’d always been sucking on in high school. Did they even make them anymore? And when had it become an aphrodisiac? Stroking his lower lip with my tongue, I dipped inside to taste even more of him. Warm, sweet, heat coursed through me, from that point of contact into my chest, and from there radiating out to my limbs and of course down to my cock—now more rigid than I ever remembered it being.
And all from my old buddy. Of course, some of my fantasies predated this incredible version of him. Whew. He’d grown, so we were close to the same height, and when he stretched out to lie atop me, our groins lined up, as well. His size certainly hadn’t d
iminished, but I’d only seen it across a steamy shower room in the past. Present tense, it rubbed against my cock, inflaming my senses and making me want to rip his clothes off and have a wedding night right then.
I grabbed for his shirt with the intent of doing just that, still kissing, tongues tangling, breathing rasping, heart pounding madly when a chime sounded, and Tak leapt off me as if I’d suddenly burst into flames.
“Crap, quick, stand up.” He grabbed for my hand and this time yanked me to my feet. “Am I a total mess?”
I eyed him. A mess? “Hardly. Just tuck in your shirt…here, let me do it.” I reached out, but he took two quick steps back. “Don’t you trust me?”
“Right now?” He unbuttoned his top button on his slacks and adjusted his shirt himself. “At the moment, I don’t know what to think, so I’m going with no on the trust thing.” He pulled a cabinet open to reveal a full-length mirror and checked himself out. Running his fingers through his hair, he shook his head at me. “No idea whatsoever. Chris, I crushed on you every day of high school. When you proposed that married at thirty thing, it almost killed me because I knew it would never happen. It was like having life-giving water held permanently out of reach in the desert.”
A voice carried back from the shop at the front of the building. “Anyone work here?”
“Tak…” I didn’t even know what I wanted to say. I didn’t appreciate you back then while I should have? I have thought of you every day since, but I still catted around and never even thought of coming home and seeing if you were available? “Go take care of your customer. We have a lot to catch up on.”
He nodded. “We do.” And he disappeared into the shop, leaving me standing in his kitchen, with nothing to do but pick up tipped-over chairs and try to figure out what was in my mind. Things were moving so fast. Was it too fast?
I wasn’t sure. As I lifted the chairs one by one and replaced them at the table, I listened to the low voices from the front room. Apparently, the elderly woman who’d called out was passing through and wondered if Tak had some particular kind of table. Sounded like he did.
“Chris, can I get you to help me out here, for a minute?”
Suppressing a grin, I straightened my clothing and headed out there as well. As I’d guessed, his customer was an older woman. She wore long shorts, a polo shirt, and hiking boots with socks that nearly met the pants. Her graying hair was pulled back in a jaunty ponytail, and she was directing Tak in moving pieces of furniture aside as he worked his way to the little round table. Moving in, I helped him, being very careful not to damage anything, although nearly all the pieces had chips or scratches from age.
Finally, after some admirable teamwork, we managed to free the article only to have the potential customer want to haggle over his price. I watched and listened while the customer tried to undervalue the item by pointing out some flaws in the finish—which Tak assured her were indicative of the age of the table. Then, just as they came to an agreement on the price, she announced her intention to “paint it white, anyway, to match my kitchen,” and my old friend hustled her out the door so fast she probably had no idea how she ended up out there.
He flipped the sign on the door to closed and turned to face me. “Now we won’t be disturbed.”
Chapter Five
Tak
“Should we talk about this, or are you going to faint on me again?” Chris chuckled, but already, at the mention of the subject, my head became a little foggy.
“We should have some more coffee and maybe some sugar and then I can focus. I can’t believe you made me pass out.”
He clutched his fist to his chest. “I’m trying not to be wounded here. My first proposal, and the male fainted on me.”
I scoffed. “Puh-lease. I bet you’ve proposed to half a dozen men, at least. Anyway, we know that one wasn’t real.”
He said nothing while I prepped myself and him another cup of coffee and reheated some cinnamon rolls from the day before then placed them on the table.
“Tak?” he said, after I’d taken my first sip.
“Yeah?” I knew that look. Chris was about to say something serious. I didn’t like that look at all. It was the same one he gave me before telling me he was moving across the country to go to school and then when he informed me he wasn’t coming home that first Thanksgiving.
His eyebrows furrowed, and the deep line above his forehead was a black cloud.
“I fully intend to keep my promise. You aren’t mated. At least, I didn’t scent another male on you when we embraced, once I got past the general smells of the shop. And…well, I’ve loved you for a long time. I didn’t realize what kind of love it was until I was far away and too stupid to tell you.”
Heat flowed to my cheeks, and even my ears felt tingly along the edges. This was not happening.
“If this is some kind of birthday prank, I’m gonna kill you and Will.”
He breathed out a heavy sigh, but then reached for my hand, taking the cup from it, and pulling me onto his lap. He coaxed my legs to straddle his until my groin rubbed against his in a dance my hips seemed to be doing all on their own.
“Do you feel that, Tak? Does that feel like a prank?”
Um, yes, a really hard, big, prank.
“No. But I don’t understand. Why did you wait so long? What if you had showed up, and I was mated?”
He looked down and rested his cheek on my shoulder. “I thought of that. I did. Day and night, I tossed around the idea of another alpha holding you, taking care of you, and loving you. But they could never love you like I can, so I came. I made myself take the chance.”
My heart beat overtime as his words sank into my psyche. I’d waited decades to hear those words, but even in my fantasies they didn’t sound as sincere as they did coming from his lips.
I looked at his full lips as I spoke. “I think, in some demented reality, I knew you would come. I haven’t taken a mate, waiting for you.”
His eyebrows dipped again. “But you’ve dated. You’ve taken lovers.”
It didn’t sound like a question, but I felt obliged to answer anyway. I picked at an invisible piece of lint. “Um, I’ve dated some, especially after I lost all the weight and started to work out. But, a lover, no.”
“Tak Credence, are you telling me that two days before your birthday that you’re still a virgin?”
I looked down at his chest, the fabric of his shirt practically begging for mercy as it stretched across his pecs. His nipples were hardened just like other parts of him.
“Yes. I’m telling you that.”
“Gods, I can’t wait to get my hands on you.” He ran his pointer finger from my throat all the way down to my pants button.
A wave of bravery hit me out of nowhere, sitting there, straddling the man I’d loved since we were children.
“Let’s make a new deal.”
His dimple showed as he smiled at me, something we had in common. “Name it.”
“You have two days to woo me properly. I’ve been waiting for you all this time. The least you could do is butter me up.”
Chris chuckled. “Hmm, I’ve never tried butter before.”
“You know what I mean.”
He took a moment to ponder the idea. Rather, I hoped that was what he was doing while he chewed on his lips. I took the ticking time to sink this deep into my memory. Chris holding me, stroking my back while I spoke turned me on so much that I could barely breathe. This man that I’d waited for was here and in front of me and considering making me his.
If I died at that moment, they could inscribe satisfied on my gravestone.
“What about the shop?” he asked, pulling me from a thousand fantasies.
“What about it?”
He grazed his thumb over my bottom lip and with the other hand caressed my thigh. “‘If I only have two days, I’m gonna need you with me full-time. None of this real-life stuff to get in the way.”
“I can close the shop for a couple of days.”
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What the hell was I saying? I needed the money. But as I looked into his sparkling blue eyes, I knew I needed Chris ten times more.
And we deserved this shot.
I deserved this chance at happiness.
Besides, if I needed more money, I could just sell some more things to Vivian.
“You can have me for two days. Uninterrupted. Then when I blow out the candles, I’ll make my decision. Deal?”
I almost laughed at myself. As if there was a decision to make.
“No time like the present. Stand up.”
Excitement flooded my body as I stood in front of Chris. Maybe he would take me out on a date or want to bring me to Make-Out Ridge.
“Pants, omega.”
I almost choked. “What?”
“Take off your pants.”
This was not the wooing I was looking forward to, but at the same time my hands twitched to do as he commanded. Gladly.
Still, I paused.
“You’ll need to change your pants. We’re going swimming.”
“Oh, okay. Sure.” I moved to go upstairs to change at the bidding of my alpha, but he stopped me with his hands on my hips.
He pulled me close and sucked gently on my earlobe before whispering, “We can do that, too.”
“Do what?”
He laughed low and slow, the deep sound weaving through me. “We both know what you were thinking, Tak. But trust me, when I want to suck your dick, I’ll be the one ripping your pants off.”
Chapter Six
Chris
I thought he was going to pass out again. His knees wobbled, and I clamped my hands on his shoulders to steady him. “Tak? If you faint every time I talk to you, you’re eventually going to hit your head on something hard. And I don’t think that’s a good way to start a relationship.”
“R-relationship?”
“Okay, mating, marriage, forever togetherness.” I was pushing it, but why not do that now while I was holding him up.
Marrying His Omega MM Non Shifter Alpha Omega Mpreg: A Mapleville Romance (Mapleville Omegas Book 7) Page 2
