She didn’t even blush as that sentence left her lips. But why would she? No doubt, as the campus heat and pheromone specialist, she was more than used to discussing knots and slick and all the rest of it with the same professional tone she used to discuss a blood draw.
She wasn’t thinking about the dirty details, like Ash couldn’t help but do. She wasn’t thinking about the grunting and the sweating and the smell of alpha cum all around him.
Ash cleared his throat, shifting in his seat.
Dr. Turner gave him another reassuring, professional smile. “I have some handouts you should have received the last time you were here. I’ll go get those for you, shall I?”
Ash turned to Ryder as soon as the door closed. “You heard her. Drench me.”
Ryder didn’t move from his seat. “I already have. I always do.”
Right. Of course. The cedar grove. Ash had literally just been thinking that. And it wasn’t even new with this whole presentation debacle. People had always gotten weird and pervy about the undesignated thing—like it was some forbidden fruit they had to try just to say they had—and over the years, Ryder had started scent marking the fuck out of Ash before he left the house each day. It worked too. Their classmates seemed to think that Ash was an alpha or assume he was claimed by one. Either way, it was a deterrent.
And Ryder might have acted blasé about it, but Ash knew he loved it. Because underneath his mild-mannered stoicism, Ryder was just as possessive and obsessive as any other alpha was about their … person.
“Why so impatient?” Ryder asked, his dark gaze boring into Ash with an intensity that belied his relaxed pose. “I thought you’d be happy for a delay.” There was no judgment to the question or the statement, no verbal side-eye at Ash for being a complete and total coward about addressing his designation so far.
It kind of made Ash want to cry, for some reason. Ryder always stood by him, didn’t he? Ride or fucking die. It was right there in his name.
Ash sniffed back any potential tears. Stupid fucking hormones, messing with his chill. Lately he was either wired, tired, or fucking weepy. He’d been trying to lean into the former two as much as possible to avoid the latter. Ash didn’tcry. It just wasn’t his thing.
What had the question been? Right. Impatience. Ash ran a hand over his face, left it there to press his fingers hard into his eyes. “I just want everything done with, I guess.”
“Except it won’t be done,” Ryder told him mildly. “It’ll be just the beginning.”
Ash dropped his hand, shooting Ryder a glare. “No therapy talk or I’ll jump right out of this window.”
“We’re on the ground floor. You’ll barely get a scratch.”
“The threat stands.”
Ryder leaned back in his chair, crossing his hands over his stomach. “Maybe you just want another heat as an excuse to call your crush.”
God, he might not even be wrong. Ash had promised Spencer frequent, intense, horny-ass heats. Was Spencer going to get bored of them now that Ash might take another fucking eternity to go into heat again? Was the promise of hanky-panky with Ryder enough to entice him or was he going to go back to letting any passably hot undergrad into his bed?
Ash bit back his rising anxiety. He tried for a leer. “He did sound pretty good in your shower the other day.”
Spencer had sounded more than good, with his desperate, hushed moans that Ryder had tried and failed to keep quiet. Ash had even thought that maybe it could be the catalyst his body needed, that the lure of Ryder and Spencer getting hot and heavy together might have forced out a gush of slick as an incentive to join. But there been nothing, only a faint arousal that had been overshadowed by Ash’s impatience to get moving again.
“We could just tell him, you know,” Ryder suggested.
“No.”
Ash wasn’t good with words. They always came out too harsh, his mouth moving faster than his brain. And if Ash fucked it all up and Spencer just said, “No, thanks. Thanks for asking, but I’ll be going back to fucking half the student population now,” Ash and Ryder would be shit out of luck. That would be it. The end.
Ash rubbed his fingers to his temples. “Maybe if Spencer started scent marking me, that would help.”
“He might worry about Noah popping him one if he did.”
“Noah won’t give a shit,” Ash said, grimacing at the reminder of Spencer’s hard-on for his older brother.
“Well, he might give alittlebit of a shit.”
What. The fuck. Ash shot Ryder a scowl. “You’re really up my ass today, aren’t you?”
Ryder shrugged a broad shoulder. “Not as much as I’d like to be.”
Stupid. So stupid. Ash fought hard to keep his scowl in place. “Don’t make me laugh,” he bit out. “I’m not in the mood.”
