Ralph's hands are wrapped around my shoulders, his eyes gazing up into mine. His cock is hitting every satisfying nerve inside me, sending sparks and shivers along my spine. He leans his nose into my neck, and sucks a hickey next to my collarbone. I lean into his neck, and graze my teeth over the silvery scar of our bond mark. He groans.
His hands are drifting across the top of my back, then clenching in my hair as our pace increases. I pull my head up, and let my chin rest on his shoulder as I buck my hips faster and faster, and he thrusts harder and harder.
The sound around me is fading. My heartbeat is whooshing in my ears. I'm tossed around by wave after wave of pleasure, thrown from crest to crest like a rag doll, my whole body twanging like a plucked elastic band. I close my eyes as whiteness and sharp pleasure crack around me, and my head ispulled back by the hair at the nape of my neck, and my lips are seized in a reverent kiss.
The fragrance of the best garden in the world after a sunshower explodes around us.
I'm panting in Ralph's arms.
His lips graze against my ear as he rocks gently against me, still hard and thick inside me despite the overspill of our shared cum dripping out from between us. "You're very, very good at that." His bond is calm and warm and floating.
I chortle. "Playing sexy Simon Says?" My eyebrow shoots up as mirth twitches over my lips.
He shrugs gently. "Yeah, that. And getting us to do what's going to make things feel so much better for all of us—and in a way that makes everyone feel good."
Allen's next to me, gazing at Zeke, looking slightly shellshocked, but nevertheless happy. His bond is… well, there's joy and relief and confusion in there, but mostly happiness. Zeke's bond radiates smug contentment. Seb's feels like the ocean on a blissfully calm day. James' feels… there's contentment there, but also something slightly murky under the surface. And something else beneath that. Something shaky and small and very, very well hidden.
Seb pulls James' head close to his and leans down, murmuring something in his ear.
I can just hear a whispered "thank you," as James closes his eyes and sinks into Seb's embrace, and the tiny, hidden something I glimpsed settles down slightly.
Chapter 39
3 days later
I'm snuggled up next to Allen in the nest, my head nestled in his shoulder, my hand stroking his bare chest. Ralph and Seb are asleep beside us, Ralph's head cradled by Seb's shoulder. There's something utterly beautiful about the way they rest so peacefully together.
James is in Loz's formal lounge, retaping Nate's back—I try not to picture what might have been involved to cause the need forthatparticular development in the last six hours, especially considering they told us Loz's heat broke this morning. Zeke's out on the patio, talking with his sister. I can see his grin in the dim porch light, and feel a warmth in his bond that's overshadowing the flicks of discomfort that normally hide in there.
Allen's face is dimly lit from the light filtering in from the porch, his olive skin dark in the gloaming. Something is uncomfortable in his bond. His face is implacable, but his usual hint of curiosity from his bond is well and truly lined with worry.
"Allen? What aren't you saying?" I keep my voice low, my hand in motion.
He exhales slowly. "I'm still getting used to that," he murmurs quietly, letting out a soft chuckle.
I blanch. "Sorry. Didn't mean to spy," I mutter.
"No!" he hisses. "No, it's fine. More than fine. I'm just…" he sighs.
"Not used to other people noticing?" I ask. He sharply nods.
I shrug. "Kinda my job to notice that kind of thing—well, for Loz, anyway. Plus, the bond pretty much puts it up in neon lights, so…"
He sighs. "I'm just… It's always been my job to work out what to do next, you know? We've got enough savings for at least a year, even if we have to fly back and forth between here and New York, so it's not like it's a complete catastrophe, but… I've always had to have the answers."
I hold him close, nuzzling his broad chest. He isn't blaming me, I know intellectually that they all made an informed choice, but guilt is still nibbling at the edge of my mind for putting them in this position.
He strokes my hair. "I feel that. Stop it," he mutters. "Bad omega. No guilt spirals, please." I look up at him and grin, then muffle my laughter in his chest.
"Hypocrite," I murmur, kissing his cheek. Some of his worry is easing. Maybe just a little. It's hard to tell. But at least there's some humour mixed in there as well.
He wraps his arm around my head, pulling it back down to his chest, as his purr rumbles to life. I yawn.
"How have you found this week?" I can barely hear his voice over his purr.
"Honestly? Near nervous breakdown aside, it's been the best week of my life." My voice is starting to grow thicker with fatigue. I stifle another yawn. "How have you found it?"
He angles my head so he can see my eyes. "You sure? Your omega isn't bothered by us ducking out to help Lauren's heat support pack?"
