There’s been so much press around his parents’ dissolution, it wasn’t hard to find tons of conflicting info. One of the consistent threads, though, was how much Sienna Fallon had worked to cultivate her children’s public personas. Cole less than his sisters, but there’s only so much avoiding the media you can do when someone else is pulling the strings. No wonder he was so hyperaware yesterday.
And yet, he’s managed to keep the fact that he’s bonded to Marcus completely hidden. If there were even a whisper that he might be bonded, it would be everywhere. A bachelor poised to inherit his parents’ multi-million dollar fortune that’s already got a following of fans? There’s no way the gossip sites would be able to resist. It would send their ad revenue through the roof.
“Oh God, where we live isn’t going to get doxxed, is it?” Megan turns away from her coffee, her face pale and her eyes wide. “Or my job? I’ve seen what some healthcare workers deal with on social media when people figure out where they work.”
“We… might,” I admit after a minute. “It’s probably something we should ask him about.”
Megan mutters a curse and then chugs half her coffee. “I’ll let my management know things might get… well, even more wild than our ER already is most days.”
My phone buzzes again. With a sigh, I dump out the rest of the coffee and put the mug in the dishwasher.
“We only have half an hour before we have to leave for the airport,” I say. “Are you extracting Marcus or am I?”
Megan finishes her coffee and stretches her neck.
“I’ll do it. Let me get ready, first, though. Give them as much time as we can.”
Twenty-One
MARCUS
The alarm on my phone cuts through my dream, startling me awake. Beside me, someone groans. A body presses into mine, burrowing under my arms and into my chest. Apple surrounds me, blending with the older nutmeg of my own arousal last night. I’m hard in an instant, aching and needing.
“Cole?”
It comes out a question rather than a demand, my voice husky and sleep-drenched. He shudders against me, and the apple gets stronger. God, it smells like a damn pie between the two of us. It makes my mouth water, and I don’t evenlikepie. For a brief moment, I feel his desire, hisneedjust under my sternum. It’s the world’s purest aphrodisiac, even more acute than his scent that’s already hardwired to drive any Alpha into a frenzy under the right conditions.
I run my hand down his back and over his ass, guiding one leg over my thigh and spreading him open, forcing him nearer to me, the line of his hardening cock pressed against my own. He makes a sound deep in his throat, a cross between a moan anda gasp. His hips rock into mine, and his desire burrows deeper into my chest, flooding my bloodstream.
And then it’s gone, and I moan at the loss of it. It’s like a piece of me is missing when the suppressor works, when it hides him from me.
“Is that your alarm?” Cole asks, his voice as rough as mine.
Without looking, I turn off my phone, not bothering to verify the time. Megan will come extract me if I push it too close to when we need to leave for the airport.
Just the thought of leaving him, of flying back to New York without him plastered against me, his scent burrowing into my bones and my own nutmeg smothering him so no other Alpha has even the passingthoughtof marking him, has dread pooling in my stomach.
His fingers prick the skin of my side, and I know he’s felt it, that it’s strong enough to override the medical block. I’m not going to apologize for it, though.
“It’s only for a week,” he whispers against my chest.
“I don’t care.”
His hand tightens on me, sliding down to my hip. He pulls me into him, erasing every last gap between our bodies. My dick jerks in reflex.
“Any amount of time separated is too much,” I admit.
I cup his balls, reveling in the way he shudders and his scent intensifies. When I let my touch trail up his skin and to the base of his cock, he mutters something unintelligible. A blast of desire rockets through the bond before disappearing again.
I tighten my grip, needing to feel that desire in my blood, wanting to get drunk on it. Cole whimpers and pumps his hips, a silent demand for more. Part of me wants to draw this out, wants to show him exactly what being with an Alpha can mean: the submission and the trust and the drawn-out exploration.
Instead, I slip down the bed, forcing his hand off my hip as I take him in my mouth.
His moan is ragged, a rough thing that sends a bolt of heat down my spine. God, I want to hear that every day for the rest of my life.Needto hear it until it’s imprinted on my bones. I take him deeper, forgetting a slow seduction in favor of having him come on my tongue.
Slick coats his thighs the more I work him, the deeper I let him push into my throat. I run a finger through it and then press it to his lips. He hesitates for a moment, a flash of unease lighting through his eyes. But when I guide him onto his back, the head of his dick brushing the back of my throat with the movement, he shudders and opens, carefully tracing my finger with his tongue.
Holy hell am I hard right now.
