ChapterSixteen
Chuck
When I’d retired from active duty with the Böxenwolf Brigade twenty-three years ago, it had been nothing for me to work a seventeen-hour day, fall into my bedroll for a few hours, and still be bright eyed and bushy-tailed a few hours later, but as I finally dragged my dry eyes and aching back to my quarters in a desperate search of forty winks, I’d been on my feet well over seventeen hours and couldn’t deny that those days were far in my past.
Then, when I went to crawl into bed in the dark room and found nothing but cold sheets under the slightly wrinkled covers, sleep was suddenly the last thing on my exhausted mind. It only took one deep breath for me to confirm that Jules was in the suite and set me at ease but finding him not asleep on the couch but intentionally sleeping on the couch was confusing. I knew he’d said he was still angry at me that afternoon, but he had accepted my apology, so why was he sleeping on the sofa?
“Jules!” I called softly, gently shaking his shoulder. “Wake up.”
“Why are you whispering if you’re trying to wake me up?” Jules huffed, tugging the light blanket higher over his body. “And let me sleep. I’m tired.”
“Why are you sleeping out here?” I asked, rubbing my eyes. “I was worried when you weren’t in bed.”
“Go ‘way. Not doing this now.”
“This?” I repeated, flummoxed. “Whatthisaren’t you doing now?” When Jules pulled the pillow over his head, I surrendered. “Fine, whatever it is, we’ll talk about it tomorrow.”
Unfortunately, that didn’t do much to alleviate the tension knotting my shoulders or balling in my stomach as I tried to fall asleep. My bed seemed alien and unwelcoming without Jules in it, which was obviously stupid given the number of years I’d slept alone versus the few days he’d joined me in it. I tossed and turned, straining to hear the sound of Jules breathing in the other room as scenario after scenario of what could have happened rolled through my mind. Try as I might, I couldn’t come up with anything other than the minor stupid situation about Pete and I know I was a jerk, but did I really make him feel so bad that he’d completely shut me out?
Accepting that I wasn’t going to get any rest away from the Omega my heart had already claimed, I climbed out of the bed and dragged the comforter into the sitting room. Wrapping the blanket around me, I settled on the floor beside the couch and closed my eyes, but it wasn’t until Jules’s hand drifted down to rest on my chest that I was finally able to fall asleep.
~*~
When I woke the next morning, I was still lying on the plush carpet but I was no longer alone. Instead, there was a warm hard body wrapped in my arms, cuddled up between me and the couch. With his head tucked beneath my chin, Jules’s soft hair tickled my nose, the soft lemony shampoo scent making me smile.
When he began to make the nearly microscopic movements that signaled he was waking up, I forced myself to loosen my arms around him. Unsure how Jules had ended up sleeping in my arms after refusing to talk to me the night before, I definitely didn’t want him to feel like I was holding him against his will. As he stretched and burrowed closer to me, nipping lightly at the soft skin under my jaw, it seemed I might not have needed to worry. Still, I remained immobile in case he hadn’t yet woken up enough to remember that he was angry with me.
“Alpha,” Jules sighed, pressing even closer and undulating his hips, rubbing our morning wood together as he continued to nibble on my skin. “Want you.”
My inner angel and demon battled briefly before good won out.
“Jules? Are you awake?”
“Mm-hm,” he agreed, shifting his lips up to nip at my earlobe.
“You’re sure you want to do this?” I pressed, inwardly rolling my eyes at my efforts to cockblock myself. “Aren’t you still angry with me?”
“Yeah,” he confirmed, looking up to meet my eyes and rubbing one hand over my bare chest. “Still want you, though.”
I may have a white knight complex but I’m not stupid, so I took that consent and ran with it. I mean, if I couldn’t convince him that I sincerely regretted my actions with words, I was more than willing to fuck the apology into him and see where we could go from there.
Flattening the hand on my chest over my heart, I cradled Jules’s face with the other hand, catching his lips in light, fluttering kisses that started and ended too quickly to be considered anything but chaste. Jules groaned into my mouth, threading his fingers into my hair to hold my head still so he could control the next kiss. Invasive and insistent, Jules nipped at my lips and his tongue demanded entry, stroking into my mouth to map every corner. Jules may have wanted me, but he didn’t seem interested in submitting to me.
That isn’t a complaint.
Tightening my arms around his waist, I rolled over onto my back, carrying him with me and depositing his body on top of mine, parting my legs to allow him to settle between them.
Jules thrust against me, moaning his approval when I cupped his ass and dragged him harder against me. “Can I fuck you?”
“Hell, yes,” I huffed, arching my neck when his sharp teeth closed on the skin of my shoulder. “Want you to.”
A quick shuffle and wiggle later we’d both kicked off our underwear and we were back together, hot skin pressed to hot skin, the slight sheen of fresh sweat providing just the right amount of slickness to keep friction from being an issue as we ground against each other.
“Shit, wait!” Jules groaned, using my chest for leverage to shove himself up. “Stop.”
My already racing heart stuttered. “You changed your mind?”
The look on Jules’s face made it clear thatthatwas one of the stupidest questions he’d ever heard. “Did I change my mind about tapping your tight ass?” he asked with a smirk. “Not so much. We do need lube and a rubber, though.”
