Jules shot me a heated look from the corner of his eye. “I have a serious craving for cold pizza.”
And just like that, the three-person line in front of us was suddenly entirely too long.
~*~
“Oh, God. This is so good,” Jules groaned obscenely, stuffing another bite of greasy, cheese-covered crust into his mouth.
“Not cold, though,” I teased him, swiping a pepperoni slice from his pizza and popping it in my mouth.
Jules narrowed his eyes, sending me a playful scowl. “And exactly whose fault is that?”
I grinned, absolutely remorseless. “I assume you’re expecting me to take responsibility?” I queried loftily.
“Since you’re the one who dragged me out of the car rental line and into the terminal’s family restroom, I think that’s a fair assignment of blame,” Jules retorted smugly.
“Funny, I don’t remember you sayingno,” I shot back with a smirk. “And since I was the one with my mouth full, it seems like you had that opportunity.”
Swallowing the last of his pizza, Jules wiped his fingers, tossed the napkin onto his empty plate and leaned against my side, raising his face for a kiss. “There was no chance I was saying no to you,” he admitted with a sigh. “I honestly didn’t even know I could miss someone that much.”
“Me, either,” I agreed, sliding him onto my lap. “I hate this long-distance stuff and it’s only been a week.”
“Chuck?”
“Hm?” I pressed my nose to his neck, drawing in his scent.
“Remember when you said that I should think about moving to Texas?”
“Of course,” I agreed, moving on to nibbling on his neck.
“Did you mean that? You wouldn’t feel like it was moving too fast if I did?”
“Absolutely not,” I assured him. “Hell, I wish I had a job for you at ODI,” I admitted. “I’d love to have you with me all the time, but the only opening we have is for a creative writing instructor.”
Jules laughed. “I’m pretty sure that you shouldn’t hire your writing teacher based on his oral skills.”
I laughed against his neck, my breath leaving damp patches on his skin. “Well, that’s good since I don’t have the final say on hiring or I’d be begging you to apply,” I admitted. “Since it’s a grant program position, we have to do a blind hire through a compliance agency, and I definitely wouldn’t want to have to share your mouth with an unknown number of people with no guarantee.”
“Greedy, Alpha,” Jules teased me, sliding down to kneel between my knees. “Maybe I better work on honing my skills, just in case.”
Julian
After running into Chuck at the airport, I never actually made it home Saturday night. Instead, I’d gone with Chuck to check into his hotel and one thing led to another. And thenthosethings had led to ordering a pizza to be delivered and several more hours snuggled into the hotel bed, wrapped up in each other’s arms.
Chuck was still dead to the world when I woke Sunday morning. Despite the vigorous activity of the afternoon and night before, I felt well-rested and more settled than I had since leaving the ODI compound. Part of it I suspected was from knowing that Chuck was as far gone over me as I was him, but even more, I thought might be the physical contact we’d shared.
I always thought of myself as a modern Omega, not one whoneededan Alpha, or even a relationship, honestly. And I’d always thought the so-called biological need for an Omega to belong to an Alpha or vice-versa was nonsense, but faced with the prospect of not being able to regularly touch my man? I was starting to wonder if finding the right Alpha was what made the difference.
There was so much racing through my mind as I disentangled myself from the sleeping being beside me to slip out of the bed.
“Jules?” Chuck’s voice a sleep rough and his eyes were still closed, but he stretched out an arm to reach for me.
“Go back to sleep,” I murmured, squeezing his hand. “I need to go to the apartment and see if my replacement phone came in the mail yesterday.”
“You’ll come back?”
“If you want me to,” I agreed, warmth spreading through my chest at his words.
“Take one of the room keys,” he mumbled. “On the nightstand.”
