Footsteps getting fainter told me Huston had left but I waited another minute in case he was lingering at the top of the stairs. Leaping out of bed, I grabbed the tray and closed the door as quietly as I could.
After stuffing my face, I studied the dirty plate and cutlery. I couldn’t leave them in the room overnight. They might attract ants, or worse a mouse. I hated mice. Molly used to lay traps in the kitchen and I always freaked when I saw a dead mouse. She wasn’t fazed and disposed of the dead bodies out back. Gross!
Are you okay? Huston said he met you. If you’re having second thoughts about us sleeping together, you can tell me.
Gods, shouldn’t Tanner be focused on flying his plane? His passengers needed him concentrating on getting them to their destination safely, though I didn’t know if he was still at the airport in the city or he’d landed somewhere or he was taking a break and someone else was in the cockpit.
It was silly to get irritated at him when it was me who fucked up big time.
I typed out a message, deleted it and started again.I did meet him. He’s cool and he reminds me of you.
That was all true but there was a heap of information I’d left out. Best to confess in person.
I counted the seconds and the minutes until I heard a door close. Maybe Huston’s bedroom? Sleep was not happening for me and I needed to stretch my legs but I waited another hour before creeping downstairs with the tray but as I reached the bottom stair, the fork clattered to the floor.
“No, don’t come out,” I said to myself as I picked up the fork and hid in the kitchen. The ticking of the kitchen clock marked the passing of time but there was no indication that Huston was on his way downstairs.
After dealing with the dishes, I strode onto the porch and then into the garden, enjoying the sensation of damp grass under my bare feet. Wandering around the back in the direction of where Huston had gone earlier, I headed toward the shed where Father’s motorbike was parked. Peeking insideto make sure it was still there, I walked further away from the house where the trees grew close together.
Turning to face the building, my gaze was drawn to a light on the second floor. It had to be Huston’s room. Time had no meaning as I stood staring at it until a face appeared at the window. Dropping to the ground, I peeked between the long blades of grass as Huston leaned on the window sill. He seemed to be staring right at me but that wasn’t possible. No way could his eyesight pick me out in the darkness, lying flat on the ground.
He stood there for ages and with my nose close to the earth, I inhaled different aromas. There was the dirt itself and the grass, but Tanner’s scent was here too, and yet it was different, more wild somehow. I picked up Huston’s, but just as with his brother’s, his scent wasn’t exactly the same. Weird.
When Huston left his place at the window and retreated into his room, I stood up and brushed dirt off my clothes. I hadn’t bothered to change and was still in my work clothes.
Hoping Huston wouldn’t poke his head outside again, I crept over the grass and into the house. Now I needed a shower. Based on Huston’s window, hisbedroom must be next to the bathroom. Damn, why couldn’t these older houses have a bathroom attached to each bedroom?
No way could I sleep in dirt-encrusted clothes so I checked if there was a light under Huston’s door. Nope. Into the bathroom I went and closed the door. I flung my dirty clothes on the floor, stood under the water and soaped up.
If Tanner had been here, we could have played in the shower and by played I mean pumped one another’s dick until we came. I envisioned Huston interrupting and joining us, all three of us naked, soapy and with someone’s hand other than mine on my cock.
Shit, I hadn’t brought in any clean clothes and I’d left my towel in my room. Gods, I was a dumbass. A dumbass who could only think of his landlords’ engorged cocks.
I refused to put on my dirty clothes so with them clutched in my hand, I gripped the door handle and cracked it. Safe. Me and my bare butt could scuttle into my room and Huston would be none the wiser.
One step and the floor creaked. At that moment, I hated old houses. That wasn’tremotely true but the floorboards were giving me away. Another step and another squeak. Wood scraped against wood as a door opened and light flooded onto the wooden floor.
Huston’s scent assaulted my nostrils and I told myself not to turn around.Don’t do it. Nothing good will come of it. Don’t do it. But I didn’t listen to the voice in my head. As I glanced over my shoulder, Huston was silhouetted in the light and he was butt naked.
Not being able to resist, I faced him and my hard cock sent an unmistakable message.
14
HUSTON
Into the woods
“I gotta go.” I hated doing it, but I needed to. He was our tenant and the last thing I should be doing is sticking my dick in him—even if that was what I wanted more than anything.
It was his scent. Being surrounded by it had my brain no longer able to function and that was not good. That was very not good. It didn’t matter that he was wanting this—it would be wrong.
I threw on some clothes, ran out of the house and into the woods, planning to tear off what I was wearing and shift. Why did I puton my clothes? I didn’t know. I just knew not to be naked in front of humans— even though Candrin had seen my cock twice in a few hours—and wasn’t thinking things through. Or at all. My brain was too hazy with the pheromones that had been circling around me.
The cool night air and the exercise would clear away the lust. It had to. Because if I went back in and Candrin stood there, his hardness front and center, his eyes pleading with me to kiss him deeply, I’d have caved.
As it was, each step became more difficult. My bear pushed at me to turn around and go back to the omega, to mark him. And that is something that could not happen. He was human and he wouldn’t understand. And even if he could—marking without consent was grade A bullshit.
I could hear the back door creaking open in the distance. He was coming out here—probably looking for me. Or was it that I wanted him to? He could easily have been taking out the trash or wanting to listen to the crickets.
