She comes before I do, her body locking tight around me, a moan breaking against my mouth. I follow seconds later, my forehead dropping to her shoulder, my hands pulling her flush against me as the tension that's been coiling all night finally snaps and unravels.
Iris hums as she sags forward, lowering herself to lay against Milo’s side as I pull out to discard the condom. Those gorgeous eyes meet mine, a sloppy smile spreading across her face. “You got another one of those? I’m not done with you two yet.”
I almost tell her that we should get going but my body works faster than my head, my cock already hardening again.We’re so fucked.
milo
Forabouttensecondsafter I open my eyes, I'm fully convinced I'm dreaming. Which, to be fair, is a reasonable conclusion when you wake up in a nest that smells like vanilla and your face is pressed against the shoulder of the most beautiful woman you've ever met. My arm is draped across Iris' waist. My leg is tangled with hers. Her braids are fanned across the pillow beside me, beads caught in the blankets, and one of her hands is resting on my hip like she reached for me in her sleep and just decided to stay there.
This is either real or my subconscious has gotten significantly more creative, and honestly I'm not sure which option terrifies me more.
On Iris' other side, my brother is lying on his back with one arm bent behind his head, and I can tell he's not fully awake yet because his face is doing that slack, open thing it only does when his brain hasn't booted up. His hand is resting on Iris' other hip,mirroring mine without knowing it. The two of us bookending her like some kind of instinct kicked in overnight and arranged us into position.
The nest smells like all three of us. Honey and pine and vanilla, layered into the blankets and pillows, soaked in overnight until the whole space has become something new. Something that didn't exist yesterday. My Omega brain is having a field day with this information, sending up signal after signal that translates roughly tostay here forever, never leave, this is home now, you live here.Very helpful. Very chill. Not at all overwhelming.
Then Quentin shifts, his head turning on the pillow, and mumbles something that sounds distinctly like "scapula" into Iris' hair.
Not a dream. My subconscious could never be that boring.
I should extract myself carefully and go to the bathroom and splash water on my face and have a private moment of existential reckoning about the fact that I just spent the night with the coach's daughter and my brother was right there the whole time, which is a sentence I never expected to think and will be processing for approximately the rest of my life.Shit, Milo. Breathe.I should do any number of responsible, mature things.
Instead, I lie here. Just for a minute. Just this ridiculous, warm, impossible moment where Iris' breathing is slow against my collarbone and nobody has to know about this yet. It's just us, and the nest, and Quentin's unconscious commitment to his anatomy coursework.
Iris stirs first, her eyes opening slowly. When they land on me, an unguarded smile spreads across her face, my heart beating a little faster beneath her attention. "Hi," she says, her voice rough with sleep.
"Hi." I'm grinning like an idiot. I can feel it happening and I can't stop it. "So that wasn't a fever dream."
"Mm." She stretches, her body arching against the blankets, the motion pressing her closer to me. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I need to send a thank-you card to whoever invented charity auctions." I pause, considering. "Also slightly like I pulled a muscle in my hip, but that's a secondary concern. A noble injury. A war wound, if you will."
A laugh escapes her, the sound running through me so fast my scent spikes before I can catch it. On her other side, Quentin makes a noise into his pillow that roughly translates to "stop being loud or I will end you."
"Your brother is charming before noon," Iris murmurs.
"You should see him before coffee. He once threatened to disown me for chewing toast too aggressively.Toast, Iris. The quietest food."
“Milo, toast is notquietand I bet you were chewing it aggressively.” Her hand comes up to my face, her thumb tracing along my jaw, the gentleness catching me off guard. Which is embarrassing. We literally had sex last night, multiple times, enthusiastically, with very little dignity on my part and somehow her thumb on my jaw is the thing that's going to make me cry. My emotional priorities are a disaster.
She lets her hand drop back to the pillow, her head settling deeper into it, the motion sending her braids shifting between us.
"Who does your braids?" I ask.
"I do them myself."
"Yourself? All of them?"
Iris snorts. "Yes, Milo.Allof them. It takes about nine hours."
"Nine hours. Iris, that's longer than any of my exams. That's like longer than the director's cut of Lord of the Rings. Right? I mean… wait. I think. That's longer than—"
"I like the process." She cuts off my spiral with a smile, her eyes half-closed. "It's meditative. Like math but with myhands. Besides, my mother taught me and it’s just always been something I do myself."
Like math but with her hands. This woman is going to be the death of me. I am going to die right here in this nest, surrounded by fairy lights and gold beads, and my obituary is going to say "cause of death: everything about Iris Delacroix." They'll find my body in this exact position, still staring at her braids, and nobody will be surprised.
On Iris's other side, Quentin's breathing changes. I know the exact second he's actually awake because the slack, unconscious quality of his body disappears and he's suddenly alert, his dark eyes open and tracking everything about him. His attention then falls on Iris as he sits up, his gaze firmly focused on her like he's already memorizing something he's afraid he'll lose.
Iris twists a little to meet his gaze and the smile she gives him is nothing like the one she gave me. Mine was soft and unguarded and made me feel like the only person in the room. His has teeth in it, a challenge, even first thing in the morning. These two are going to be absolutely exhausting, and I cannot wait.
