“Good for him?Jetting off to the other side of the world to work for some old pervert in England? How can that possibly be good for him?”
Branson snorts and shakes his head. “We don’t know that Jensen’s new boss is old or a pervert, Lucy.”
“Well, we know he owns a big, sprawling manor house in the English countryside, and that he has a massive library that he’s let go to wrack and ruin. That tells meeverythingI need to know about him.”
“It does not.”
“It does too!”
Branson laughs, and I’m momentarily grateful that I’m already lying on my back. The deep sound rattling out of him is so sweet and so sexy that it leaches every ounce of strength from my limbs.
“Seriously, do you think he’ll be all right?” I ask when I recover. “Really?”
Things with Jensen have been okay. They aren’t perfect, but neither Branson nor I expected them to be perfect for a while. We knew it would take time. These things usually do. Jensen asked for space, and we’ve been trying our best to give it to him. Recently, we’ve started talking on the phone again, and we’ve seen each other a couple of times.
The relationship between the three of us is healing, but it definitely still has a ways to go.
Branson sighs quietly. “Honestly, I think it might be really good for him. A fresh start. A big adventure. A chance to travel and see the world. It might be exactly what he needs.”
“But what if he hates it?”
“Then he can come home.”
“And what if his new boss really is a pervert?”
“Then we’ll grab Wilder, and we’ll fly out there, and the three of us will kick his perv boss’s old ass.”
Overall, I like the plan, but I do have some questions. “In that scenario, would I be doing a lot of the ass-kicking myself, or would I be there in more of an advisory capacity?”
Branson’s lips open a crack, showing me a line of enamel. “Oh, you’d be there in an advisory capacity, baby. You’re way too pretty to get your hands dirty.”
A soft, silly sound spills out of me. I clamp my hand over my mouth, but it doesn’t help. “You think I’m pretty?”
“I think you’re the prettiest omega I’ve ever seen.” As always, his sincerity when he says things like this makes me giggle and blush like a fucking idiot.
He props himself up on one elbow, smiling as he leans over me and kisses me sweetly on the lips. My legs fall open despite the chasteness of his kiss.
His free hand trails down my body, turning his innocent kiss into something altogether different.
He’s already had me once since we got home this evening, and my hole is still slippery and loose from his ministrations. It’s sensitive too. Swollen and tingling from where he was.
He slips two fingers into me and keeps talking as though he hasn’t just caused a major short circuit in my brain. “How are you feeling about tomorrow, my little omega?”
“I, uh…”Damn, how do words work again?“I, um, good. I feel good.” The bond, the traitor, throws up an icy white arc between us. “I mean, I just, I just don’t know how eight weeks went so fast.” My voice lilts up in mournful whine. “I thought it would go so much slower. I thought we’d have more time to ourselves, you know?”
Branson nods earnestly and rests his forehead against mine. The bond likes his proximity to me, flaring andfiring thick ribbons of hot pink that float above us before drifting into the ether. “I know, baby. It went way too fast, didn’t it?”
We’ve been cosseted at home for two months now. The worst of our Bonding Syndrome has lifted. Our connection has strengthened and stabilized to a point where it’s theoretically entirely possible for us to return to work and rejoin the real world. It’s expected. It’s normal. It’s what everyone does.
It’s a fucking nightmare.
I nod silently, swallowing the lump in my throat and wrapping my arms tightly around Branson’s neck. He moves his fingers slowly inside me, so slowly that it lulls me into a trance-like state.
“Nggg,” I moan into his mouth.
“D’you like that, my Lucy?”
His voice is thick, dripping with burned honey and heat. It takes me back to the time we spent at the cabin. To the mountains and the forest and the snow. To my nest and all the hot things that happened while we were there.
