Ronin laughs. The sound is way too loud, and instantly my body feels too small, my emotions bubbling up too quickly, but Layne keeps me from going off like a rocket when she raises a hand and cups my face. I rest in her sweet hold, closing my eyes while I focus on listening to Ronin confirming the package will be ready to collect at noon.
As soon as I say goodbye again, she takes the phone from my hand, hangs up, and then drops it to the floor before sitting up. But she doesn’t let me go; she doesn’t let me pull out of her body. Instead, she pushes me backward, making me lift her up and off my desk as my ass hits the chair, then rides me slowly, leading me to another unexpectedly tender moment.
30
Layne
Iwalk out of Valentine’s office, my body buzzing, my thoughts drifting peacefully, but no matter how blitzed I am, and how good he made me feel, I really wasn’t playing around yesterday about being close to my heat. Because of that, the first stop I make, even before coffee and snuggles from my two other not-so-fake husbands, is medication. And a shower.
Under normal circumstances, there’s no way I’d wash Valentine’s scent from my body, but coupled with how close my heat is, I have no choice. Each time I move, his scent plumes in reminder of what we just did on a physical level and who he is to me. It lingers like a lullaby in my DNA, encouraging the nesting instincts that are slowly but surely starting to accompany each passing minute.
There’s a good reason why I haven’t talked a great deal about my impending heat with Pack De Luca, even though I know I need to, and it’s because I’m absolutely scared shitless. I’m pretty much a heat virgin. While on the run, I managed my heats by not dealing with them, which is a dangerous practice, thoughnot as dangerous as doing a heat cycle with people I don’t know. I never had enough trust to walk into one of the heat facilities some un-bonded Omegas use. Instead, I overmedicated and tried to manage the physical aspects on my own. The research I did on delaying heat cycles suggested the first real one could be a doozy, which may explain why I’ve been a little cock obsessed since I fell into this arrangement.
Popping a couple of the tabs, I hop in the shower and decide to wash my hair while waiting for the medication to start taking effect. By the time I’m walking back out of the bathroom to change, the metallic taste I’ve come to associate with suppressors coats the back of my throat. Despite knowing using the heat suppressor is the right thing to do, my joy dwindles a little.
Getting so wound up in Valentine was definitely not how I thought I would start the day, but since we keep doing it, maybe it is our thing. I could say the same for Matteo. I seriously feel myself falling every time I see him, while with Dante, it’s like finding a part of me I’ve lost. Even I am starting to think it really was a good thing that Matteo got shot, or seriously, how else would we have happened? I’m sure I would view them very differently if they’d bought or kidnapped me. Whether it makes sense or not, being tricked into a fake arrangement, which flipped into a marriage of convenience, is quite different in my view.
Dressing in one of the overly feminine dresses Dante hand-selected for me, I head toward where the three of them are. Our connection might only be blossoming, but it’s already so tangible, I could probably close my eyes and be able to find them.
As I round the corner to the kitchen, Bella and Edward trot over in greeting, and I drop to my knees to say hello. Matteo comes in from the balcony with an empty coffee cup in his hand.
I snuggle the dogs quickly, then jump up and walk straight into him. Of course, his arms are ready to catch me, not that I think I’ll ever get the chance to fall again with them around.
“Did you take the dogs out already?” I ask, burying my hands under his hoodie. He’s so warm, it sends tingles all over me.
“Yeah. Kind of sounded like Valentine was on a pretty serious call.” He smirks when he looks down at me.
“Very serious, thank you.” I smile back.
After a relatively chaste kiss, if you compare them to all the others we’ve been sharing, Matteo leads me into the kitchen before pointing at a stool for me to sit on.
“Any food you can’t eat when you’re on the tabs?”
“No, not really. Can you tell I took them already? That I’m back on them?” I ask, only a little surprised. If I put money on it, I’d say Matteo isn’t picking up on the smallest change in my scent; he’s seeing it on a physical level because that’s the way we are. We’re not those highs and lows of Alpha and Omega power plays. When I’m with him, I’m living life in the sweet spot of gentle equilibrium.
“I just know. Plus, I heard you popping the pack before your shower.”
“And you’re okay with it?”
“It’s not about me being okay with anything, Layne. If the medication helps you, makes you feel safer, then I’m all for it. If I had the choice, you’d never touch anything like suppressors or desensitizers again.” He looks so serious, so sweet until he winks at me. “Admittedly, if I had the choice, I’d make you suck my cock and finger my asshole on the busiest corner in downtown New York during peak hour too.”
I close my eyes and dissolve into a fit of laughter, because he has the dirtiest, smuttiest mouth sometimes, but god, it works for me on so many levels.
When I look at him again, I’m greeted by the face of an angel. He’s such a good actor, but I can read the truth in his eyes now without even trying. Of course, he just takes us back to where we were before he started talking dirty—our breakfast discussion. “Eggs okay? I was going to make omelets.”
“Sounds so good. Anything I can help with?”
“Undress yourself and sit there with your tits ready for me to…”
“Matteo!”
“Hey!” He throws his hands up. “Just testing to see how good those suppressors are.”
I wave him away, leaning my chin on my hands as I watch him pulling food out of the fridge. “I’m fine, but what about you? How hard are you right now?”
Instead of using his words, he stops what he’s doing, walks around to where I am sitting, and pulls his sweats down to show me. And, yeah, he is hard. His fist wraps around his length as he looks at me.
“We’re having breakfast, checking what we need to do for the day, then I am taking you to my bed, so I can jerk off over you, as opposed to jerking off by myself, only using my very vivid imagination like I already did earlier this morning.”
