“Itisromantic,” Jack said in a complaining tone, though his eyes gleamed with amusement. “I don’t know why the pair of you are so resistant to the idea. Mocking, even.”
“Shared it with him, did you? How’d he take it?”
“About as seriously as you.” Jack laughed.
Arden’s head came up immediately and he looked over. Jack blew him a kiss. Arden pretended to catch it in one hand, pressed the hand to his cheek, and then pretended to swoon.
If Beckett was peculiar enough to pretend to catch a kiss like that, he’d have grabbed his dick, not pressed it to his cheek. Hischeek. Arden hadn’t even pressed it to his mouth. “Gods, he’s sweet.”
“He always has been,” Jack said. “My little dreamer.”
“You’re worried about it, aren’t you? Fucking him?”
“I am. Romantic bee-keeping aside, I’ve worried about hurting him—frightening him—even before he presented. I always knew he wasn’t going to be an alpha. Look at him.” Arden was back to his prancing, kicking up water and waving his arms about. The sun touched his hair, brightening it to copper. You didn’t have to be built big and raw-boned to be an alpha. Most were. “I’ve no experience with omegas because of him, and I can bring no experience of omegas to be with him. I need you there, Beckett.”
Something fierce rolled over, deep inside. “You don’t want a little one-on-one with him?”
Jack looked pensive. “I’m not sure I’ll ever trust myself to be alone with him like that.”
Beckett sent him a startled look.
Jack smiled tightly. “My love, even with you, I am holding back.”
Beckett thought of wrestling with Jack. Of being tossed about in bed, writhing in his arms, battling for dominance and tossing him in turn with equal enthusiasm. Sometimes it was so fierce they couldn’t even kiss properly, everything devolving to biting, to gripping flesh with teeth and hands. He loved it.Lovedit. Rising to meet the challenge Jack threw down, each of them feeding off the passion of it, winding higher, getting rougher…there was nothing like it.
He thought of Arden with Jack like that, and his stomach curdled.
Jack saw it. “Yes. My thoughts exactly. I would temper myself for him to the best of my ability. I wouldn’t hurt Arden for theworld. But the problem is, Beckett, he’d let me go too far. You wouldn’t.”
“Yeah. No, I fucking wouldn’t.”
“I don’t know if I’ll be any good at being with an omega. I don’t know if I have that flexibility in me, to meet an omega partner’s needs. You do. You were wonderful with him. I’ve never seen anything so beautiful as how you were together.”
And that, for some reason, ahead of all the compliments both flowery and sexual that he’d ever had from Jack, was the compliment to make Beckett blush.
Jack made a dark sound of satisfaction. “Yes,” he said, voice low and rough. “How you held him, commanding and firm. How you let him writhe in your grip, keeping him safe while taunting him to push for more. How you used your body to coax him out. I’ve thought of it many, many times. I want to see it a thousand more. I’d like to watch you take him for me. Again and again. Take himwithme.”
“All right,” he said, wholly inadequate, but come on. Like he had any blood to spare for niceties when his cock was this fucking hard.
“Maybe,” Jack said musingly, “Arden would like to watch us together.”
“Think it’s a fair bet he would,” Beckett said. “Not sure he’d be able to keep his hands to himself, though.”
“No?”
Beckett shook his head. “He’s a toucher. I’d like to see him squirm about it.”
“As would I.”
Beckett adjusted himself in his breeches. “How long did you say you were going to be stuck in Sevennis?”
Jack blew out a breath. “I’d estimate about a week.”
He could handle waiting a week. Just. If he took a turn at the pump in the stable yard and doused himself with cold water two, three times a day, maybe.
Jack lifted his chin, directing Beckett’s gaze across the sands. Arden was making his way towards them, cheeks pink from all that odd flailing around he’d been doing.
Beckett cocked his head. “Think he needs some attention?” he asked Jack.
