The duch didn’t even open his eyes. He reached blindly for Jack, pulling him down. Jack went easily, smiling when the duch pressed their mouths together again and sort of mashed them about.
He was hopeless.
Beckett would have to teach him how to please an alpha, he could see that.
But…perhaps not today. Not now.
He ached and he burned, and although he was pleased that the duch had wanted him there for this moment, it was time for him to go.
CHAPTER 12
JACK
Jack felt Beckett’s withdrawal but he didn’t stop him.
Later, once he’d talked to Arden, he’d find Beckett and then it would be their turn to talk.
He didn’t know if he dreaded it or looked forward to it.
Dreaded it because Beckett was a stubborn, prideful young man, as Jack had once been, and there was no guarantee that Jack could get through to him.
Looked forward to it because Beckett was a stubborn, prideful young man as Jack had once been, and his stubbornness more often than not took the form of an energetic tussle.
Quite frankly, Jack could do with the stress relief of a drawn-out physical encounter. These suppressants were hurting like all seven hells, and he hoped he never had to take them again.
Aching, grinding nausea aside, he didn’t regret it. If he wasn’t on them right this moment, poor Arden would be on the floor and Jack would have mounted him.
As it was, even feeling like death, he still had to struggle to control his urges.
Arden was so, so sweetly terrible at kissing.
Jack laughed quietly into another clumsy press.
Somehow, Arden managed to miss his target and land off-centre, and he did it with an eager force that must hurt his already-tender lips.
Jack took hold of his jaw and eased him away.
Arden stared up at him, lips damp and swollen. His grey eyes were all pupil and he was vibrating with excitement. It lasted until he glanced over his shoulder and saw that Beckett had gone. “Oh no,” he said, and drew in on himself.
“It’s all right,” Jack said. “He needs some space, I think. Come along.” Jack led him over to the chair behind his desk, sat, and pulled Arden onto his lap.
That distracted him nicely.
Jack tugged him closer and dropped a quick peck on the tip of his nose. “How did you like kissing your husband, then?”
Arden’s lashes swept down. “Very much.” He stroked Jack’s chest. “I’ll get better at it.”
“I’m sure you will,” Jack said, “considering all the practice you’re going to get. With me. With Beckett, if you want.” Jack touched Arden’s hot mouth with a light brush of fingertips. Arden trembled but didn’t pull away. “I’ll have to ask Mrs Foley to make sure you have plenty of salve, or you’ll end up quite chapped.”
Humming in agreement, Arden stopped stroking Jack’s chest and rested a palm over his heart. He immediately looked up with an alarmed frown.
Jack sighed. “Yes, I know,” he said. “It’s beating too fast. It’s nothing to worry about.”
“And yet Iamworried. Jack! That is unnatural. Even at my most afraid, my heart has never gone that fast.” He tried to scramble off Jack’s lap. “Something is wrong. Stay there. I’m going to send for a physician.”
“And the physician would find himself in a terrible moral dilemma,” Jack said, banding an arm around Arden’s waistand hauling him back onto Jack’s lap, where he belonged. “He’ll know what’s causing it at once. He’ll know it’s from rut suppressants, and he knows as well as I do that they’re illegal. He’d be obliged to report me to the authorities for using them, and Dr Fairfax has treated me for everything from birth onward, so. I rather think I’d like to spare him the agonies.”
Arden gasped. “You drugged yourself?” His eyes were enormous. “Illegally?”
