Quincy let out a chuckle. “I don’t think we’re quite there yet.”
“We should be,” I said. I meant it with everything I had.
There was a small pause before Quincy said. “I know.”
My heart felt like it wanted to leave my body and race the few blocks east to The Grand Hotel. Fuck my dad and his arcane rules about who he thought I should be. I would turn the world upside down for Quincy.
“I’ll send you my address,” I said, sensing from the increase in background noise on his end that he wasn’t in a good position to talk. “Come over as soon as you leave work.”
“Okay,” Quincy said.
He ended the call, which was probably a good thing, even though I could have talked to him forever. It was already past three o’clock, so I would only have to wait a couple hours to see him anyhow.
Those hours seemed to last forever. I loved my work, but even a case where I thought I could do some good wasn’t enough to take my thoughts from my omega.
When I finally donned my jacket, grabbed my briefcase, and headed out of my office, Imogen met me with a quick, “Still nothing.”
I smiled at her. “It’s okay,” I said and walked on.
I was probably going to have to sell some of the art or electronics in my apartment to get seed money for an independent life. My dad couldn’t take my law degree, and despite how powerful he was, I was confident that somebody somewhere would hire me. I would never make as much money on my own as I got from my family, but I would have beenwilling to take a job in housekeeping at Kincade Slopes if it meant Quincy and I could be together.
Those thoughts were still in my head, and a bunch of new photos of the expensive shit around my apartment were in my phone, ready to be uploaded to an online auction site, when my doorbell rang. I rushed to answer it and nearly burst when I saw Quincy standing there, a take-out bag from a cheap burger place in his hand.
“Hey,” he said with a bright smile, holding up the bag. “I was worried you wouldn’t have anything to eat.”
I was so in love with him that I thought I would burst.
“Get in here,” I said, grabbing his hand and pulling him into my apartment.
As soon as the door was shut behind him, I circled my arms around him and pulled him in for a kiss. Quincy made a loud sound of surprise that melted into enjoyment as I thrust my tongue into his mouth and threaded my fingers into his hair.
Even that wasn’t enough. I lifted him into my arms, growling when he wrapped his legs around my waist, and carried him toward the kitchen. It was difficult to walk and kiss at the same time and I bumped into a few things along the way, but I couldn’t stop myself from feeling and breathing and kissing my omega.
“Careful!” Quincy gasped as I bumped into the kitchen counter. “The sodas are in the bag.”
I grabbed the take-out bag from his hand and dropped it on the counter, not caring if the soda cups burst open and spilled sugary mess everywhere. At that moment, the only sweet mess I cared about was the slick that I could already feel leaking from his hole.
“I want you,” I told him, veering away from the kitchen and carrying him down the short corridor to my bedroom. “I want you now.”
“We have things to talk about,” Quincy said, panting and squeezing his legs around me. He kissed me back, though, and raked his fingers across my scalp and along my jaw as well.
All the things we needed to talk about would have to wait. I wasn’t going to be able to think or concentrate on anything until I had my fiery omega under me. We shed clothes on the way to the bedroom, and as soon as we were there and I put Quincy on his feet, we raced to get the rest of our things off.
I was slow to peel off my clothes as I watched him reveal his beautiful, fascinating body inch by inch. He was everything I’d been forbidden and everything I craved. His nipple piercings made me want to run my hands and my mouth over them, and his thorny tattoos broke my heart and made me want to rake my nails over them.
“Stop staring and get in me,” Quincy panted, scrambling toward my bed once he was naked and flinging himself over it, ass up in the omega mating pose.
I raced through shedding the rest of my clothes, then joined him on the bed. I didn’t want to take him like he was in heat, though. He wasn’t in heat and I wasn’t in rut. The desire between us was one hundred percent our own and not caused by hormones and pheromones at all. I wanted to savor it and savor him in a way that might restore and save us both.
I flipped him to his back, and as he looked up at me in surprise at the change in position, I dragged him up until his head rested on the pile of pillows against my headboard.
“So beautiful,” I said, then dove down to kiss his parted lips before he could say anything to put himself down.
Quincy moaned as my mouth plundered his and as my hands raked up his body. I brushed my fingers over one of his nipple piercings and gently tugged at it. Quincy gasped and nearly arched off the bed at the sensations I caused. I wanted more of that and kissed my way down from his mouth, across his neckand shoulder, to his nipple so that I could tease his sensitive bud with my tongue and play with his piercing.
“Fuck, yes, Jack,” Quincy gasped, pressing into the heat of my mouth.
It escalated quickly, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hold back. I continued down his torso, kissing and nipping at his skin, and tracing the lines of the thorny vines drawn across his side with my tongue. I hated what those thorns represented, now that I knew how broken he was inside. I wished to God there was something I could do to make it all better.
