Ryder’s dive into the pool had been cool and triumphant and more than a little necessary to keep himself from getting hard in his trunks.
It had been a long five days of waiting for Ash to go into heat again. A long almost-week of Ryder remembering only too well exactly how Spencer looked and sounded when he came. Of remembering that Ryder hadn’t gotten a taste of that cock or that ass for himself.
But it had been Ash who’d broken first. “This is bullshit,” he’d said when he’d woken up pheromone-free for the fourth day in a row. “He’s probably freaking the fuck out and trying to talk himself out of it all.” He’d given Ryder a look. “I don’t need to be in heat for you two to fuck.”
And then he’d started the group chat, demanding Spencer’s pool attendance. And that had been that.
It was certainly one method of wooing. Probably not thecorrectmethod, but heaven fucking forbid someone try to tell Ash Teller how to do something he’d already set his mind on.
“Turn around,” Ryder told Spencer now. He let out a low chuckle at the slightly panicked look Spencer gave him. “I’m not going to fuck you,” Ryder reassured him.Not yet.Not here.“And we don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to. We can just share the spray.”
Sure, Spencer’s cock was now at full attention, jutting thick and heavy from the dark thatch of hair at his groin. But that didn’t have to mean anything.
“No, no,” Spencer said hurriedly. “I want to. It’s been forever.”
Again, it had barely been a week. But still. Poor, sex-starved baby. He needed a lot of touch, this one. Not just in a sexual way either. Ryder hadn’t missed how often Spencer scent marked his roommates, or how often he wandered around with hints of Noah’s ocean-air pheromones on his skin.
Spencer whirled around to face the showerhead, and Ryder came up behind him and pressed in close, his front to Spencer’s back. They were about the same height—Spencer had an inch or so on Ryder, although Ryder had him beat for broadness—and they lined up beautifully, Ryder’s cock pressed snugly in the cleft of Spencer’s muscled cheeks.
Ryder wrapped his arms around him. “Lean into me.”
Spencer sagged back immediately, as if he’d only been waiting for permission to let go.
“I have a theory,” Ryder told him, his voice a deep, husky rasp. He let his chin brush against Spencer’s scent gland, transferring his forest-rich pheromones onto Spencer’s skin.
Spencer inhaled sharply, but he didn’t ask Ryder to stop. “Y-Yeah?”
“Yeah.” Ryder had one hand on Spencer’s toned stomach and one on his chest, and every breath he took was ripe with sweet, spiced chai. “You’re pretty, and cocky, and you’re an alpha with a nice dick.”
He could almost hear the confused smile in Spencer’s voice. “Three truths. Where’s the lie?”
“No lies.” Ryder pressed his hips forward and pulled his hands back, pinning Spencer completely. “My theory is that people want you to use it, that pretty dick. They want you to make them feel good, live up to your reputation.”
Ryder let the hand on Spencer’s chest wander, brushing against the barbell in Spencer’s nipple. He swept his thumb against it. “You don’t get taken care of very often, do you?”
More of Spencer’s weight fell into Ryder with the question, and Spencer didn’t sound the slightest bit smug when he answered, “No. Not often.”
“That’s what I thought.”
Ryder tugged gently at the barbell, pinched it experimentally between his fingers. Spencer let out a quiet groan, then grabbedRyder’s other wrist and brought Ryder’s hand down to his cock. “Touch my dick. Please. I really need it.”
Ryder hummed, fighting Spencer’s hold to reach up and pump some of the university’s cheap conditioner into his cupped palm. He wrapped it around Spencer’s cock without further ado, grinning at the way Spencer bucked into his grip.
His cock felt good in Ryder’s hand—the weight of it, the soft skin where Spencer’s knot would inflate. How much Spencer wanted it felt even better. There was something terribly appealing about his desperation to be touched, his urgent need to get off.
Ryder had found it extremely interesting that Spencer hadn’t even put up a token protest about the exclusivity clause Ash had shoved in his face. It wasn’t like Ash had been subtle or persuasive about it either. He’d just steamrolled everyone, as per usual. And Spencer had laid himself down on the ground and let him.
It was the trust aspect that did it, Ryder was pretty sure. Trust and genuine appreciation—that was what got to Spencer. That was what Noah and Chase gave him without question. That was what Ash was offering with exclusivity.
If a person—orpersons—wanted to woo this alpha, that would be the way, wouldn’t it? Sex would be a tool but not the key.
That wasn’t to say sex was without its merits.
“Tell me what you like,” Ryder murmured, squeezing firmly at the hard cock in his hand.
“I like my neck kissed,” Spencer whispered back. “And my ears.”
For just a moment, Ryder froze, his fingers wrapped tightly around Spencer’s erection as something jolted in his chest, foreign and familiar at the same time. He’d been asking whatSpencer liked in a hand job—pressure, speed, that kind of thing. He hadn’t expected such a sweet, simple answer.
