Emily
“Well, hello, Mr. Summers! Fancy meeting you here.”
At my tongue-in-cheek greeting, Derek jerks his head up from his phone, his evergreen gaze locking on mine. I always get a happy little jolt at seeing my best friend, but there’s been an extra spicy zing since we started sleeping together. It’s only been a month, and even though we’ve known each other for a couple of years, we’re still in the honeymoon phase. Which basically means we can’t keep our hands off each other, and if I’m not kissing him, I’m thinking about the next time I will be.
“I need to do something on your computer,” he tells me, pulling me between his thick thighs, “but then I want to eat you out in the entomology section.”
Hearing that kind of dirty talk coming out of my best friend’s mouth is enough to elicit a head-to-toe shiver. This is the same guy who spent countless nights watching Netflix with me and arguing about the scientific plausibility of Star Trek lore. “Well, I don’t know, Cyrano. If you’re going to woo me like that, shouldn’t we go down to the poetry floor?”
His eyes crackle with a mixture of heat and humour. “I don’t care if it’s on the circulation desk, just as long as I get to taste you again.”
The offer is beyond tempting, but I told him the last time we hooked up in the stacks – and nearly got caught by a lost freshman - that the library was off-limits.
I wave a finger around the dusty corner I’ve claimed as my own. “This is a study zone, Derek, not an erogenous one.”
The flirty note in my voice is enough to make him scoot back his chair and drag me down into his lap. There’s not a lot of room in the cubicle, but we make it work by plastering ourselves so tightly together I can feel the urgent thump of his heart.
“What about here?” he asks as he nuzzles a tender spot on my neck. “I’m thinking this might be almost as sensitive as your sweet, little clit.”
I groan, clenching my thighs around his hips, but then propriety prevails, and I ease back. I can’t help giggling at the sulky look he gives me as I wriggle free and plop into the chair next to him. “Remember, good things come to those who graduate,” I lecture him in a prim voice. “Or, in our case, the guy who helps his best friend finish her thesis so she can go out into the world as a productive little bee scientist.”
He grunts, but his eyes are smiling as I snag my bag and set out my things. Not even six years of academia has been able to kill my love for pretty notebooks, and I take a moment to line them all up, admiring their glossy covers. Who says omegas are the only ones who yearn for glitter and sparkles?
Derek’s grin grows as I dig out my bee pen, but when he reaches over to relieve me of my computer, I smack him with the fuzzy end. “And what’s wrong with the five computers you have at home? Or the entire IT department at your disposal, for that matter?”
Derek works for a cyber start-up and has a basement office that basically doubles as a computer storage facility. He has so much hardware crammed into the space, I’m pretty sure it will be ground zero when the machines decide to rise up and take over the world.
“I have a new spyware scanner I need to install,” he replies, spinning my laptop around. When he pulls out a flash drive, I shrug and decide it’s best to just let him do his thing. Derek might look like a jock with his giant shoulders, size fifteen sneakers, and ever-present hoodie, but his brain is perfectly proportionate to his frame, making him one of the smartest people I know. If he says I need a new techno-gizmo, then who am I to argue with him?
“What’s it for this time?” I can’t help teasing him as he starts typing away, his eyes narrowed on my screen. “Some nasty hacker trying to rob me of my life savings? You know, it’d almost be worth getting scammed to see their face when they look at my bank balance.”
Derek shoots me a quelling glance. “Don’t even joke about it, Em. A hacker could do a lot more than just rob you.”
I shrug, since my knowledge of the dark web, or whatever he calls it, is next to zero. I leave the computer hijinks to Derek and just nod along when he rants about whatever technology conspiracy currently has his attention. “Well, will you at least let me buy you lunch as a thank you?”
His fingers keep flying across the keyboard, but his head lifts at my invitation, his eyes now full of green fire. “Only if you’re on the menu.”
A month ago, I’d roll my eyes at a corny comment like that. But now I bite my lip and flutter my lashes at him. “Maybe we’ve got time for a quick snack.”
I don’t need to tell him twice. Derek scoops me up and carries me to the nearest bathroom so fast my head spins. It’s not a pretty spot – the ivy and marble aesthetics of Western University don’t carry through to the amenities – but I barely notice the cold counter under my butt as Derek kisses his way down my body. Since we started hooking up in public, I’ve swapped out my jeans for denim skirts, so there’s less time wasted on buttons and zippers, and Derek growls his appreciation as he lifts the hem, eyeing my white lace thong. “Did you pick this out for me, Em?” he asks, his big thumbs brushing reverently over the scrap of silk.
“I bought it yesterday,” I tell him, my back arching as he gently rubs my clit through the fabric. Derek approaches sex the same way he does everything else – with single-minded intensity – and he’s already mastered that little bundle of nerves, drawing another groan from me as he leans forward and rolls it with his tongue. “Derek! Oh, my God!”
“You want more, Em?” His voice is honeyed gravel as he teases the edge of my underwear. “Want me to lick this pretty pussy until you come?”
“Mmm.” It’s all I can manage, because in one smooth move he’s pulled my undies off and hooked my legs over his broad shoulders. I think fleetingly of the unlocked door, but then all commonsense deserts me, because his tongue is licking a hungry stripe up my folds. Derek makes a hungry sound as he delves deeper, and I arch my back, buzzing with pleasure. He doesn’t waste any time, easing a finger inside me to accompany his prodding tongue, and I melt back against the counter. As he sucks on my clit, my head falls back against the mirror, and I have to bite my lip to stifle my growing moans.
Damn bathroom acoustics.
But Derek seems to take my muffled cries as a challenge, his finger rubbing my walls as he lashes my clit with his hungry tongue. My toes curl, my fingers scrabbling at the counter while my other hand clutches his hair. He’s not shy about enjoying himself and his groans just push me that much closer to the edge.
“Come on, little bee,” he says when he pulls back, his green eyes dancing, “let me hear you hum.”
I’m so lost in the buildup, I don’t know what I sound like when I finally let go. But it’s so good to surrender to the waves of pleasure that course through me as Derek strokes me through the storm.
When he’s done, he puts me neatly back together, even wiping me down with a paper towel as he peppers each thigh with kisses. I’m not an omega, so there’s no slick to contend with, but it’s so nice to have him fuss over me, I just lie against the counter and smile.
“What about you?” I ask when he finally scoops me back up, my orgasmic haze making me a limp weight in his arms. Rick certainly never made me feel like this – but then, he thought I was lucky just to get within touching distance of his alpha cock.
“I can wait until tonight.” Derek says, proving once again that I’ve traded up in every way. He nuzzles the top of my head, navigating his way back to my cubicle and placing me gently on my chair. I’m still buzzing with my afterglow, but when he checks his messages on his phone, a familiar knot forms between his brows. “Damn. I’ll have to raincheck lunch. Gary’s called me into the office.”
I bite my tongue, since Derek already knows I think he’s overworked and criminally underpaid. While his boss, Gary, recognises his talent, he definitely doesn’t reward him for it.
“I do have something I want to give you first, though,” he tells me, digging into his messenger bag. “It can keep you company while you’re all alone up here.”
I snort. “Can it also give me mind-scrambling orgasms?”
His ears pinken at the tips, and there’s a shy edge to his smile as he takes something from his backpack and places it on the desk. “Not quite.”
“Derek!” I gasp in delight as I peer down at the black and gold origami bee. The detail is spot-on, and I should know, since my thesis is on the feeding practices of honeybees and whether we can manipulate their diet to make them more disease resistant. “It’s perfect! When did you do this?”
“Last night. I’ve been practicing while I run backups.”
I smile at the idea of Derek patiently folding tiny bits of paper in the dim glow of his computer empire. “Well, I love it. And hopefully, if I attach it to the front of my thesis, the review panel will think it’s so cute they ignore the lack of a coherent argument.”
He smirks indulgently at my weak joke, but another glance at his screen has him shifting uneasily on his feet. “Crap. Gary is really blowing up my phone.”
“Come on,” I tell him, linking my arm through his. “Time for you to buzz off and earn us the honey.”
We chat about my latest family antics as we wind our way through the library. I share the Spiderman story, although I leave out the part about Mum letting Rick in for breakfast, and the fact he’s bought the apartment block as some kind of sexual leverage. Every time I mention my ex, Derek gets a feral gleam in his eyes, and as much as I want to get Rick out of my life for good, I won’t let it happen at the expense of the people I love.
“I told Claudia that I might be moving in with you,” I blurt as we reach the bottom of the ground floor stairs. “If you’re still offering me Clark’s room, I mean.”
Clark is Derek’s former housemate and landlord, since he owns the two-bedroom duplex they were sharing. He’s recently bonded with a very wealthy pack and moved to a glamorous beachside mansion, freeing up his room. It’s great timing for me, if I can swing the rent that comes with living in such a trendy neighborhood. Close to all the amenities, including a direct bus route to the university, it would be a far cry from my sister’s couch on the outskirts of the city.
“It’s all yours!” Derek grins, his big hands encircling my waist. I’m a couple of steps up from him, almost putting us on eye level, and there’s no mistaking his ecstatic expression as he leans in for a kiss. “It’s going to be perfect for us, Em. Not to mention Clark will be over the moon that I’ll have company. He thinks I’m one step away from mind melding with my microwave.”
I giggle, because Derek likes it when I get his Trekkie jokes. But it also makes my heart flutter with excitement, because if Clark is giving me the green light, there’s nothing stopping me from moving in. I’ll have to rework my budget, but I know Derek will give me a little leeway until I can find a job that pays better than the university bookstore and my weekend shifts at a pub downtown.
I can almost taste Derek’s excitement as he gives me a deep, filthy goodbye kiss, and by the time we break apart, I’m so close to a swoon, I have to grip the polished banister. Once he’s gone, it’s a slow and reluctant climb back towards my study cubicle, and I’m only halfway there when my mobile pings with an incoming text. I fish my phone out of my pocket, my stomach dipping at the message on the screen:
Back in town.
Meet me in Room 5.05 at noon to pick up where we left off.
Don’t beeee late, mentee.
Lang x
I grip the banister for a whole different reason now.
Because this is a summons from the infamous Langston Fall, a professor who took me under his wing, injected new life into my thesis, kissed me breathless in a ballroom… and then disappeared without a trace.