Chapter 17 Summer
SUMMER
“We’ve got to stop meeting like this.”
“What are you—” I bit my lip, trying to locate the rest of my sentence and failing.
Jae was all over me. Kissing my lips, down my neck, my ass squeezed tightly in his grip.
My towel had fallen to the ground approximately two seconds after he snuck into the bathroom.
A little voice in my head argued that categorizing a towel as a skirt was a reach at best, but I didn’t really care right now.
“What do you mean meeting like this?” I tried again. “You’re the one who came and—”
“Neither of us have come, actually.” He spun me so I could see myself in the mirror. Naked and dripping while he was wrapped around me fully clothed. He dropped to the floor, kissing down my bare back. “But give me a minute.”
He spread me open and buried his face between my thighs as I slammed my hand against the glass.
I piped a trail of buttercream flowers down Mercer’s tensed stomach, violating multiple health codes.
“You’re not in a skirt.” A statement, tinged with resentment.
“Correct. I am at work, after all.”
It was after hours and I asked Mercer to teach me a new icing technique. He was so earnest and willing, too, until he realized my true intentions the moment I asked him to take off his shirt and lean back as far as he could against the counter.
“But I didn’t put any boundaries on what you could do to me.”
“Also correct,” I said brightly. “I believe your exact words were ‘you fucking have it’ when I asked about consent.”
I unbuttoned his pants and continued piping. My canvas grew thick and upright.
“So this is my own doing.”
“Yes. Very much so.”
Mercer groaned as I licked away my handiwork.
The kitchen renovation consumed the Beaufort pack house.
Replacing appliances, retiling the backsplash, and upgrading the cabinetry.
Mercer even scheduled some days off from the patisserie so they could power through and we could have a functioning kitchen again.
They were rightfully exhausted after each day.
There wasn’t really time for much of anything except a stolen kiss here and there.
Even so, I thought our new arrangement was going splendidly. No complaints. Apart from the anxiety spiral I could easily fall down if I wondered why Lucien was uninterested. But that would not be very fun without feelings at all, so I did not do that. Much.
Jae and Mercer were more than enough to contend with, anyway. I never realized how hot it was to have access to another person like that. The teasing, the catching off guard. I loved it. Every illicit encounter built up like the longest foreplay session.
I wondered who would snap first.
“This is the worst idea Lucien’s ever had,” Mercer grumbled when I stopped to drop off some bánh mì during lunch. He gave up trying to wipe the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand and instead took his whole damn shirt off and used that.
“I dunno.” I committed the image of his dark happy trail down into his waistband to memory. “I think it’s pretty good.”
Mercer grabbed my waist. “Stop it,” he admonished me. “I should probably grab a fresh shirt and get back to work,” he grumbled.
I traced his collarbone lazily. “Can I convince you to do the opposite?”
His hands slid to my ass. A quick squeeze and my breath hitched.
Wow, I really liked being manhandled. Good to know.
“Later.” The word rolled out of him with a hint of a growl and bled into the kiss he slammed onto my mouth.
His hard body against mine, taking whatever he could get from me in that moment.
But later never came. Sleepy, tired boys, all of them. I took it like a champ and pouted in private.
Jae was equally frustrated but also handled physical exertion very poorly. He cornered me after a particularly grueling day and smushed his lips to mine. Sort of. It was a little off-center and I giggled, lining us back up.
“Angel, watch out.” He sounded drunk, his blinks rapid. “The second I’m done with this kitchen I’m gonna…”
He slumped against me, closed his eyes, and never finished his sentence.
Lucien did a double take when he saw me struggling with Jae’s floppy form.
“Is he…?”
“Sleeping standing up? Yep.”
Lucien quickly transferred Jae off me, slinging his arm over his shoulders and holding him up. “Come on. Time for bed.”
“Okay, hyung,” he mumbled.
Lucien didn’t look at me, a slow flush rising up his cheeks at the honorific. “How tired are you?” he said to Jae as the two of them headed toward his room. “You haven’t called me that in years.”
God, this was not going to help the hyperfixation my omega had on Lucien. Not only did he smell incredible and have a bone structure that sculptors wept over—he was nice to my dad. Rescued injured cats. Tucked his exhausted brother in bed.
He was…so fucking hot.
I mean, they all were. Clearly, my collector tendencies extended to wanting to complete my set of brothers.
There were footsteps outside my nest and the click of the bathroom door closing.
Before I knew it, I was creeping down the hallway.
Operating purely on instinct. Was this dumb?
Monumentally. I didn’t normally feel so…
omega . It had been a long time since I’d wanted someone else’s scent in my nest. But I guess I was feeling a little neglected by a certain alpha.
An actual shudder of pleasure ran through me as I entered Lucien’s room.
His scent was deep and intense in here, a spark of citrus oils cutting through the resinous wood of an orchard.
I looked longingly at his neatly made bed, sad that I couldn’t roll around in the sheets.
I wished I could take the whole thing for my nest, but he would probably notice. What could I steal instead?
No wonder omegas had a reputation for being ruled by hormones. Look at me. Contemplating what level of thievery was acceptable.
I lit up when I spotted a faded T-shirt on top of his dresser. Please be something you’ve slept in, please be something you’ve slept in .
I brought it up to my nose.
Jesus Christ, that’s good.
He had definitely slept in it recently. And now it was mine.
I stuffed it down the front of my top, giving myself a third boob, and raced back to my nest. Adrenaline was coursing through me as I shut the door and flopped back onto my bedding. Once I was safe and properly nestled in among my pillows, I pulled my prize out from my top.
Lucien’s scent unfolded in my nest and I mainlined him straight to my hindbrain. Grounding yet intoxicating and undeniably alpha.
Imagine if he was actually here.
I eyed the bottom drawer of my bedside table. You could take the edge off . I debated which vibrator I wanted from my satin bag and settled on a mini wand. I slipped off my sticky panties underneath my oversized tee and tossed them to the side.
Lucien’s shirt was still entwined in my fist. I brought the toy to my clit and set the vibration on low.
Yes . This was exactly what I needed. I drew slow circles around the sensitive nerves, turning the vibration higher as I let the pleasurable warmth build.
Tension seeped from my limbs, my legs falling open as I sank farther into my nest. If I drew it out, it would hit me like a truck and I would sleep so well tonight.
“Summer?”
Lucien. Shit . Everything seized up. I tried to switch off the vibrator and failed, my fingertips skidding off the button.
A polite rap of knuckles echoed from the other side of my door. I lay there frozen as the ancient door unlatched and cracked open a touch.
“Were you looking for me? I scented you in my…” Lucien’s voice thinned and went still.
The vibrator was finally off, but it was too late. Way too fucking late. There was no way he didn’t know exactly what I was doing in here. The dying buzz drifted through the gap in the door, and my sins were written in pheromones all over my scent. All of it hitting Lucien full force.
He remained quiet. I couldn’t see him and he couldn’t see me. But the tether between us crackled and electrified, the energy in my nest growing volatile. A fresh wave of his alpha scent punched through, and I slammed my palm over my mouth to stifle my whimper.
“L-Lucien?”
“Fuck. I’m sorry.” Every syllable carried a serrated edge. A blunt fist struck the wall, like he was trying to summon the willpower to tear himself away.
But I didn’t want him to tear himself away. I was aching and needy and lying to myself that a vibrator and his scent-soaked shirt was all I wanted tonight.
“Come in.”
My words were a lit match in the fumes of our growing desire. I didn’t dare breathe after they left my lips.
“What?” His voice was hoarse, muffled. “Summer, you don’t know what you’re getting into. I’m about to lose it.”
What would that look like? Lucien . Losing it.
The tender thumping in my chest grew unbearable. It had been a long time since I’d invited someone into my nest.
“I know. I want you to.”
For a moment, I thought he might say no.
But then the door swung open fully, revealing the alpha on the other side.
Lucien was…breathtaking. The bladed arrow of his features was even sharper in the shadows cast by my string lights.
His blue eyes were almost gray, the iris barely visible as his pupils dilated.
I swore he looked larger, broader somehow.
The energy emanating from him was so dominant my omega was panting.
I couldn’t believe I ever thought he didn’t want me.
“Are you getting yourself off with my fucking shirt?” Lucien demanded, eyes boring into the scrunch of fabric in my fist.
I released it with a high gasp. “Um…I’m sorry?”
Lucien advanced on me slowly. His well-practiced control was brittle and riddled with hairline fractures. “If you need my scent to come, you get it straight from me. Understand?” he growled.
“Yes, alpha,” I breathed. His knee sank into the mattress. I lay there, unable to move. Feeling like prey .