Chapter Twenty-six
~Nikolai~
Nikolai set the rose in a plastic cup of water on the bedside table, not sure what to do with it yet.
He had an idea, but for the moment, it was a reminder.
That happened. He said he loved me. I’m so fucking goofy—why the fuck didn’t I say something earlier?
The problem was he knew. Jessie was under pressure and Nikolai feared that his heart would get ripped apart in the process if he said something.
So long as he didn’t say anything, he didn’t live in a world where his parents abandoned him in the city AND the only man he ever loved rejected him.
There was no worse fate in his heart than Jessie not feeling the same.
Because then I’d be really alone. Someone not capable of being loved.
Abandoned by everyone and left a husk. Not even a person but a thing people have when they need something and discard when they’re done.
Then he looked over his shoulder at the massive, brick wall of a man slumbering in the bed beside him and his heart eased.
Because he does feel the same. Nikolai stiffened in the sheets, trying not to let it hit him.
Man, my eyes are really hot right now. He rubbed them sleepily, blatantly choosing to believe in dry eyes over heart broken tears.
Is this why you left me behind? Oh no. Because you knew I’d eventually get Jessie?
No, that was silly, how could his mother know he’d ever fall in love.
Or was it because I was too heavy to carry?
Nikolai clenched his eyes shut, fingers curling up around the pillow he hugged to his chest. There has to be a reason you left me behind…
otherwise I was never valuable enough for you to take with you.
A warm, broad hand rubbed up his spine and he relaxed back.
“Hey, you okay?” Jessie murmured sleepily.
“Yeah,” Nikolai exhaled heavily, his voice thick with pain he couldn’t voice.
“Come ‘ere.” Jessie’s sloppy voice was his only warning before an arm snaked under his neck, and suddenly, Nikolai was the pillow-hugged to Jessie’s chest. A huff in his ear and Jessie was already back asleep.
Typical. But, Nikolai couldn’t help the smile on his lips, despite the eye roll and failed attempt to escape.
He let Jessie engulf him in his massive arms.
It doesn’t matter why you left me, ma. Cause I have him. I have her. Shit, I’ve got my tiny terror too. I don’t need you, I guess.
Nikolai dropped from the land of the living, descending into clumps of sleep.
He wasn’t there for long periods of time, but he would be asleep for an hour, then hear Jessie give a sleepy snort and wake up for a few moments.
After his brain registered it was still quiet in the house, he would drop back down, and sleep until he heard something thump in the house.
He awoke to the soft cursing of Katarina finding the bathroom in the dark, muttering to herself.
Nikolai fell asleep with a soft shake of his head.
It was the third time, somewhere after four am but before five, that he felt like he was pressed against a radiator pipe.
His fur was drenched in sweat, and he was pretty sure it was singed off in places.
He hissed, trying to rip himself away. It was only after Jessie’s hand wrapped around his belly and forced him back that he even realized what was happening.
A hard cock, like that of a steel pipe pressed between Nikolai’s sweaty thighs.
His insides jerked in surprise at the sudden touch.
Nikolai, however, came back to life with a groan. “Right…heat.”
“I’m so sorry,” Jessie moaned, thrusting helplessly into Nik’s thighs like the needy, desperate thing he was. “I thought I was dreaming till you clenched your thighs and suddenly…fuck.”
A few years ago, when Jessie first came to Nikolai about his heat, the man thought his best friend was fucking with him.
Genuinely thought Jessie was pulling his leg and teasing him.
Then, one night, Jessie appeared in his bedroom doorway with a bottle of lube and a fever dream.
There’s no way any reasonable person could look me in the eye and tell me ‘sometimes, like once a year or so, my cock gets so hard a knot forms and it’s insatiable for about a month’.
It sounded like a fucking joke. Then he was face down in a mattress, panting Jessie’s name and wanting more.
It’s a love-hate relationship with heat.
Because the spontaneity of Jessie’s knot was delicious…
it was also inconvenient when Nikolai hadn’t slept much and he was bone tired.
Though…if he were being honest? His cock hardening as Jessie peppered his damp back in kisses, he wasn’t mad at the attention.
After the emotional, exhausted outburst yesterday, he could use a release.
His muscles relaxed as Jessie slid up against him, hips rutting slow and methodical against his backside.
A hand snaking down his stomach, making sure to draw out harder and harder shivers with every swirl of his fingers, Jessie made his way down to Nik’s cock.
He wrapped his long fingers around the base and Nik thought he swallowed his tongue.
His toes involuntarily curled. Jessie stroked him in long, languid flicks of his wrist. Like he wanted to make sure to touch every inch of him, including tracing the underside of his tip.
He switched between full grip and teasing fingers that traced the vein running down his underside.
“I know this isn’t how I wanted to make love to you the first time after I finally got the gumption to tell you…but do you mind?” Jessie breathed in his ear.
“If you don’t fuck me already,” Nikolai snarled.
Jessie chuckled, a rough and scratchy sound that made Nik’s balls tighten, directly in his ear as he shifted.
He was forced to give up the dizzying touch in order to reach into the bedside table.
Nikolai realized Jessie froze somewhere along the way, and he opened his eyes.
Even in the hazy, early morning light, he could see Jessie staring at the rose in the plastic cup.
It made the minotaur lick his lips nervously, a goofy smile curling up on his face.
But when he realized Nikolai caught him, Jessie jerked into motion.
He rummaged through the drawer for a second before returning with lube.
“Sorry, didn’t realize you put it in a vase.”
“Vase is a…loose term. The cup has a cartoon on it.” Nikolai nodded at the Captain Good Bear cup holding his precious prize.
“Captain Good Bear is an important member of this household, just like Barnibus!” Jessie chortled, smacking Nikolai on the arm before flopping back into the bed. “He’s a worthy vase.”
Nikolai rolled his eyes, shaking his head but he couldn’t stop the big grin from crawling up on his face.
Especially not as Jessie pressed two slick fingers to his backside, his other hand returning to tormenting his weeping cock.
Nik sighed dreamily, leaning back into Jessie’s furnace of a chest. Jessie murmured nonsense into Nik’s ear, nothing made of actual words, mostly groans and appreciative hums as he worked his fingers deeper.
Sparklers ignited behind Nik’s eyelids. His hips rutted involuntarily as Jessie drove his digits faster, spreading them slightly.
The tension built in his belly and he was voiceless.
Jessie pressed against that sweet spot and Nikolai choked on his own oxygen.
He was strangled by the pleasure, some wounded sound climbing up his chest and spilling out his mouth.
His cock pulsed, hips rocking as Jessie squeezed him extra firmly.
Ropes of cum coated the underside of the blanket and he didn’t care if he slept in the sticky mess.
Didn’t care that it felt like he couldn’t stop or that he was growing more lightheaded with every wave of pleasure crashing over him.
Didn’t care for anything other than how soon he could have Jessie inside him.
Like he could read minds, Jessie’s heavy tip pressed against his slick ass.
Jessie used his lubed digits to guide himself in, but soon all Nikolai could feel was a warm stretch.
It turned all his bones to goo. His thoughts were gone and he was floating out of his body.
Nikolai existed as a floating cloud over their heads as Jessie thrust up into him.
Sharp, hungry thrusts that left no room between them, it made Nik’s skin tingle.
His scalp was covered in raised hair and goosebumps.
“Fuck, you feel so good Nik.” Jessie nuzzled his snout into Nikolai’s neck.
The knot pressed against him, inching closer to being inside.
It shouldn’t have caused flutters in his chest. They’d done this so often…
and yet, there was something different now.
Especially as Jessie bit down onto the meat of Nikolai’s shoulder and muffled the sound of his moan against his fur.
Jessie didn’t usually get clingy during sex, like if Nikolai had even more than an inch between them that Jessie would break.
One arm under his neck to hold him by the chest, the other against his stomach, there was no room.
Jessie whispered in Nikolai’s ear, “I want to give you this knot for the rest of our lives.”
“Then give it to me already,” Nikolai teased breathlessly, not sure where the wobble in his throat came from.
Jessie snickered against his floppy ears, nipping and tugging at them, making Nikolai’s eyes roll back in his head. “Whatever my man wants, he gets.”
“I want a fucking pony.”
“Okay, maybe not everything.”