Chapter 14
14
W aking up with Ariana curled against me, her face pressed against my chest and legs threaded with mine, is the best feeling in the world. Hmm, well, tied for the best with her coming on my cock. But honestly, I think this might win, even with the small spot of dampness on my fur from where she’s drooled a little in her sleep. She’s so warm and soft, and the gentle florals of her shampoo combined with the subtle notes of her natural scent create a soothing, soporific effect. I wish I could spend all day together in bed holding her like this, savoring that she’s finally mine.
Unfortunately, that’s not an option. A glance at the clock on her bedside table shows it’s almost 7:30. Damn. I hate to wake her up and ruin this perfect moment, but she said she needed an early start today to get everything on her task list done, and I’ve got to get to work.
With a sigh, I stroke her back, gently at first, relishing the glide of her silky soft skin against my palm. My cock twitches eagerly when she lets out a little groan of protest and nestles in against me even more. Sorry bud, I know you’re excited that she’s naked and in your arms, but there’s no time to dick around this morning .
I increase the pressure of my touch. “Time to get up, baby girl.”
She groans more emphatically and shakes her head as best she can while pressed between my pecs.
I chuckle at her adorable resistance. “As much as I love a little morning motorboating, you gotta wake up.” I reach down and squeeze her ass. Not the best idea for keeping my lust under control, because my cock jerks at the feel of her lusciousness in my hand.
“Mmm, but this feels so nice. Don’t make me,” she mumbles against my skin. Her hips rock forward onto the thigh she’s wrapped her legs around, and she lets out a breathy sigh that threatens to crush my resolve.
With my own groan, I push down the urge to indulge in a morning quickie. I don’t think I’d be able to make it quick—not with how much I love seeing Ariana come undone. The next thing I know, I’ll be face deep in her pussy, making her come for the fourth time and an hour late to work. Fuck, that sounds good. My dick agrees, firming up even more against her belly.
Ariana rubs herself against my thigh again, making a needy humming sound.
A low curse escapes my lips. She’s too tempting. Only through sheer willpower am I able to resist pulling her on top of me and letting her grind her way to orgasm against my cock while I play with her tits.
“Ari.” I grab her hip to hold her still. “Before we fell asleep, I prom ised you that I’d get you up early. I don’t intend to break any of my promises to you, sweetheart.”
She sighs and her eyes blink open, then blearily look up at me. My heart skips a beat as they focus on my face and a sleepy, unguarded smile spreads across her lips. “Even if I beg you to?” she asks, voice taking on a breathy tone meant for seduction.
This woman. Gods give me strength to not give in to her. I shake my head in an attempt to clear away her beguiling presence. “Nope. Now quit humping my leg and get your ass out of bed.” I give her a light spank to emphasize my words.
She lets out an indignant squawk of protest and shoves against my chest. “Fine! I was going to offer to blow you, but never mind. I’ll get up.”
She moves to roll away, but I tangle my hand in her hair and hold her still. “Keep being a brat and see what happens. Trust me, you won’t like it,” I say, lowering my voice in warning.
Like the submissive she is, Ariana melts at the combination of my hand in her hair and my command, pupils widening and breath stuttering.
My breath becomes just as ragged. She’s stunning . Her reaction calls to all the dominant urges in me. My beast tells me to haul her back to my place and never let her out of my sight again.
I watch her expression flicker, obviously warring between needing to please me and wanting to push back. Eventually, her submission wins out. “Okay, daddy,” she says with a soft sigh. “I’ll get up.”
Her compliance intoxicates me, and for a moment I forget why I’m trying to make her get out of bed. My snout lingers against her hair, breathing her in as I allow myself one more moment of bliss. Reluctantly, I give her hair a kiss and pull back. “That’s a good girl. Let’s get dressed and then I’ll make us some coffee and breakfast.”
She sits up and stretches out her arms with a yawn, treating me to a view of her heavy breasts tipped with dusky pink-brown nipples that beg to be sucked. I wonder if she’d be into nipple clamps…
“I’m not really a breakfast person,” she says, face flushing as she notices my perusal of her tits.
Her reply draws me away from my heated thoughts, and I frown. “What? Ari, breakfast is the most important meal?—”
She scowls at me and smacks me in the chest with her pillow. “Don’t lecture me! It’s not sexy.”
“Liar,” I retort, leaning forward to kiss the little line that forms between her brows when she gives me that pissy look. She halfheartedly shoves me away, but I catch the breathy little sigh she makes at the contact. “Sorry, Ari.” I say as I pull back. “I know you don’t need a lecture, and I’m not judging your choices. The caretaker in me wants to make sure you have everything you need to feel your best.”
“Food before 10 makes me nauseous.” Her lips twist into a cheeky grin. “But if you want me to feel my best, an orgasm is a good way to perk me up in the morning.”
“Ari…” I groan, my need to make her feel good in direct conflict with my need to be responsible and take care of her.
“I know, I know. Had to try though,” she says with a soft chuckle and an adorable smile that fills my chest with tender affection.
This right here, this easy banter, is my new favorite thing. I want to spend every morning with her, joking and flirting. Oh, and fucking. I make a mental note to wake her up earlier next time.
The best part about this new thing with Ariana is that I can text her whenever I want, with no need for an excuse. The worst part is waiting for the chance to see her again—which won’t be until Saturday. I offer to stop by each morning and grab any packages she needs taken to the post office, but she doesn’t take me up on it. I suggest that I swing by with an afternoon coffee during my lunch breaks, but she says it’d be “too distracting”.
She’s probably right on that account, even though I hate it. Just the thought of being near her is enough to get me hard. It makes texting at work awkward as hell since Craig seems to have developed dickdar, popping his head into my office as if on cue any time I’m turned on by Ariana’s messages. But I can only go for a few hours before I’m messaging her again about something that reminded me of her or to make a dumb joke.
Texts aren’t enough. It’s driving me crazy, having to stay away and not being allowed to help her out. If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was avoiding me, but I can viscerally feel how stressed and overwhelmed she is through her messages. I believe her when she tells me she’d much rather be together than doing admin work, so I’m giving her space even though I hate it.
To make matters worse, my usual outlet for venting my frustrations isn’t an option, because he’s Ari’s brother. I attempted to broach the subject of telling Doug about our relationship, but it didn’t go well. She told me she wanted to make sure we were solid before freaking him out. Which upset me, because in my mind, us being together is set in stone. But I couldn’t think of a way to tell her that without freaking her out, so I’ve had to stew in my own frustrations and hurt feelings.
Every morning we’ve worked out together, I’ve had to pretend that nothing is different or new. I’m not a good liar, and I can tell that Doug knows something is up. Part of me wants to tell him and get it over with. Sure, he’ll freak out and Ariana will be pissed that I didn’t wait for her permission, but it’s torture keeping the best thing to happen to me from my best friend. The only thing holding me back is that I’m not sure what level of anger the revelation will provoke. Fucking your friend’s little sister isn’t usually met with pats on the back and congratulations. Doug has worked hard to get a leash on his rage, but for all I know, he might get so mad that he’ll shift and try to claw the shit out of me in the middle of the gym.
By the time our monster support group meeting rolls around on Thursday night, I’m about to crawl out of my skin from the combination of yearning to be near Ariana and guilt from lying to Doug. I resolve to tell him at the meeting, since doing it in our sharing circle is probably the safest option for both of us. I hope Tomas won’t be too upset if his backyard gets destroyed in the fray.
But it ends up being a moot point. When I arrive at our mothman host’s house, Doug isn’t there, and I get a text a few minutes later saying something came up with his girlfriend. My body sags in defeat as I take my seat around the firepit.
“Whoa, are you alright?” Sage, the changeling next to me, asks, their browless forehead wrinkling in concern.
“It’s that obvious?” I let out a weak laugh.
Sage nods and reaches out to place a cool, gray hand on my arm. “Sorry buddy, but yeah. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you come here looking so frazzled.”
“It’s true, you look like shit,” Susan says from across the circle, in her typical blunt harpy fashion.
Nik crosses his burly arms over his chest and frowns at her. “This is a safe space, Susie. We don’t tell people they look like shit.”
She rolls her eyes, her feathered wings puffing up a bit behind her in a challenge to our shifter leader’s admonishment. “I’ll be more polite if you stop calling me Susie. You know I hate that.”
“Shit, sorry, Susi—Susan,” Nik corrects himself as she narrows her eyes at his blunder. “It’s hard to change what I’ve called you since you were a cub, but I’ll do better.”
Her expression softens a fraction. “Good. I’m not a child anymore. Anyway, back to Wesley looking like shit.”
Nik lets out a soft growl of exasperation, but her bluntness doesn’t bother me, so I wave his protectiveness off. He’s the leader and founder of our little group and thinks of us all as his “cubs”, even though I think Sage and Ren are older than him. “It’s fine. Guess I’m sharing first tonight.”
“That’s my cue to go inside. If you need more snacks, let me know.” Tomas’ human mate gives us a wave, and goes to head into their house, but the mothman snags him by the waist to plant a quick kiss on his cheek. A furious blush spreads across the pale human’s cheeks, and he scurries away.
“Such a sweet human,” Ren sighs, sounding wistful. We all know how much the soft-spoken cyclops yearns to find his own mate, and when he found out that Tomas had mated a human, his hopes of finding one in Moonvale have increased tenfold. He’s even started going on human dating apps, though he’s yet to work up the courage to actually go on a date with anyone. Poor guy. He’ll get there when he’s ready.
When everyone settles in their seats, I cast a worried glance over at the empty chair where Doug normally sits. It feels wrong to divulge my relationship with Ariana to the group before he finds out, but I need to tell someone or I’m going to explode.
“I was really hoping to talk about this with Doug here, but oh well. So?—”
“Are you guys fighting? Is that why he’s not here?” Susan interrupts, leveling her hawkish gaze at me .
“ Susan . Don’t interrupt,” Nik says with a long-suffering sigh.
“We’re not fighting now, but I know he’s going to be pissed.” My stomach clenches with dread at the thought.
“Oh shit,” Max says under his breath. Of course the handsome part-succubus would immediately know what’s going on. Not only is he a private investigator, but he can sense the emotions of those around him. Honestly, I’m not sure how he’s able to handle the miasma of emotions of this group, but he’s come back every week since he joined a few months ago.
“Oh shit?” Tomas cocks a brow at Max’s reaction, his feathery antennae fluttering with intrigue. “Is it really that bad, Wes?”
I scrub a hand across my snout and let out a hard exhale. “Yeah. It is. I, uh… I slept with Doug’s sister.”
The chatter of speculation stops in an instant as every monster in the circle focuses on me. Tomas and Sage’s brows furrow, Nik’s mouth hangs open, Ren’s singular eye widens comically, Susan mutters something that sounds like “horny idiot”, and Max smiles with weak sympathy.
Guess I’m even more fucked than I thought.