Chapter 11
“For fuck’s sake,” I mutter, taking my glasses off and pinching between my brows as my eyes shut against the onslaught of sensation. After a few moments, I let out a heavy exhale as I put my glasses back on and attempt to refocus on my laptop screen.
I’ve been trying to write this damn email for the last hour, but I can’t concentrate. There’s too much arousal thrumming through my pack bond.
Jackson usually keeps his emotions locked down while he’s working.
It was part of our implicit agreement when we bonded as a pack—we shut off our connection during sex so that he doesn’t have to deal with anything that Ambrose and I get up to in the bedroom, and we don’t have to feel when he’s getting off.
Yet here I am, dealing with the increasingly intense pulses of Jackson’s lust being pumped directly into my brain.
God, the man has the worst timing.
I’d find his lack of control amusing if I didn’t have a metric fuckton of ass kissing to do because someone on my team dropped the ball on their deliverables for some very important clients. It’s hard to write a good apology email when your throbbing dick keeps distracting you.
I groan when more lust pours through the bond. Fuck, whatever Jackson is doing is making him crazy. It’s making me crazy, too, and I’m not even there.
Focus. I need to finish this up so I can spend time with Ambrose.
I barely had time to give him a quick kiss in passing when he came back from his night shift at the clinic right as I was heading to the office. When I got home, he was out running errands, so I went right back to work in the hopes I could be done by the time he got back.
So much for that idea.
My cock presses insistently against the fly of my pants as the strongest wave of pleasure yet floods in through Jackson’s open bond. I have to grit my teeth to keep from coming in my pants.
When it subsides, I let out a relieved sigh. Thank god, he’s done. It’s weird to celebrate your platonic packmate coming, but here we are. Whoever is working the heat with him will take over for a bit and I can finally finish this damn email.
I’ll be handling your needs going forward to ensure that this kind of delay will not happen again. Thank you for your patience and understanding about kdnfs
My hands slip against the keyboard as another surge of pleasure, almost painful in its sudden sharpness, hits me.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me, dude,” I groan, hand falling to palm my cock over my pants to give myself some relief.
How is he still going? I know betas don’t have to wait for their knots to deflate, but this is absurd! Who has that kind of stamina?
Unbidden, I get a mental image of Jackson’s naked, muscular body glistening with sweat as he pumps inside someone. My cock jerks eagerly and I’ve got my belt unbuckled and my fly halfway down before I realize what I’m doing.
Shit. I can’t jerk off thinking about naked Jackson. It’s bad enough that I felt him come. And that I used to think about him to get myself off when we first met, before I realized he wasn’t into guys.
I remove my hand from my dick and attempt to block him out, but the next burst of lust through the bond is as potent as before.
Dammit. I should be able to keep him out.
After all, I’m an expert at keeping my desires hidden from Jackson, even through our pack bond.
I have to be. When I realized nothing romantic would happen between us, I figured out how to lock away my attraction to him so I wouldn’t ruin our friendship and pack connection.
Pack matters more than an unrequited crush.
With a sigh, I shut my laptop, resigning myself to the fact that I’ll have to wait until Jackson gets a break from the heat to finish the email.
Dahlia perks up as I stand, giving me a hopeful look.
“Sorry I’ve been ignoring you, sweet girl,” I apologize as I stoop down to give her some pets. She rolls over onto her back for me to rub her belly, desperate for affection. “Jackson will be home in a few days. I promise he didn’t abandon you.”
She lets out a little groan like she doesn’t believe me.
“Listen, I’m not happy with him either,” I say, rubbing her tummy and pressing a kiss to her domed chest. “But try not to chew any shoes in anger, okay? You’re better than that.”
She blinks up at me, the picture of innocence, even though I know the little gremlin that lurks behind her angelic facade.
I tuck Dahlia back under the blanket and leave her to her nap. I only make it halfway down the stairs before Jackson’s arousal wraps around my mind again.
Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to jerk off… I’m so hard, I can’t think straight…
“River?”
Ambrose’s voice jolts me out of my lustful fog, and I pull my hand away from where I was stroking myself through my pants.
I head the rest of the way down the stairs and find my mate in the kitchen, setting bags of groceries on the counter.
Molten warmth spreads through my body at the smile he gives me, and a matching one curls my lips despite my terrible mood.
There’s always that same instinctual reaction whenever I see Ambrose, like my body knows he’s safe.
Tension eases from my shoulders as I move to his side to pull him into my arms and press my lips to his.
“Mmm, this is a nice greeting,” he murmurs when our lips part, his solid bulk and refreshing herbal citrus scent enveloping me.
“I missed you.” I kiss him again, and my cheeks heat when my still-stiff cock brushes against his thigh.
He raises a brow at me. “I can tell,” he replies with a husky laugh.
I step back and shake my head. “I’m always excited for you that way, but it’s not that. Can you not feel Jackson through the bond?” I grab the carton of oatmilk and stick it in the fridge to avoid my mate’s gaze as I tell him I’m hard because of another man.
Ambrose laughs. “Oh, that. God, it took all my willpower to shut him out so I wouldn’t get a boner in the produce aisle.”
When I look back at him, he looks mildly perturbed but not upset with me at all.
I sigh. “At least you could block him out. I’ve been stuck with Jackson’s full force heat horniness for the last hour. I wanted to get the rest of my work done before you got home, but…” I gesture down at my dick, and as if on cue, more of the beta’s pleasure seeps through the bond.
“Ugh, that sounds awful. I’m sorry, love.” Ambrose moves behind me to rub my shoulders. My eyes shut as his touch takes some of the edge off of the stress that’s been building after a day of work nonsense, followed by Jackson’s leaky bond.
After a few moments, he leans in closer and presses his lips to my neck, his cropped beard scraping pleasurably against the delicate skin there. “Is there anything I could do to help you with that?”
I chuckle as his hard cock presses against my ass. “You want to write my emails for me?”
I feel him smile against my skin. “If that’s what you need, absolutely. I don’t know how well they’ll turn out, but I’ll do my best.”
Turning around to face him, I let my eyes drop to the bulge in his pants. “Who knew answering emails was such a turn on for you?”
His light eyelashes brush against his cheeks as he lowers his eyes as he speaks. “Serving you turns me on.”
Heat coils inside me at his raspy words. I’m already so worked up that I slip into the dominant headspace with ease. My fingers tangle in Ambrose’s cropped hair and I tug just hard enough that it’ll cause a small prick of pain. “You want to take care of me?”
He gasps and his eyes flash with desire, followed by the slightly unfocused look he gets when we play together. “Yes, sir.”
With barely any coaxing from me, he slides down to his knees and looks up, waiting for my permission to do more.
I incline my chin at him as my alpha pushes to the surface of my mind. It’s always thrilled by his submission. The submission of another alpha that’s older and stronger than me.
“Go on, then.”
He groans, the sound tinged with need.
Fuck, he looks so handsome on his knees. I run my hand through his hair as he eases my cock out of my underwear and presses a kiss to the weeping head.
It’s not going to take long after all the unintentional edging. Jackson’s pleasure dulls as my own rises to the forefront of my mind, but it’s still there as Ambrose sucks my cock into his eager mouth.
I know it’s wrong, but I get a perverse thrill from knowing we’re both getting off at the same time. Then promptly hate myself for enjoying that thought.
Focusing on the wet heat of my mate’s mouth and the desire he’s sending me through our bond, I push any Jackson-related thoughts to the back of my mind, locking them back in the box I’ve put them in for years.
I have the perfect man here on his knees for me. I love Ambrose with every fiber of my being. It’s no secret to him that I’m attracted to Jackson, but I don’t want that tainting this moment between us.
My release rises swiftly, and before long I’m gasping as I come hard down Ambrose’s throat while he squeezes my knot the way he knows I like. “Fuck, that’s it. Swallow it all.”
Ambrose moans around me, eyes watering as I hold him down on my cock for as long as I dare. I yank him off me and the final rope of my cum splatters against his lips as he sucks in a shaky breath.
I haul him up to slam my mouth against his. Tasting my cum on his tongue makes my alpha want to purr with possessive pride.
This alpha is mine.
I shove down his pants and wrap a hand around his cock, jerking him hard and fast until he’s coming with a cry.
“Shit, River.” Ambrose pants against my neck as he comes down from the high of his release.
We linger in the aftermath of our orgasms for a few breathless moments, and a hoarse mix of a laugh and a groan bursts out of me when Jackson’s feelings reassert themselves in my mind. “God, what is he even doing? Surely it’s his turn for a break by now, right?”
Ambrose snorts. “You’d think.”