3. Tara
I wriggled off the bed, bending to press a soft kiss to Jesse’s kiss-swollen lips before heading into his ensuite to run the tub.
Jesse’s bathroom wasn’t really anything special, all white tile and the typical tub and shower combo that you saw in most rentals. But my beta had started making a point to stock their bathroom with the most delicious bath products in the history of the planet once he’d realized that I liked to unwind with a soak—and that? That was everything.
I stoppered the drain and ran the water, pulling the large glass canister of bath bombs down from the shelving unit over the toilet, picking through the options for one that he’d like. Selecting a large, purple monstrosity of a thing, I tossed it into the tub where it began to fizz immediately, leeching purple streaks into the surface of the water.
After carefully lighting some candles and flicking the lights back off, I padded back into Jesse’s room, offering my hands to him to help pull him up to sit. “Ready?”
He groaned, wrapping his arms around my middle to hug me close to his body, trailing kisses along my middle. “I can’t stand. My legs are broken.”
I giggled, a light giddy feeling taking over now that I’d released some of the tension that’d been steadily building into a headache behind my left eye.
“Lemme help?”
“Please,” they whined. “I need my big, bad omega.”
I snorted, nudging him as I helped pull Jesse to his feet, keeping his hand in mine as I led him towards the bathroom. The lavender scent of the bath bomb hit my nose before we’d even made it inside, and I’m sure Jesse noticed as well.
They smiled, the expression gooey as they took in the candles. “Romantic.”
“Just a little,” I returned, turning off the water. “Big or little spoon?”
“Big,” they responded with a playful flex of their lean, muscular arms that threatened to get me going again. “I wanna hold you a little.”
“In you get, big guy,” I teased, nudging him towards the tub as I disappeared back through the door to go to the living room, grabbing some of the snacks Jesse had laid out and a couple bottles of water.
“Way to leave me hanging,” they complained as I returned, setting my spoils beside us on the floor as I climbed into the tub to snuggle into his arms.
“I could sense you would need a snack in like five minutes and I didn’t want to get comfy just to have to get up and get it.”
“Okay, okay… you have a point…” Jesse conceded, running a finger along the flowers that decorated my shoulder. “You’re really warm.”
“Yeah, I think I have a couple weeks yet, but I’m already starting to get like… annoyed.” I huffed, pressing my face into Jesse’s throat for another hit of his subtle lemony scent. Sweet and sour all at once.
“Hotel again?”
Because I didn’t have my own alpha to help me through my heat—and honestly, wasn’t looking for one—I usually just checked myself into Omega’s Lust to work through the gnawing neediness when it cropped up every three months or so. It wasn’t a perfect system, given the hotel wasn’t my nest at home, and I felt too weird asking Jesse to come watch me get railed by as many alphas that would fuck me, so I ended up being around strangers, but it was good enough to get me by.
Besides, if I had some big stupid alpha, they’d absolutely want me to quit my job, and I just wasn’t willing to do that.
Not for a guy.
I settled against him easily, letting my muscles relax and go liquid at Jesse’s touch.
“Probably,” I said, releasing a happy sigh as Jesse began to work at the knot in my shoulder with his strong fingers. “I’m supposed to be the one giving you aftercare, you know.”
“You are, the cuddling is real nice.” He grinned, digging in a little harder.
I reached down to swipe a couple pieces of popcorn from the bowl, offering them to Jesse. They playfully nipped at my fingers as they took them, humming appreciatively.
“You make me feel so loved,” I admitted softly, studying the hard angle of his jaw in the flickering candlelight.
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”
My eyes met theirs, so open and gentle and full of sweetness that it made my teeth ache. I wanted, above all else, to ask Jesse if I could bond them. But given that I was about to ask if he felt like taking a quick career detour into becoming a porn star, it didn’t feel like the right time.
“You know what I adore about you? You just… care about me for no other reason than my happiness. I’ve never had a partner like that. It's just, so nice . Not having to worry.”
His smile was wide, easy. “You deserve it.”
The best part about Jesse? I knew he meant it. Though we’d only been official for a few months, I knew what we had would last.
We sat in comfortable silence for a while, my mind turning with Glitch’s offer. I knew it would be a hard sell… and I really wasn’t looking forward to making Jesse feel uncomfortable or awkward.
Finding the right phrasing was proving to be more difficult than I thought it’d be.
Do you want to come fuck me live for a couple thousand people? Didn’t exactly just roll off the tongue.
“How would you feel about meeting Charlie?” they asked suddenly, making me adjust to get a better look at his face.
“You mean our healer? That Charlie?”
Jesse nodded. “Yeah, that Charlie. I know he’s played with us a bit, but he’s one of the most important people in my life, and since you are as well, I’d like if you guys met more officially.”
Nerves danced in my stomach uncomfortably, for more reasons than one. The main being nerves around meeting someone so important to Jesse, but also, every time they say that name it brings me back to Mr. Heat Hotel. Though Charlie was a super common name, I hadn’t heard it much before, and it now felt like I was surrounded by it. “I… that could be fun. I thought he lived up in Seattle?”
“He’s just moved back, or he’s about to at least. Is that too much?”
My eyes widened, realizing my apprehension was probably making Jesse nervous. “No, not at all! It’s just that… um… meeting someone that important to you makes me a bit nervous. What if he hates me?”
He laughed, shaking his head. “I don’t think Charlie could hate anyone even if he tried.”
I bumped him playfully with my shoulder. “You know what I mean.”
“Least of all you ,” Jesse stressed, his lips finding my temple for a tender kiss. “I promise he’ll love you. And I’d never force you, but I do want you to meet each other. If you’re ready. I’m ready.”
There were two very distinct, warring schools of thought bouncing around my mind like a ping-pong ball.
I really, really wanted to meet Charlie. And I was so, so excited that Jesse wanted to make our relationship more serious and take this next step.
And I was totally going to fuck all of this up just to try and move in together faster.
“I want to meet him too,” I said with a nervous smile, deciding that either way… I wanted to be honest. “If he’s important to you he’s important to me.”
Jesse let out a relieved sigh. “I’ll talk to him and get a plan going. You think next week is too close to your heat?”
“Nah, I’ll just take my suppressants. I should be fine unless he’s like the sexiest alpha I’ve ever seen in my life.”
“Ooooh like Mr. Heat Hotel?”
I snorted, rolling my eyes. “As if, I feel like I would’ve recognized his voice by now.”
“Maybe,” Jesse chuckled with a waggle of his eyebrows. “Unless the heat had you so fucked up you can’t tell what’s what.”
“I take it back, you are the worst boyfriend ever. How dare you make me think about Mr. Heat Hotel this close to having to go back?”
Mr. Heat Hotel was an alpha I’d met before I’d been dating Jesse during my very first time at a center. He was giant, incredibly sweet, and fucked my virginity clean out of me with such softness that I’d spent more than my fair share of streams pretending the alpha I was begging to fuck me was him.
But… I’d never seen him again.
Jesse groped my ass playfully. “As if Charlie had the balls to fuck a girl as pretty as you.”
“Uglies only then?” I teased, making the beta roll his eyes. “So…” I started slowly, dragging the word out as if by taking longer to say the syllable I could stop myself from uttering my next sentence. “I also wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Anything,” he said easily, running a wet hand through his bouncy curls. They were this interesting mix of dusty blond that got much darker when wet.
“How would you feel about coming onto my stream?” I asked, feeling the apprehension start to creep up the back of my neck.
Jesse’s brows furrowed in confusion. “I’ve been on your stream a lot, sweetie pie. For something specific? Thinking about a sub-a-thon?”
I shook my head, realizing my mistake. “No… not that stream. The Afterdark one.”
Jesse froze, didn’t move, didn’t so much as breathe for a solid minute.
“Why the sudden interest?” he asked. “We’ve never, uh… talked about it before?”
“In truth, one of my viewers asked,” I hedged. “You know… Glitch. I’ve told you about him before, he’s the one who pays my rent after just a couple of streams every month?”
“And he wants… me?”
“Us,” I clarified. “Well… And just me. During heat. He offered fifty grand if I fucked him on stream and I said I’d think about it… That's when he asked about watching me with you.”
Jesse’s jaw hit the floor. “FIFTY thousand?!”
“I know,” I huffed. “Don’t get me wrong, he pays out a lot, but that offer was… crazy. Plus I don’t know about fucking some alphahole perv…”
“I mean, how different from the Hotel is it?” Jesse chewed his lip, thinking. “And you think he’s serious?”
I shrugged. “He’s never made an offer without following through. He paid me five thousand once to make myself squirt on stream. It also broke my keyboard and he bought me a new one. It’s how I got the Dragon Pro… So I’m inclined to believe him.”
He was quiet for a minute, my discomfort mounting.
“Can I think about it?”
“Of course,” I said easily. “There’s no pressure. I just wanted to tell you about it and give you the option. If you’re not comfortable, I’d say no and tell him to fuck off. It just might be good for us… We could put the money on a house, move faster, be set up for a while… And I think you’d have a lot of fun.”
“Do you want to fuck him?”
“I can’t say I’m not a little curious, but I’ve never seen him. What if he’s like, super old and wrinkly?”
Jesse rolled his eyes. “Gotta be, being rich like that.”
“You say, knowing damn well that Charlie is your sugar daddy.”
Jesse gasped in mock offense. “How dare you madam, I am a kept beta.” Though we both knew it was a little true. Just last month Charlie gifted enough subs for Jesse to replace his processor to a much higher powered one. Apparently Charlie and his college friend had sold their startup and now he was rolling in it.
I laughed, dissolving into giggles. “So you’ll think about it?”
“Yeah, I’ll think about it. And you’re okay with me being… a beta?”
I clicked my tongue irritably, my tone holding a playful amount of snark. “No, I’d completely forgotten when I brought it up.”
Sure, most omegas that streamed with partners on SLCK’d did so with alphas. That was the draw, I guess? Helpless omega and a big bad alpha… But that wasn’t really my thing.
I was perfectly happy, and smitten, with my beta.
He couldn’t quite meet my gaze, eyes landing on my shoulder. “I don’t know. I just… want to make sure, I guess…”
I gripped his chin and pulled it down, easily bringing our lips together for a soft kiss. “Jesse, you’re my partner. I’m not ashamed of that. I don’t care if you’re an alpha, a beta, fuck, even another omega. I just like you , and if I want to fuck you on my stream for the world to see, I will. And it will be hot as fuck and make us rich, even without Glitch’s money.”
“You think?” he asked bashfully, cheeks red even in the candlelight.
“I’m positive,” I assured. “We’re both hot as hell. It's a goldmine.”
He laughed at that. “That we are. Call me Proctor Jesse.”
I kissed him harder this time, heavier. Taking control easily, licking his lips until they opened for me, my tongue sliding into his mouth. Jesse's hands found my hips as I continued to kiss them, grateful once again that his bath was big enough to accommodate us both.
After a long while of heavy making out until we were both breathless, I pulled away. “Come on, let's go to the couch and cuddle. I’m pruning.”
He held up his hand to show off the wrinkling skin of his fingertips. “You mean melting?”
I smacked his shoulder. “Don’t make me punish you.”
“But that was the plan,” Jesse pouted, deliciously full lower lip pushing out and nearly drawing me right back in.
“Well, maybe if you’re good, the reward will be even better,” I volleyed back, letting my tone go silken as I gave into the urge for a soft peck.
“Okay, okay, I’m coming. Fuck, Tara. You’re persuasive as shit when you want to be.”
I stood and stepped out of the tub offering my hand with a wink. “I know. It’s part of what makes me so dangerous.”