13. Twenty-four
Twenty-four
Lin
By the time we reached home, Brooks still hadn’t been paged to go into work. We shared a look as we entered the first-floor lobby. Neither of us was ready to say goodnight yet.
“How about a rooftop do-over?” I said as I placed my hand on the small of Taryn’s back. They agreed immediately.
On the roof, conversation continued to flow easily.
No one person or pair monopolized the attention.
One minute, Taryn and Brea were co-telling an anecdote about their last landlord’s hump-happy dog, which melted into Brooks remembering a dream he’d had that he’d transformed into a movie star dog who’d turned to catnip to cope with the stresses of fame, which led back to his and Taryn’s dinner discussion about superior dog breeds, which ended with all of us picking the others’ canine counterparts.
Eventually, it became a group session of one million questions. Booth or table? Movies or TV? Favorite color? Favorite animal? Childhood celebrity crush? Current celebrity crush? Odds or evens? Coffee or tea? Beach or mountains? Skydiving or bungee-jumping?
“Okay, next question,” Brooks said, his arm draped so casually around Taryn on the loveseat across from Brea and me, knuckles grazing back and forth over the curve of her shoulder. “Would you rather live in endless darkness or endless light?”
Taryn chewed her lip, looking toward the dark sky. “Do we have, like, flashlights and fire and stuff?”
“Yep. All modern technology. But either no sun or only sun.”
“With the endless light, is it at a constant level, or does it grow and fade? Like a sunset that just never quite sets?”
“Both are constant, never changing.”
She still didn’t tear her eyes from the sky, from the few pinpoints of light fighting their way through the hazy city glow.
In my mind flashed the image of Taryn strolling beneath the street lights and billboards downtown.
Before me, with the glow of her tanned skin under the Edison bulbs draped across the patio, she was a vision.
Her face, even through all the flirting and laughter, had frequently tilted up to admire the view above.
And I knew which she’d choose.
“Endless dark,” she answered as she finally returned her attention to the group. “So long as there are still stars. You?”
“Dark,” Brooks said, fingers running back and forth lightly over her arm.
“And why’s that?” she asked.
He hesitated, the beat of silence like the weight of a dozen cozy blankets tucked in all around you. “Because that’s where you’d be,” he finally answered quietly.
“Well, then,” I said, looking to Brea next to me, “I suppose that’s where the both of us would be too, hmm?”
“Indeed,” Brea agreed. My bond lit up with contentment, a feeling like butterflies tickling through my body. The four of us… in endless dark…the thought sent my own tingle down my spine, and not just because of what we could get up to in that darkness.
“Okay, okay,” Taryn said after a moment, breaking us all out of the sentimental bubble we’d stumbled into. She tapped her chin, thinking of a new question. “Oh! What’s your favorite M&M color?”
“All M&Ms taste the same, sweetness,” I said with a teasing tone.
She scoffed. “Your favorite M&M color isn’t about the taste, silly alpha,” she said in a sing-song voice. “Haven’t you ever gotten a bag and it only had, like, one green in it, and you just died a little on the inside?”
My eyes narrowed in hesitation. “…No?”
“Oh…well…bully for you, then.”
“ I know what you mean,” Brooks crooned with a smirk. “I like the blue. I find the contrast of the white M on the blue to be very soothing.”
She hummed and nodded in appreciation. “You could totally visualize yourself absorbing that soothing-ness as you eat it. Like your own little blue pills.”
Brooks cackled. “Homeopathic medicine at its finest.”
“I like the green,” she replied. “No particular reason. The greens just give me all the dopamine.”
And on the night continued. Sipping on moonshine, sharing anecdotes and answering silly questions. Another hour in, and the mood was warm and easy, buzzing with energy.
And something else.
Taryn’s scent blocker was waning, and her toffee and cream aroma grew sharper and thicker by the minute. All of our scents boldened in response. Even in the open air where the pheromones could expand and dilute, we may as well have been in a coat closet. My head swam.
Or maybe that was the fifth (sixth?) drink of the evening.
Taryn’s sat with her legs crossed, body turned in toward Brooks.
My bonded mate, whose fingertips traced over the omega’s perfect collarbones as he breathed her in.
Beta he was, but Brooks was drunk on her scent.
It was clear through the bond, the warm delirium that her sweet, rich toffee aroma incited in him.
I looked back to Brea. Deep red waves flowed over her shoulders and fluttered a bit in the warm breeze. A flush colored her cheeks, and the string lights reflected off her eyes.
They told me so much, those eyes. At dinner, I’d seen the pain that had made her so strong. But now? Now, they confessed desire. They admitted lust. They divulged mischief.
And they compelled obedience.
Brea caught me watching. “You have a look in your eye,” she said. Her voice was pitched lower than it had been earlier, her own eyes sparkling.
“Do I?”
“You look hungry,” she replied, sidling just a half inch closer, our legs pressed together. “Which is funny, considering we ate not so long ago.”
I swallowed. “Brea…”
“What about you, Brooks?” Taryn asked, clearly in on whatever scheme was afoot. “Are you hungry?”
Brooks blinked rapidly. My head absolutely spun.
We’re goners.
“Starved,” he breathed out.
Brea chuckled beside me and propped her elbow on my shoulder, leaning even further against me. “You ever known an omega before, Lin?”
I rolled my bottom lip between my teeth. “I’ve been acquainted with two.”
“How so?”
I cleared my throat, trying to rein in my own rising scent. “Not that acquainted.”
“Hmmm.” Brea sipped from her glass before setting it on the table. “A brief pause in the coy act. We like you. You like us. And there’s a natural therefore developing here that Taryn and I both are more than willing to dive into."
“You have nothing to prove to us,” I said, looking between the both of them. “Either of you.”
A breeze captured Brea’s loose hair, blowing it gently around her face. Brea cleared it, tucking it behind her ear, her face taking on a serious look for just a moment. “We know,” she said simply.
Then she stroked her fingers down my face, starting at my temple and tracing the line of my jaw, until she could grasp my chin between thumb and forefinger.
“There’s no greater high than scenting an omega climax,” Brea breathed into my ear. My heart lurched, my dick twitching in my slacks. “Except getting to wring it out of her yourself,” and nipped at my earlobe.
“Fuck,” I exhaled, eyes still locked where Brooks and Taryn exchanged heated looks and touches.
Taryn combed her fingers through Brooks’ already tousled curls. “What d’you say, boys?”
Two simultaneous yeses broke from our lips, the bond humming with anticipation. I pointedly ignored any thought of Caine inside, of what he may be sensing through the bond.
I focused on Brooks. On the two women who’d entranced us both.
At Brea’s behest, I sat on Taryn’s other side, immediately turning my body in toward hers just as Brooks was on the other side. Brea perched on the chair beside our loveseat, glass still in hand.
“Rules,” she said in a more serious tone. She held up her index finger. “Number one, you—all three of you—take orders from me. You do as I say and only as I say. Disobedience will have consequences.”
Fucking hell.
“Two,” she continued, raising a second finger, “we keep safe words simple here. No or stop from anyone, and all action ceases immediately, no question, no hesitation.
“And three”—One more finger went up—“if those safe words are not respected, I will toss you over the side of the building and I will smile about it.” I had no doubt in my mind that not only was she serious, but she was fierce enough, strong enough to do it too. “All understood?”
All three of us nodded, our chests already rising and falling noticeably.
Smirking, Brea relaxed back in her seat, looking every bit a queen upon her throne.
“Now, everyone knows a good omega keeps her legs spread nice and wide,” Brea purred, her voice a sensual caress over each of us.
“Lin, Brooks, each of you take a knee. Pull her open and hold her there. Do nothing else.”
Taryn gave the tiniest, sexiest whimper as I gripped her inner thigh right where it met her knee.
She gave no resistance as I uncrossed her leg, pulling it in toward me.
Brooks’ hand slid over her other knee, fingers flexing against her skin as he pulled that knee toward himself.
The hem of her skirt bunched up, nearly to her waist. From my angle, I couldn’t see anything beyond.
But—gods wept—I smelled her. Smelled the slick likely coating her luscious thighs just beyond my range of vision beneath the fabric of her skirt.
On the verge of skating my palm up the length of that thigh, of seeking out that thick nectar I knew gathered just out of sight, I was brought back to the present as Brea spoke again. “One hand is to remain on her knee at all times. Understood?”
“Yes,” Brooks and I answered simultaneously.
“Good,” Brea said. “Now, my omega needs warming up.” Her eyes home in on me first, then Brooks. “With your free hand, you may touch my omega…”
Oh, thank god.
“…on top of her clothing.”
Fucking hellfuck.
“Consider her skin hot lava because it is off limits.”
Brooks and I exchanged a look before glancing back at Brea. Awaiting permission. A pleased smirk crawled up her face. “You may begin.”