Chapter 13 #2
“Take all the time you need.” I force myself to step back, set the candle on the small shelf by the door. “I’ll be right outside.”
I leave her there, already reaching for the blankets, already starting to build. I lean against the wall in the hallway, trying to get my breathing under control. My heart is pounding. My cock is aching. And her scent is seeping through the door, getting stronger by the second.
This is really happening.
I don’t know how long I stand there. Five minutes. Ten. Long enough that the fire in the main room has burned down and I should probably add another log. But I can’t make myself move. Can’t make myself walk away from that door.
“Ben?”
Her voice. Soft. Needy.
I push the door open.
She’s transformed it. The blankets are layered just so—some underneath her, some piled around the edges like walls. Pillows arranged in a pattern that makes sense only to her. And she’s in the center of it all, wearing my flannel and nothing else, her dark hair spread across the pillows.
Her scent crashes into me. Not just lavender and citrus anymore—there’s heat underneath now. Want. It goes straight to my cock, and I have to grab the doorframe to stay upright.
“Tessa.” Her name comes out wrecked.
“I need—” She shifts, and I catch the glisten of slick on her inner thighs. My brain short-circuits. “It hurts, Ben. Everything hurts.”
I’m at the edge of the nest before I realize I’ve moved. “Do you want me to get Milo? Or Elijah? They could—”
“No.” She reaches for me, fingers curling in my shirt, dragging me down. “I want you.”
“Me?”
“You.” She tugs harder. “Please. I need your hands on me. Your mouth. I need—” Her voice breaks on a whimper as another wave rolls through her. I watch her thighs press together, watch more slick escape, and my knot throbs at the base of my cock. “Please, Ben. Make it stop hurting.”
I climb into the nest. Her hands are already pulling at my shirt, and I let her—let her shove it up and off, let her palms spread hot across my chest. Her touch burns. Everything burns.
“Tell me what you want,” I manage, settling over her, bracing myself on my forearms. “Tell me exactly what you need.”
“Your mouth.” She arches up, and the movement presses her core against my thigh. Slick. So slick I can feel it soaking through my jeans. “Kiss me. Touch me. I don’t care, just… please.”
I kiss her. Not soft, not careful—I can’t be either of those things right now. I kiss her like I’m starving for it, and she opens for me immediately, her tongue sliding against mine, her nails raking down my back.
She tastes like years of wanting and waiting, and I’m done with both.
I drag my mouth down her throat, and she moans—loud and shameless—when I find the spot where her pulse is racing. I nip at the sensitive skin there, where her scent is strongest, and she nearly bucks me off the bed.
“Ben—”
I keep moving down. Push the flannel open—my flannel, she’s wearing my flannel—and close my mouth over her nipple.
She cries out. Her hands fist in my hair, holding me there, and I suck and lick and graze my teeth over the tight peak until she’s writhing underneath me.
Her hips roll against nothing, searching for friction, and I can smell how wet she is.
Can smell the slick pooling between her thighs, sweet and thick and making my head spin.
“Ben, please—” She’s begging now, tugging at my hair, trying to push me lower. “I need—I’m so empty, I ache—”
I slide down her body. Press kisses to her ribs, her stomach, the jut of her hip bone. She’s shaking, her legs falling open, and when I settle between them—
Fuck.
She’s drenched. Slick coating her thighs, her pussy swollen and flushed and glistening. The scent of her arousal hits me full force and my cock jerks in my jeans, my knot pulsing with the need to be inside her.
Not yet. This isn’t about me.
I look up at her. “Tessa. I need you to tell me this is okay. That you want—”
“Ben.” She props herself up on her elbows, glaring at me with heat-glazed eyes. “If you don’t put your mouth on me in the next three seconds, I’m going to—”
“Yes ma’am.”
I spread her thighs wider and she whimpers, her hips lifting off the mattress.
“Look at you,” I murmur, running my hands up her trembling thighs.
“So slick for me. Making a mess of your nest already.” I drag one finger through her folds, barely touching, and she jerks like I’ve shocked her.
“Been thinking about this for two years. Wondering what you’d taste like. What sounds you’d make.”
“Ben—” She squirms, trying to press closer. “Stop talking and touch me—”
“Can’t help it.” I press a kiss to her inner thigh, right where the slick is glistening. “I talk when I’m nervous. And you make me real nervous, sweetheart.”
“I’ll give you something to be nervous about if you don’t—oh—”
I lick a stripe through the slick on her inner thigh before she can finish the threat. She keens, her hips jerking, and the taste of her explodes across my tongue. Sweet. Rich. Addictive. I groan against her skin and do it again, chasing every drop, working my way closer to where she needs me.
“Please please please—” She’s chanting now, hands fisted in the blankets, head thrown back.
I give her what she wants.
The first lick through her folds makes her scream. I seal my mouth over her clit and suck, and she shatters—just like that, coming apart with a sob, her thighs clamping around my head, her whole body shaking.
I don’t stop.
I work her through it and keep going, licking into her, fucking her with my tongue while she writhes and moans above me. She tastes incredible. I can’t get enough. My cock is throbbing, my knot aching so hard it hurts, and I grind against the mattress just to take the edge off.
“Ben—” She tugs at my hair. “Ben, I need—inside, I need you inside—”
I slide two fingers into her and she clamps down so tight I groan against her clit. She’s hot and slick and perfect. I curl my fingers, find the spot that makes her back bow off the mattress, and thrust.
“Yes—” She’s riding my hand now, fucking herself on my fingers, chasing it. “More, I need more—”
I add a third finger. Stretch her open. She takes it easily, her body desperate for something to fill her, her pussy clenching around my fingers like she never wants to let go.
“That’s it,” I murmur against her thigh. “Taking me so well. You’re soaked, Tessa. Dripping all over my hand.” I thrust deeper and she cries out. “Can’t wait to feel you clench around my knot like this. Gonna stretch you so wide. Lock you in place until you can’t remember your own name.”
I know what she really needs. She needs a knot. Needs to be stretched wide and locked in place until the ache finally stops.
Soon. But not yet.
“So fucking perfect,” I tell her, pumping my fingers steadily. “Can’t wait to feel you come apart again.”
“Ben—” She’s panting, her inner walls fluttering around me. “I’m gonna—I need—”
I suck her clit into my mouth and thrust my fingers hard, and she breaks again—clenching and pulsing around me, crying out my name, slick gushing over my hand. I work her through it, gentling my touch as she comes down, until she’s pushing weakly at my shoulders.
“Too much—” She’s gasping. “Ben, I can’t—”
I pull back. Press one last kiss to her inner thigh, then crawl back up her body until I can see her face.
She looks wrecked. Flushed and sweaty, her eyes glazed, her lips swollen from biting them. But underneath the haze, I can see her coming back to herself. The sharpness returning to her gaze.
“Better?” My voice comes out rough.
“Yes.” She lets out a shaky breath. “God, yes. The ache is... it’s not gone, but it’s manageable now.” She shifts, winces slightly. “I feel almost human again.”
Her hand drifts down between us, finds the hard line of my cock straining against my jeans. I hiss through my teeth.
“What about you?” She’s frowning now—that practical, problem-solving frown I’ve seen a hundred times in town meetings. “That can’t be comfortable.”
“I’m fine.”
“Ben.” She gives me a look. “You’re clearly not fine. Let me—”
“Tessa.” I catch her hand, bring it up to my mouth, press a kiss to her palm. “This was about you. About making you feel better. I can handle a little discomfort.”
“A little?” She raises an eyebrow—and there she is. My bossy, no-nonsense omega. “That looks like more than a little.”
“I’ve survived worse.” I grin at her. “Remember that time I had to sit through your three-hour budget presentation with a hangover? This is nothing.”
She laughs—surprised and real—and swats at my chest. “That presentation was important.”
“It was thorough. Very, very thorough.” I pull her against me, tucking her head under my chin. “Now stop trying to negotiate and rest. You’re going to need your strength.”
She’s quiet for a moment. I can feel her fighting it—the urge to argue, to insist, to take care of me the way I just took care of her. That’s who she is. She doesn’t know how to just receive.
“I don’t like owing people,” she murmurs against my chest.
“You don’t owe me anything.” I press a kiss to her hair. “This isn’t a transaction, Tessa. I wanted to help you. That’s it.”
“But—”
“Sleep.” I tighten my arms around her. “That’s what you can do for me. Rest while you can, because when your heat really hits, you’re going to need all three of us. And I want to be ready for you.”
She sighs—half frustration, half exhaustion. “You’re annoyingly reasonable sometimes.”
“Only sometimes? I’m losing my touch.”
Another quiet laugh. Then she relaxes against me, her body going soft and heavy. The tension that’s been coiled in her for hours finally unwinding.
“Ben?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.” Her voice is already getting thick with sleep. “For the nest. For... all of it.”
“Anytime.” I mean it. “Now sleep.”
She does. Her breathing evens out within minutes, her hand curled loosely against my chest, her body warm and trusting in my arms.
I hold her and try to ignore the ache in my jeans. It’s uncomfortable as hell, but I wasn’t lying—I can handle it. This wasn’t about me. It was about giving her what she needed, about proving that I can take care of her without expecting anything in return.
Outside, the storm rages on. Inside, the candle burns low.
And Tessa sleeps in my arms, her scent still sweet and building, her body gathering strength for what’s coming.
When she wakes up, she’s going to need more than my fingers can give her. She’s going to need all of us.
We’ll be ready.