Chapter 31
THEO
I’ve lost my damn mind.
I’m two seconds from being knot-deep inside my son’s ex-girlfriend and just had the most all-consuming orgasm of my life.
If there had ever been a shred of doubt in my mind about the power of a scent match, that’s been well and truly eradicated in the space of a few minutes. Wren is the most perfect, beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
And here she is, limp and satiated, tucked against my chest as my cum starts to slip between us.
In all the ways I imagined we might eventually find a way to make things work, the picture I had for us didn’t involve a desperate need to find relief in the back of a bar, for god’s sake.
Fuck. It’s only the second time we’ve inhaled the same air as one another, and look at how things have unraveled at lightning speed.
However, this isn’t the time for drowning in guilt, or fear that Wren doesn’t want me, or wishing like hell things had gone differently for our first opportunity to be together.
Renfro looks like one smug motherfucker, as his hungry gaze drills into her and he cleans the residue of her cum and slick off his fingers with his mouth.
Kneeling before her, the guy looks feral, his beard and mouth covered in the sheen of her arousal.
A sight Wren is appreciating in her own blissed-out way, I can feel the tiny hums of pleasure rolling off her as she watches him savor every drop.
Jesus. I’d barely given much thought to who might also form a pack around this girl, but one of my players certainly wasn’t in the equation.
Mentally, I’d braced myself for it to be someone her age—I’d gritted my teeth and accepted it might involve another college student, perhaps.
But this? My star international signing? Her brother’s teammate?
Fuck.
I wasn’t lying when I said it was clear they’ve got something strong between them. While there’s no scent match there, it doesn’t necessarily mean there won’t ever be. Who fucking knows how these things spontaneously happen. Look at the mess we’ve ended up falling into.
How much does Wren intuitively know about forming a pack?
Forming a bond with someone out of genuine connection and attraction almost has me jealous.
Here I am, her scent match, and yet I’m teetering on the edge of feeling irrationally jealous of the fact that Connor Renfro has the gift of charm and an ease with words, enough to have her choosing him.
My heart feels like it’s trying to hammer its way out of my chest, as I squeeze her hips. Those sexy-as-hell creases at the top of her thighs, where I’d really, really fucking love to spend an entire night exploring.
The idea of hearing her moaning my name, while I’m knot-deep, pumping her full of more cum sounds like a really good idea right about now.
“Are you okay, sweetheart?” I swallow down all the filthy thoughts deciding to make an appearance.
“We need to get you out of here.” The scent of her is divine, but I don’t need the entire bar bearing witness to something so intimate.
She’s gonna smell like sex and the strong perfume of her mini heat.
The kind of potent aroma that makes me want to tuck her against my chest and steal her away from here.
“Here, let me help you, Bambi.” The Scot gets to his feet and helps her to ease off my lap. She goes to him easily, without a second thought, and once again, I have to shove any concerns about whether my girl much prefers a guy like him. The star fullback, much, much closer to her age than I am.
As he supports her arms, I have to bite back the hiss as my dick slips out of her unbelievably soft channel. This feels almost surreal, like I can’t even fathom the reality that I was just inside her. Everything in me demands to keep my girl close, to barely let her out of my grasp.
Quickly tucking myself away, my dick glistens with her slick and the mixture of our cum, and it’s enough to have me getting half-hard again.
“Talk to us.” I catch her hand to wrap inside my own, as Renfro fusses over her quietly, setting her panties back in place and smoothing the fabric of her dress down.
“I feel—” She keeps her eyes low, voice quiet.
But whatever Wren might have to say is interrupted. A sharp bang fills the room. The door handle jostles impatiently, making us all jump.
“Fuck,” Renfro whispers, looking at me with the same expression as I’m sure I’ve got on my face. This is a disaster.
Wren’s eyes pop wide as she stares at me.
Instinctively, I wrap my arm around her shoulder and drag her behind the two of us, so at least she’s hidden if anyone comes charging through that door.
“Which of you bastards locked the storage?” a voice comes muffled from the hallway, and they give the handle a last frustrated rattle. “Assholes. I’m gonna have to go down to the office and get the set of master keys. Cover me out front for five minutes.”
Heavy footsteps retreat, and we all know this is our moment to disappear, or we really are going to be fucking cornered in here.
“Let’s go.” Keeping Wren’s tiny hand in my own and handing her purse to Renfro to hold onto, we sneak our way out and into the deserted corridor.
That same pulsing beat pumps through from the bar, and I have to shove all thoughts of who is on the other side of that wall from my mind.
That’s gotta be a problem for another day.
Thankfully, it’s a clear run to make our way to the parking lot using the staff stairs and exit, without having to set off the emergency alarms or some shit.
“Here, you can lie down in the back seat.” I open the door and help her in, passing over a plush blanket and a small pillow. Wren eyes me suspiciously but doesn’t say a word. Just nuzzles in, and I take the smallest breath of relief that I had it prepared with the right kind of unscented product.
There was no guessing how she might react to an unfamiliar smell.
Renfro lurks at my side as I close the door, sealing our little Omega in, and I point to the passenger side. “You’re in the front with me,” I grunt.
His shit-eating grin widens. “Don’t trust me back there, boss?”
“Not as far as I can toss your big highlander ass. Just get in the truck.”
When I slide in behind the wheel, I run one hand through my hair as I start the engine with the other.
Tonight has been a lot to process for all of us, and I’m sure it’ll hit Wren the hardest. One part of me is relieved I was there, that I could help her straight away and tend to her Omega needs, while the other part is terrified I’ve fucked everything up, and she’ll never want to see me again.
She still hasn’t said anything.
Putting the truck into drive, I get us the hell out of the parking lot.
There’s a lingering fear prickling the back of my neck that if we sit here any longer, I’m going to turn around to find Finch Murphy taking to my window with a baseball bat.
Or worse, a scrum of media shoving cameras in our faces.
After a few minutes of driving, Wren finally appears, poking her head between us. She’s got the blanket wrapped around her bare shoulders. I pass a sealed bottle of water to her straight away, out of the front cup holder. “Make sure you drink some water, sweetheart.”
“Thanks.” Her voice sounds a little croaky.
“Um, I need to text the girls. They’ll be able to cover for me.
” She sounds shy all of a sudden. I’m sure everything is feeling a little overwhelming, especially the drop that can so easily hit after such an intense surge of sensation, blindsiding her completely out of the blue.
“I can do it for you. Just unlock your phone.” Pulling it out of her purse, with one eye on the deserted road up ahead, I hold it up to her face so that the facial ID can unlock it.
Renfro immediately catches it out of my hand. “No way in hell. You’re gonna sound like an old man texting.” He chuckles. “You don’t use emojis, like some sort of psychopath.”
That makes Wren giggle quietly, and that noise is the best fucking thing in the world to hear.
She sighs and leans her head against the back of my seat.
My Alpha instinct likes that she chose my side to relax against. Not that it’s a competition or anything, but a guy can surely be a little bit possessive over his scent match.
Even if I don’t mind sharing, I still want to feel like I’ve done my part to look after her.
Beside me, Renfro quickly types something, presses send, and my phone pings. The message pops up on my GPS screen. Smart guy. Maybe having him around won’t be so bad while figuring this out after all.
Then he’s busy writing something else, until a flurry of buzzing signals the moment replies start incoming.
“Oh my god.” Wren is aghast as she peers through from the back seat.
I sneak a quick sideways look at the screen, which fills with a flurry of giant eggplant emojis and water squirts.
Nikita:
Yes, girl, get that giant Alpha dick.
Gabbie:
We’ve got your back. Let us know you’re okay.
Nikita:
Girlfriend will be too busy getting double-teamed… by the TEAM.
Tell us what the Scottish hospitality is like.
Gabbie:
Ignore her.
Hydrate! Maybe do some stretches?
Renfro starts typing something in reply, and Wren slaps his shoulder.
“Jesus. Give me my phone back. You are not allowed to reply to that.”
He’s grinning from ear to ear. “You told them about me?”
A heavy exhale comes out of her. “Uhhh, you stalked me at the library. They were convinced you were banging my brains out back then.”
“I was being a gentleman.”
“You wouldn’t leave me alone.”
“Can you blame a guy?”
“You’re delusional.”
“Wanna say that again when you’re shattering on my tongue, hmm?”
I clear my throat, pulling us to a stop before applying the handbrake. “Make yourself useful, and go inside to make sure the place is warm, would you?” Giving him a look, I’m hoping he understands without me needing to spell it out that I need a moment alone with Wren before we go inside.
His eyes glint with sinful misdeeds, but he nods and slides out the door, taking her purse with him.
“Wait there,” I tell her, before doing the same, to climb out and open her door for her.
The night air temperature has plummeted, but it’s one of those dry, crisp evenings with a million stars scattered across the night sky.
My breath fans out in a long plume of white as I crouch down onto my haunches in the open doorway.
Wren scoots her way to the edge of the seat, and I reach up to tuck the blanket around her shoulders. Fuck knows where her coat is. Hopefully, her friends remember to bring it home for her later tonight.
“I want to take care of you… properly.” My throat feels filled with rocks.
“You did, tonight.” Wren gives me a long look. One that has a whole lot of god-awful unspoken buts and we can’ts and this won’t works lingering in the background.
I’m already shaking my head, keeping my fist tight in the front of her blanket. “Longer term than that.”
“But—”
“Wren. If there’s anything I’ve realized tonight, it’s that I’m going to go out of my mind worrying about you if I can’t see you regularly. And then there’s the matter of what happened at the bar.”
“That was just a mini heat. A spike.” Her cheeks go a slightly deeper shade of pink.
It’s taking everything in me not to reach out and start touching her, stroking her hair, running my hands over her thighs.
But even though we’ve done far more intimate things tonight, I don’t feel like I’ve earned the right to those sorts of privileges yet.
I want to feel like I’ve earned Wren’s trust. Not just because we’ve been thrown together, ducking for cover from some sort of cosmic cannon fire.
“And what if I hadn’t been there?”
Her plump lips part, close, then open again, but she doesn’t have a reply.
“This is complicated, yes. No denying that.” I swallow thickly. “But know that I’m deadly serious when I say I’m here to take care of you. We are both here to take care of you,” I add and see the flicker of something that looks an awful lot like relief in her sapphire blues.
“I can’t expect you to do that,” she breathes.
“We need time to figure some things out. To talk and make proper plans. Not falling into something when it’s all in a rush.” Not when it’s desperate and a whirlwind of decisions I still don’t know Wren is completely aware of. A pang of guilt crawls up the back of my neck.
“I don’t think we need—”
My growl cuts her off as I scoop her off the seat, cradling her against my chest. We can’t keep having this conversation right here, that’s for sure.
“We do.” I stride away from the truck with her in my arms, and Wren looks at me like it’s the most inconceivable thing in the world that I refuse to let her walk.
“Birth control for one. Jesus. I was inside you bare, sweetheart. We didn’t even talk about something as basic as birth control. ” My jaw pulses.
What the fuck was I thinking? Clearly, I wasn’t.
That’s when her delicate fingers reach up to touch the muscle thrumming frantically in the side of my jaw. Wren brushes over my stubble and whispers soft words that ease the tension building inside my chest. “You didn’t do anything wrong. It was perfect.”
As we reach the front door, I’m struggling not to close that distance and simply take her mouth. It’s all I can do to shove down all urges to kiss the fuck out of the Omega in my arms, when we’ve barely had time to get to know each other.
“We’ll figure this out. No one else needs to know, I promise.”
For now, at least.