Chapter 2
THIS ISN’T A WET T-SHIRT CONTEST
Elias
Holy fuck. Holy fuckity fuck fuck.
I barreled my way into the bathroom, heart pounding.
The only thing that had kept me from losing my absolute shit over the ache and tingling in my chest had been the knowledge that I didn’t fit all the symptoms. But as I stared down at my blue shirt, taking in the darker blue stain around my right nipple, my heart sank.
What did this mean? Nothing? Everything? Was I on the verge of death? I ran into the singular stall in the back of the room, slamming the door shut behind me and locking it before slumping against the wall and sliding down until my ass hit the ground.
I lifted my shirt frantically, trying to see what was going on. After touching my nipple, I pulled my hand back, examining the almost clear fluid clinging to my fingertip. My heart slammed against my ribs, echoing in my ears so loudly that I could barely even hear my own thoughts.
Rubbing my finger and thumb together, I tested the liquid, trying to figure out what it was. It sank into my skin quickly, absorbing before I could come to any logical conclusion, which, of course, just made me panic more.
I reached down, pulling and squeezing until another burst of fluid bubbled to the surface. Staring down at my chest in shock, I watched the way it beaded up, then rolled down the underside of my pec and toward my stomach.
It felt kind of… good. Which really didn’t make any sense if it was indeed something like breast cancer.
I squeezed again, blinking at it in fascination as more fluid welled up.
The door to the bathroom opened, slamming against the wall, and I froze, holding my breath. It felt like a lifetime before they finally left—without washing their hands, which was fucking gross—and I breathed a sigh of relief when I was alone again.
The liquid that had been clinging to my slightly puffy nipple had dried, but my shirt hadn't. I couldn’t go back to work like that, but I also wasn’t sure how I could leave like this either. There wasn’t a way to hide it, and I didn’t have a change of clothes with me.
Link might, but that would mean seeking him out and asking him. It would mean telling him. And I couldn’t do that. I wouldn’t.
I needed a doctor and to not tell another soul about this outside of that.
Pulling my shirt down, I stood up and left the stall, then paused in front of the mirror and looked at myself. Fuck. There really was no way I was going to hide whatever was happening to me.
If we had black uniforms, it might be easier, but the shirt we had was so light that any staining was easy to see. And to make matters worse, this one had shrunk in the dryer or something because it was stretched too tightly across my chest.
I knew my pecs had gotten bigger, but surely not so big that they’d made my shirt fit like this.
Grabbing some brown paper towels, I tried dabbing at my shirt, but it didn’t help anything. It almost made it worse. I needed to leave. There was no way I could stay like this.
Mind made up, I crossed my arms over my chest and walked out of the bathroom.
Link’s eyes found me almost instantly, and I made a beeline across the room to him.
“Hey,” I said quietly, trying not to let the client he was working with overhear me. “I need the keys. I need to go home.”
His nostrils flared, and he eyed me up and down. “Why do you need to go home? Our shift just started.”
There was no way in hell I was telling him that some mystery fluid was coming out of my damn nipples, so I shook my head. “Just not feeling well. Can I have the keys or not?”
He nodded. “In my locker.” I was about to walk away when he caught my arm in his grasp. “Do you need me to come with you?”
“No.”
I tried to pull away, but he held firm, not letting me go for a second. He inhaled deeply, and for a moment, I could have sworn I heard him groan under his breath before he released me.
“Don’t forget to come back and get me,” he grumbled, his voice gritty and raw.
I shook him off and darted toward the lockers to get the keys. I managed to keep my chest covered until I made it to the car, and when I sat down in the driver’s seat, I realized with horror that the staining on my shirt had gotten worse, the spots growing.
Fuck. What was happening to me?
Link
Elias parked the car, waiting for me. Thankfully, he hadn’t forgotten to pick me up, but he seemed to have forgotten about me in every other sense of the word.
I’d sent him messages throughout the day, trying to figure out what was going on with him.
He didn’t reply to any of them, which not only pissed me off but worried me too.
If he was seriously sick, I wanted to know so I could help him.
The moment I opened the car door and went to swing my gym bag into the back, it hit me. His smell again, but ten times stronger than before. I paused, staring at him. “Are you wearing… perfume?”
His eyebrows came together just as his hands gripped the steering wheel a bit tighter. “No? I don’t know what you mean.”
Shaking my head, I sat in the passenger seat, pulling the car door closed a bit harder than I meant to. “You smell different.”
“I smell different?”
“Yeah, bro, different. Really fucking different.”
He lifted his arm, sniffing his armpit. “I took a shower this morning. I shouldn’t stink.”
I had to roll the window down—give myself some fresh air before I lost it all right then and there.
I had half a mind to sniff it out like a fucking hound, tasting the air to find the exact source, the specific scent gland that was driving me absolutely wild and driving the alpha in me fucking insane.
“I never said you stink. I said you smell different. There’s a difference. ”
A big difference. One didn’t make my cock hard.
“Oh.” Elias cleared his throat. “Sorry.”
The entire drive home was spent with me subtly trying to tilt my head toward the window, breathing in the fresh scent of the wind. None of it was strong enough.
I followed Elias into our apartment, rounding the corner into the living room, where I set my bag on the floor. “Hey,” I called out to him. “Are you feeling any better?”
He was just about to turn the corner to the kitchen when he stopped and faced me. “Uh, yeah?”
“Is that a question or an answer?”
“I mean, no. Not really, honestly.”
“Well, what’s wrong?” I started walking toward him. “Do you need some medicine? I can run back into town and get some for you.”
When he backed away a little bit, I knew something was wrong. “I’m fine, Link.”
I narrowed my eyes, looking him up and down. That’s when I realized the hem of his shirt had ridden up, revealing… another shirt? “What’s up with this?”
I walked closer, only for him to back away again. He quickly pulled the shirt down. “Nothing. I was just cold.”
“Cold?” It wasn’t even cold outside. Plus, Elias never got cold in the first place. He’d always run hot—we both did. “Fuck, maybe that’s why you smell so different. You must be really sick. Let me feel your forehead.”
“I’m good, thanks.”
He turned to walk away again, but I grabbed his arm, forcing him to whirl on his heel and look at me. “Elias, what the fuck is going on with you?”
“I said I don’t feel well. Now let me go.”
I walked toward him, not stopping until his back was against the wall and I was looking down at him. “You’re lying.” I could tell. I could always tell. “You’re being weird.”
Averting his gaze, he set his jaw. “I’m not, and you’re the one being weird.”
“Oh, okay, says the one who—”
The moment I leaned my head further down, it hit me with the force of a thousand suns. Instead of sweltering rays of light, it was the intense, all-consuming smell of sweet almond and vanilla. “Holy fuck,” I groaned.
“What?”
Inhaling, I let my eyes fall shut, absorbing it into my very fucking soul as my cock twitched, an almost automatic response. “Fucking hell, Elias. You smell so fucking good.” I followed the scent, sticking my nose straight into the crook of his neck.
That wasn’t it. The smell was there, but not as strong. Where was it coming from?
“Link, what the fuck are you doing?”
I ignored him, sniffing down, down, down until finally, finally, I found the source. It was ten times stronger right fucking here. I pressed my nose into him, confused when the tip of my nose touched something… wet?
Opening my eyes, I realized where I’d stopped. It was Elias’s chest. My nose was right on his nipple.
So why was his shirt wet there, and why did he smell so fucking delicious?