Chapter 19 Dominic #3
"I know you've been fucking him." She says it casually, like commenting on the weather. "I know your brother has too. The whole house can smell it. You think you're different from Richard because you make him come first? You're not. You're just better at packaging the same product."
I take a step closer. She doesn't flinch, but her fingers tighten on the wine glass.
"If you interfere with Mattaniah, if you use what you know against him, against us, I will make sure every man you've ever honey-trapped knows exactly who set them up.
" My voice stays quiet because threats don't need volume.
"Amos has been very thorough. Names, dates, dollar amounts.
The network you've spent twenty years building will collapse in a single afternoon. "
For the first time, something like uncertainty flickers across her face.
"You wouldn't."
"Try me."
Silence stretches between us, her composure rebuilding itself piece by piece, but I've seen the crack now. I know where to press if I need to.
"We're not enemies, Dominic." Her voice has lost its edge. "We both want to survive Richard. We both want security. There's no reason we can't help each other."
"I don't need your help. And you don't get to touch Mattaniah's life anymore." I turn toward the door. "Stay in your lane. Spend Richard's money. Play the role. But stay away from your son, or I'll end you."
I leave without waiting for a response, hating that she's not wrong about everything. The scheme did start as strategy. Mattaniah was supposed to be a tool, a way to get at Father, a means to an end.
But somewhere between the first kiss and tonight, the tool became a person.
The strategy became something that makes my chest ache when he looks at me with those eyes full of trust he shouldn't have.
I don't know what that makes me. I don't know if it makes me better than Father or just better at lying to myself.
What I know is that Father's hands don't get to touch him again. Whatever that costs.
Mattaniah arrives at my door two hours later, wearing sweatpants and one of Amos' t-shirts that he's clearly stolen from the laundry and has no intention of returning.
"Close the door, firefly." I pull him inside by the wrist and press him against the wall.
The kiss is hard enough to bend his head back as his hands grab my shoulders and his body arches into mine.
I can taste Father's proximity on his skin, the faint residue of another Alpha's scent clinging to the back of his neck where Father's thumb spent ninety minutes today, and every possessive instinct in my body wants to bite down and cover it.
I want to pin him to this wall and fuck Father's touch out of his skin until the only scent on him is mine.
I pull back instead. Mattaniah blinks up at me, flushed and breathless, his fingers still dug into my shoulders.
"What's wrong?" His voice is unsteady. "Why did you stop?"
"Come sit down." I guide him to the bed and sit beside him while Amos sets his book aside. Mattaniah looks between us, his flush fading as confusion takes over, because I've never stopped a kiss to have a conversation and the deviation from the pattern is scaring him.
"You're freaking me out," he says. "Just tell me what's wrong."
"Nothing's wrong." I rest my hand on his thigh, grounding us both. "I need to tell you something and I need you to hear it before we go any further tonight."
Amos shifts behind Mattaniah, his hand coming to rest on the Omega's lower back. The touch steadies the anxiety I can smell building in Mattaniah's scent.
"After what happened in the conference room today, every instinct I have is telling me to claim you.
" I keep my voice level even though the words cost me more than I expected.
"My father had his hands on you and the Alpha in me wants to erase every second of that by pinning you down and making you smell like me instead.
I want to dominate you right now, Mattaniah.
I want to fuck you until you forget his hands ever touched you. "
Mattaniah's breath catches as his scent spikes a little.
"But the last time I let that instinct drive, I put you somewhere you couldn't come back from on your own." I hold his gaze because looking away would make this easier and I don't deserve easier right now. "I pushed too hard and I scared you and Amos had to pull me off. I'm not doing that again."
"Dominic..." Mattaniah's hand finds mine on his thigh.
"So tonight, Amos is going to take care of you.
" I squeeze his hand. "I'm going to watch.
Not because I don't want you, because every part of me wants to be inside you right now and the fact that I'm choosing not to is costing me more than you know.
But I need to learn when to step back, and you need to be touched by someone who isn't running on territorial rage. "
"That's..." Mattaniah swallows hard. "That's the most honest thing you've ever said to me."
"Don't get used to it." The corner of my mouth twitches despite everything. "Amos, he's all yours."
Amos' smile carries a warmth that cuts through the tension as he pulls Mattaniah back against his chest. "Amos said something in the kitchen," Mattaniah says, his voice already shifting from the conversation into something breathier as Amos' hands slide under his stolen shirt. "Something about you wanting to watch."
"Did he?" I settle into the chair by the window and spread my legs.
"I believe what I said was that you'd want to watch me have him." Amos peels the t-shirt over Mattaniah's head and tosses it aside. "And I've been very patient."
"Too patient." The words come out rougher than I intend because watching Amos' hands move over Mattaniah's bare chest while I sit across the room is already testing every boundary I just set for myself.
Amos lowers his mouth to Mattaniah's throat, his hands finding the waistband of the sweatpants, tugging them down to reveal the dark gray slick panties underneath.
He pauses, looking at me over Mattaniah's shoulder, the recognition in his expression mirroring my own.
The fabric is doing its job but the visual evidence of Mattaniah's arousal is unmistakable.
"I like these," Amos murmurs against Mattaniah's neck.
"Your Alpha delivered them this morning." Mattaniah's voice is already strained. "Apparently, my slick situation required a wardrobe intervention."
"It did." Amos runs his thumb along the waistband. "And they look as incredible on you as I thought they would."
I watch from the chair as Amos takes his time, staying seated while my little Alpha touches the Omega I claimed for us.
Amos' mouth traces a path from Mattaniah's throat to his chest, pausing to bite down gently on one nipple while Mattaniah's fingers twist in the sheets.
His tongue drags lower, following the line of dark hair below Mattaniah's navel, and the Omega's hips roll up off the mattress chasing the contact.
Amos hooks his thumb under the waistband of the slick panties and pulls them to the side instead of removing them, the fabric stretching against Mattaniah's inner thigh, framing the slick mess between his legs.
His fingers slide through the gathered wetness and press inside, two at once, Mattaniah's back arching further off the bed with a cry that goes straight to my cock.
"Eyes on me, firefly." I unbuckle my belt and free myself, wrapping my hand around my length as I watch Amos' fingers disappear inside the Omega.
Mattaniah's gaze finds mine across the room and holds, his lips parted, his eyes glazed, his body rocking against Amos' hand with a desperation that makes my grip tighten.
Amos adds a third finger and crooks them forward, Mattaniah's whole body jerking in response.
The sound he makes is obscene, wet and needy and loud enough that I'm grateful Father decided to fuck off for the evening after I stepped in this afternoon.
Amos withdraws his fingers and replaces them with his cock in one slow push, entering Mattaniah with the panties still stretched to the side, the dark gray fabric damp and clinging to his thigh.
Amos sets a rhythm that's slower than mine would be, each thrust rolling Mattaniah's body against the mattress while the Omega grips the sheets above his head, his sounds becoming progressively less coherent.
Amos' mouth finds Mattaniah's throat between thrusts, biting and sucking marks into the skin where Father's thumb sat this afternoon, the territorial claim in the gesture tightening something hot in my gut.
"You feel incredible, Niah." Amos' voice has gone rough as his hips snap forward harder. "Tight and wet and clenching around me every time Dominic looks at you. You know he's watching, don't you? You know he's sitting in that chair stroking his cock to the sight of you falling apart on mine."
Mattaniah whimpers and his hips buck. "Amos, I'm going to..."
"Not yet." Amos' hand digs into the panties and unearths the Omega’s cock before wrapping around the base of Mattaniah's length. "Not until Dominic tells you to."
Mattaniah's eyes snap to mine across the room, his whole body strung tight on the edge while Amos keeps thrusting into him with strokes that I can see are hitting exactly the right spot.
"Please." His voice breaks. "Dominic, please, I can't hold it."
I stroke myself faster, my thumb dragging through the precome gathered at the tip. Mattaniah is shaking on the edge and every second I make him wait makes his sounds more desperate and his body more responsive, his hips rolling in frantic circles against Amos' thrusts.
"Come for us, firefly."
His cock pulses in Amos' grip as he spills across his own stomach, Amos’ thrusts growing wilder before he slams in one last time, locking them together while Mattaniah writhes beneath him.
I finish in my own hand to the sight of them, Mattaniah's face buried in Amos' neck while the knot ties them in place.
I cross the room and climb onto the bed beside them. My hand settles on Mattaniah's hip, my thumb tracing the waistband of the slick panties still stretched to the side, framing where Amos is buried inside him before leaning down and pressing my mouth against the Omega's temple.
"You're keeping those," I murmur against his skin. "All four pairs."
"I wasn't planning on giving them back." His voice is wrecked against Amos' chest.
Amos' knot deflates fifteen minutes later, the three of us rearranging across the bed as I clean them both up.
Mattaniah reaches over the edge to grab something before situating himself in the middle with his head on my chest and his legs tangled with Amos'.
His breathing has settled and his body is loose against mine as I run my fingers through his curls when Amos props himself up on one elbow.
Several seconds of silence pass before Amos lets out a soft chuckle. "Niah. Are you nesting?"
Mattaniah's whole body goes rigid against my chest. "What? No. I don't... no."
"You’re currently laying on top of our shirts.
” Amos grins as my gaze dips to the space beneath us, some of the fabric jutting out from under the Omega.
His face floods crimson as Amos continues.
“I wouldn’t have said anything but you also have one of my shirts under your pillow.
My scarf is on your nightstand." Amos ticks items off his list. "Dominic's jacket has been in your cubicle for a week and you stole my t-shirt from the laundry and wore it here tonight. "
"The shirt is comfortable. The scarf smells nice.
The jacket wrinkles easily." Each excuse comes out faster than the last and his face is turning red against my chest. "The t-shirt was in the communal laundry, and it's not stealing if it's in the communal laundry.
" His face scrunches up, his lids shutting for a moment.
“And I only pulled the shirts off the floor because... because...”
"Niah."
"I'm not nesting." He pulls the blanket up to his chin. "I'm just collecting things that happen to smell like both of you. In a completely normal, non-nesting way."
Amos looks at me over Mattaniah's head. I raise one eyebrow back at him.
"Okay," Amos says. "Not nesting. My mistake."
Mattaniah pulls the blanket higher and mutters something about insufferable Alphas who don't know how to mind their own business.