22. Elliott #2
We found a nice spot under the shade of a large oak tree and sat in the soft grass.
Sighing, I said, “It’s really nice out here.”
“It is,” Jet agreed, leaning against the wide trunk of the tree and closing his eyes.
Thinking ahead to that evening, I said, “I have to feed the pigs tonight because Riku did the goats and chickens for me this morning. I hate feeding the pigs.”
“Want me to help you?” Jet offered.
“Oh, I wasn’t hinting at that. I’ll manage.”
“I really don’t mind,” he said.
I didn’t argue, deciding that if he still wanted to when we got back, I’d let him. Truthfully, I was enjoying being with him. Being with him was easy, and he smelled nice.
He smells nice? Where did that thought come from?
After a few moments watching some kids running around with a toy that consisted of only a stick and a hoop, I asked Jet a question that had been bothering me since we returned to the ranch.
“Do you know what you’ll do now? I guess Laura, Eric, and Nova won’t need all of you now that there’s no more danger from the government.”
“Kris will probably want some of us to stay at the ranch for a while, until things are settled in Capital City,” he said. “After that, I don’t know. I’ll probably be assigned somewhere.”
Imagining never seeing him again hurt so much, my nose stung and I had to fight tears that welled up in my eyes. Turning my head away from him, I tried to get hold of my emotions.
“Elliott? Why are you crying?”
Pressing my trembling lips together, I shook my head.
“Come here.” Jet half-lifted, half-pulled me onto his lap.
“Don’t cry,” he said softly, near my ear. When I refused to look at him, he turned my face to him with his hand and cupped my cheek, but I stubbornly kept my eyes lowered.
When he began kissing my tears away, I cried in earnest.
“I don’t like to see you cry,” he said. “What’s wrong?”
“Dunno.” I sounded like a sulky child.
“Could it be…that you don’t want me to leave the ranch?” he asked, and rather than think he was teasing me, I heard the small note of hope in his voice and realized he wanted that to be the case.
Pulling in a breath, I raised my eyes to meet his, releasing a cascade of tears down my cheeks.
Looking into his earnest gaze, I had to tell the truth, even though my cheeks burned in embarrassment.
“I don’t want you to leave.”
Jet’s smile was bright. “That’s good to know. Because lately I’ve begun to realize that there’s no way I could leave you.”
We stared at each other, letting the truth sink in.
“Do you think…do you think we feel this way because of what we did at the facility?” I asked, needing to know.
I was pretty sure I’d already felt something for Jet before I left the ranch, but there was no question my feelings deepened after our time together in the red room.
I would hate it if Jet’s feelings for me had been born from something instinctual rather than emotional.
Although, to be fair, I understood next to nothing about alpha/omega relationships.
I just knew that I wanted Jet to love me for me, rather than due to sex.
Hold it. Love?
Jet shook his head. “It started before then. For both of us.”
Relieved, I nodded and leaned against him.
We sat like that for a long time. I got the feeling Jet was as reluctant to let me go as I was to release myself from his hold.
“I’ve changed my mind about visiting the rest of the booths,” I said when we finally stood up and brushed the grass from our clothes.
I felt oddly cold now that his arms weren’t around me anymore.
“I’m getting tired. Let’s just go get the honey that Ben asked for and then leave.
Unless there’s something you want to get? ”
“I don’t have anything. I’m good with whatever you want,” Jet took my hand. The same warmth, the same skip of my heart, but this time more meaningful than before.
After getting the honey Ben had asked me to get, we drove back to the ranch. Jet insisted on helping me with the pigs, and I was secretly glad.
When we’d finished dealing with them, we washed our hands at the spigot at the side of the barn.
“You want to go canoe on the pond?” Jet asked me.
“But it’s getting dark,” I said.
“There are lanterns on the dock. Come on. It’ll be nice.”
“Okay. But I’d better take these inside first and let everyone know I’m back.” I held up the bag of keychains and honey.
Jet nodded. “Okay. I’ll wait for you here.”
With a racing heart, I hurried into the house and dropped my stuff on the kitchen table. “Don’t let anyone mess with this,” I called to Camp, who had turned around from where he’d been playing a video game on the couch. “I’ll be back a little later.”
I hurried out of the house before he could reply and took Jet’s hand when he held it out for me. It made me want to cry again. Since when was I so sentimental?
When we arrived at the pond, the cacophony of croaking that arose as startled frogs jumped into the water made me laugh.
“We’ve disturbed the frogs’ evening,” I told Jet as he lit a lantern.
I stepped into the canoe and sat down. Jet began pushing the small boat into the water, then jumped into it at the last moment.
I tried helping him to row, but I kept making the boat turn in circles, so I gave up and gave my oar to him.
The night was beautiful, with hundreds of stars and a bright moon.
Fireflies blinked everywhere, and the frogs took up their song again.
I watched an owl fly over our heads before looking down at Jet.
His white t-shirt seemed to glow in the darkness, and the muscles and veins of his arms bulged under his skin as he paddled us out into the pond.
As in the car on the way to the market, my attention was drawn to his long legs.
They were parted, and my gaze fell to the humid space between them and the bulge there.
I wanted to move into that space. Kneel and…
“Jet,” I said hoarsely as my temperature abruptly rose.
“Hm?” He was paying attention to his rowing and didn’t look up.
In seconds, I became so hot and uncomfortable that I was tempted to jump into the cold pond.
Unable to stand it, I lifted my shirt to let the cool night air kiss my torso.
I recognized the temperature surge as a sign of an oncoming heat but didn’t know what to do about it.
Moreover, I wasn’t sure I wanted to do anything about it.
“I…”
As my temperature rose higher, I felt like I was burning from the inside out. Yanking my shirt over my head, I threw it to the bottom of the canoe as a yearning ache took up in my core.
Abruptly, Jet’s head jerked up, a look of surprise on his face. Then his nostrils flared and he sniffed the air. His dark gaze roved over me. My lips parted as I watched his body tense and the bulge between his legs expand in size until it looked like the shorts wouldn’t contain him.
“Are you…”
Swallowing, I nodded. My chest rose and fell in quick pants as I clung to the seat on either side of me until my knuckles were white.
With a frantic move that almost caused him to lose an oar, Jet began rowing back toward the shore while I stared at him intensely, as though that would make us go faster.
Nearly at the shore, Jet stepped out into the water and yanked the canoe with force, toppling me forward. Before I could set myself aright, his arms came around my waist and he lifted me from the boat, depositing me several feet from the shore on a patch of cool grass.
He opened his mouth to say something, but I kissed him. It didn’t take long for him to get with the program, kissing me back with hungry sucks on my lips.
Arching my back, I pressed my erection against his hipbone, my hands roving over his back and under his shirt to get to bare skin.
“You feel so good,” I said between hard pants. “Take off your clothes.”
He immediately complied, leaning away from me to pull his t-shirt over his head, revealing his sculpted chest with its glorious eight pack.
Remembering his tattoo, I said, “Turn around.” He did, allowing me to see the large alpha/omega symbol etched in ink in the middle of his back. Bending, he shed his shorts and underwear, putting on display the most beautiful ass I’d ever seen.
With a drawn-out groan, I scrambled to my knees, and Jet looked at me over his shoulder.
Slowly turning around, his long, curved cock pointing upward, he walked back to me.
As soon as he was close enough, I ran greedy hands up his hairy thighs, feeling every inch of them before reaching for his heavy ballsac and burying my face in it.