Chapter 5 #2
“Hey, Boss. Told the men not to come in. The rain is going to last for the rest of the day. Won’t get anything done.”
I wet my lips, letting myself take in his damp hair, the droplets dripping down his jaw. I want to lean forward and lick them up. Totally unprofessional.
I should write myself up.
“Right. Makes sense. Thank you for doing that.”
“Sure thing, and, uh, power’s out, too.”
“Shit.”
“My place isn’t far. You can come over—”
Oh, no, no, no. This is a bad idea. A terrible one, I think, as he runs a hand through his hair, looking far too sexy for this kind of job. I never had a thing for construction workers until I met him.
I’m going to have to buy another air purifier for the office if he keeps being this hot. I didn’t expect to want someone so badly, but here we are. My scents seem to be growing stronger when I’m around him, like he’s pulling them out of me.
I fucking despise it and love it at the same time.
“Do you think that’s a good idea?” I ask, and he grins at me and shrugs.
“We’ll be professional, or you can write me up. Promise.”
I huff, and he winks at me. “Come on. Follow me. You can do your work there. I have a generator and won’t lose power.”
“I really shouldn’t.”
“You know you want to. A day without working. What will you do?”
I have no idea, so I just dip my chin slightly.
His lips twitch, and he jogs to his truck and hops inside, leaving me to do nothing but follow him. I really have no choice in the matter. It would be rude to turn around and go home. And to be honest, I don’t want to go home. It’s fucking lonely there.
It’s far away too, and I can get work done at Glenn’s place…I mean, Mr. Barrett’s place.
This is work-related only. Like he said. And he’s right; what would I do if I weren’t working?
I hate the thought of it.
So, I follow him down the highway that connects the work site to Wolverston and then turn right on a lane almost invisible to the naked eye.
My car bumps down a gravel road, and in the distance, through the water streaming down the windshield, is a cute little doublewide sitting between two large trees and a row of flowers.
The siding is dark blue with a bright yellow door and white-framed windows.
A wooden porch wraps around the entire thing, and when I squint, I can make out a few chairs out front.
Fuck if this isn’t the nicest place I’ve seen in a while.
It’s homey, colorful. Exactly what I’d want if I had a place that was truly my own. I can’t wait to see inside.
I turn the car off and grab my briefcase, stepping out onto the gravel. Glenn is already on the porch, dumping something from a container into bowls near the chairs. I wonder what he’s feeding as I skirt around a muddy puddle.
“Sorry about that,” he calls over, pulling his shirt up and over his head. “It’s a little muddy.”
My eyes slip to his chest, to the large pecs and muscular abdomen, and my foot lands the wrong way. My body slides to the right, my leg twisting oddly to the left. And before I know it, my ass is in the mud.
My mouth opens and closes, trying to regain my breath and my ego. Sadly, neither is anywhere to be found.
But before I can disappear into the muck, I’m pulled up by strong arms, laughter in the air.
“Shit, you scared me,” Glenn says, water running down his face from the rain. “Let’s get you inside and changed. You can use my shower.”
“This is mortifying.”
“Nah, it’s fine. You look cute all dirty.”
That brings back thoughts of the Heat Hunt, to the way he took me in the mud, smeared it around my skin as he fucked into me.
The way it was absolutely primal.
My cock is instantly hard as we stop at the door and toe off our shoes. I wonder if I should take off my pants too, but then again, that would give him a front-row seat to the hard dick standing at attention between my legs.
“Please don’t compliment me. I’m still your boss.”
He arches an eyebrow at me, and I turn my gaze away.
“Should I take these off here?” I finally ask, wanting it to be his decision.
“If you want.”
“Could you tell me what to do?” I say, worrying my bottom lip.
He shrugs. “All right, Boss. Take them off. Less mess that way.”
I let out a long breath and hold out my briefcase for Glenn. He takes it as I shuck my pants off, leaving me only in a pair of tiny boxer briefs.
His eyes take them in, his pupils dilating when he catches the bulge in the front. The way he watches me makes my slick thicken.
Fuck, I better not go into heat here. I fucking better not.
“All right, in we go.”
He opens the front door, and as he does, I see several fur balls move toward the food he placed in bowls earlier.
“You have cats?”
“Rodents,” he murmurs as I follow him inside.
He closes the door and then stalks toward the hallway.
And the entire time, I’m taking it all in—an old hand-drawn map of Wolverston on the dark gray wall, an overstuffed tan couch, two well-taken-care-of plants.
The living area is not large by any means, but it feels fucking nice.
Like a place I could sit in for hours, under a blanket with a cup of hot chocolate. It’s a place that could be home.
“Take all the time you need. I’ll make some coffee. Won’t be the fancy kind, but I roast my own beans…”
I nod. “Thank you, Mr. Barrett.”
He lets out a small huff. “You’re welcome, Mr. Wren. Towels are in the cabinet right there.”
I nod and close the door behind me. The bathroom is larger than I expected, with tile floors and a large clawfoot tub. I bet he did all the work in this place. I bet he takes pride in how he made this place a home.
I strip down completely naked, and turn on the water, feeling it warm my skin as I run my hand under it.
It’s only when I’m half soaped up and under the shower that I realize I don’t have a change of clothes, nor did he offer me any.
That means I need to leave this bathroom in just the towel he gave me.
A dangerous business indeed.
And it is.
When I step out of the shower, freshly washed and the towel around my waist, Glenn is waiting for me, a cup of coffee in his hand. His eyes slide down my bare skin like a soft caress, and I shiver.
“Here. Made this for you.” He hands me the mug. “Come on, let me get you some clothes. I’ll throw yours in the wash.”
“I—no. Thank you. They need to be dry cleaned.”
He huffs and then shakes his head. “Of course they do.”
He leads me down the hallway to his bedroom, and it’s there that I feel the slick I washed away in the shower return. Because right in the middle of the room, pressed up against the far wall, is a bed.
His bed.
Oh gods. I want to crawl under those thick sheets and nest. Not that I will, but fuck, this entire room smells like him.
And now it smells of me.
Glenn inhales and clears his throat.
He must smell it. He has to. It’s fucking obvious.
I should apologize, open a window, offer to work outside on the porch, but part of me thinks I shouldn’t address it. Should pretend it isn’t happening. It’s sometimes better that way.
“You want to rummage around, see what will fit you?” he asks.
I bite back a moan, thinking of myself wearing something of his.
“Why don’t you just guess?”
I can’t help but trail my fingers across the cool fabric of the comforter, the movement giving me a whiff of him.
My hole leaks even more.
He inhales deeply again, his tongue wetting his lips.
“All right. Here,” he says, handing me a folded pair of pajama bottoms and a T-shirt. Our fingers brush, and I shiver. This is going to be the death of me.
I won’t make it out of this house alive. All I’ll be doing the entire time I’m here is thinking of him sucking my cock, eating my ass, and impaling my greedy, wet hole.
“I’ll let you get changed.”
He leaves me, his steps stilted, the door shutting softly behind him. As soon as he’s gone, I drop my towel and quickly put his clothes on, inhaling the scent of his detergent.
This is making me unwell, mentally and physically. I’ve never been this obsessed with someone, especially an alpha. Usually, I’m able to use them for what they provide me and then leave. I’ve never wanted to actually stay.
I bite back a disgruntled moan as I grab a tissue from the adjoining bathroom, wiping myself up as best I can. I know it’s futile because I’m in his house, watching him, smelling him.
My undoing.
He’ll know the effect he has on my internal omega within seconds.
And yet, my feet still propel me forward and into the other room. I sip on my coffee to keep my mouth busy, but I have trouble swallowing when I see him on a ladder in the kitchen, changing out some kind of light fixture.
“You can sit anywhere you’d like,” he says, my eyes drifting down to that bit of skin on his stomach as he lifts his arms.
I finally get my throat to work, swallowing the coffee and nodding.
“Thanks.”
“Sure thing. How’s the coffee?”
“So good.” And it is. I’m not even lying. It’s better than the stuff I put in my special machine each morning. “Did you really roast these?”
“Yep, might even get a fancy machine one day to match yours.”
He grunts softly, sending a thrill through me, my hole growing unbearably slick.
Fuck. This is going to be a long fucking day. I should go home. I should work in peace in the city, but my body doesn’t let me. It knows what it wants. So, I just take a seat at the kitchen table and open my laptop.
The entire time I sit there, I’m assessing Glenn, who is still working in front of me. But it’s not like I can help it. He’s so fucking striking.
My skin grows warm, beads of sweat sitting at my hairline, and I force myself to look away, to put him out of my mind. But my gaze keeps sneaking back to him. My skin feels almost too tight, my cock throbbing.
Fuck, if this keeps up, I’m going to end up in heat.
I’m precariously close as it is. It’s been building for the past few days.
Putting on my glasses, I stare at my computer screen, forcing my fingers to move. And they do. Slowly at first, but eventually I get in the groove.
That is, until the power goes out. It jerks me from my concentration, and I blink wildly.
“Shit,” Glenn murmurs. “Let me go fire up the generator.”
Without waiting, he disappears outside, the rain and wind howling.
I’m left in the dark, working with only the battery on my computer.
It makes me think of that night—running through the woods, hoping an alpha would choose me, wondering if it was all a mistake as they passed me, one by one. And then he appeared. He chased me.
Took me. Forced me.
I fucking loved it.
Suddenly, the lights flicker on and Glenn reappears, his shirt damp, water sluicing down his skin.
I blink over at him, trying not to moan out loud at the sight of him.
“Really is a bad storm.”
I nod, swallowing roughly.
“You may want to stay here tonight.”
Oh gods, if I do that, I’ll surely never leave. And I can’t do that. I cannot.
“I think I’ll be okay,” I manage to say as he pulls his shirt off and tosses it aside.
My blood thrums through me, and I reach between my legs, adjusting my hard length, trying to soothe it, to curb that ache, but it only builds.
And builds.
By the time lunch rolls around, Glenn is in the kitchen fixing me something to eat, and I’m writhing in my chair, trying to be subtle.
But my scent is overwhelming even for me.
He must smell it, but he doesn’t say anything.
Doesn’t even open a fucking window. Just continues working as if it doesn’t bother him.
It makes me hornier.
No one has ever liked my scent to this extent.
“Can I use your bathroom?”
“You don’t need to ask, Arbor.”
The way he says my name has me shivering as I push myself upright and toward the bathroom I changed in earlier. When the door is closed, I splash water on my overheated face and wipe myself up again.
It’s ridiculous the amount of slick my body is producing. As if it remembers how good that Heat Hunt was and wants to go again.
Maybe I should. Maybe I should just ask for it, ask him to put me out of my misery.
The thought forms in my head, and it doesn’t disappear. It just blooms during lunch, a delicious spread of mini sandwiches, cheese, and fruit.
Who the fuck is this man? I swear to the gods, he can’t be real.
“You full?” he asks, and I bob my head, wiping my mouth and patting my stomach.
“Extremely. And it was so good, too. Where did you learn to cook?”
“My mom. Dad, too. But mostly, I love eating, so I taught myself.”
“It’s fantastic. I had to learn myself, too, but I’m not nearly this good.”
He shrugs, picking up the plate and bringing it to the sink.
“I’m sure you’re fine.”
I don’t know about that. If he heard how I order in most days, it would probably appall him.
“All right, feel free to go back to working. I’m gonna see about putting up some shelves.”
“Do you ever not work?” I ask as I push my glasses back up my nose and blink at him.
“Have a hard time sitting still. I enjoy building stuff.”
“Apparently. Your house is amazing.”
“Thanks.”
He glances over at me, and I blush like a schoolboy with a crush. “What’s your place like? I’ve wondered.”
My skin is ten degrees hotter. What exactly has he imagined? My slick drips down my thighs, and I bite back a small moan, wondering if he’s envisioned himself in my loft, our bodies naked, writhing.
What would he do to me in my space? What would he make me do?
I bite my bottom lip and shift in my seat. I see Glenn’s nostrils flaring, and it makes my breath come out in short sputters.
“I’m sorry about this,” I finally whisper. “I can’t help it.”
“Why are you apologizing?”
“The smell.”
“Smells nice,” he replies, and I squeeze my dick so hard I gasp.
“You don’t want to open a window?”
“No. Like I said, I like it.”
“You can’t say stuff like that. You can’t.”
“Just did. You gonna write me up for that, too?” His eyes twinkle, but I see a flash of his alpha move through those depths. He likes what he sees, but is trying to restrain the urge to take.
“Maybe I will.”
He cocks his head and adjusts the tool belt on his hips.
“Maybe I’ll make you apologize like I did last time.”
“I didn’t apologize!”
His lips curl up into a smile. “Well, you begged for it, so I count that as a win.”
“That makes no sense.”
But this back and forth is only making me needier. How easy it is, how simple. It’s like he was made for me.
For just this moment.
My eyes slide down his body to his groin, and I see his bulge there, thick and waiting.
A whine escapes me, and I feel my entire body tingle and begin to ache.
Oh shit. Oh fucking shit. No, oh gods. No. Not now. Not here.
Thunder rolls across the sky, and I see Glenn’s eyes flash as he senses the change in me, the way my skin glows with need.
“What do you need, Arbor?” he finally asks, the lights flickering slightly.
“My alpha.”