Chapter 40
Chapter Forty
TALLY
“ M a, tell Tally you were having a craic about having the family around next week,” Ronin says for what seems like the tenth time since Jeanie picked up the call.
He’s probably right—she was only joking—but what if she wasn't?
“No can do, son,” Jeanie says with that same teasing edge Ronin gets. I can’t see her face to know if she’s messing around.
If I was only dealing with one thing, I’d be fine. Not only is Jeanie, possibly, dead serious about me hosting the entire O’Connor family next week, but Rafferty’s been sending me text after text, begging me to come see him.
Of course, I instantly said yes to him. To be honest, I’m not even listening to Ronin and Jeanie talking anymore, because I’m thinking of Rafferty.
I definitely want to see him. I adore him. The hesitation comes from again questioning why I lose sight of everything when it comes to this pack. My survival and well-being, mainly.
There is a high chance things are going to go to shit very soon. I can feel it in my bones, as clearly as I can scent Keegan sitting behind me. For that reason alone, I should have come up with a flimsy excuse, but apparently, I’m a muppet when it comes to this pack.
Except, I swear it’s not just me being crazy; fate has a funny way of making it near impossible to avoid them time and time again.
Today, it was Ronin and Keegan getting a call from Paddy.
Apparently, the police are about to raid one of their storage sheds.
It doesn’t take a mathematician to figure out why they’re now having to deal with that BS, as opposed to helping Rafferty through his heat and making sure my house is as secure as can be.
And while I get it’s not my fault, Keegan’s the one with the wicked fast reflexes any cowboy in the west would’ve been jealous of.
At the same time, I had a part in what happened.
Kind of. Sort of. I’m clearly grasping at straws in my reasoning, especially because I’m a grown woman capable of making decisions, but this pack is turning me into an amadán.
When Ronin and Keegan asked me to stay with Rafferty while they’re dealing with the raid, how could I say no? Not that it’s a hard ask.
Since Ronin is still on the phone, Keegan walks me to the entry to their apartment building. It feels like forever since I was here. It also feels nice, normal, even, to be back.
Keegan’s hand clamps over my nape as the doors unlock, and I twist to see what the problem is. His mouth is on mine before I can turn fully around. His eyes are open, the color in them vibrant, the ownership in them terrifying.
“Don’t leave until we’re back,” he murmurs against my mouth, nipping my bottom lip.
I should be saying don’t be bossy or putting up some sort of protest, but I’m falling into him, barely holding on again.
When the door starts to close, his foot wedges it open, and then Keegan is being Keegan again, physically manhandling me and the situation. He lifts me up and deposits me safely inside the foyer, pulling the door shut to lock me in and him out.
I get another pointed look through the glass doors.
The meaning is as obvious as him telling me to be here when he gets back, and as loose in the head as I currently am, I also get a thrill from teasing Keegan.
I dip my head, hiding my eyes, but my small smile is also easy to read as a challenge. Which it is.
Turning around, I press the elevator button and ignore him smacking on the glass for my attention.
He could easily unlock the door, but Ronin is also hitting the horn, hurrying him up.
I walk into the lift, then pop out and blow a kiss his way, knowing he’d be there watching the doors close properly before walking away.
“What are you doing, you dick?” I murmur, while also running a hand over my hair and fixing the mess Keegan made of my lip gloss.
The doors open, and I get jumped.
Rafferty’s skin is impossibly warm, his yummy sage scent ripened by his heat. He’s all over me. His hands grab, his small whines filling my ears.
“Raff, let her out of the lift.” Tynan pulls him off me.
There’s not one drop of apology in Rafferty’s cheeky grin. “Come on. Hurry up.”
I take his outstretched hand. “What’s the rush?”
“I want, no, I need to be next to you. And this is your chance to make my dream come true, since you won’t be here for the rest of my heat. Not happy, by the way, but I totally relate too.”
He tugs me, making my feet move, and I realize where we are.
Seriously, my head is all over the place.
Despite watching the numbers telling me what floor I was on, it didn’t register until now.
Tynan’s scent in his apartment is as much of a sledgehammer as Rafferty’s is.
No one else would be as affected, the magic of scent-matched mates striking again.
I’m pretty sure that Rafferty has made himself at home in the middle of Tynan’s living room.
He dragged a mattress from goodness knows where and surrounded it with as many pillows and cushions as he could find, by the looks.
His nesting drive is riding him hard, because on top of the bedding he’s made, he’s got quilts, duvets, blankets, throws, and a pile of his Alphas clothes.
“Come on, Tally,” he mumbles, but he also hasn’t let go of my hand, so it’s not like I have a choice.
Rafferty races us past Tynan before he plucks me off my feet and curls around me, pulling us both to the middle of his space. He sweeps us backwards before pulling up all the blankets and plunging us into a warm, woolly darkness.
“Tally, feel this,” he whispers, but Rafferty has a sly edge and a wicked smile.
He takes my hand, then he wraps my fingers under his balls to cup his hard dick. My fingers barely reach around his girth. “See what my heat does? Shit, don’t stop.”
I adjust my hold and start running my hand up and down his length. He shudders, puffing his sage sweet breath in my face.
“Will you watch a movie with me, or maybe we should have a bath?” He talks fast, and small groans follow each word.
I understand, though, that this isn’t about anything but being an Omega. He needs the relief of someone else’s touch. If his heat is anything like mine, the space between these moments will slowly but surely disappear until all he can do is chase the relief of coming.
“Ssh,” I insist, reaching up so we can kiss while I fondle him over his sweats.
It’s important I let him drive his heat. So, if he wants me to jerk him off while he’s still dressed, then that’s what I’ll do.
Even his kisses taste like his mouth and tongue have been painted in liquid sugar, making him sweeter than ever. His skin is warm, his hair down so it hangs like a halo around us.
It takes no time at all until he’s whimpering into my mouth and fighting to free himself at the same time. Our arms and legs go everywhere, but we manage to pull his sweats down to his thighs at the same time he starts to orgasm.
Sitting up a little, I get my first glimpse of a male Omega in heat.
All around his groin, he’s swollen, and he’s glistening, as if he’s dipped himself in a jar of honey.
A rush of warmth gathers in my own body at the sight, and I kick myself for saying no.
But I seriously have to. If I get caught up in Rafferty and his heat, I’ll be forgetting my intentions and begging for bites.
His stomach muscles ripple in the aftermath of his release.
His sweats need to be changed because of how slick soaked they are.
I sit up and guide his legs out before I fold them up and leave them to the side.
His T-shirt goes next, and then Rafferty reclines back, his arm bent behind his head as he stares at me with his hooded, sex-filled eyes.
He definitely doesn’t look like he’s in any discomfort at all. He’s positively glowing, and scenting up a storm.
“How about a bath or a shower?” As I trail my fingers up his leg, he squirms but doesn’t pull away.
“No. I just want to be near you.”
“We can do that,” I whisper, sinking into the space he makes for me. Rafferty’s arm wraps around me like ivy, and he holds me as close to him as possible.
“Tell me a secret,” he insists. He exhales, and it makes my head swim because of how thick his scent is.
It’s strange to be on the other side of an Omega in heat.
I get now why people lose control of themselves around Omegas, but being this close to Rafferty, it’s like there’s a canyon of differences between knowing and experiencing.
Everything about him is intensified, and everything in me responds.
I have to fight with myself not to fall into a heat with him.
Another time, a different place, it would be an easy thing to do.
To simply let go of everything holding me back and surrender to him, and them.
Perhaps one day, or perhaps never; either way, I’ll take a lot of this with me when I drag myself out of Tynan’s door.
“Tally bear, tell me something you’ve never told anyone before.”
Like his scent is targeted to entrapment, his words have me confessing without thought.
“I’ve never done a heat with a pack before.”
He’s dangerous to me. I share dreams and secrets like they’re candy, when I should be keeping them locked away forever.
He hisses like I burned him and goes to sit up. I settle my hand on his chest to hold him down and turn the table on him. “No judgment. Only secrets, okay?”
“Of course,” Rafferty answers as he hooks his leg over me and we nearly become one. I know he’s trying to ground me into a safe space where secrets stay.
I curl against him more, our conversation low and private, full of touches and anchoring scents. “What about you, Raff? What’s the one thing you’d tell me?”
He draws his nose against the underside of my jaw. “I hated being an Omega when I emerged. I only stayed around for Tynan because he should have been an Alpha, just like I should have been.”