9. Chapter Nine
Chapter Nine
Robert
Heat flushed my face at Jackson’s low, sultry words, and I had to look away from his heated gaze. While I had enjoyed our light flirting via text this week, being flirted with by the man sitting across the short distance from me was another thing entirely. My body didn’t know what to do with itself.
My temperature felt like it rose twenty degrees with him staring at me. Gripping my water glass tightly, I brought it to my lips. Stifling the urge to run the cold glass over my slightly damp forehead. I really was feeling way too hot. This was much more than Jackson’s cheeky flirting or being near the sexy alpha. A shiver ran through me, and my stomach tossed fitfully.
“Robert,” Jackson grasped my hand across the table, his voice laced with concern, “are you okay? You’ve gone very pale.”
“I–” gulping, I swallowed hard as a wave of nausea hit me. “I’m sorry. I’m not feeling very well all of a sudden.” Dabbing my napkin at my brow, I gave him a wan smile.
He signaled to our waiter to bring the check. “Don’t be sorry, but I want to get you home. You really are pale.”
Our waiter rushed over with the check, looking concerned. “Is everything alright with your meal, Sirs?”
Jackson gave him a small smile, while helping me to my feet, even though I was capable of standing on my own. It was a sweet, protective gesture, and it warmed my heart.
And why are you pushing him away? My gazelle questioned. He’s super sweet.
Reasons.
Dumb ones.
Ignoring him, I tried to focus on what Jackson was saying. My head felt muddled and it was becoming hard to think clearly.
“It was delicious,” Jackson assured the man, “but my mate isn’t feeling well, I’m afraid. We’ll come back another time and fully enjoy everything then.”
The waiter let out a small, relieved sigh, then wrinkled his nose. Lowering his voice, he said, “I think your mate isn’t sick, Sir. I think he might be in heat. ”
Jackson subtly sniffed the air, and I watched as his eyes widened, his pupils dark and enlarged. He shifted in his seat as he audibly drew in a breath.
“I believe you are correct,” his words came out tight, like he had trouble getting them past his lips.
What? Heat? I can’t be in heat.
It was impossible. No, I was coming down with something, that was all. I hadn’t had a heat in over a year. Dr. Sinclair had assured me that my body was beginning the omega change. This was just one of the heat flashes I had read about. Though my slick was dampening my underwear enough to be this side of uncomfortable, which was strange. I had assumed the slick I had produced earlier was a direct response to being near Jackson. Perhaps it was a side effect of my omega change? Though from what I had read, it usually caused the exact opposite. Omegas produced less slick, and I had already felt some of that in my own body. My slick production had been much less than even a few years ago. Though, that could also have been a direct result of no longer being attracted to my alpha. Jane and I hadn’t been on the best of terms for years, merely tolerating each other’s presence.
Jackson settled the bill and left a generous tip, before he ushered us out of the restaurant. His cool palm on my lower back as he steered me felt warm, likely because my skin was so hot, and I relished the weight of it, leaning into him as he walked us to his car. Once again, he opened the door and settled me on the seat. His nostrils flared as my shaking fingers fumbled with the seatbelt. Leaning over me, he snapped the belt, and his scent filled my nostrils.
Warm alpha, musk, and that dark, rich something that was all Jackson. My dick instantly hardened, pushing insistently at the zipper of my jeans. Desire slammed into me so fast it nearly took my breath away. Gripping the edges of the car seat, I panted.
Jackson turned his head, his body leaning over me, and his lips were right there. Looking all red and lush, close enough I could feel his breath, and I needed to taste him. Now.
His eyes darkened, his pupils filling them and turning them more muddy brown than green.
“Robert,” he moaned, as one of my hands grabbed him by the nape of his neck and pulled him into me. His lips landed over mine, my tongue demanding entrance to his mouth.
I had never been the aggressor before and it felt wild and freeing, but I needed this man like I needed water to drink. He leaned into me, the weight of him pressing me into my seat and it felt so fucking good ! It had been so long since I had been with an alpha male, and I had forgotten just how different it was from being with an alpha female. Forgotten how much I loved the feel of a man on top of me, his heaviness and strength surrounding me like a comforting blanket .
The kiss was rough, sloppy, but absolute perfection. So very different from our first kiss. This kiss screamed of need, of lust and desire, of something primal and older than the both of us.
Jackson pulled back, gasping for air, his forehead resting against mine. My head was cloudy, much cloudier than it had been in the restaurant. Heat consumed me, burning me from the inside out and I could feel my slick making my underwear wet where it pooled.
My dick was rock hard, throbbing, and demanding to be let free of the denim that caged it in. I needed…needed…I needed Jackson . I needed my alpha. Needed him with an urgency I had never felt before.
“Jackson,” I whined his name, undulating my body against his, trying to get some kind of friction, “need…you…please.”
His thumb rubbed my kiss swollen lower lip, his gaze glued to mine. “Shh sweetheart, I know what you need. The question is, what do you want? Do you want me to spend your heat with you? I understand if you don’t.” He licked his own lips, his tongue chasing the taste of me on him. “But I would really, really like to spend your heat with you.”
“Yes!” The word burst from my mouth in a rough shout. “Please, yes! ”
His eyes were soft as he gazed down at me, a smile tugging at his lips. They were shiny from our kiss, red and puffy, and I wanted to taste him again.
I wanted this man’s tongue on me, in all my secret places, wanted his hands running over my fiery skin. Wanted his heavy body pinning me to the bed and wanted his thick cock splitting me open, until his knot tied us together.
Jackson nodded, straightening up until he was standing outside the car. He made sure I was safely tucked in before he shut my door and hurried around to his side. Turning the key in the ignition, he stopped, breathing hard in the small confines of his car.
“I need to make arrangements for Aiden. Do you want to be at your house, in your space, or would you prefer to come to mine? I’ll need to grab a bag for Aiden, so I’m just thinking about logistics.”
It made me happy my alpha could think about the details, because right now all I could focus on was the rampant need for him causing my brain to short out. “Umm…my place?” Shaking my head, I changed my mind. “Wait, no. Wyatt and Becks are too close. Do you have a house?”
He nodded, “I do.”
“Your house,” I mumbled. “At least I don’t know your neighbors if they hear me. It’s just…I really don’t want Wyatt to hear us. ”
Jackson’s brows knitted together in confusion, or maybe concern. It was hard to tell since I didn’t know the man all that well yet. Not well enough to read his facial expressions. And I was aware I was probably not making all that much sense to him, even though it made perfect sense in my still cloudy brain fog.
What I wasn’t saying was that I didn’t want to hold back when he railed me. That I wanted to moan and scream, wanted him to pound me into the mattress, wanted him to mark me, and cover me in his cum. And doing all that with my adult son right next door, with only a shared driveway separating us, was just a no for me. It was all just too embarrassing.
Instead of questioning me on why I preferred to spend my heat with him at his house, Jackson just nodded. He pulled out his phone and spoke quietly to someone for a few minutes. My temperature was amping up, rolling over me in a wave of fire, and all my nerve endings were strumming with lust. All I could concentrate on was Jackson, his scent, the shape of his large hand as it clutched his phone.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, he tucked his phone away, and backed the car out of the parking spot.
“Okay, we’ll swing by my house so I can pack Aiden a bag. I’m going to need to drop it off at Brendan and Ryan’s. You can stay at my house, or you can come with me. Do we have time for that? They don’t live far from your place, if you think we have time, we can grab you some stuff. Comfortable clothes for after, anything you might want with you.”
His words were such a shock all I could do was stare at him and croak out a whispered, “What?”
It wasn’t that I hadn’t heard him or understood him. More a reaction to his kindness. His thoughtfulness. His absolute willingness to put my needs first. How long had it been since anyone had done that for me? Had anyone ever done that for me?
The answer was a resounding no. And it completely knocked me off kilter.
Jackson reached over and squeezed my hand, as he expertly navigated the streets through town with one hand.
Can we keep him? My gazelle whined and I shook my head. In answer or to try to clear my head, I wasn’t sure. Why couldn’t we keep Jackson, again? I knew there was a reason. I had a whole list of them.
But in the small confines of his car, the darkness of the night cocooning us, only broken intermediately by streetlights, I couldn’t remember one single reason I had for why Jackson and I shouldn’t be together.
His warm lips brushed over the knuckles of my hand, startling me. My eyes flew to our entwined hands, then to his face. “You with me, sweetheart?”
This man. Everything about him tugged at my soul. The scent of him in the car, mingling with my slick and heat pheromones, was driving me mad. Thrashing my head on my seat, I panted, “Horny.”
Jackson snort laughed, “I know. We’ll get that taken care of soon. I promise, sweetheart.”
My dick jerked every time he called me sweetheart. The word rolled off his tongue like silk, and I shivered. Rubbing a hand over the bulge of my jeans, I squeezed my dick, gasping at the sweet friction.
“We’re almost to my house,” he purred, turning into an affluent subdivision in the center of Sweet Alps. “Just hold on a few more minutes and I promise to make you feel better.”
Squinting at him in the darkness of the car, I whispered, “Are you a cinnamon roll?”
Jackson chuckled, thinning his lips tightly to muffle the sound. “I’m not really sure what that means?”
“I don’t know either,” I waved a hand in the air, “but you are sweet enough to eat. Can I eat you? I really want to get your cock in my mouth and lick you like an ice cream cone.”
Jackson gripped the steering wheel tightly with both hands and swallowed hard at the words I couldn’t believe I had said. My heat was making me do and say things I never did. But surprisingly, I didn’t regret anything I had said.
“Sweetheart, you can do whatever you want to me,” Jackson growled, shifting his legs further apart on the seat as he drove. My mouth watered at the sight of the very impressive bulge in his slacks. “I’m yours.”
My eyes locked onto him as he pulled the car into a darkened garage. The whirling of the doors closing was the only sound besides our ragged breaths. I had no clue how we had gotten here; hadn’t paid one bit of attention to the streets we had turned on or the surrounding neighborhood after turning into the subdivision. Couldn’t have picked out Jackson’s street or his house if my life depended on it. My total focus was on my throbbing dick, my slick making me wet, and my insatiable need for the alpha next to me. For Jackson.
Ours , my gazelle panted in my ear.
“Mine,” I whispered, tossing my seatbelt off and lunging towards him.