23. Casey
TWENTY-THREE
Casey
Casey
My phone buzzed on the table at breakfast. Marshall was too engrossed in an article on his tablet to notice.
I should end things with him. It crossed my mind every day.
Marshall deserved better. He was kind and handsome.
The kind of Alpha you built a life with.
Adam was like… touching fire. It was a craving we couldn’t seem to sate even after weeks of being together.
But even with the guilt and shame over my own actions, I knew ruining Marshall’s life over something like this would be wrong.
I stared at my bowl of cereal, pushing the colored loops around in the milk. A sour taste lingered on my tongue, and I wasn’t sure if it was the food. This was about Marshall… right?
“You good?”
I glanced at Marshall for a second, my eyes lingering on his blue scrubs. “I’m fine.”
“You’re tense. You’ve been that way since last night.” Right. Last night when he tried to have sex with me and I just… couldn’t do it. I already felt horrible for rejecting him, and now he had to bring it up again.
“Miranda’s been up my ass about this mural. We’re a week behind schedule.” It wasn’t a complete lie. We were behind schedule, and Miranda had been pushy about it.
Marshall looked away, accepting my answer as he checked his phone. “Damn. My dad is asking about our schedule. I thought he’d be back home by now, but he’s still here. He’s never taken a vacation in his life and now he’s suddenly staying in the city for weeks.”
My blood ran cold, and I almost didn’t say anything for fear of revealing everything. “Maybe he just wants a change of pace.”
Snorting, Marshall gathered his dishes. “I doubt it. I have a surgery at nine. Text me if you need anything, okay?”
It wasn’t just last night that was bothering me.
But even as I got ready for work and left the apartment, I couldn’t pin down one specific thing that had me on edge.
It was everything. It was stress. Lack of sleep.
Keeping up this stupid facade of dating one man while pining for another. All of it made me want to cry.
A gust of hot air hit me when I got into the office, and I quickly took off my jacket before I started sweating. God, was the AC broken? It was so fucking warm in here. I would’ve taken my shirt off too if I thought no one would see, but everyone else was due to come in any minute.
Someone left their dirty coffee cup on my desk.
I stared at it, my jaw clenching with rage, and I had to stop myself from throwing it across the room.
This wasn’t normal. Something was wrong.
The irrational and uncontrollable emotions.
My skin was on fire. It couldn’t be my heat.
I shouldn’t be having one for another week, at least. Not to mention, heats were hot and horny, not hot and pissed off.
This felt like the insanity that followed my heats, when nothing could calm me down.
Doing an entire day of work was almost impossible when I couldn’t relax for a single second.
I was wound like a spring by the time I clocked out, and I raced home as quickly as possible once I was free.
It felt like I was melting and itchy all at once.
Not a minute passed after I got home when Marshall walked in the door.
He dropped his bag on the floor, his eyes wide as he watched me struggle to get my shirt off. “Case, Case,” he cooed, taking my hands to stop me from tearing my clothes. “What’s the matter? Are you still tense?”
Tense? This was beyond tense. I felt like I was going crazy.
“I’m fine,” I told him. That was a lie. I was the opposite of fine.
His arms wrapped around me, and he released pheromones to calm me down. “Relax, Case. I’ve got you.”
I whimpered as I waited for it to work, for his woodsy scent to unclench my muscles and cool my heated skin.
It wasn’t working. I went through this every month after my heat, so how was this any different?
Maybe I just needed a little push. I took his face in my hands and pulled him down for a kiss.
Our lips moved together, flicking our tongues in an intimate dance.
Nothing. It wasn’t enough.
He hooked his arm around my waist, pressing my lower half against his erection. “Let’s go take a shower. I’ll help you relax.”
Do something. Do anything. I was going insane. But with his lips on mine, and his hand cupping the front of my pants, I knew this wasn’t going to work. I needed Adam.
“A-actually,” I stuttered, taking a few steps back.
“I think I just need to take a long walk. I’ll be back in a few hours.
” I put a shirt on, grabbed my phone, and ran out the door.
His number was already pulled up on my screen before I got to the elevator.
“Adam, I can’t breathe. I need you.” He was going to punish me for using his first name. I didn’t care. Not right now.
“Where are you?”
That was all he said. And within ten minutes, I saw his truck pulling up to the bodega around the corner. He raced out of the front seat and met me halfway across the parking lot, wrapping me in his firm embrace.
So warm. So good.
I struggled to speak for a minute. I almost felt like crying. Relief rushed through me, stealing the breath from my lungs. Every inch of me turned to jelly, and my legs trembled beneath me. “I don’t feel right. Something’s wrong.”
He lifted me in his arms and carried me to the truck. “I’ve got you.” He carefully lifted me into the passenger seat and climbed up beside me to buckle my seatbelt.
I grunted as another wave of heat rushed over me and jumped when he touched my cheek.
His hand was cold against my heated skin.
The rich, earthly scent of his pheromones surrounded me, coating me like a blanket to keep me safe.
When he got into the driver’s seat, he took my hand and held it the entire drive.
After his first week here, he left the hotel for something a little quieter.
A small bed and breakfast in a quiet neighborhood.
His room felt like home, and less like the cold, generic lines of a hotel.
The truck engine had barely stopped before he was out of the cabin and running around the truck to open my door for me.
I slid into his arms, snuggling close to his rugged warmth as he carried me into the small bed and breakfast. The lemon scented pheromone air freshener almost dulled his scent, but being this close to him, I could still smell it against his skin.
We got to his room, and he threw his shoes off, barely remembering to lock the door behind us.
I thought he would set me down on the bed, but he took me straight to the bathroom instead.
There was a big, old-fashioned tub amidst the rustic decor, surrounded by candles and little clusters of pinecones.
He set me on the closed toilet lid and turned on the tub faucet.
As the tub filled, he carefully removed every piece of my clothing, gently pulling my shoes off, and carefully sliding my pants down my legs.
Then he did the same for himself, and we were naked in the rustic bathroom as it filled with steam from the bath.
He tossed a bath bomb into the tub and picked me up again, setting me softly in the water.
It was as soothing as his scent, but even more so when he got in behind me and pulled me into his arms, fitting me between his legs. All the tension and stress bled out of me. Within minutes, I could barely remember how I’d felt all day. My anxiety dissolved faster than the bath bomb.
He pulled me close and pressed me against his back. The hard warmth of his body was like magic. His arms came around me, gently resting on my chest and stomach. How had he known exactly what I needed? Almost like he’d reached inside me and saw the only thing that would help calm me down.
I cupped his arms, slowly stroking his freckled skin with my fingertips. “Shit,” I sighed, letting everything fade away around me. Nothing else existed except him.
“Better?” he asked in a low voice, running his lips across my forehead and kissing my heated skin.
“I don’t know what came over me.” I clutched him closer, tilting my head into his kisses. “I woke up and I just couldn’t… function. Everything pissed me off, even the smallest things that don’t matter. It happens to me all the time after my heats, but it’s never happened before I’ve even had one.”
“I think I may be to blame.”
“You?” I chuckled. “You weren’t even there.”
His rough fingers brushed my nipple, and I bit my lip to suppress a gasp.
“Your pheromones are searching for mine. As your heat gets closer, your body is longing for me.” Snaking down my belly, his hand inched towards my cock, and I couldn’t hold back my desperate moan when he closed his fist around me.
It throbbed to life, hardening from his touch.
“There are more than just pheromones between us, little one. My body yearns for you.” He stroked me, his hand bobbing in the milky water.
His touch on my cock made everything surge inside me, and a wave of pleasure almost made me climax too quickly.
“When you’re not beside me, I feel like I’m going insane.
Every day apart from you is like living in a shadow. ”
My thighs started to close as the pleasure mounted inside me.
He hooked my legs over his and spread me as wide as the tub would allow, his hand sloshing the water as he stroked me faster and faster.
I writhed against him, my hips bucking into his hand, seeking more of his touch.
It was too fast, too soon. Everything pent up inside me rushed out all at once, and I came in his hand, my body throbbing with every beat of my heart.
Cum spurt out of me, my tension fading with every shudder.