Chapter Twelve
Carl
I was truly stuffed, the meal excellent despite it being reheated. I’d never had the patience to cook for myself and usually grabbed takeout, so anything homecooked was far superior to my regular diet.
I let out a groan, still rubbing my belly as my eyes slipped closed. My bear was ready to curl up and take a nap beneath the tree, the breeze keeping me nice and cool despite the midday warmth.
It also brought me the sweet scent of pastries and peppermint, thick with honeyed slick.
My cock leapt in my jeans before I could even peel my lids open again, always ready when I was around Gwyn. She might have tried to play it cool, but she could never hide the way her omega side responded to me, and my lips curled as I stared up at her. She’d stood to take the leftovers back inside, but her gaze was locked on my midsection, the ridge of my shaft too obvious for her not to notice my desire for her. Her gaze was dark, cheeks flushed as she breathed through her mouth, taking in more of my pheromones.
“Need any help?”
The question was innocent enough, but we both knew I was offering to do more than carry the dishes inside. I would have been perfectly happy to carry her inside and eat her for dessert, despite how full I was.
“N—No. I’ve got it.”
She was slow to pull her attention away, my smirk growing at her obvious struggle. She had been closed off when we’d first met at The Hangout, but I’d definitely slipped behind her walls.
I wanted to slip into her, and feel her walls around me.
“I’ll be back in just a moment.”
I watched her walk inside, my focus centered on her ass until it disappeared behind the door. I’d wanted her from that first meeting, and the more time I spent with her, the more my desire grew. Something would have to give, or my dick was going to grow raw from being crushed against my jeans constantly.
Groaning, I adjusted myself before sitting upright. I hadn’t lied when I said I didn’t know how she expected me to work after a meal like that, but at least the discomfort helped pull my mind away from the track it wanted to stay on. By the time she came back out I’d managed to get to my feet and fold her blanket over my arm, breathing in the mingled scent of us now permeating it. I’d almost splooged in my pants when she’d handed it to me, smelling so strongly of her I couldn’t help thinking she’d taken it straight from her nest.
My balls tightened at the thought of her inviting me into her nest, but I’d seen her expression when she thought I might enter her home. She may have been comfortable enough with me to feel attraction, lust even, but she still wasn’t at a place where she’d bring me into her space. The home was an extension of her nest, and if she wouldn’t allow me through the door, she’d never let me into her bed.
Good thing I didn’t need to be in her bed to fuck her.
A growl slipped out as I shook my head, trying to force my thoughts away from anything sexual. It was hard.
So was I.
Rolling my eyes at myself, I moved my attention to the roof of the duplex, going over what I’d be working on the next day. The top of the café was flat, which made my bear more comfortable, but the duplex was steepled like most homes, and the discomfort I’d be in while I was up there already licked at the edges of my mind. I was going to need my meds to get through it.
“Oh, thank you.”
I startled at Gwyn’s voice, surprised by her appearance when I hadn’t heard her come out. I was usually far more alert to what was going on around me, but I wasn’t the only one who had slipped behind the other’s walls.
“No problem. It was a wonderful lunch.”
The way she ducked her head and smiled had my chest swelling, a purr almost slipping free before I swallowed it down. I wasn’t one to take life too seriously, but something about Gwyn made me feel thirty years younger, like some foolish teenager with a crush.
“Thank you. I’ll go put this away and then we can head back. I hope we haven’t left Jason waiting too long.”
I shrugged, not caring if the other alpha had already come back from having lunch. All that was left was laying shingles, and he could do that well enough without me for a while.
We were quiet on the walk back, a companionable silence that didn’t feel like it needed to be filled the way it did with some people. Too often I avoided silence because my brain would try to crowd the space with things I’d rather not think about, but for once my thoughts were still, simply basking in the nice weather and the presence of the woman beside me. Her scent alone was almost better at calming me than the meds the docs prescribed, and I wondered if it would be too weird to ask her to mark something I could take home.
My heart dropped as the café came into view, Jason already up on the roof banging away. My bear wanted to reach out and pull Gwyn to us, keep her from going inside where we couldn’t see or scent her, but I jammed my fists into my pockets to stop myself.
“Guess I should get back inside and see what else I can get done today. How much longer do you think you have?”
The hint of disappointment in her voice, as if she felt the way I did, was almost enough to make me take hold of her.
“Couple hours. Then a little more for cleanup.”
We’d mostly tried to toss everything into one pile, but shingles still littered the ground around most of the building, and I’d need to get it all into the dumpster before I could call the job done.
“Okay.”
We stared at each other as if there was something more to say, but when neither of us did, she turned away. She seemed to droop a little and my bear prodded me, but I couldn’t think of anything before there was once again a door separating me from her.
I joined Jason on the roof, and we knocked out the rest of the work a little faster than I’d expected. I told him he could go ahead and head out, tossing him two hundred-dollar bills and a promise to buy the beer for the night for his help.
It took almost another hour to clean up the mess we’d made, stacking the extra supplies in the back of David’s truck before tossing the garbage into the dumpster. With the remains of the cabinets still in there it was almost full, but if my memory served it would be picked up overnight and I’d be able to toss the waste from the house in there once it was done. If not, I would just haul it to the dump.
I was hot and sweaty and ready for a shower when I knocked on the door of the café. I waited for an answer but when there was still no response after a second round of knocking, I let myself in.
The kitchen area was empty, so I trudged through to the dining room, my cock surging at the sight of Gwyn on her hands and knees, her curvy rump aimed in my direction as she fixed the holes left in the floor by something the previous owners had secured there. She’d apparently filled the holes in already and was trying to sand down whatever she’d used so there would be a smooth surface to lay new flooring over.
Some of her hair had escaped the short ponytail she’d tied it in at her neck, the flyaways sticking out in all directions. Sweat glistened on her nape, her shirt stuck along her spine, and her ass jiggled with each vigorous scrub at the stubborn material.
“I swear, nothing can be easy and just do what I want it to!”
There was no hope of stopping the growl that poured from me, my alpha side taking over. She froze at the sound, her hips lifting subtly as her instincts responded to the pheromones I was filling the room with. My next breath was full of her sweet scent, notes of fresh slick sending more blood to engorge my aching shaft.
“I can be easy, and I’ll do anything you want.”
The quip was automatic, although maybe not as teasing with my growl underlining it. Wide eyes turned back to meet mine, pink lips parted, and the hungry look on her face undid the last of my resolve to hold back.
I had Gwyn crushed against me in the next breath, the feel of her plush curves cushioning my body making me groan as my nose dipped into the corner of her neck. The musk from sweating over her task only added to my desire to taste her, my tongue flicking out to swipe at her flesh without permission.
I groaned again at the flavor of her, flattening my tongue and making a long stripe up to her ear to get more of it. She shivered against me, her nipples scratching at my chest through her shirt, and my fingers dug in to hold her tighter.
“Carl—”
The sound of my name breathed out like that had my growl dropping so low it was more felt than heard. My lungs were filled with peppermint and sweet pastries, my head growing fuzzy on the pheromones from the slick I knew coated her folds, and I wanted nothing more than to get even closer to her.
Inside her.
“Carl, I—I can’t. I don’t want—”
It took a moment for the words to penetrate the fog between my ears, the hands on my chest pushing for room. I knew she didn’t mean she didn’t want me, her body said she did, but I also remembered her reaction towards alphas.
My bear and every alpha instinct in me fought my command to loosen my hold and let her put space between us. I couldn’t release her completely, my arms keeping her close, but just the loss of her body crushed to mine felt like too much.
Chocolate eyes met mine, different emotions playing across her sweet face, and I wanted nothing more than to lean down and kiss the worry I saw away.
“I’m sorry, but I’m not ready for another alpha. I don’t know if I ever will be.”
Tears pooled along her lash line, clearing more of the lust from my brain, and I raised a hand to cup her cheek. Fine lines marred the space between her brows, but I was glad there was no bitter tinge of fear to her scent despite me crossing the line without getting her permission first.
“I’ll never do anything you’re not ready for. You’re safe with me. I can’t say I don’t want you, you’ve tempted me since I found you at The Hangout, and it’s hard to resist the urge, but if you only want a friend, I’ll find a way to keep my hands to myself.”
The corner of her lips tipped up even though the crease between her brows remained. Rubbing my thumb along her cheekbone, I smiled back until she spoke again.
“I’m not sure we can be friends, Carl.”