Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
CARYS
Rhett kisses the new bruise before pulling away from me, kneeling between my spread legs. His eyes are bright, his lips and chin glistening with my slick.
“I’ve never come in my pants before,” he admits, his cheeks darkening with a fierce blush. It makes him look nearly boyish, like he’s my age and not five years older. “That’s… embarrassing.”
I can’t help but laugh. “No, it’s not. No worse than my slick getting all over your hands and face.”
He doesn’t even bother to wipe off the lingering wetness as he pins me with a narrowed-eyed look of skepticism.
“Yes, it is,” he says in a hard but teasing tone. “I don’t have another set of pants I can just change into.”
“I might have a set of sweats that will fit you… if you want them,” I offer.
That skeptical look turns into full disbelief, and I flush. His voice is lower than before, though there’s still a thread of teasing. “You just happen to have a pair large enough to fit me?”
I roll my eyes and slowly sit up. His eyes glaze a bit as he takes in my body all over again.
Embarrassingly, I scent anew, though it’s more muted than before.
I press a quick kiss to his lips, needing the tactile comfort, before I ease out of the bed and to the closet, sliding into one of my favorite satin slips.
He comes up behind me, kissing just under my ear as he grabs my hips and pulls me back into him. “Carys, why do you have sweats that would be big enough to fit your entire body?”
He whispers the question right against my ear, and I shiver.
“They’re not from a guy, I promise!” I manage to say with an almost normal tone.
I pull away from him and grab one of the oversized pair of sweats from the small bin tucked in the far corner of the closet. He takes them with a raised eyebrow, and I flush again. I just blurt out the truth.
“When I first came off suppressors over the summer, there were a couple weeks when all I could handle wearing were oversized sweats and soft sweaters. Everything else felt like sandpaper.”
Four separate reactions flash across his face before he settles on surprise and concern in equal amounts.
Before he can ask about any of what that confession implies, I say, “There’s an extra toothbrush in the bathroom if you want to stay.” My smile is more nervous this time. “But don’t feel like you have to or anything.”
He presses a soft kiss to my temple and then takes my hand, leading me into the bathroom with him.
It’s strangely… easy to get ready for bed with him.
Natural. He changes out of his slacks and boxers while I’m brushing my teeth and washing off my makeup, timing it so I don’t manage to catch a glimpse of what has to be a really impressive dick.
At least from the way he’d felt pressed against me, it has to be.
The thought has my cheeks flushing and my scent pulsing out from me.
He smirks. His eyes never leave mine as he brushes his own teeth, nor while he leans against the counter and watches as I braid back my hair to keep it out of my way overnight.
He settles behind me in the bed, pressing a kiss to the nape of my neck. The weight of him, the branding heat of his arm around my waist, quiets something I hadn’t necessarily realized was dissatisfied within me. The happiness of everything feeling just about perfect follows me into sleep.
My phone buzzes just as I’m getting the front door to my shop unlocked and the alarm disengaged.
I grin like a fool as I realize it’s Rhett.
It’s only been a few hours since he quietly took a shower in my apartment and went to report for morning skate, still using my oversized sweats that fit him a bit too tight and his short sleeve undershirt from the night before.
He’d only smiled when I’d reached for him, still surrounded by his scent in my pillows and blankets.
He’d kissed my knuckles and then my lips, lingering long enough that I wanted another round with his face between my legs.
Even as I reached for him, he’d slid away, grabbing my phone from the nightstand.
Satisfaction I’d never felt before filled me when I realized his own lips were swollen, the scratches I’d left behind on his neck a dull, faded pink.
After a minute, he’d set my phone back down and pressed a final kiss to my lips.
Somehow, I’d managed to fall back asleep after the apartment door’s latch clicked as he left.
I set my favorite kind of coffee on the cafe table just inside the door without bothering with any of the lights just yet, too busy trying to open the new text from Rhett.
It’s only an emoji of a kiss. It makes me blush like crazy anyway.
It’s way too soon to be at this point, right?
Isn’t casual flirting something that happens after you’ve gone on several dates?
God, I have no idea, but I like it. A bit of my scent surrounds me.
I close my eyes, tilting my head back, enjoying the fluttering sensation in my stomach before forcing myself to focus on work.
I’ve pulled all the flowers for the bouquet that’s today’s only big project and have prepped about half of the stems when Billie walks through the front of the shop and into the workroom.
“I stopped and grabbed you a coffee just in case. I got it iced so you don’t feel rushed to drink it,” she says, dropping her own bag and two drinks onto the work table along the back wall.
I glance up from my project. She’s dressed in wide leg dark jeans and a boat neck navy sweater.
Her hair is pulled back into a sleek ponytail, something I haven’t seen since the first day we met.
Her ring flashes in the overhead light. My stomach flutters, though I can’t figure out why.
Nerves maybe? Except I wasn’t nervous all morning while getting ready. Why would I be nervous now?
She continues without noticing my struggle, pulling on her own apron and heading toward me. “That wholesale delivery should be here before I’m supposed to look at a couple of house options with Paxton so I’ll…”
She trails off, freezing halfway toward me, her eyes wide.
“What?” I ask, frowning. I glance down at the stems and waterfall bouquet frame I have spread out on the work table, then pat my apron. “Did I accidentally cut something?”
“Carys, that is the biggest hickey I think I’ve ever seen,” she says after a moment. “Did you have a date last night?”
My cheeks flush so fast, I know it’s a dead giveaway.
I cover the bruise Rhett left behind my ear last night anyway.
I’d debated covering it, but after my first failed attempt, I decided it wasn’t worthy the hassle, opting to leave my hair down in the hopes of keeping it mostly unnoticeable instead.
“Carys,” Billie gasps. She closes the distance between us, quickly settling in next to me. “Oh my god, where did you go? With who? Was it a good time?” She smirks and shakes her head. “I mean, obviously it was a good time, but was the person interesting, too? Are you going to see them again?”
My voice gets caught in my throat. Rhett and I hadn’t discussed telling Billie or his brother.
I should have thought to bring it up. She props her hip on the table and touches the hickey.
It causes my hair to move, and the faintest bit of Rhett’s lemongrass scent wafts between us.
I hadn’t been able to wash it this morning, my entire body seizing in panic at the thought of losing his scent.
It was such a visceral reaction, it honestly scared me.
Billie gasps. “Carys freaking Wilder, no way.”
“Umm…” I shrug, not entirely sure what to say. “Surprise?”
She blinks rapidly, her mouth dropped open.
My cheeks flush even darker. She shakes her head as if to clear it and then turns to the table, grabbing one of the stems I haven’t managed to prep yet and the floral tape.
She twists it around the base of the stem and then carefully presses the wire into the stem to strengthen the Calla Lily the way I taught her last week.
“Earth to Billie,” I say, trying to make light, pulling the base foliage to start arranging the actual bouquet. One of the leaves scratches my finger, and I hiss in a startled breath.
“Just trying to decide the order of my questions,” she says with a smile. She wires another lily. “When did he ask you out?”
“Saturday.”
She nods. “Kind of expected that. When he dropped off lunch, right?” She purses her lips. “Did you actually spill water on your shirt?”
I shake my head, blushing like I’m fifteen again and being asked about my crush. She snort-laughs.
“I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen an Omega nest before,” she admits. “It’s fascinating.”
She sets another lily down. I add one of the large blush roses to anchor the main portion of the bouquet before adding more pieces of greenery and the waterfall frame.
“Okay, okay,” she continues. “But why him? I got the impression you weren’t interested in any of the team.
And doesn’t Ares make that kind of awkward?
” Her hands fly through the prep work, nearly as fast as I can manage.
“Not that Rhett isn’t… well, you know. He’s got more sex appeal than most teams combined. But that feels pretty risky.”
I sigh and spiral arrange for a few moments, trying to gather all my thoughts. Billie’s happy enough to wait me out, moving on to taping the greenery that will go in the waterfall portion when she’s finished with the remaining lilies.
“It started on Halloween,” I admit. “Paxton found us making out upstairs when he got your jacket.”
This time, Billie turns to me, completely shocked all over again. “Oh my God, that’s where you went! When you didn’t come back after a couple songs, I thought you might have called a rideshare and headed home.”
I shake my head. “He’d come up I think to grab his coat, maybe. I’m not really sure. I was trying to decompress from the noise and people from the dance floor. My thoughts were… scattered.” To put it mildly. “I perfumed, and then suddenly he was there. We’re scent matches.”
Her eyes are so wide, I can see the whites all the way around. “Scent matches,” she echoes. “He’s been with the Scorpions since he was drafted seven years ago. How did you not realize—”
“I presented the summer before college,” I explain quickly, cutting off her question. “And I went on suppressors shortly after. It wasn’t until this summer I came off of them. And I didn’t interact much with the team itself, just watched as they practiced. Well, aside from Timber.”
“Wow.” She slowly picks up a stem of greenery and strips one of the lower leaves. “Holy crap. All right. So it’s serious then, obviously. Have you guys talked about what you’re going to do with your dad? That feels like a mess waiting to happen.”
“We’re keeping it secret for right now. I’m hoping by Christmas the season has turned around enough that Dad won’t have a complete conniption when he finds out.
” I add in a few more roses, then start in on the lilies.
“Dad’s not evil or anything. He loves me and gave me the best childhood a kid could hope for.
But he’s… overprotective. I worry he’ll take out whatever frustration he has about us on the team rather than with me. ”
She nods. Then she grins, tossing her head back and laughing with her entire body.
“Oh my God, we’re going to get to go on double dates!
As soon as you’re ready to let the world see you, we’ll go out and make a big deal of it.
And we could offer a bit of cover, too, if you’re not ready for that.
He’s Paxton’s brother, and we’re friends.
We could totally all go out to dinner together if you want. ”
I smile and roll my shoulders. “That would be really cool.”