Chapter 15
Cody was buzzing after the media scrum was herded out, and he stripped, showered, and changed at speed.
A small part of him was running in anxious circles about what he’d said, because he just knew the sharks would try to tear him apart for it, but the rest of him was kind of…
proud. Proud that he’d finally said something.
Proud that he’d stood up for himself, for all that he was aware it probably wouldn’t make him look very good.
But also he was proud that he’d said something about all omegas, and how so many of them were treated.
Leo said that things were different outside of pro sports, but that was all Cody really knew.
And maybe…maybe an omega or two who were where Cody used to be, doing their fucking best to swim upstream, would watch his interview and just feel less alone.
It would be worth getting ripped to shreds for that.
He was still jittery by the time he was dry and dressed, but that only exacerbated the desire to go home and spend the rest of his night quietly.
Preferably with Leo, if Leo wanted that too.
He had the last few nights, as Cody recovered from his heat, but Cody was kind of leaning toward always wanting Leo in his space.
Was it too soon to ask Leo to move in? It probably was, wasn’t it? They’d only been together for like a week and a half, Cody was being crazy—
“Cody!” Ricardo called happily, and a moment later he was slinging an arm around Cody’s shoulders. Cody, well used to incredibly large men dropping weight on him, braced to keep from buckling. “C’mon, which place do you think we should go for dinner? You haven’t weighed in yet.”
“Is because Cody’s so small,” Igor chirped, grinning. “Weighs nothing.”
“Screw you,” Cody said cheerfully, heartbeat starting to calm.
This was okay. It was okay. Things might be harder for the next while, but Cody still had the people who mattered most to him.
Not just Leo, but his whole fucking team.
And what with being AWOL for almost a week, missing two games, and, frankly, after the staggering support the Cougars had given him, Cody didn’t think it was right to bow out of a late-night group dinner. “What’re the options again?”
They settled on Pszczyna’s Place, a cute Polish restaurant that was open until two in the morning. No one could spell the name of it or any of the dishes, even after patronizing the place for three years, but most of the team could pronounce the dishes at this point.
Cody let the dinner wash over him in a blur of happy chatter and good food.
There was chirping aplenty as per usual, and Cody was grateful for the addition of normalcy.
No one was treating him any differently now, even if they’d taken “protective” into overdrive on the ice.
He still got teased just like everyone else, and, when it was time to say goodnight, still got drawn into casual hugs or pats on the back or shoulder.
He wasn’t a pariah. He was still Cody. Still part of the team.
Then came the best part of the night. Leo, who had been hanging back, was the last one to catch Cody up in a hug. While he was giving Cody a deliciously good squeeze, he murmured in Cody’s ear, “Meet at your place?”
“Yeah,” Cody replied, heart overfull. “Yeah.”
***
Leo pulled up in Cody’s driveway only a couple minutes after Cody had. Cody still had his garage door open—hadn’t even bothered going inside his house, instead just choosing to wait for Leo. Leo was smiling as he got out of his car, and Cody knew he was mirroring the expression.
They were both quiet as Cody let them into his house and they stepped out of their shoes, and then Leo was much, much closer.
“Hey,” Leo said, curling his arms around Cody, that smile still playing about his lips.
“Hey,” Cody breathed in return, heart suddenly pounding. From nerves, from excitement, from how much he got to have. Got to have such an incredible, caring man like Leo.
And what struck Cody the most, as Leo’s smile softened and he leaned in, was how happy Leo looked. Happy that he was here, with Cody.
Then Cody was being kissed, and all thoughts flew right out of his head.
His eyes fell closed as Leo pressed kiss after soft kiss to his mouth, tracing the seam of Cody’s lips with his tongue, gently sucking on Cody’s lower lip in a way that had the barest slip of a moan fall from Cody’s mouth.
Cody’s whole body shuddered with want. Leo kissed him so gentle and sweet, like Cody was precious, and it made Cody feel fragile.
Not because he was a “weak omega,” but because every kiss made Cody want to crack open his chest so that Leo could see how deep Cody’s love for him went.
He heard himself make more tiny, whimpered noises, flushing hotter when Leo swallowed them down. He was surrounded by Leo’s scent like this, rain on sun-warmed grass, with the undertone of flushed and joy and also turned on. Like Cody was affecting Leo as much as Leo was affecting Cody.
It was several long minutes later that Leo bestowed one final kiss before pulling back, though he didn’t go far. He pressed his forehead to Cody’s, and Cody opened his eyes to realize he’d fisted his hands in Leo’s hoodie in a bid to get him closer.
Cody wanted to be as close as he could get.
“Leo?” Cody asked shakily, pulling back just enough to meet Leo’s eyes to voice the question.
“Yeah, sweetheart?” Leo rasped. Fuck, just his voice, laced with arousal—from the kissing—made Cody burn hotter.
“I—” Cody let out a nervous laugh.
He and Leo had slept in each other’s arms every night since Monday when Cody had woken up lucid, but neither of them had initiated sex. On Cody’s end, at least, it was mostly because his body had practically begged him to take it easy. But now?
“I don’t, uh, know how you feel about…fucking me after I put you through the ringer during my heat, but—”
“Do you feel recovered enough?” Leo asked, standing up straighter. “No soreness or pain?”
“Good to go,” Cody said, offering up a smile. “If you are, I mean.”
The look he got from Leo in response was all heat. “Well then,” Leo said, voice low, before pulling Cody for a hard, molten kiss. When Leo finally pulled back, Cody was panting, cheeks flushed, body alight.
“Bedroom,” Cody managed, grabbing Leo’s hand and starting to pull him in the right direction.
Leo laughed and gave Cody’s hand a squeeze as he easily followed Cody’s lead.
They made it to the bedroom at speed, and only then did Cody let go of Leo’s hand. He grabbed his hoodie to strip it off, when Leo stopped him.
“Let me?” Leo asked, hands hovering in front of Cody.
Cody dropped his own hands. Let Leo undress him? Sure. Absolutely. “Whatever you want,” he said, possibly too honest but unable to care. He knew Leo wouldn’t mind or judge him.
And Leo immediately proved him right, grinning sharply—not in a mean way, but a delighted one. He stepped closer, stooping to press yet another kiss to Cody’s swollen mouth. “Giving me a lot of power there, sweetheart.”
“I want to give it to you,” Cody said, matter-of-factly. Why not stick with raw honesty? Especially seeing how much it affected Leo, the way every admission made Leo shudder, emitting rumbling growls of want that he couldn’t seem to help.
So maybe Cody added, with the sweetest smile he could muster, “You’re the only person I want to have it.”
Leo let out another low groan and placed his hands on Cody’s shoulders, tracing his way down Cody’s chest and stomach until he could grab the hem of Cody’s hoodie, easing it up to bare Cody’s skin.
Cody stood there, body trembling as Leo took his time, and the softness of Cody’s hoodie sweeping slowly up his torso as Leo watched, expression intense, had Cody’s breath stuttering.
When the hoodie had been lifted to reveal Cody’s nipples, already pink and pebbled just from the kissing and being partially undressed, Leo bent to place kisses there too.
He sucked one nipple into his mouth and then the other while Cody clutched at his shoulders and locked his legs so he didn’t collapse.
His nipples weren’t usually an erogenous zone—except for the week or so after his heat, when they were so incredibly sensitive that he could sometimes get off just from lying back on his bed, closing his eyes, and playing with them.
Having Leo sucking on each nipple in turn, flicking them with his tongue, and gently tugging on them between his teeth was so much better, holy fuck.
“Leo,” Cody gasped as his knees started to weaken and as he started to slick up. “Leo, there—there is a very real chance that if you keep—ah fuck— if you keep doing that, I’m gonna—”
Leo pulled away with a wet sound that made Cody whimper high in his throat, especially once he caught sight of Leo’s face and how the alpha looked like he wanted to devour Cody whole.
Belying that look, Leo was still gentle as he helped Cody pull the hoodie the rest of the way off, dropping it on the floor before he turned his attention to Cody’s sweats. His big hands encircled Cody's waist, Leo’s thumbs dipping down just below the waistband.
“Please,” Cody hissed. The front of his sweats were already distended from his cock, which had been hard pretty much since Leo had pulled him in for that first kiss.
But he was also making a mess of his underwear.
Not from precome, but from his slick. Leo had to be smelling it, blooming sweet in the air.
Leo threw him a smirk that made Cody flush hotter, a shiver running through him, and then he finally, finally—and achingly slowly— stripped Cody of his pants and soaked underwear.