THEO
Theo
“Eric is a shithead.”
We were walking through the mostly deserted ship. The scent dampeners must have been in overdrive. I could barely pick up Ren’s black pepper scent.
“He came up through restaurants, not cooking school. He’s a line cook, and all line cooks are bat-shit. Add alpha ego to that. Boom.” Ren made an explosion with his hands.
“But his food is amazing.”
“His branding is amazing. Tanaka isn’t even his real last name. It’s Smith. I know, I know, but it actually is Smith. He went one too many rounds with the owner of Pagoda and was out on his ass. That’s when he started doing all the high end cooking classes.”
“How do you know all this?” Ren seemed to know everyone and everything.
We walked through the reading lounge and library. I slowed as we passed the display of best sellers. I had brought three books with me, thinking I’d have lots of pool time to read, but that hadn’t panned out. Nothing was going quite how I thought. Ren stretched out on a chaise lounge. They were set up in cozy pairings facing floor to ceiling windows. I contemplated for a whole 10 seconds before joining Ren.
I groaned as I stretched out. Ren sat up, concern painting his face. I could feel heat creeping into my cheeks.
“I have a chair like this in my nest. I didn’t realize until just now how much I missed it. My nest. Not the chair.”
Ren propped himself up on an elbow and turned toward me. “What’s your nest like?” The look I gave him must have put him off because he quickly continued with, “I know that’s a bit of a personal question.”
“No, it’s fine. It’s just that,” I shrugged my shoulder, “no one has ever asked me that before.”
“I’d love to know, but only if you’d love to tell me.”
“It’s small and kind of cluttered, actually. I keep buying furniture and stuffing it in there, but nothing seems quite right. I try not to spend too much time in there, though.”
“Oh?”
“It’s the first…” I cut myself off because that might in fact be too personal. Well, Ren did basically confess to 15 years of unrequited love last night. “It’s one of the first symptoms of touch starvation. Hiding in your nest, spending most of your time there.”
I chanced a glance at Ren. He said nothing, not even a wise nod of the head.
“I’m almost 30. I don’t have a lot of omega friends anymore. It’s natural to worry about those things.”
“That’s a hard place to be,” He said, softly.
He didn’t give me a pep talk or tell me nonsense about fish in the sea, which was oddly comforting.
I sighed and changed the topic. “So what were you doing at the sushi class?”
“I told you. I saw you there.”
“Playing some sort of new game to make Justice jealous?”
He moved so fast. I yelped when he parted my legs and knelt between them. He put one hand on the back of the chair, the other on the armrest. Fuck, don’t get hard, don’t get hard, please don’t get hard.
“I saw you within hours of getting on this dumb boat. And I wanted you. You gave me that bracelet. And I wanted you. The gods, if they exist, are laughing at me by putting me at the same dinner table as you and Mackenzie because now I’m tortured and forced to stalk you around the ship just to catch a hint of your scent. So standing next to you for an hour, with your scent wrapping around me, has me undone.”
I panted like I could bring more of his scent in me faster. His dark eyes were raw with more than honesty. It was truth.
“Fuck Justice. This isn’t about him. This is you. Want proof?”
He didn’t wait for an answer. He parted my legs further and pressed against my inner thigh. I could feel his cock hard against me. I bit my lip to hold in a moan.
“I have done a lot of despicable things in my day, Theo. And you would make the top ten list of the most despicable things I have ever done. You want to leave this boat with bite marks. And I can’t give that to you. Criminal, remember? So I’m forced to be on my best behavior and do absolutely nothing about this.” He ground against me, so I could feel every inch of him, including his swelling knot. “This isn’t about Justice or Mackenzie. It’s you.”
He was back in his own chair like he didn’t just set my world on fire. His deep breaths were loud in the still space.
“The temptation to break into your room and steal that little spreadsheet so I can find you whenever I want is literally killing me.” He said with all the heat and humor of angry flirtation.
I stared up at the ceiling, panting. He was right. This cruise would end. We’d all go back to our lives, and I’d probably never see him again. I had told Mackenzie no one knew her here, so she could be anyone she wanted. So could I.
I wanted him.
Fuck it.
I was between his legs now, pushing them wide enough for me to fit. I tugged at his belt and zipper. He didn’t make a move to help or stop me. Fuck. Was it a rule that alphas went commando?
“I wanted you, too. When you said my name in the hallway.”
He was big and heavy in my hands. I traced my fingertips around his knot and then up the shaft. I licked my lips and pressed them to the head of his cock. I took him slowly into me, savoring how he filled me.
“Theo,” he whispered.
I raised my eyes, meeting his. His lips were parted just slightly as he seemed to fight to control his breathing. He reached down and traced my bottom lip, feeling me take him in.
I closed my eyes as a moan escaped around my full mouth. My tongue, my cheeks tingled from the slow friction. Ren shifted his hips, almost like he couldn’t sit still. The only thing that could make this better was slick. Mackenzie’s slick. Tasting her, on him. I shoved the thought away. Circling his knot with my palm… Nope. Don’t think about that either, Theo.
“Fuck,” Ren growled through gritted teeth.
That sent me spiraling. To make an alpha curse like that? My moan turned needy. I shifted my hips, hoping for some friction.
Another curse and he was sitting upright. He grabbed my neck and pulled me up, too. His eyes were wild, like this was all too much for him to handle. He growled deep in his chest and pushed me back, flipping our positions. My head hung off the end of the chaise. He tore at my belt, my pants, with frustrated sounds like his fingers wouldn’t obey fast enough.
Then I was in his mouth. He was not slow. He was not teasing. He took me again and again, almost desperate, like he was running out of time.
I choked back a “no!” when his mouth left me. I struggled to lift my head and come up on one elbow. His palm replaced his mouth, stroking my cock and covering his hand in my slick. Then he sank his mouth down on me again with a groan of satisfaction.
He shifted, putting his leg on the floor and pumped his own cock. Mesmerized, I peered down my body, watching him stroke himself faster and faster. My eyes went wide. His cock glistened, covered in my slick.
I jerked, cum bursting from me with no warning. He pinned my hip to the chaise with one hand, growls vibrating into me as he came, which sent me off again. I clenched my fists and covered my eyes with my forearm, the sensation too much, and on the verge of begging for him to stop. Or begging for more.
He withdrew me from his mouth, slow, dragging his tongue over every inch of me. He put his hands on either side of my hips and rested his forehead on my thigh like he had to gather himself. I let my head hang, staring upside down out the window to the harbor.
He moved suddenly and pulled me up by the shirt. It was easy to forget how strong alphas were and how easy it was to manhandle omegas. He settled back against the chaise lounge and arranged me between his legs, my back against his chest.
He wrapped his arms around me tight and pushed my head to the side. Ren buried himself in the crook of my neck and took a deep inhale. The rush of air was cool and soothing.
“I… I just need a minute” his voice was rough with something more than the orgasm he ripped through us. I closed my eyes and… purred.
This.
It wasn’t the chaise lounge. It wasn’t all this furniture I packed into my nest. It was this. Arms and scent wrapped around me. Ren. This was what was missing from my nest.