Page 37 of Fated or Knot (UnseelieVerse: The Omega Masquerade #1)

37

LARK

I shrieked in surprise and flapped uselessly, held in place on Marius’s cock as his head whipped toward the offending noise with a snarl.

“I got it?” Tormund said, sounding confused. He hurried back into the room and shoved on his pants first. I hunkered down and glanced over my shoulder, as my back was to the threshold.

The redcap was broad enough to block the view of whoever was on the other side. Though it wasn’t a secret for long, as he exclaimed, “I thought you were asleep!”

“Even the dead couldn’t sleep through what I’ve been feeling in our pack bond,” came Kauz’s calm, tired voice.

I relaxed. “Hi Kauz.”

Marius sat up, bracing his weight on his palms behind him. “I was just of half a mind to murder you.”

“Hmm, just another Moonday, if anything,” the winged fae remarked. “Hello, sweetheart. Mind if I join you?”

My mind, still addled by pleasure, got stuck halfway into what he was saying. “Just another Moonday?”

“His exercise regimens will be the death of me,” he explained.

“Oh. Yes, come in?—”

Marius interrupted with a deeper, more territorial growl. “She’s mine right now.” He bucked his hips to emphasize the claim, and I moaned for him.

“Aye, I can see that. And I have questions,” Kauz said, cocking his head.

Marius rolled his eyes, but he didn’t tense up to fight like he always seemed to when challenged by another male. He gave me what felt like a reassuring kiss. “I’m not answering any. Get over here.”

I raised a brow, confused but not unhappy when Kauz shed his clothes in a hurry and climbed up behind me. He pressed his front to my back and nuzzled my neck in greeting. I laid my head on his shoulder to get a good look at him. His color was improved from just this morning, though he still looked exhausted.

“Go to bed,” I whispered.

“I’m in bed,” he whispered back. His unmasked silver eyes danced with mirth. “As Marius knows from our pack bond, I need a chance to touch you too.”

Instead of caressing my curves, he went for my wings, stroking the sensitive insides of them while nibbling on the pointed shell of my ear. I trembled from the extra, unexpected contact. “And as Kauz knows, he’s the only male I’d ever share this moment with,” Marius said in echo to him.

That said a whole lot. Tormund had implied these two were actually friends, but I hadn’t gotten to see them interacting here at home since, well, one of them had been unconscious. But I supposed Kauz hadn’t gotten strong on his own, nor had Marius found a love for books without some kind of encouragement. I’d have to see how much their interests ended up intersecting…later.

First, we needed to take advantage of Kauz being here while he was still awake. My attention drifted to Fal, though, who’d been uncharacteristically quiet. His lips were quirked, and he listened in on us and watched with interest. Confident as ever, his feline gaze met mine, and he winked, unbothered by his third packmate joining in.

The winged fae’s hands traveled to my hips, bringing my wandering mind back. He squeezed and kneaded as he said close to my ear, “Let me show you a trick. Lift up.”

He helped me when my legs shook upon being reintroduced to the lady pleaser’s perfect placement. As I lifted, he shifted my hips to circle rather than going straight up and down. Marius, still propped upright, tipped his head back with a deep moan as Kauz guided me to sheath him with a twist of my hips.

I cried out too. The kelpie seemed even bigger this way, and I soaked in the shivery sound of Kauz’s wings as he listened to me. He rocked with me as I got used to this new way to ride a cock, watching me tremble and moan until he covered my belly with one hand. As I sank, he pressed at around the right moment to really push the intimate piercing right where I needed it.

I came with a scream, sending a shockwave of pleasure all the way to my curled toes. Too busy with my own peak, I mostly missed that Marius had drawn himself up in nearly a mirror to me, the cords of his neck standing out as he kept from coming with a grunt that was almost pained. When I went limp, he lay back on the bed and knocked Kauz’s hands aside to grab me instead.

He slammed me the rest of the way down to meet a thrust of his hips. I hit an overstimulated point immediately, my good leg jolting. Kauz put his arms around me to keep me upright and shifted so my knee was trapped between both males’ legs.

Marius’s dilated eyes had gained a gleam of animal intensity, and my belly quivered with anticipation of how he’d unleash it. His fingers dug into my hips and ass as he lifted me up and then into another hard smack of flesh on flesh. He fucked me faster, nostrils flaring in a kelpie’s snort as he chased the end of his endurance for us both. I was going to feel this later, but for now, it was pure bliss as overstimulation swiftly became a sprint back to the peak of pleasure. I was going to come again, but this time, his swelling knot suggested he’d join me.

His knot shoved past the ring of muscle low in my pussy with a wet pop . My screams turned shrill. He winced and shook his head as he pulled the knot free a moment later. I ached to my core for it to return after that tease, but he’d come to enough of his senses not to tie with me yet. Even if I really wanted it, the thought was obliterated when we came together a few moments later.

I’d cried out enough that my scream was little more than a rasp as my eyes rolled back. Sounds and sensations muffled. I floated in weightless bliss, detached and uncaring of the world around me. It was like I’d been plunged underwater for several moments as darkness closed in, eating at the corners of my vision, before the sensation receded as my senses started to return a bit at a time.

I came back to Fal tapping my cheeks and murmuring, “You better wake up, mo stór . You don’t want to miss this.”

Kauz still held up my torso, his lips a ghosting touch on my neck. I actually hadn’t shifted much, just off of Marius’s body. My thighs were soaked from the intensity of our release.

Fal moved out of the way so I could see the kelpie laid out, hands resting on his chest, wearing the biggest smile yet. He made the occasional short, giddy laugh as he stared at the ceiling. Otherwise, he was completely out of it.

I cleared my dry throat. “Did I break him?” I murmured.

“I certainly hope so,” Fal remarked. Marius, thankfully, didn’t seem to hear that snark. “He might be a whole different male now that he’s gotten laid.”

I shook my head, looking at the kelpie with more open affection while he wasn’t aware of it. He didn’t need to be different. He was just complicated, but I was starting to understand him. The last thing I needed was for him to change on me again. “A happier one, at least,” I said.

I leaned my head back again to look at Kauz, a little started to see him already fading out. His eyelids drooped, and his wings were an untidy sprawl behind him.

“Do you want to go lie down in my nest?” I offered. Even though he was naked and I could smell the musk of his arousal through the more dominant alpha pheromones in the air, he didn’t seem like he was in any state to have sex.

Which was a shame, because I wanted him. Even if my limbs felt like they weighed double right about now. Details . We’d figure it out.

“That would be wisest,” Kauz said reluctantly. He stroked strands of sweat-dampened hair from my face and helped turn me so we could kiss. I caught a speck of Always off his tongue, as if he’d been saving it for me, and the taste of stardust lingered with the rest of his brothers’ pheromones to complete them.

While our mouths melded, Tormund said from the floor, “I’ll help him.” What was he doing? He hadn’t returned to the bed yet, and I’d lost track of him seeming to fool around between the bedroom and bathroom.

Kauz sighed and rested his forehead against mine.

“Sweet dreams, my Always,” I whispered.

He closed his eyes for a prolonged moment, smiling. “Will I actually see you in one of them?” he teased.

“I hope so.”

“Good. I would prefer that to the last time, when I received a rather concentrated dose of how your mind perceived fae fruit wine.”

I choked on my own swallow, cheeks heating. “ No ,” I said, mortified. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize I’d drunk way too much.”

He laughed, bundling me in a big hug. “Don’t apologize. It was very entertaining and gave me a path to follow to the waking world. Anyway, I have permission to enter your nest?”

“Of course,” I said, then my gaze alighted on Tormund, who looked a little hurt. “And my comfort, Tormund, who absolutely belongs in my nest. Consider the whole pack invited, actually.”

With one last kiss and Tormund’s support, Kauz set me down to put on some of his clothes and drag himself into my nest.

In the meantime, Marius had returned from his high, enough to turn on his side and draw me in to be the little spoon tucked up against him. He nuzzled my neck with a content-sounding sigh, purring silently. It was so comfortable that I started to sink into a nap with him.

Next thing I knew, Tormund’s cheerful yet loud voice brought me back from the edge of sleep. “What do you want for dinner, li’l bird?”

“Dinner?” I repeated. I wasn’t even hungry.

“You have to eat something once you’re done with Fal,” he insisted.

“Um. Get something you like,” I said.

Marius muttered into my hair, “He likes everything.”

Tormund didn’t seem to hear that remark. “A surprise, then. Should I get some raw meat and sadness too?”

“Hmm. Shrimp tempura for me.”

The redcap gasped and headed for the door. “Something cooked!”

Marius nuzzled me again, purring louder for a short spell before he let it fade. “Feeling civilized for once,” he murmured. I sat up as he shifted away and headed for his clothes. “Don’t get too comfortable. I’m going to get my bruise salve and be right back.”

I thought this was about the bruises from my crutches. “You really don’t have to?—”

“I bruised you more, delicate female,” he interrupted in a growl. He was dressed and out the door soon after. I waited until then to probe around my skin, finding tender patches where he’d grabbed my hips. It still wasn’t a big deal, though. I’d liked it.

I felt bad about making Fal wait. Now that I wasn’t feeling too heavy to move, I was also noting how much of a sweaty mess I was and how I had drying come making my thighs sticky. It wasn’t my best showing.

It didn’t help that, now that I knew how intimate mating really was, I saw how obvious it was that Fal was the most experienced with it. Hopefully he wouldn’t compare me to past experiences.

“Sliver for your thoughts?” he asked. He hadn’t moved, but he’d noticed the shift in my demeanor.

“Um. I would like to wash. Sorry. I know you’ve waited for your turn,” I said.

“All right. Let’s wait for the bruise salve, at least.” He didn’t make a move to leave his spot on the bed, though he’d rolled over and rested his chin on his folded hands. “Until very recently, I didn’t know Marius knew how to apologize out loud. He merely fixes his mistakes when possible. I suspect that’s what this is.”

I nodded in agreement.

He flashed his mischief-lined smile. “You all right?” He was definitely fishing, using that handsome face to his full advantage.

It was working, too, but I didn’t have to tell him my every intrusive thought even though I considered it. “Yeah. How about you? That’s the longest I think you’ve gone without putting in your opinion.”

Fal smacked his lips playfully. “Please. I have impeccable manners. The last thing you needed was me starting a fight by pointing out what they were doing wrong.”

I spluttered and giggled; that was such a Fal answer. I should’ve expected it. He laughed with me for a moment before there was a knock at the door, coming from the study. “That’ll be the salve.” He rolled to his feet and retrieved a little pot left on the other side with no sign of the kelpie that’d delivered it.

I sat up too, making my way to the edge of the bed. I could walk with the cast without damaging it, but it was slow and awkward with how much it weighed down my leg. That feeling was doubled when I tried to lift onto my good foot, hand braced on the bedside table.

Fal was there the next moment, lifting me in his arms. He twirled us both as if we were dancing, humming a few bars of a song before actually singing to me in Serian, “If only you’d call out when you needed me, I’d be there.”

I blinked in surprise. He had a fabulous singing voice. How had I not known this about him? “Sorry,” I said.

He nipped my ear. “Thoughts on musical theater?” he asked in a normal speaking voice. “It drives my family crazy when I burst into song. I am, allegedly, obnoxious.” Tossing his hair, he rattled his earrings and rolled his eyes at the same time.

I giggled. “Could be overly dramatic,” I said.

“That’s not a ‘no, don’t ever do it,’” he sing-songed, tossing the pot of salve aside and setting me in the rain room. He stepped inside with me and turned on the shower.

“You have a great voice,” I said.

“Thanks. It’s attached to a great body.”

I covered my face with my palm. “Fal, c’mon.”

He grinned and lathered up his hands with the soap. “Don’t mind me. Just seeing how much I can get away with before even you tell me to stop.” He tilted my chin up and washed my face first, talking all the while. “In truth, I’m hoping to corrupt you to sing with me. I’m a member of a local theater troupe. Got there on my own merits rather than my title. I usually have enough spare time to join a production once a year.”

I peeked up at him after he rinsed my face and threaded his fingers into my wet hair, massaging the back of my head. Musical theater? Me? I closed my eyes and purred while he rubbed.

“Thus, you were the Prince of Winter,” I mused. I should’ve realized this earlier, with how he still had the temporary tattoos from the role. He was still a perfect fit to portray the character. “But I don’t sing.” Or have nearly the confidence to join him on a stage, for that matter.

“You’re named after a bird. Of course you sing. Now, will you tell me what’s wrong?”

It was hard to tense with him going back to massaging my scalp, but I did stop purring. “It’s nothing,” I said.

“Okay, if you’re going to make me guess…” He drew it out, and I waited, wondering if he’d even get close. “You’re worried about my past lovers. And maybe about comparisons to them.”

“Oh, stars,” I sighed. “How’d you know?”

“I’ve already told you. Figuring out others’ secrets is my thing. A new challenge with everyone I meet.” He went back to washing me as he talked, polishing my breasts with a few extra rubs. “They say the secret to maintaining the love in a lifelong mating is communication. So, let me tell you a secret or two, all right?”

I tried to take the soap from him, but he kept it over my head until I said, “All right.”

Not that he needed it, but I started washing him too, enjoying a moment to relax with one of my mates. “I set expectations with every female I take to bed. I was around for a fun time, not a long time,” he began.

“My past lovers have been all betas, except for the time I tried something with an alpha female. Suffice it to say, I have had many experiences, but you will be my first—and only—omega. I have no female to compare you to because you are incomparable, mo stór .”

I took in a shocked breath. I knew from my memories that he was something like thirty or thirty-one, the tired eldest child of his huge family. Not committing to a relationship in all that time must’ve been lonely.

“Thank you for telling me. I hope it’s worth the wait.”

He tilted his head. “Did you just empathize with me?”

“Are you reading my mind?”

“I hope it’s worth the wait,” he repeated. “Focusing on the wait, not the… You know what?” He caught my face in his hands. “I adore you. I’ve wanted to make sweet love to you since the moment you stole my mask at the Omega Masquerade. You’re the perfect fit for my pack of stupid, ungrateful brothers, and I think you’re going to make us all the best versions of ourselves.”

My eyes widened as he went on, and my heart melted. “I love you, Fal,” I said. It was the only thing I could say. “I loved you first, you know.” He made this look so easy, but I fumbled for the right thing to say. “You saw me. I mean, you looked past what I showed you when we first met and…and cared when you didn’t have to.”

He placed his hand on his chest and bowed as much as the rain room allowed. “When you asked for help, I couldn’t say no.” I wracked my brain, trying to think of when in our first short meeting I even asked for help. “Your body did. The shadows in your eyes, the tense set of your wings. Your limp, your exhaustion, and your sticky fingers too. You didn’t ask . You went to the event thinking you’d save yourself and ended up with my pack falling over ourselves—as I warned you we would—all trying to save you at the same time. Clumsy love.”

When he returned to washing me, he was now working on my hips and thighs. I whimpered when his fingers brushed the tender spots. “Exactly what you just experienced,” he added with a tisk.

I was trying not to get teary, in the good kind of way. I cherished Pack Sorles’s clumsy love. They really had saved me when I couldn’t save myself. It was just striking how much he’d read from me and responded to after our fateful meeting.

He was splashing water between my thighs when I slid forward and clung to him, putting all my gratitude into the purring, slippery hug. He looped his free arm around me and purred in harmony with me, and we stayed under the warm spray of water like that for a few minutes.

He shifted the mood as easily as drawing me in for a kiss. Slow and sweet to start, then becoming a passionate duel of our tongues. He slipped his hand further up my leg to brush his knuckles over my clean pussy. Those graceful fingers went to work. His thumb found my clit and rubbed one side ever so carefully. Three fingers entered and parted my slit, and the pinky circled the rim of my ass.

I made a startled “eep” into his mouth and flapped twice, shooting water and pixie dust everywhere. He chuckled and nipped my bottom lip, trailing kisses up my jaw. “You know we’re going to play back here too. It’s only a matter of time,” he murmured, then crooked littlest finger crooked. I soaked his hand further as my pussy responded to the jolt of pleasure with more slick.

“Looking forward to it,” I replied breathlessly.

He scented the air and withdrew his hand. I reached around to shut off the water, eager and ready for him now. “I think it’s time I claimed my treasure,” he purred.

He toweled himself off, helped me do the same, then retrieved Marius’s salve. Before we returned to bed, he had me spread my legs as he rubbed a generous glob of the cream into my hips and thighs where I’d been gripped the hardest. The yellow and purple marks under my arms received treatment last and disappeared before my eyes with a tingling feeling.

“Oh, this stuff is enchanted,” I said, amazed it’d worked so quickly.

“You’re going to have some on hand at all times until certain alphas learn their own strength. And aye, I do mean both of them,” Fal said.

“Okay, pack lead.” I meant it as a tease, but his answering growl was more aroused alpha than refined prince.

“That’s right. Plucked from the stars and formed to please and care for you.” He lifted me for a short walk to the bed and sat on the edge. My belly quivered with anticipation as I spread my legs around his hips and throbbing cock. The angle of his hold changed, drawing me in until he stopped with mere inches between us, and he tilted his head. “I still have your almost full trust?”

“Full trust,” I corrected.

He grinned and nodded. “Let me show you a real trick.” His voice held the subtle thread of alpha authority, the enticing whisper of his bark that he layered on just thick enough that I could sense it. “Listen, Lark.”

I rested my weight back into his bracing hands and waited, an attentive audience.

“You are safe here with me. Nothing else matters. No worries, no fears, no doubts.”

As I accepted and let in his dominance, my mind emptied of lingering static. I was present in the moment, damp and full of desire, and aware just how poised I was to be full of him. Shifting in his hold, I made a soft whistle of need.

“You’re not going to come until I tell you to. Okay?”

“Okay,” I said, though I was of half a mind to push back on that direction.

“Good omega.” With his trick still winding through his voice, the praise felt like a stroking hand of pleasure down my spine. My wings practically quivered with delight.

He took in my reaction with a gleam in his feline eyes. Instead of dragging me onto his cock, as I expected, he stood and switched places with me so my back and wings were on the bed. He slid his grip to my thighs and pulled me into a thrust of his hips that seated him in me to the root. “Fuck,” he groaned.

I made a breathy cry of agreement. He started off slow, getting me accustomed to the size and shape of him in a measured slide. I wasn’t soaked with slick yet, so I felt each inch and the grind of his pelvis at the apex of every thrust. Starting this way didn’t immediately overwhelm me with pleasure. It was more of a slow, sizzling burn or the first steps to an intimate dance he’d invited me to learn from him.

“You feel perfect. Move with me. That’s right. So fucking good,” he murmured. I let out a moan at how amazing his praise felt, nearly as incredible as each meeting of our bodies.

He held up my heavier right leg. No worries, just as he’d said. With my head emptied of my most negative thoughts, I could focus on being present in the moment. I admired his unfairly attractive body and the view I had of his cock sliding in and out of me. My belly quivered. It was all the more intense to watch his claim in motion.

He flashed that wicked smile and reached between us, pinching my clit and rubbing it ever so slowly between two fingers. My legs locked up as I expected the shattering pleasure of an orgasm. But it didn’t arrive. Instead, I tensed on the edge and drifted down without reaching it. I whimpered in denial. Come back .

“Lark.” He had my attention immediately, especially when he pulled out. “Get on your hands and knees.”

He helped me turn over, and I crawled further onto the bed with him right behind me. He cupped and kneaded my ass while my wings flicked in enjoyment. I looked over my shoulder, wondering what he was waiting for. His eyes were lidded, and he took deep breaths through his lips.

“You’re big on facts lately. Tell me a p’nixie fact,” he said after a few moments of this. “Are your wings like nixie fins? You feel most submissive when they’re held down?”

“That’s right,” I murmured.

“Hold them for me, then. Submit,” he purred.

“Okay.” I hadn’t thought to hold my own wings, but with a little effort, they rested flat on my back. I lifted my hips for him more on instinct.

He took in the view and rumbled low in his chest. While he was no Marius, who was able to hit a deep tone that could shake my core, I still dripped slick with a needy whine. “Okay, what? Who am I?” he coaxed.

“Mate. Alpha. Pack lead,” I answered breathlessly.

One of those was the right answer, as he leaned over me to hold my shoulder as he rubbed his hot length through my folds. “I love how eager you are. So greedy for your pack lead’s cock.” Ah, that was the winner. I trembled as he teased me for a few more moments.

I knew he was ready to continue fucking me when he pushed my front down and pulled my hips back. He slammed home in one smooth glide.

“Yes!” I yelped, bracing harder when that first thrust jolted my body.

“Mine,” he snarled. He held me up, locking me into the pose as he rode me in earnest. Hot breath ghosted over my wings as his inhales started to sound like the snarly cadence that’d come from the other two alphas as they’d hit their stride. I couldn’t see his expression but imagined his pupils rounded out of their feline slits and his expression tight with lust.

With his claim intensifying, I found the pressure and need for completion roaring up on me. But I’d already agreed to push off this feeling, and I was properly submissive to my pack lead, so the feeling faded again even as I cried out like I’d just come.

The next thing I knew, I was on my back, and he was lining up to re-enter me yet again. We were face-to-face, and he was an alpha possessed. He’d taken hold of my left leg, testing my flexibility by bending my knee toward my shoulder. His cock drove as deep in me as it’d felt when he’d taken me from behind.

“And you know it,” he growled. “That you are mine.”

“Yours,” I agreed breathlessly.

His usual smile was edged in victory before he rewarded me with a sloppy kiss and a particularly powerful drive of his hips. We were seconds from his knot tying us together. “Sweet, perfect omega,” he said with effort. “You may come with me. Delay to feel the breeder’s delight, if you can.”

His knot caught in my pussy, and instead of pulling it free, he ground his cock as deep into me as it could go. I dug my nails into his back, aching from the new sensation as his knot continued to expand with each frenzied beat of his heart. That specialized rim of muscle in my pussy locked around his swollen flesh.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he chanted, sputtering and losing himself as he rocked his hips without going anywhere. He spilled, filling the ache in my core with his seed. The rush of hot come felt like utter relief, or maybe that was all the tension in my body snapping as soon as it had permission. My pleasure soared with his and kept climbing. I really could see stars if I came hard enough.

He groaned as my channel squeezed his knot further. The liquid rush from him, which had been abating, became another heated flood instead, though less than the first time he came. We spiraled down from the pleasure high with smaller spikes of mini orgasms until I lay limp and he was doing much the same on top of me.

“Wow,” I said in a daze. So that was what taking a knot felt like. I was now untouched in every sense of the word, because I definitely wanted to do this again. Every night, multiple times, preferably. Though when I started to shift and accidentally tugged on his knot in the process, the freshly tested muscles in my pussy supplied plenty of pain to encourage me to stay still. I whined, definitely not used to that yet.

Fal responded with a nuzzle and a purr, which only grew in intensity as he recovered enough to lift his weight off me and slide us both onto our sides. The comforting vibrations helped ease any lingering pain where we were tied.

“Looks like you’re stuck with me,” he said playfully. The alpha’s presence faded from his voice as if it’d never been there.

“Or you’re stuck with me,” I giggled.

“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.” He caught my lips for a more leisurely kiss.

Once that was done and we’d taken a long gaze into one another’s eyes, he cleared his throat, and his alpha’s presence returned. “There’s something we should address. I love how sweet and submissive you are, but I’m not sharing this side of you anymore. No alpha outside of our pack can see you this way,” he said, searching my face with an intense gleam in his eyes.

I was aware of him using his dominance. He’d layered it on thick enough that I could pull away if I wanted to, but this was important if he was reinforcing his instructions with his bark. If I allowed it, he’d mold a bit of his strength in me so I wasn’t sweet and submissive to any alpha I met.

“You may submit to your mates, but you will never fold to another alpha. You’re my pack princess, and someday, you will be a queen. There is no force in this world that you bow to. No shadows you fear. Nothing alpha, beta, or omega in nature. Do you understand?”

As he spoke, I saw what he was doing. Maybe this was how I’d one day resemble Queen Nemensia, who could allegedly withstand the aggression of her alpha subjects without so much as a flinch. Was this the secret? It was certainly a demand, though a well-meaning one. And, perhaps, more than a little possessive.

“Yes, pack lead,” I said, accepting his dominance.

He relaxed and pressed a protective kiss over my temple. “Good,” he said, letting the thread of dominance go again.

“What now? How long are we going to be tied?”

“Guess you’ll just have to talk to me.” He tweezed his tongue between his teeth for a moment. “Also, I’ve heard twenty minutes. But if you come again, that time resets.”

I opened my mouth to ask why and how I would come again when we were already tied up and quickly closed it. Fal would probably see the question as a challenge. “I didn’t take you for such a possessive male,” I said instead.

He smirked. “I’m still an alpha, mo stór . You’re doomed to hear this every time we fuck.” Clearing his throat, he said with a full growl, “ Mine .”

My pussy fluttered, and he came a bit, setting both of us to moaning until the pleasure subsided again. “And now I know how much you like that. Fuck,” he remarked.

“Twenty minutes starting now?”

“Aye. Let’s talk about something not sexy.” He exaggerated a thinking pose. “Nice weather we’re having.”