Page 13 of Roman (Destined Paranormals #7)
Chapter 13
Roman
I had never expected to be gifted a mate, let alone one who was as giving and open as Beau. My sweet, precious mate. He barely knew me, yet here we were. I chuckled as I wrapped my arms around his slender body a little tighter. I honestly hadn’t intended to claim him in the bathtub, but it seemed as if it were the perfect place in the heat of the moment. A quick glance at the floor said otherwise. I kissed the top of Beau’s head as he lay passed out in my arms. I would worry about the mess on the floor later. At the moment, there was nothing I could do about it since I was knotted to Beau.
That was a new experience for me and one that I very much enjoyed. But did he? It seemed as if he had, but one never really knew. I had a pretty good idea that claiming one another would be an intense experience for him, and I’d done my best to make sure he thoroughly enjoyed himself before, but had I gone overboard? Had it been too much?
Almost immediately after Beau had bitten me, he’d passed out. Perhaps it had been a bit too much. I felt somewhat bad now, but my only thought had been to give him as much pleasure as I could. But looking back, maybe I should have been a bit more reserved since it was his first time. I grinned and snuggled to him tighter.
I wasn’t sure how long my knot would last but figured it would be a bit longer since we were claiming each other. Until it deflated enough that I could pull from Beau’s body without causing him any pain, I could do nothing except hold him safely in my arms. That wasn’t anything to complain about.
I scooped up a handful of water and let it run down Beau’s back. I figured that the least I could do would be to clean him a bit. But in reality, without a soapy cloth, I couldn’t actually clean him. I was more than happy to hold him while letting my thoughts wander.
I’d felt our bond slip into place after Beau had claimed me back. But with him passed out in my arms, I’d not really been able to receive anything back from him when I reached out to him. That was understandable, but the fact that I’d felt it gave me hope that we wouldn’t experience any issues when it came to developing a strong connection.
I wasn’t sure how long we were in the tub and was a bit surprised that the water hadn’t started to cool, but it was as if Beau and my knot were in sync because shortly after it released from Beau, he moaned against my chest before he pushed away enough to look up at me.
“Welcome back, sweetness.”
Beau gave me a sleepy smile. “Was I out long?”
“I don’t have any real way of knowing. There’s not a clock in here, but my knot just went down and released, so I’d say not terribly long.” I leaned forward enough to kiss him. “I hope I didn’t overwhelm you too much.”
Beau smiled again. “Oh no. It was wonderful. You were wonderful.” Beau smiled but ducked his head. “I’m sorry I was a bit out of it.”
I returned the smile as I reached out and placed a finger under his chin so he would meet my gaze. “You were wonderful. I was actually just thinking about how I might have overdone it a bit and it was too much for you. I just wanted you to have an amazing time.”
Beau snorted. “If you couldn’t tell, I definitely had that.” Beau took a deep breath, and when he let it out, it wasn’t quite steady, which put me on edge. “Will it always be that intense?”
I thought for a moment, unsure how exactly to answer. “Well, we’ll only ever claim each other for the first time just that once. If you’re asking about sex in general, I’m afraid I don’t have an answer for you beyond that.”
“We’re mates though, so it will be more than just sex, right?”
I smiled as I reached up and ran my fingers through his damp hair. “Yes. I’ve been told that what we experience together with our mates is more than what others experience with those who aren’t their mates. Why do you ask?”
“It was amazing, but I feel bad that I passed out. I would love it if we could do that again, only I stay awake.”
I couldn’t keep from chuckling. “I’ll see what I can do about not overwhelming you so much next time.”
Beau’s smile was beautiful. “When will that be?”
My earlier chuckle turned to complete laughter. “Whenever you wish,” I told him after a moment. “Although, I do recommend that we get cleaned up and I feed you first. Keeping up your energy is important, especially when you’re expending so much during certain activities.”
Beau gave me a grin that I knew would always have an effect on me and would get him whatever it was he desired.
“I should get off of you, then,” Beau said, but when he tried to stand, he gasped and quickly fell back against me. He looked at me with wide eyes. “My legs are asleep.”
I chuckled at our predicament. “Well, I can wash you here, or I can carry you over to the shower and set you on the bench that is in there.”
“There’s a bench?” Beau asked, quickly craning his neck to turn around and check out the shower. “I can’t see,” he said, sounding disappointed. “I can’t believe I didn’t notice the shower earlier.”
I wrapped my hands around Beau, grabbing ahold of his ass, and carefully stood. It wasn’t nearly as easy as one would think, but I managed to get to my feet even with Beau flailing around a bit. “Shall we shower?”
“I…” Beau sighed. “I was going to say I could walk, but the tingling in my legs tells me otherwise.”
I smiled at him. “Yes. I feel it too, but I know that what I’m feeling is nothing when compared to what you are. Give it a bit, and your legs should be feeling so much better soon enough.”
I carefully made my way between the tub and the walk-in shower, where I set Beau down on the bench. I wasn’t exactly sure what it was for, other than shower sex, but it certainly was handy at the moment. Once Beau was sitting on the bench, I turned on the water, hoping it didn’t take long for it to heat up.
“I’ll be right back,” I told him. “I need to go drain the tub and throw some towels on the floor to clean up the water that splashed out earlier.”
Beau stopped me with a hand on my hip. “I’ll do that,” he said before he waved his hand in that direction.
“You don’t have to.” I tried to stop him. I didn’t know exactly how his magic worked yet or if using so much of it would tire him more.
“Already done,” Beau said. “I’m told that our magic works much like the warlocks of your realm here. And yes, using too much of it will tire me, but cleaning up the floor, draining the tub, and making the shower hot isn’t enough to do that.”
I looked at Beau, amused. “So you can hear my thoughts?” I asked, hoping that he truly could.
Beau nodded. “I’m not sure how to respond though. Do I just think something?”
“In a way, yes. You need to think about sharing it with me. Sort of like you’re having a conversation with me in your head.”
“I’m not sure what to say to you,” Beau told me through our bond.
I grinned. “Well, that works. But it will come in handy when we can’t be together and you want to talk to me.” I knelt down in front of him and started rubbing his legs. “Did you get the feeling back in them yet?”
“I think so,” Beau said. “Why wouldn’t we be together?”
“When we both have to go back to work,” I told him. “You’re still planning on running the bakery, are you not?”
“Oh. Yeah.” Beau looked down at where my hands were resting on his thighs. “You mentioned teaching?”
I stood and carefully pulled him up to his feet. The water might be steaming, but Beau had goose bumps on his skin, and neither myself nor my tiger liked that. “We need to get you under the water. You’re cold.”
“Only a little. The steam was starting to warm me up, which is what I think caused the chill.”
I pulled Beau into the stream of water, and when he shivered, I wrapped my arms around him. One of the good things about being a shifter was that I always ran warm. I felt Beau sigh and relax after a few moments of us standing under the hot spray of water.
“Are you warm now?” I asked after I took a step back.
“Yes.” Beau looked around the shower. “This is a seriously nice shower,” he said. “Not that the ones in Even’s place are bad. They’re not. But this one seems…fancy.”
I chuckled. It was certainly quite nice. I’d noticed that earlier when I was unpacking some of the essentials. “It’s certainly nice. I didn’t think to stop at your place to grab your stuff, but you’re welcome to use my soaps and shampoos.”
Beau grinned up at me. “Thanks.” He leaned his head back, wetting his hair before he reached for the bottle of shampoo. When Beau moved out of the spray, I took his place. We spent the rest of the shower exchanging smiles, and when I winked down at Beau, his cheeks turned pink, and I wondered if he would always react like that with me.
When Beau tried to wash himself, I took the cloth from him and got to my knees in front of him. “You don’t have to wash me.”
“I don’t, but I want to. Unless it makes you uncomfortable, I would very much like to take care of you.”
Beau offered another smile, this one shy, with a gentle nod. It was incredibly tempting to explore his body more thoroughly than I had earlier and break in the bench against the far end of the shower, but Beau’s growling stomach had me making the shower essential, and I quickly washed Beau and then myself while he rinsed off. Once the suds were washed from my own body, I turned off the water and then led Beau out of the shower. Thankfully, I’d thought to put several towels in the cabinet earlier when I was unpacking a few bathroom things.
“Gray?” Beau asked, looking at the towel.
“You are welcome to change any and everything in the house. I have gray towels simply because there were enough of them when I was at the store to purchase things when I moved off of Treasure Ridge. I left a lot of the household items there because the omegas that were living with me were still there in the house.” Beau gave me a look, and immediately, I knew what it meant, even without having to probe into his thoughts. “The council has been rescuing omegas that have been trafficked.”
“That’s where they were kidnapped and sold into sex slavery?”
I nodded. “Yes. It’s not pretty, and sadly, some of them were sold by their own family. But the council knew I was a protector, even though I’m not an enforcer. For whatever reason, they asked if I would be willing to watch over a few of the omegas. I had no issue with it since first Phineas had left and then Philip. They were working in the council’s store with me already, so it wasn’t difficult to walk them home with me after we closed the store.” I gave Beau a serious look. “There was never anything between me and any of them.”
“All right. Not that I can say anything. It’s understandable that you would have had sexual partners in the past.”
I nodded slowly. “I have. Not nearly as many as some, but I spent twenty years doing everything I could to protect my brothers from a deranged shifter who was first obsessed with our mother and then them when he realized he had killed her.”
“That’s so terrible.” Beau’s entire mood shifted.
“I didn’t tell you that to upset you. I only wished to reassure you that nothing happened between me and any of the omegas I was trusted to watch after.” That was why I had been entrusted to their care. Because the council knew I wouldn’t try anything with any of them. Not that the enforcers would. That’s why they had passed through the extensive screening process the council had for their elite.
“I understand that, but I still feel terrible about your parents. Mine were from two different villages and not the one we lived in. Neither Evan nor I even know who their families are or if we have any other family still. Well, other than each other.”
I couldn’t understand how two people could do that. Then again, I knew nothing of their family dynamics. Perhaps their families weren’t nice. It happened more often than one would think.
“You and Evan have family here now. And it’s a bit bigger than you would think because although I’m technically not related to Alexander and Raiden, they joined the family through Phineas. And Alexander has a cousin who basically raised him from a teenager and up. So add in Everett and Jennings and their kids, and then throw in Jennings’s brother, who is one of Alpha Maynard’s many, many children, and it’s a whole lot, and you just never know who all will be at family functions.” Beau’s widening eyes had me smiling. I nodded at him. “Yeah, it can be a lot. But they’re great, and for the most part, it’s just my brothers and their mates. Sometimes Raiden and Alexander are at family dinners with their little one, but not always.”
“That’s…I guess I can’t say it’s too much because all of the fae enforcers kind of banded together, and it’s not unusual for them to have pizza nights where they spend time yelling at the television while they’re playing some silly game on the console.” Beau rolled his eyes. “I get it; they have their thing, and I have mine. There’s this television series that is probably too sappy for them, so I watch it when they’re all at work. Otherwise, I’ve not had much to do while they all got to go to work every day. There’s only so much walking around the council building, the store, and bakery before you become bored.”
That I understood and could relate to completely. I reached for Beau’s towel and started rubbing it on his shoulders and then down his arms.
“Your stomach has growled twice more now. I should get you dry and fed. Are you still up for spaghetti? If not, we can run into town and have a meal, but it will take longer.”
Beau smirked. “If you want spaghetti, we’ll have spaghetti. But you have to remember that your mate is fae. I have magic, Roman. If you want a steak dinner, which I’ve seen so many shifters eat more often than not, then I’ll magick you a steak dinner.”
That was…something I hadn’t thought about before. “Although that sounds wonderful, I would very much like to cook for you. Unless, of course, you don’t actually wish to have spaghetti. I will try to make more elaborate meals in the future. I didn’t allow myself enough time this evening.”
Beau shook his head. “Spaghetti is fine. Steak is good as well. Or fried chicken?” Beau’s eyes widened. “There’s this place in Timber Valley that the guys go to, and sometimes I get to tag along, and it has the best fried chicken. We have chickens in our realm, and we’ve been known to bread and fry the parts. But it’s different.”
I chuckled. I knew the place he was talking about. I finished drying Beau and wrapped the towel around him. “You know you can have fried chicken anytime you wish, right? You just offered to use magic to cook me a steak. Why can’t you get your chicken?”
Beau seemed confused. “I guess I’d not thought about that. I usually just cook for me and Evan since he’s working. Or he’ll bring me supper home if he’s eating at the council with the others.”
I got it. Evan was an enforcer, and Beau wasn’t. But it seemed like Beau hadn’t had the best time of things here so far.
“We’ll have whatever it is that you desire,” I told him. After all, my most pressing need at the moment was to feed my mate. “I don’t have any clothing here that will fit you, but if you would like a clean set of clothes, I have some sweatpants that have a drawstring in the waist.” The thought of Beau in my clothes made my tiger happy. I think it was simply a mate thing because more than once, I’d seen Phineas wearing a shirt that was certainly not his but Ramsey’s.
“I can clean my clothes,” Beau said. “Or even better, I can use magic and get some of my things from Lukan’s.” Beau glanced away before meeting my gaze. When he did, his cheeks were deep red. “That is, if you wanted me to stay? I had assumed, but maybe I shouldn’t have.”
I reached for my mate, and when he took the few steps that separated us, I quickly wrapped him into my embrace. “I will always want you with me. We’re mated, and even if we weren’t, I would still welcome you to stay here with me. This is our home. It was gifted to us for as long as we wish to stay here. When and if the time comes and we wish to move elsewhere, we can. But yes, I absolutely do want you here with me. Always.”
Beau smiled up at me, and I couldn’t help myself. I needed to kiss him. I kept it quick and gentle, though, because I needed to feed my mate more. It had been a long day for him already, and then we’d expended a bit of energy. If the night went how I anticipated, we’d be getting plenty of exercise, and that required food. I smiled down at Beau as I stepped away.
“You really want me here?”
I sighed. “We’ll talk more during our meal, but yes. Why wouldn’t I? You’re my mate. I’ve claimed you. That’s how mates work. Do mates not live together in your realm?”
“Yes, but…I’m not sure why I’m being like this. I guess because things are different here than they are in our realm.”
“Do you not live in single enforcer housing with your brother? And are there not mated enforcer houses not far from the council building?”
The O that formed on Beau’s mouth was adorable and had my mind going places it didn’t need to be going at the moment.
“Exactly. Now, let’s eat. There’s a whole lot to discuss over the next few hours. I’m not sure how quickly fae go into heat, or is it that you have a fertile period? Either way, we need to discuss certain things before that happens.” I was no expert on things, but from past experiences, I fully expected Beau to get thrown into heat or whatever sometime in the next day or two at the most. It was going to be interesting because I absolutely was not prepared to take care of my new mate during a heat just yet. There would be a quick trip to the store for supplies a little later, but first, other things needed to be discussed.