“Mwah.”
I hung up the phone as Sutton slid back into the booth, giving me a bemused look.
“Mom,” I explained.
“Ah,” he said. “The old security check. Got it.”
“She is the sweetest,” I said. “Don’t get me wrong. I love that she checks up on me. I love that she cares. It just gets to be a little much sometimes.”
“She sure puts the ‘mother’ in ‘smother’.”
“I’ll say. So they cleared the table while you’re away. Do you want dessert, or…?”
“I’m assuming that’s a rhetorical question,” said Sutton, pulling a dessert menu towards himself. “And you’re welcome, by the way.”
“Huh?”
He waved a finger over his shoulder, pointing vaguely at the jukebox. “No more “Be My Baby”. I figured I’d start us off with the Supremes, and then-”
“Oh, c’mon, Mom.” My phone was vibrating in my pocket. I gave him an apologetic look, slipping it out of my pocket. I didn’t have it in me to hang up on her or tell her off, but I couldn’t help feeling a little frustrated. “Didn’t I just tell her that-”
Oh.
I swallowed. It wasn’t Mom’s name on the screen. It was Vaughn’s, and he was video calling. His picture grinned out from the screen, a faint promise of the handsome view I’d get as soon as I hit ‘accept’.
My jaw opened and closed. I couldn’t take this right now; it’d be rude to cut Sutton off. I was ashamed of how badly I wanted to.
“Take it,” said Sutton.
“But I-”
“Pick it up,” he insisted, smirking at me over the lip of his drink. “I know that look on your face — and I see that hand fixing your hair.”
“I am not,” I said, dropping it back down to my side. “I was just… fidgeting.”
“Pick the call up,” he repeated. “I’m not mad.”
I gave him a sheepish, grateful smile and lifted the phone into position, quickly fixing my appearance before I answered.
Just like every other time, I tried to steel myself, but everything fell apart when his face appeared. He was so handsome — the way his collarbones peeked out from underneath that fitted t-shirt, and a smile that could light up the darkest room.
“Hi,” he said. “Cat got your tongue?”
“No, I — hi. Yes.”
“Got it,” he said. “Wolf got your tongue. I’m flattered.” His smile widened as I blushed, and already my face felt sore from smiling too much. “You look great, by the way.”
I shook my head.
“Yep,” he said. “Take the compliment. It’s true.”
“But you look-”
“Too late,” he interrupted breezily. I felt my eyes crease at the corners, totally enchanted with this alpha who enjoyed teasing me so much. Who saw something special in me, somehow, when nobody else did.
Or at least he seemed to.
“It’s never too late,” I said. “You look very handsome. How’s Miami?”
“Ah. Little chillier than I anticipated, but I guess you can’t win ‘em all. Sky’s still pretty blue — see?”
I smiled. Somehow, it felt good to be under the same sky as Vaughn, even if we had different patches of it to stare at. I leaned a little closer to see as he tilted the phone upwards.
“Beautiful!” I said. “It’s lovely and blue here too, actually. Definitely not as warm as Miami, I’m guessing, even at its coolest.”
“Probably,” he said, smile lifting at the corner as he turned the camera back to his face. Nature was beautiful, sure, but this was a much better view. “Anyway, how are you? What are you doing on this fine Sunday in Blackwater?”
“I’m at Leti’s with Sutton,” I said, taking the opportunity to give my best friend another apologetic smile. He was sweet for letting me take this call, and I hadn’t forgotten it. “We just had some awesome food, and now we’re thinking about dessert.”
“Uh-huh?” he had a teasing smile on his face that I couldn’t quite interpret. Had I just made some innuendo without realizing it? “What’re you thinking? Banana split?”
I hummed. “Mm. Maybe. The sundaes are my favorite here.”
“Yeah?”
“They have a new sundae special this weekend, too,” I said, looking wistfully at the board hanging on the wall. “Coconut, mint and almond.”
“You should definitely get that. With the edible flowers sprinkled on top? It looks amazing.”
“Right? I-”
I blinked, finally processing what he said. To the right of my phone screen, I saw Sutton’s face split into a smirk directed right over my shoulder. I froze, not daring to believe it even as it stared me in the face.
“The back of your head is just as cute as the front,” said Vaughn, grinning into the camera. “Just… for your information.”
I spun in my seat, and my heart skipped a beat. He was here. I didn’t know how or why, but I didn’t care — and neither did my wolf, whining and thrashing with pleasure in my chest. A surge of happiness pushed me out of my chair and across the diner into his arms, wrapped tight around his neck like a scarf and burying into his shoulder. I heard his laugh in person, and then in a split-second echo through my phone.
“You’re supposed to be in Miami,” I said, muffled against his shoulder.
“Yeah, well… as soon as I heard about that special, I figured I’d better come home,” he said, squeezing me tightly back. All too often, he was on the other side of a screen. Having him right here in person after a whole month of that felt like magic — the kind of magic that could motivate me past the barrier of my self-consciousness, and let me hug him like this without panic or shyness. This didn’t feel like a risk. It just felt… right.
Still, it didn’t make sense. Happy as I was, my hummingbird heart wanted answers. “Really, though,” I pressed. “Did the job finish early? Is everything okay?”
“It’s fine,” he assured me, pulling back to look me in the eyes. I lost myself right away in those pools of honey brown, my hands still gripping his forearms. “Everything is okay. I just… felt like I was missing out on something back home.”
My stomach flipped, and my wolf pined. Even with all my concerns and insecurities, of which there were a thousand layers, the implication was still obvious.
“Home missed you, too.”
His hand slipped into mine, and squeezed. It was a gentle gesture, and so unfamiliar still. The only other time he’d touched me with such softness was on the night of the run — the way he cradled me to sleep, all curled up together and intimate.
My heart swelled, and I let him lead me like a child back to the booth.
7
Vaughn
It was all true. I had been to Miami, and I had come home because I missed something — or, more specifically, someone. Work wasn’t so complicated that I couldn’t walk away from it. In fact, I’d already finished almost everything I wanted to do this week, and my colleague kindly volunteered to shoulder the rest. If you thought about it like that, there was no reason not to come back to Blackwater.
Of course, I could try and reframe it however I wanted to, but it all distilled down to the same thing. For the past month, there’d been a Fin-shaped hole in my life, and going as far away as Miami had forced me to confront that feeling. Not that I loved to admit it, but Owen and Ryker were absolutely right. This loneliness that had bubbled up recently, in the wake of all these kids popping out? It hadn’t appeared out of thin air. It had been building for years, slowly and quietly through all the one-night hookups and friends-with-benefits.
I wasn’t ready to say that Finley was the one man I’d been waiting for, but it was time to face the truth. He was definitely something special.
Besides, it had been a long time now. I’d spent too many nights with my blood fizzing as I pictured his lithe, naked body — as I imagined devouring him, piece by piece.
Why was I wasting both his time and mine on trying to fight that?
/> Sliding into the booth next to him soothed a frantic energy that had bubbled under the surface of my skin since we parted last month. It was like an itch. I could ignore it for so long, especially if I had something else to occupy me, but when I lay down to rest at night or stumbled into a moment of calm, there it was to haunt me again. It was a buzzing noise. A ticking clock.
And now that I was here with him, everything was quiet.
“Thanks for letting me barge in on your day like this,” I said, nodding at Sutton across the table. I’d never actually met him before, but he’d come to life as a person through Fin’s many stories about him. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
“Too late, if you are,” said Sutton.
Fin shot him a pleading look, but I could take a joke. I grinned, bowing my head at him. “Touché.”
“Vaughn, this is my best friend, Sutton,” Fin said, still a ball of nervous energy. You couldn’t feel that on the other end of the phone — how much he cared about everything that happened, and the way the air around him vibrated with his effort to make everything good. “Sutton, this is… Vaughn Bennett.”
“Good to finally meet you,” I said. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“All bad, I hope.” Sutton adjusted his glasses. “I’ve heard some things about you too. I was assured I would not be disappointed.”
I heard the distinct sound of a hard kick under the table, and politely ignored it.
“Fin said you work in architecture too,” I said instead. “Is that right?”
To be frank, it was hard work expending any time or effort on talking to Sutton. He seemed great, but both my wolf and I wanted to spend all my social and emotional resources on just one person right now. That person was sitting silently beside me, hand still clasped in mine despite the heat pooling between our palms.
Fin’s scent was always so light that it taunted me. I wanted to bury my face in his skin and wrap myself up in it — breathe him in until he made me dizzy with pheromones. I rubbed a circle on the back of his hand with my thumb, feeling his fingers tightening with the tension.
Yeah, I thought. Me too.
“Anyway,” said Sutton at long last, drumming his fingertips on the table. “I think I’ll get out of here and leave you guys to it.”
“No dessert?” said Fin, voice dry.
“Yeah, don’t skip it on my account,” I insisted. “I don’t want to cut you short.”
“I’m his best friend,” said Sutton. “I hang out with him all the time, and I can see who he’d rather be around right now.” Tough as the words might have been, he said them with a smile, and the kind of fondness that only real friends shared. “You guys enjoy the rest of your evening. And you-” he said, pointing at Fin, “text me later. I’ll Venmo my half of the bill.”
“Sounds good to me,” said Fin, giving him a warm smile. It made me want to smile at Sutton too, if he could make Finley feel like that. “Bye, Sutton.”
Both our heads turned as we followed his progress out of the diner. Then my eyes slipped to Fin, and my smile widened as he caught me looking, head tipped towards mine in the close confines of the booth. I could feel the heat of his skin, and imagined how it would feel to lift his wrist to my mouth. To kiss it light enough to feel his pulse.
He swallowed, and I watched his throat bob. If not for how uncomfortable it’d make him feel, I’d kiss that too.
“I missed you,” Fin admitted. “After the pile-up.” His eyes dipped down to my lips, long lashes skating over pink-flushed cheeks.
“Yeah? I missed you too.”
I didn’t want to make him wait for that reciprocation — and sure enough, as soon as I spoke, I was treated to a warm glow spreading right across his face. Beautiful.
I didn’t want to wait any longer, and it seemed he didn’t either. His tongue darted out to wet his lips, and when I turned towards him in the booth, he let out a quiet sigh of relief.
Kissing him felt like the fulfilment of a long-overdue promise. That moment we’d spoken to each other for the first time in early January felt like years ago now, teasing our patience until we couldn’t hold out for this soft, sweet contact any more. His hand closed around my wrist, and I brought my free hand up to touch his face — let my thumb brush over the smooth surface of his jaw. The only time I felt like that was right after I shaved, but Fin was on another level altogether. He was silk and butter, and he smelled like honeysuckle and apples on a summer day.
Yeah. Whatever commitment-phobic stalling I pulled before, I was going to have to call time on it now. I didn’t know an omega could make you feel like this outside of fairy tales and soap operas — like part of my spirit had shifted into the space occupied by his body, carefully cradling the shape of him in the warm diner air.
At the sound of a woman clearing her throat, I remembered a little more about that diner. Namely, the fact that we were in one at all. When I looked up to meet Leti’s smiling eyes, seeing her hands perched on her hips, I could only give her a sheepish grin. Fin was a little more affected, jumping to attention as if he’d been caught passing notes by his strictest teacher.
Bet those kids would love to see him like this.
“If you guys don’t cut that out, I’m going to have to take ‘family restaurant’ off the flyers. Or charge for the show.”
“Sorry, Leti,” I said.
She flapped a hand at us. If anything, she seemed as entertained by Fin’s shy scramble as I was. “I haven’t forgotten how it is. Young bucks, just… knocking the crap out of each other’s hearts. In a good way,” she clarified. “Anyway. I’m guessing you’d like the check.”
“Please,” muttered Fin, eyes cast down at the table.
“Not a problem. Give me a couple of minutes and we’ll get that brought right over to you.”
Finley only let go of my hand to dig into his wallet and pay for his food.
“I can get that for you.”
Fin’s mouth opened and closed, and he shook his head, turning his wallet in his hand. “I mean, I… you don’t… I can…”
“I know you can. Let me treat you.”
Even then I could see him flexing it as soon as it was free, and rubbing his fingertips against his palm like there was some spark or feather tickling him there. By the time we left the diner and stepped into the late winter air, I had waited quite long enough, and offered my palm up to him once again. Without a beat’s hesitation, he took it.
“Thank you,” he said, gratitude bursting out of him like a firework.
“I’m staying around the corner,” I said, moving swiftly on with a warm smile. “Got a place to myself. You want to come over?” I tried my best to sound nonchalant. I had to, because I needed to make sure he wasn’t pressured or influenced by my desperation. I needed to know what he really wanted.
When I felt his grip on my hand tighten, I looked to my side and caught his eyes — saw the deep, oceanic longing written all over him. “Yeah,” he said, sounding strangled. He was nervous, for sure, but I didn’t see coercion. I saw desire. “Yes, please. I’d like that.”
“Great.”
I nodded, slow and steady. My heart was tripping over itself, an incessant drumbeat for the frantic pacing of my wolf. For the first time in years, it was not from driving a little too fast on the interstate, or running at the full moon. It was the sheer thrill of having Fin. Having him now, in this moment, and having him in the privacy and intimacy of my rented room.
It was minutes away, and I still couldn’t wait.
As we approached the house, I sneaked a glance Fin’s way, and squeezed his hand. If my heart was pounding, I could only guess what the tension was doing to Finley — how his breath must be heaving, and the increasingly frantic rhythm of his pulse. Knowing that just the thought of me was doing that to him was like stroking a fingertip down the spine of my ego.
“Here we are,” I told him. I dropped his hand to open the door, and pretended not to notice how he knotted his fingers and wru
ng his hands. “All right. Let’s get you inside.”
I stepped back to let him through the doorway first. Watching him pass me by felt like successfully luring a victim into my lair, but this ‘victim’ had it easy. If I had my way, he’d be gasping out hot, pleasure-rich breath into the privacy of my bedroom in a matter of minutes.
Or the hallway. Or the kitchen. I didn’t intend on being picky.
I wanted to pounce on him as soon as the door closed behind us, but instead I forced myself to wait — bathed in the need I could feel radiating from his core. He turned to face me, shy eyes, darting up to and away from my face over and over as I drew nearer.
“You look like you’re about to be eaten alive.”
“Aren’t I?”
I grinned, tracing his jaw with my fingertip. “Maybe not all at once.”
The air thinned between us. I let the moment stretch, and then closed the gap between us again. I kissed him more softly this time, taking care not to overwhelm him in the intimacy of this private space. He wasn’t made of glass, but I still wanted to protect him. Still sensed that a gentle hand would suit him best, at least this first time.
His hands fastened around my wrists. I pulled back, not sure whether that tension came from excitement or fear. When I looked into those big gray eyes, I saw a little of both.
“You okay?”
“Yeah,” he said, firm and certain. “I’m okay. You’re just… Wow.”
“Yeah,” I told him. “You too.”
I leaned forward to kiss his forehead, soft and slow. This wasn’t my kind of move, and it felt almost like wading into water without knowing how deep it would get, or where the drop-off was. When he relaxed his hands and fastened them around my waist instead, I realized with a jolt that falling wouldn’t be so bad.
It was a scary thought. Maybe we were kind of in the same boat after all.
My lips found his again, and we pressed together until I had him backed into the wall. Already, I could feel my cock stirring in my jeans, but whatever rush I’d felt outside had died. This moment was enough by itself, like being suspended in sunlight and honey. I wanted him, but I knew I’d have him in time, when he was ready. Sometime tonight.
Claiming My Omega: Blackwater Pack: Book 2 Page 7