A Bundle of Mannies

by Lorelei M. Hart

  “Omega, what can I do for you?”

  Oh. My. God. Tell him. Tell him to kiss me, to lie me down and savage me on the carpet. To cover me with whipped cream and hot fudge and lick it off. Or let me do that to him. Say something! “I like nuts.” Nooo...what the hell kind of thing is that to say?

  He was so close now, only millimeters separated his lips from my ear as he whispered, “Do you? What kind?”

  Knees wobbling, I grasped the counter to stay upright. “Uhh...macadamias?” And somehow managed to break the tension. Dammit!

  He moved back a bit and laughed. “Your wish is my command, omega. Let’s make sundaes and go sit on the couch and eat way too much ice cream and maybe watch a movie?”

  “But what about the table you had brought in?” I didn’t want to seem ungrateful.

  “That’s just window dressing. Atmosphere. I’d rather be comfortable, wouldn’t you?”

  “Yes.” And naked. Naked with you. But of course I didn’t say that, just held my dish while he scooped ice cream from one of the freezers into it and added toppings at my command. We ended up with two huge sundaes and, before we headed for the couch, he grabbed a can of whipped cream and stuffed it into his waistband.

  “We may want extra.”

  “Uh-huh.” Extra, yes. I wanted all the extras.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Judson

  I filled his sundae with more whipped cream each time it got a little low. I noticed that unlike me, who scooped all the whipped cream into my mouth right away, he put a little on his spoon then scooped up some of the ice cream. The nuts were on some but not all spoonfuls, but the whipped cream was on all, so I made it my mission to have him never run out.

  When I’d teased about wanting extra, I’d sort of thought it might be to lick off each other, but the more I gave him, the bigger the smile he wore telling me that even if we exhausted the entire can of fresh whipped cream, something I hadn’t even known possible, I’d used it wisely.

  I turned on the television, looking for something light and fun to watch. What I really wanted to do was watch him eating his ice cream with such pleasure on his face, imaging the dart of his tongue was not for a sweet confection but was for me.

  “How about just this?” I stopped on a channel that had an ocean scene, waves crashing on a sandy beach, and played some new-agey type music, the kind that could easily fall into the background. “Or we could watch a comedy. There are so many channels here, I’m not really sure how to find anything.” Nor if I really wanted to.

  I was so good at the flirting when it couldn’t come to anything, but now that we were here, together, I didn’t want to bung anything up, and I came across as awkward—hardly the character trait an omega with child would look for in a date.

  “You didn’t finish your ice cream.” He pointed to my half-eaten, now-liquid goo.

  “I got distracted,” I admitted. Not that I was a huge ice cream person as a rule, but these were amazing so on another day it would’ve all been in my belly long before it had a chance to melt.

  “Because of the whipped cream?” He stood up and took my dish out of my hand before I registered what he was doing. “I’ll get you a new one.”

  “No. It’s fine.” I stood up to join him and somehow ended up bumping into him just enough that a spoon fell to the ground, catapulting the ice cream onto my chest. “And now we are having physics class.” I grabbed the sundae cups, bent down to gather the spoon, and walked around him back to the-over-the top insane setup Freddie had managed to get us in record time. “Would you like more?” I asked over my shoulder as I reached the sundae bar. “I can get you another.”

  “I don’t think I could eat a whole one.” His breath brushed my shoulder blade. “Maybe I just want a little bit.” His hand settled on my shoulder, and I dropped the sundaes the miniscule distance to the counter, the sound startling me as he turned my body around and licked the blob of ice cream from my chest.

  “Edwin?” The huskiness of my voice didn’t camouflage my shock at his actions. “This—you—so it wasn’t just flirting back.” Damn, I was a sorry ass excuse of an alpha. I just didn’t want to ruin any hope for a future because I was presumptive.

  “I like you, Judson, and not because you are my boss or because the dating pool is weird, given we are on tour, or because I’m damaged goods and willing to take anyone.” Whoa. Where did that come from?

  I tilted his chin up so that his eyes met mine. “Omega, are those the things you worry I might be thinking about you?”

  “Maybe?”

  “Rest assured I am very much not.” How did I manage to turn our date into this? “Well, the boss thing a little bit but more that I don’t want you to feel pressured because of it. Never once did it cross my mind that you might be damaged goods.”

  “I am though,” he confessed softly and I wanted nothing more than to scoop him into my arms—to make it okay, but he needed to see my eyes when I spoke—to see the truth in my words.

  “Because you are pregnant?”

  “That and I was pretty much this side of homeless when I took the job. I lost my job dancing when I got my belly.” A belly that was still flatter than most. Dancers sure had an odd way of looking at the human form. Of course they also thought dancing on tiptoe looked graceful, when in truth I always felt it looked painful.

  “You do not have a belly, but I bet you will look sexy as hell when you get one.” And I couldn’t wait to see it and, if he allowed, feel it as his wee one kicked and did whatever crazy shenanigans they did in utero. There was something so magical about the creation of a new life.

  “And that’s the other thing, I have a baby in me that is not yours, and I’m here licking your chest and wanting so much more than that.”

  My heart skipped a beat at his words. I’d felt he wanted more—or hoped, anyway, but to hear his words state he did so clearly—it was everything.

  “I want so much more than that, too.” I leaned in and kissed him softly. “Do you still want that?” I spoke against his lips, my hands holding his cheeks, my bare chest pressed against his clothed one. How very much I wanted that shirt gone. All of it, every stitch of his clothing. I wanted nothing between us. Nothing.

  “More than anything, alpha.” And with that, I scooped him up and left the ice cream paradise behind, heading into the bedroom where I would give him anything and everything he wanted.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Edwin

  My heart pounded so hard I could barely even breathe. So far we’d been coy, trading lots of double entendres and trying to pretend nobody would notice. But while traveling on a bus with wall-to-wall people—bored people—they probably knew. But the kids seemed fine and happy and that was the most important thing.

  And what omega could possibly resist an alpha who swept him up into his arms and carried him off to his bedroom. It was like a romantic movie, a secret guilty pleasure of mine. As we passed the counter, I grabbed one of the cans of whipped cream, and his deep chuckle rumbled against my side.

  “What do you have in mind for that, omega?”

  “It’s a dessert topping...isn’t it?”

  We arrived at the bed and he laid me down and surveyed me. “Yes, it’s that. But we already had dessert.”

  I sat up and faced him, my eyes level with his waistband. “I thought that was dinner.” Feeling daring, something I never was, I tapped the cap of the can against his button. “My dessert is in here.”

  His grin warmed me to my toes, but as he opened his jeans, one slow button at a time, a shiver overtook the heat. My thermostat was off due to extreme horniness. A narrow happy trail appeared, followed by the release of a long, curved length of the tastiest-looking dick I’d ever seen. And in my line of work I saw quite a few. Naked dancers, remember.

  “Commando, huh?” I reached a tentative finger to trace the prominent vein to the tip, where I scooped up the glistening drop of precum and brought it to my mouth. “Mmm.”

  �
�I wear boxers sometimes, but I was thinking they’d just slow us down.” His eyes blazed, lips moist and parted.

  I tipped my face toward him. “Why, alpha, did you plan this seduction?”

  “Yes.”

  I sucked in a breath at his response. Somehow that one word held so much impact. “May I suck you, alpha?”

  One strong hand cupped the back of my head and guided me toward his crotch. No words were necessary as I opened my mouth and allowed him to push me down onto his shaft. I’d always thought of the person getting the blow job as passive, but he taught me a whole new way. While I sucked and licked and let my teeth scrape lightly over his service, he moved my head up and down, setting the depth and how far I backed up. With each plunge downward, I took in more of his impressive cock until finally he was landing in my throat then withdrawing almost all the way, leaving just the head inside my mouth for a quick suck.

  He set the rhythm with just that firm hand and I followed, a willing student learning what pleased my alpha and vowing to remember the lesson well. He grunted, stroking in so deep, he filled my throat and I tried not to choke, but it was the last thrust because he pulled out, panting.

  “No,” I protested, licking my lips, wanting every taste of him. “Why did you stop?”

  Trailing the hand from my head to my shoulder then planting it on my chest, he pushed me onto my back. “Because I want the first time I come with you to be deeper inside you.”

  “Any deeper in my throat you’d have come out the other end,” I quipped, but my skin was coated with a fine perspiration, my hands twitching at my sides.

  “Then let’s just start there and see how high we can get.” And he was untying my trunks and pulling them off me. I had kicked off my flip-flops sometime earlier and still wore my shirt, but I didn’t think it would be much in the way. Especially once he pushed it up to expose the slight curve of my belly and my chest. “You’re amazing, omega. A dancer’s body any alpha would crave”—I froze at the reminder of how many had—“but a heart my children and I have already grown to treasure. And I warmed again. “May I knot you, omega?”

  “Why, yes you may.” I let my legs fall wide apart as he took me up on my invitation, first spreading some of my slick around the head of his dick before prodding my opening with the blunt head. “We are so—oof—polite.”

  He stopped, having barely breached me. “Did I hurt you?”

  My weak laugh eased the muscles and he slid deeper, probably without trying. “No, well, a little, but only because you’re so so…”

  “Size matters, then?”

  “Move, please move. I want you so much.”

  What had begun as a mild stretch threatened to rip me in half when he gave a great thrust into my body, but after a few minutes, I adjusted, while still feeling so full, the pleasure overwhelmed the pain, and I clung to him, crying out his name over and over until my cum spilled onto my belly, splashing off his chest and puddling below.

  He followed right after, the hot semen pouring into me and his knot swelling to hold it inside. I had a moment’s regret that he hadn’t put this baby inside me, but it seemed ungrateful to regret any part of this time. When his knot finally abated, he rolled to lie next to me, enfolding me in an embrace that made me feel safe and happy. “I wish I could sleep like this every night,” I blurted before I examined the words.

  He didn’t miss a beat, dropping a kiss on the top of my head and saying, “Me, too, omega, but if we do that, you’ll have to learn to be quieter in the sack.”

  “I—”

  He cut off my protest with a smiling kiss and one thing led to another to a long make-out session that ended with me on top of him this time and every bit as loud as before. It was a wonder the hotel detectives weren’t beating on the door, or maybe someone from the band security.

  I guessed they had enough experience to tell the difference between murder and orgasm. Lucky for us.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Judson

  Nothing compared to the feeling of knotting my omega—for he was mine. I just needed to tell him so. For a second the night before, when I complimented his body, he froze and I wondered if he was worried I would like it less once it rounded out, or if it was because he’d been on the end of groupie wooing. I’d never asked him how successful he was at his career. For all I knew he was on Broadway or in the movies or the NYC ballet. None of that mattered to me. The only thing that did was who he was and how he made me feel—like I was worthy.

  Which was probably a dumb way to look at things, but there it was. Iliana made sure I knew how unworthy I was and, while looking back on it, I saw it for the measure of control that it was, but every once in a while, the feeling inched back to the forefront, and I needed to swat it away. With Edwin, though, Edwin always looked at me as if I was this gift instead of the gift he was to me—to my family.

  “We need to get up soon,” I whispered in his ear, my arm wrapped around him, my hand settled on his belly, his back to my front, my already awake front.

  We’d spent the night either exploring each other’s bodies or recovering from having just finished, and now that it was nine a.m., a half hour before we promised to pick up the kids, the last thing I wanted to do was move. I mean, he could persuade me to move with him—naked—but getting out of the bed was not something my body had the energy for.

  “I know, but I don’t want it to be over.” He rolled over to face me, his hand on my chest, his eyes still sleepy.

  “The only thing over is the night,” I vowed. I still wasn’t sure how things would play out for the rest of the tour—this was hardly a typical dating scenario, but we’d make it work. I could feel it in my middle. How we got there was the only mystery.

  “Is it?” The vulnerability he shared in those two words had me wanting to call Freddie and tell him I wasn’t coming until the show, the only thing stopping me, the eleven o’clock press conference he’d be expected at and even that only stopped me barely.

  “Yes, omega.” I cupped his cheek. “If you will have me, I want to be yours not just for this night but for all the nights until you get tired of my sorry butt.”

  “As I recall your butt is anything but sorry.” He chuckled and nuzzled into my chest. “I seem to remember it being quite delightful, if you must know the truth.”

  “I believe you have our butts confused.” I kissed the top of his head. “And as much as I hate to say it, we have to get up.”

  “And face the day,” he agreed, placing a small kiss on my chest. “What about everyone?”

  “What about everyone?”

  “What do we say, or do we hide things? I don’t want to ruin your job.” He was worried about my job and not his own. Selfless, strong, sexy omega.

  “You are never something to be ashamed of, so no, we don’t hide.” I tilted his chin up so I could look him in the eye. “Never.”

  “But this isn’t a regular situation.” He wasn’t wrong there. Nothing about this resembled typical dating. We spend a great many hours together doing everything from playing games with the kids to shooting the breeze, rarely ever having a second alone together, and in a way that had been for the best. It meant we got to know each other—really know each other before we got physical. Heck, before most people have a third date. No, this was not a regular situation at all, and yet somehow it worked.

  “Answer me this.t Do you want to hide?” Because if he did, as much as I didn’t want to, I’d agree. Unlike him, I knew my job was secure regardless of whether or not I shtupped the manny. Heck, I brought a groupie on tour once upon a time. I’d been such a fool.

  “No.” His insistence had my heart skipping a beat. As much as I’d have understood if he wanted to keep us a secret until the tour was over, it would’ve hurt to not be out in the open. “But the kids.”

  “Probably already know we like each other.” Heck, I was pretty sure from my conversation with Rich that Edwin and I were the last to know. “Kids are like that.”

 
; “But you’re their dad…”

  “And you’re their manny.” I tapped his nose playfully. I understood where he was coming from. I did. But my kids never had a typical family, and as such were well aware that parents dated—not from my side of things and not in an ideal setting, but so be it. It was what it was.

  “Won’t it be weird?” Poor worrying omega. I rubbed my hand up and down his arm, hoping to give him a bit of comfort.

  “Only if we let it.”

  “So we should tell them,” he clarified.

  “If you wish.” This was all going to be on his pace. He had enough changes coming in his life without me forcing more at a speed he was uncomfortable with. I could be patient. I didn’t love it, but I’d do it for him. I had a feeling there was very little I wouldn’t do for the man beside me.

  “I don’t know. I don’t want to mess things up.”

  “Then we think about it and decide later.” I slapped his ass. “Right now we need to get up and ready to get the kids and shucks, darn, we don’t have enough time for two showers.” We’d get back to this later when our minds were clear and after he saw how much Freddie and Rich, the two he knew, knew about us, didn’t treat him any differently.

  “What a shame. I guess we are going to have to share.” He jumped out of bed, running to the bathroom, and I took my time, ogling his ass the entire way.

  We were late to get the kids. Totally worth it.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Edwin

  I’m shameless. At least on some issues. Honestly, I never swung around that pole—or on the trapeze I’d been using in my act for the past few years, since the spider web act got old—without shame. And the lap dances, straddling the thighs of some half-drunk guy who thought he had the power to make me want him just because he stuffed twenty-dollar bills in the G-string I actually got to wear “if I wanted to.” The pressure not to was high.

  Some of my fellow dancers did without the scrap of clothing, but I wanted the protection even if it meant I didn’t get the same tips, so as often as I thought I could without being fired, I wore the little gold slingshot. I also stuck to the no-touching-the-dancers rule as much as I was able to. Often, it was like grappling an eighteen-arm octopus and no complaints against the clients would be listened to by management. And most of my coworkers lived in much better housing as a result of their riding the line between stripper and prostitute or even stepping over. I couldn’t judge them, I just didn’t want that job.