by Bru Baker
Nick would walk to Indianapolis if it meant he and Drew could spend the night together.
EVEN though being in Chicago instead of Indianapolis right now was a huge inconvenience, Nick couldn’t say he cared. He and Drew had waited in an interminable line to reschedule their flights for the next day, but Drew had put his time to good use, booking a hotel on his phone while they waited.
Nick didn’t want to be overly presumptuous and assume Drew’s invitation on the plane had been real, but he didn’t want to jinx it by booking his own room, either. Despite what he’d said on the plane, he’d passed nights in worse places than an airport, but he really hoped he’d be in Drew’s bed instead of one of the uncomfortable pleather chairs.
“I’m not flying out till four,” Drew groaned, stuffing his new boarding pass in his laptop bag.
Nick had gone first and was waiting for him to the side of the counters. Seeing Drew make a beeline for him had made his stomach tingle with anticipation.
“I’ve got a 9:00 a.m.”
Drew looked up. “So you’ve got to be back here in like fourteen hours. Sucks, man. Do you think it’s worth it for you to go to a hotel?”
That depended on whether or not he was alone in his hotel room. “How far is the place you booked?”
“Just a few minutes away. There’s a shuttle.” Drew raised an eyebrow. “Interested?”
“In a shuttle or in spending the next fourteen hours in bed with you?”
“Fourteen seems optimistic. I mean, you’ll have to be here an hour early to check in, and there’s travel time. Probably want to eat at some point too. I’d put the actual available time for sex at ten, eleven hours, tops. Though, it is a full moon. So that changes things.”
Drew’s laugh made the tingles intensify, along with the thrill of Drew being right, even if he couldn’t know it. The moon certainly did change things, for Nick at least.
Nick was absolutely smitten, which was a new experience. If Drew were a werewolf, Nick would want to date the shit out of him. He’d settle for hours of debauchery, though.
“I can top for eleven hours,” he teased. The spicy aroma of Drew’s arousal swept over him in a wave, and Nick’s mouth watered. He had to force himself not to step into Drew’s space and breathe him in.
Neither of them had their luggage, so it was simply a matter of finding the hotel shuttle. Nick’s senses were overwhelmed in the crowded airport, but he stuck close to Drew, letting his scent envelop him like a barrier. All flights were grounded, so the airport was a hot, loud, angry place. Everything outside the oasis of Drew’s scent had Nick on edge, so he gave himself over to his almost primal want. Nothing mattered except getting Drew alone. It was heady and more than a little frightening, but Nick embraced it.
The shuttle ride passed in a blur. Nick had no idea how much time had gone by between getting off the plane and the present moment, standing in the elevator in the hotel. Drew was on him as soon as the doors closed.
“God. I wanted to jump you on the shuttle,” Drew moaned against his collarbone.
The smell of Drew’s arousal clouded the small space, and it took all of Nick’s willpower not to rip away the layers of clothing separating them. He wanted to bury his nose against Drew’s bare neck and breathe it in.
It took three tries to get the keycard to open the hotel door after a stumbling, giddy trip down the hallway. Nick’s heightened reflexes were the only reason he hadn’t dropped the key after the second attempt, when Drew had gotten impatient and started nuzzling into his neck.
The door swung open, and Nick staggered inside, Drew a warm weight against his side.
Drew didn’t waste a moment. He scrambled for the hem of Nick’s sweater and pulled it up and over his head before starting in on the button on Nick’s jeans. Nick went from turned-on to painfully hard in the space of about three seconds. He’d never had someone so eager to get his clothes off, and the needy little sounds Drew made as he exposed more and more of Nick’s naked flesh were making Nick light-headed.
“I don’t even know your last name,” Drew murmured against his chest, just before tracing the curve of Nick’s pec with his tongue.
Nick bit back a frustrated groan. Drew had been the ultimate tease for the last hour, not that he could know how his scent and heart rate had been affecting Nick. “We’re finally alone, and you want to waste time talking?”
Teeth raked along the bud of Nick’s nipple in sharp remonstration, and Nick let out a breathy half laugh, half moan. He hadn’t realized he could make noises like that. Jesus.
Drew pulled back with a wicked smile. “If we’re dispensing with social niceties then why don’t we just skip to the part where you fuck me?”
Nick nearly swallowed his tongue. “Fuck,” he ground out, voice thick.
“Eventually, if—”
Nick surged forward and kissed the mouth that had been driving him wild since he noticed the teasingly plump curve of it on the plane. Drew was snarky and fun and gorgeous on top of it—he absolutely could think of better things to do with that mouth than talk.
Chapter Two
DREW had always been an early riser, which was both a blessing and a curse in terms of one-night stands. If he was the one sneaking out, it made for a clean getaway. But the hotel room was in his name, and his flight wasn’t until the afternoon—he didn’t have anywhere to go.
They hadn’t bothered to close the curtains last night, so he’d blinked awake as soon as the sun had broken the horizon. He’d woken to Nick twined around him like he was a were-octopus rather than a werewolf, Nick’s nose buried against his neck and his arms and legs wrapped around Drew’s body, holding him close.
All in all, not a bad way to wake up. Swimming into consciousness with a warm, cuddly werewolf blanket was something he could definitely get used to, which was the problem. Drew hadn’t had a serious relationship since his residency, both because his hours at the hospital made things like daylight dates and regular communication difficult and because he didn’t like making his family pretend to be something they weren’t. Dating within his Pack felt like incest, a mistake he’d only made once. And it wasn’t like the St. Louis Pack was huge—there were twenty of them total, including him and his mom. A lot of Packs called their human members Pack-adjacent, but his stepfather’s Pack had embraced them wholly when Drew and his mother had married into it almost thirty years ago. He’d grown up with Weres, and sometimes he felt more wolf than man himself.
He and Nick hadn’t talked about their Packs yesterday, and in the light of day, Drew realized that probably meant Nick didn’t realize Drew had a Pack. And why would he? There was nothing to mark Drew as a Pack member. They didn’t have a secret handshake or a brass tie tack that denoted their status. People usually just knew. Then again, he usually met Weres at conferences and on Pack business, not randomly on airplanes.
If Nick had been an Alpha, he probably would have smelled Drew’s Pack on him, but it was pretty clear he wasn’t. Not only had he failed to notice Drew smelled like wolves, he also hadn’t quite been able to contain his shift last night. Anyone who didn’t know about Weres would have dismissed his flashing amber eyes as a trick of the moonlight, but Drew had recognized it for what it was—a turned-on werewolf on the edge of his control.
A wave of satisfaction rolled over him, and Drew tucked himself tighter against Nick’s side, snuggling into his warmth. He’d gotten Nick so aroused that he’d lost control. That was no easy feat, not for a werewolf Nick’s age. Drew’s stepbrothers had locked that down within a few months of their Turns, and none of them were particularly gifted at what Drew liked to think of as werewolfing.
Drew stretched gingerly, enjoying the way his abused muscles twinged. It had been a while since his last werewolf partner, and he’d almost forgotten how athletic sex with a Were could be. His night with Nick would fuel his fantasies for a good long time, which was fortunate because he wasn’t going to have time for casual hookups. He was committed to making his
new practice work, which meant he wouldn’t be slipping away to scratch any itches until he had a good handle on things, which could take months if not a year.
Maybe Nick would have time for a quickie before his flight. The details were fuzzy, but Drew did remember it left a lot earlier than the flight he’d been booked on himself. He squinted at the bedside clock. Just after seven-thirty.
They’d drifted off sometime after two. Normally Drew would let his bed partner sleep after such a strenuous evening, but Nick was a wolf. Not only did he biologically need less sleep, his healing abilities would mean he felt none of the lingering aches that Drew did. He’d be raring to go as soon as Drew woke him.
His own cock jumped at the thought. What the hell—he didn’t have anything to lose, he may as well go for it. After all, chances like this didn’t come along often. He had a smoking hot Were with a strong shared physical attraction—he didn’t want to waste a moment of their time together. Best to glut himself while he could, especially with such a fine specimen of werewolf virility as Nick.
Drew twisted in Nick’s grip and slid down his body until his feet were hanging off the bed and he could nestle his face against the jut of Nick’s hipbones. Drew breathed in his musky scent, going from half-mast to fully engaged fast enough to make his heart pound. God. The things he’d do to this man if he had time.
But they didn’t, so quick and dirty was the name of the game. He licked at the salty skin, teasing his way lower until he could brush a soft kiss against his hardening cock. Nick flailed and made a confused noise, replaced by a low, resonant laugh when he looked down.
“Well, that’s some good-morning kiss. Have plans down there?”
Drew grinned up at him and parted his lips, sliding Nick’s length into his mouth.
Nick gasped and pushed up onto his elbows, staring down at Drew with wide, sleep-swollen eyes.
Drew just took him deeper, swallowing around him as he grew.
“Oh, fuuuuuck,” Nick groaned, his hips bucking up. Drew’s eyes watered, but he let Nick fuck his mouth in wild, uncontrolled thrusts. He held eye contact with Nick, thoroughly enjoying watching his blissed-out expression.
Nick’s fingers twitched against the curve of Drew’s skull, like he was trying not to grab hold and failing. Drew leaned back into the touch, and Nick threaded his fingers through Drew’s hair. Drew shivered in response and took him deeper still. His chin grazed against Nick’s balls, and Nick’s thighs started to shake. Nick collapsed back onto the bed, his free arm coming up to cover his mouth. Drew didn’t know if it was an attempt to stifle his groans or if he’d popped some fang, but either possibility was intoxicating. He thrust against the bed, moaning in disappointment when it didn’t give him the friction he needed.
The vibration must have felt good, because Nick’s hips came up off the bed, his fingers digging into Drew’s hair as he shouted muffled curses into his arm. God, this man was responsive. The way Nick was falling apart beneath him made Drew want to say screw the new job and spend all day reducing Nick to bitten-off cries and moans.
They didn’t have all day, though, so he redoubled his efforts, tightening his lips around Nick’s length and holding his hips down as he brought him off. Nick could have escaped his hold at any time with his werewolf strength, which only made it hotter that he didn’t fight.
Nick’s entire body tensed and he brought both hands to Drew’s hair, pulling him off with careful strength. Drew debated resisting, since he knew Nick couldn’t pass anything to him, but he let himself be moved aside because watching Nick strip his dick with barely contained desperation was hotter than having him come in his mouth. Nick’s eyes flashed briefly before he started spurting over his stomach, his entire body bowing upward as he came.
Gorgeous. Drew rolled over and took himself in hand, ready to pull himself off, but a moment later Nick was batting his hand aside and replacing it with his own mouth. He took him down to the root in one fell swoop, and Drew couldn’t help but cry out at the sudden overwhelming sensation of being enveloped in tight, wet heat. Nick hummed in response and started moving, his hand snaking down to massage Drew’s perineum as he worked over his cock at a maddening pace.
It didn’t take long before he could feel his orgasm building, but Nick refused to move when Drew tried to stop him. With a human, Drew would have forced the issue, but he knew full well that werewolves didn’t have to worry about infections. Safe sex in the Were community was about pregnancy prevention only, and it wasn’t like that was a concern between the two of them.
Nick slid a finger against Drew’s hole, dragging against skin still tender from last night, and that was all it took to send Drew careening over the edge. His hips jerked up off the bed, and Nick used both hands to hold him down as he sucked him through his orgasm, his mouth moving against him right to the point of it being too much, but not a moment longer. Drew sagged back against the mattress, panting. Bless werewolves and their super senses. He’d never had a human lover who could read his body as well as a wolf could.
Nick sidled back up to the top of the bed, a self-satisfied smirk on his face. Drew leaned in to kiss him, but Nick jerked back before he could.
“Fuck me, is that clock right?”
Drew squinted at it. Just after eight. Nick climbed over him and scrambled for his phone on the nightstand, cursing a blue streak.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, I’m late,” he mumbled. “My flight leaves at nine. Dammit.”
The airport was a five-minute shuttle ride from the hotel, but Nick would need a miracle to make it on time if he relied on that. By the time Drew sat up, Nick was halfway into a pair of jeans, his hair wild and his face flushed. If he missed his flight, maybe they could go another round.
No, shit. Nick’s new boss was meeting him at the airport in Indianapolis. He’d called her as soon as they’d gotten their new flight arrangements last night. Nick had seemed anxious and eager to please her, and Drew couldn’t bring himself to wish for more time with Nick knowing Nick was so desperate to get there.
“Go brush your teeth. I’ll call you a Lyft.”
The sheets were a wreck, but he pulled a pillow into his lap as he opened the app. There wasn’t a part of him Nick hadn’t seen or touched, but it was different in the light of day. Calling a ride for him was oddly domestic—Drew didn’t need to be sitting there naked as he did it.
Nick looked around wildly. “My luggage—”
“Is at the airport. The front desk gave us those toiletries packs, remember? They’re on the counter in the bathroom.”
Was it wrong to find this side of Nick endearing? He’d been take-charge and confident during sex, but right now he looked lost. Drew didn’t know if it was still come-stupid or if this was the highest level of executive function Nick was capable of in the morning, but it was adorable.
“Right.” Nick pulled a shirt over his head and ducked to grab a shoe, hopping in place as he put it on without a sock. He’d probably regret that at airport security when he had to walk through the scanner barefoot. Drew grimaced at the thought.
“Toothbrush,” Drew reminded him, and Nick disappeared into the bathroom, reappearing a moment later with a toothbrush sticking out of his mouth as he struggled with his other shoe.
“Your driver will be here in two minutes,” Drew said, thumbing open the notification on his phone. “Silver Corolla.”
Nick won his battle with his shoe and leaned into the bathroom to spit in the sink. “Thank you.”
He shot off toward the door but stopped before he opened it, darting back to the bed. He pressed a quick mint-scented kiss to Drew’s cheek. “Really enjoyed meeting you, Drew. Sorry to rush out, but….”
Drew waved off his concern. “I get it.” His phone buzzed. “He’s here. Good luck! I hope you make it.”
Nick saluted him and tore through the door, which slammed behind him. Drew ran a hand over his hair and laughed. He hadn’t gotten Nick’s number. Or his last name.
Eh, it was prob
ably for the best. As flings went, this had been spectacular. And if circumstances were different, Nick was the kind of guy Drew could see himself getting involved with. But now just wasn’t the time. Why couldn’t they have met before Drew had gone out on a limb and taken a job in the middle of nowhere?
Opportunities like the one waiting for him in Southern Indiana didn’t come around often, he reminded himself. This was his dream setup, a small practice where he could really get to know his patients and make a difference in their lives. And it wasn’t like he’d need to live like a monk. He’d make it work. And when he needed to release some steam, maybe he’d find time to make it up to Indianapolis. The werewolf community couldn’t be huge there—he’d probably be able to track Nick down. How many werewolf psychologists named Nick living in Indianapolis could there be?
Drew rolled out of bed and headed for the shower. Clean clothes would have been nice, but the hassle of getting their luggage from the airline last night hadn’t been worth the wait. He was paying the price for it now, though. He’d have to change before driving down to the camp. He was going to be facing enough challenges being a human—he didn’t need to add offending his new coworkers’ senses to the list.
His phone rang just as he’d finished rinsing off. He wrapped a towel around his waist and ran to grab it, irrationally hoping it might be Nick.
Ridiculous, but maybe miracles happened?
His heart sank when he saw Adrian’s name flash across the screen.
“Hey. I’m not down there yet. There were some crazy storms, and the plane got diverted.”
Adrian snorted. “I know. I’ve already gotten an earful from Anne Marie this morning about the storms. A few buildings took some damage, and she woke me up at six this morning, sending me photos and asking me if they were structurally sound. I’ve tried explaining I’m more on the urban planning side than the structural integrity side of architecture, but you know Anne Marie.”