by Arden Blair
As badly as he needed to feel the hot slick of his omega washing over his cock, Ryan took his time undressing the both of them. He worshipped Toby’s lips and body with his mouth as he stripped off first the omega’s shirt, then his pants.
But no matter how long and deep Ryan kissed him, it was never enough. It would never be enough, he realized. He’d never be done with Toby. Not ever. He’d always want another kiss, another taste.
“Please, my alpha. Please,” Toby begged. “I need you. I need…”
His words faded away under another onslaught of kisses and strokes. But that was fine. Ryan didn’t need words to know what his omega needed.
It was the same thing he needed.
Ryan shifted so that his back was against the back of the truck’s cab. He stretched his arms out wide behind him. His bare skin protested being pressed against the cold metal and glass, but Ryan ignored the sting. What was coming would more than make up for a little discomfort.
Toby looked at him with lust-filled eyes. “Tell me what you want, my alpha.”
Ryan shook his head slowly. “Not this time. This is about what you want, remember. You said you wanted to make love to me under the stars. So make love to me.”
A wide smile lit up Toby’s face. He slid across the truck bed, and straddled Ryan’s waist. Slowly, he lowered himself down. His slick rim teased the head of Ryan’s cock.
A wicked spark lit up his omega’s eyes. “Like this.”
Ryan balled his hands into fists, using every bit of self-restraint he had not to thrust up and into the tease. “Just like that.”
“Do you want more?” Toby asked, dipping down a little lower. The sensitive head of his cock pushed past the ring of resistance and into Toby. Still, it wasn’t enough. It would never be enough. Not even when his knot had swelled and locked them both together.
“Yes,” Ryan said through gnashed teeth.
“Is that enough?” Toby said, the playful tone in his voice beyond sexy. “Or do you want more?”
“More,” Ryan growled.
“Then take it,” Toby said.
Ryan’s resolved snapped. He did just as the omega said. He pivoted his hips up hard until Toby’s body enveloped him completely.
Sweet, wet heaven surrounded him. Ryan’s head fell back against the truck’s rear window.
“Yes,” Toby cried out. He held onto Ryan’s shoulders for support as his body shook with pleasure.
For a while they moved in time with each other, until the pleasure became too much for Toby. When the omega’s legs shook too hard to keep up, Ryan lifted him with his hands.
“Stroke yourself,” Ryan told him. “Let me watch you come.”
Toby obeyed. He wrapped his hand around his shaft and pumped it to the rhythm of Ryan’s thrusts.
The poor omega didn’t last long. A few seconds later, Toby threw back his head as his cock jerked hard. Ribbons of come splashed against Ryan’s belly as Toby’s body spasmed hard around Ryan’s cock. Again and again the muscles of his ass pulsed, begging for the alpha’s knot.
Ryan couldn’t resist the demand.
His cock expanded, filling his omega, claiming him in the most primal way. Toby collapsed against him, his body going limp as they locked together.
Ryan wrapped his arms around him, holding him tight, as his cock pulsed and swelled inside the omega.
No. Not the omega.
His omega.
13
Toby woke up to the sound of birds singing. It was a strange alarm clock. Back home, he usually woke up to the harsh electronic chirp of his phone’s alarm or to the screech of tires and car horns outside his window.
This was a gentle morning sound was pleasant, but definitely unexpected. Even for Pup’s Creek. Even for Uncle Roscoe’s house.
Toby stretched out his arms before opening his eyes. He didn’t get very far. His limbs smacked into a warm, hard wall of flesh.
Ryan’s body.
Oh shit.
Toby’s eyes flew open. That’s why the chorus of birdsong was so foreign. Sure, there might be a sparrow or two outside Uncle Roscoe’s small town window, but not a whole damn flock. That would only happen out in the middle of the woods.
Where he was now.
He’d fallen asleep here last night, and never gone home.
Oh, God. This was terrible. He was never going to hear the end of this. Not ever. It was one thing for him to go out on a couple of rebellious dates, but another to flaunt his wantonness by never coming home.
It was just after everything last night, after all the wonderful things that he and Ryan had done, Toby had been exhausted. When Ryan had carried him up inside and draped him on this big, soft mattress, he didn’t have the strength to protest. He fallen asleep in the alpha’s arms almost immediately.
And it had been wonderful.
But now Toby knew he would have to pay the price.
He reached over and laid his hand over Ryan’s shoulder. He tried to gently rock the alpha awake, but his eyelids stayed firmly shut. So, he tried rocking a little harder. Still nothing.
“Ryan,” he said.
“What?” the alpha answered without opening his eyes. There wasn’t even a hint of sleepiness in his voice.
“Are you awake?”
“Of course,” he said, shifting slightly on his pillow, but still refusing to open his eyes. “You think I’d be able to sleep through all your pushing and shoving? You sleep like an angel, but you wake up like a thrasher.”
Any other time Toby would have laughed. But not this morning.
“That’s because I shouldn’t be here.”
A hint of a smile lifted Ryan’s lips. Without so much as peeking through his eyelids, he reached out and wrapped his arm around Toby’s waist, pulling him back down flat against the mattress and drawing him close.
“What are you talking about?” the alpha whispered. His words were low and breathy, and the heat of them washed against Toby’s ears. “You belong right here.”
It was hard to argue with that. Ryan’s firm body spooned against his back. His arm draped over his side, cradling him close. The sheets and blankets over them made the perfect warm cocoon. Toby had never felt so at home in his life.
But that was the problem. This wasn’t his home.
Right now, he lived at Uncle Roscoe’s.
And if he didn’t get back there quick, there would be hell to pay.
“My family—” Toby started.
“Are pains in the ass,” Ryan finished for him.
Toby rolled over in Ryan’s embrace to face him. At least now the alpha’s eyes were open. His blue-green eyes peered into Toby’s.
“You don’t have to tell me that,” Toby said. He knew better than anyone. “But they are still my family. I made a promise to look after Roscoe until he was better.”
Ryan lifted a hand and petted back Toby’s hair. “I understand that,” he said. “But when was the last time any of them took the time to look after you?”
Toby blinked. His body stilled in Ryan’s arm.
Never. He couldn’t remember a time when anyone had stopped to take care of him, not even for a moment. As the youngest omega in the family, his job was to take care of everyone else.
But that meant that no one ever asked him how he was doing. They never made sure that he was okay. They never brushed back his hair and soothed his worries away.
Ryan was the only one who had ever done that for him.
“That’s what I thought,” Ryan said after a few seconds of silence. “Tell me what would happen if you stayed another couple of hours? Long enough for us to get up slowly, take a shower, and make breakfast? Would your great-uncle fall apart before eight a.m.?”
Toby shook his head. Sure, Roscoe might be pissed, but he wouldn’t be in any danger. After all, if anything truly went wrong, Bailey would be there in minutes.
Toby wanted to accept Ryan’s offer. He really did. It wasn’t just the allure of snuggles and breakfast. Wha
t he really wanted was a morning without rushing, without shame. Just the two of them together, enjoying each other’s company.
But that wasn’t the world that Toby lived in.
The old man was trying to intimidate him. Again.
Ryan stared down at Roscoe’s Martin’s unblinking eyes. The man’s lips were flat line of disapproval, hard and set. They had been ever since Toby had opened the door and stepped inside the house. The moment the omega was in, Roscoe had wheeled his chair into the center of the doorway, blocking Ryan from entering. Now, his arms were folded in front of his chest.
“I told you not to mess with my family,” he said, his voice firm. In some other context, it might have even been sweet—a great-uncle protecting his omega nephew—but Ryan knew that wasn’t what this was about.
“Uncle Roscoe,” Toby started to protest, but the old man cut him off with a sharp hiss.
“I don’t want to hear a word out of you,” Roscoe snipped. “I was up all night with worry. You’re lucky I haven’t spoken to your parents yet.”
“I’m sorry you were worried, but you knew who I was with,” Toby said. “I’m a grown omega, Uncle.”
“I said I didn’t want to hear it,” Roscoe repeated. “Now, why don’t you make yourself useful and go start breakfast while I have words with Mr. Homewood.”
Toby looked over at Ryan with pleading eyes, but Ryan just nodded sympathetically. The truth was, he was pretty sure anything he said in front of the old beta while he was angry would only make the situation worse.
That’s why Ryan had insisted on walking Toby to the door. He hoped that the moment Roscoe set eyes on Ryan, he’d focus all of his anger on him…and not on Toby.
Ryan wasn’t afraid of the old newspaperman. Sure, he didn’t want his personal life splayed across the front page The Pup’s Creek Times. Who would? But his secrets weren’t worse than anyone else’s. He knew he could handle anything that Roscoe tried to throw at him.
But Toby?
Well, Ryan wasn’t so sure about that. All he knew was that it would be easier for Roscoe cast him as the bad guy than to take his frustrations out on his nephew.
“Not exactly,” Ryan answered. “You warned me not to mess with your plans, and I still don’t give a damn about those.”
Roscoe’s eyes narrowed. The line of his moth dipped down into a scowl. “Do you really think that Toby is better off having a depraved fling with you than being in a stable relationship with an alpha who will take care of him forever?”
Ryan straightened up. His shoulders pulled back.
Until this moment, he hadn’t realized that’s how Roscoe was seeing their relationship. How everyone probably was.
A summer fling.
A throwaway experience.
And Toby would be the one thrown away at the end.
If Ryan was being honest, that’s what he’d thought at the beginning, too. But somewhere along the line that had changed.
The fact that he was standing here enduring the wrath of Roscoe Martin was proof of that.
“I think that Toby should be the one to make that decision,” Ryan answered.
Roscoe let out a sharp laugh. He obviously didn’t think much of that idea. “Toby’s never made a real decision in his life.”
“That’s because no one has let him.”
Roscoe’s lips flattened to a tight, thin line. “This is your last warning, Mr. Homewood. Leave my nephew alone. You won’t like what will happen if you don’t.”
A half-second later, the door slammed in his face. Ryan sucked in a deep breath as anger heated his blood. Anger that he had to leave while Toby was stuck in that house. Pure frustration that even after all that they’d shared, he had no right to knock in the door and carry the omega back to his house, a place where he would be loved and cared for instead of denigrated.
He didn’t know when his emotions had changed, maybe somewhere between the laughter in the park and the hot passion in the back of his truck. All he knew for certain was that they had. A connection had formed made between him and Toby.
He wasn’t certain how deep or how strong that connection was yet. All he knew was that for the very first time in his life, he wanted to find out.
14
“You smell strange.”
Toby ignored Bailey’s comment. At least, he tried to. Just like he’d been trying to ignore all the other comments that had been flung at him since he’d endured his walk of shame through Roscoe’s door that morning. Not that it had been easy.
After all, he wasn’t as if he could tell Bailey what he was smelling was the scent of Ryan’s soap, the one he’d used this morning to wash off the scent of last night’s sex. So, Toby plowed ahead as if he hadn’t heard a thing.
“Do you two want bacon or sausage with your eggs this morning?” he asked.
“Sausage,” Bailey answered.
“Bacon,” Roscoe said a half-second later.
Toby pressed his lips together hard and stared down at the skillet of scrambled eggs on the stovetop in front of him.
Fine. He’d give them both a slice of ham.
He leaned over to pull the fridge door open, but stopped when he spotted Bailey out of the corner of his eye leaning in for another sniff.
“No, really. You smell strange this morning,” he repeated. “I can’t quite put my finger on it.”
Toby bit the inside of his cheek. He should have listened to Ryan and stayed at his house all day. Hell, he should have hidden there the rest of his life. Sure, he might have never seen his loved ones again, but on the upside, he wouldn’t have to suffer the indignity of unsolicited sniffings either.
“Hey, Roscoe,” Bailey called out. “Come in to the kitchen and smell your nephew. Maybe you can tell me what this scent is.”
Oh God, no.
Just then he was saved by the sound of the front door opening.
“Good morning, Justin,” Roscoe said front room.
Toby let out a sigh of relief. Justin. He was saved.
Bailey perked up immediately, and practically ran out of the kitchen to see his son.
“Would you like to have breakfast with us?” Toby asked from the kitchen.
A moment later, his friend’s head popped around the door jamb. “I was hoping you would ask that. You’re sure it’s not too much trouble?”
Was he kidding? The alpha might not realize it, but he was saving Toby’s sanity just by being here.
Toby shook his head. “None at all.”
While the three newspapermen talked in the front room, Toby took his time plating up their breakfast. It was a nice reprieve from the constant parade of questions and rude comments. But he couldn’t make the task last forever, and fifteen minutes later he was placing the plates on the dining room table.
“Breakfast is ready,” he called out. Toby took a seat at the end of the table with his cup of coffee as everyone else came into the room.
“You’re not eating?” Justin asked.
Bailey’s lips dipped down in an exaggerated frown. “He’s already eaten.”
“At that tracker’s house,” Roscoe added.
Justin’s face lit up. His eyes brightened, and a wide smile spread across his face—the first one Toby had seen on any face since Ryan had dropped him off at the door an hour ago.
“Good for you,” Justin said.
Bailey instantly stiffened. “What do mean?”
Justin shrugged as though the answer was obvious. “I think it’s great that Toby is getting out and enjoying himself while he’s here in Pup’s Creek.”
Roscoe put down his fork and stared in silent disapproval at the alpha. Bailey, on the other hand, had no such reserve.
“You can’t think it’s great that Toby is spending his nights out carousing with another alpha,” he shouted. “That’s your omega you’re talking about.”
Justin just laughed. “Toby is not my omega, Dad.”
“W-Well, of course he is,” Bailey sputtered. “He’s always bee
n. Since you were pups.”
“That’s what you and the Martins wanted, Dad. But it was never what Toby and I wanted,” Justin said, with the cool head of a journalist. “There’s far more to an alpha/omega connection than contract. It’s emotional. Biological. Think about it. If he were my omega, like you say, I’d be upset to hear that he spent the night with another alpha. I’d be flying into a rage. But I’m not. So, he can’t be mine.”
Bailey harrumphed loudly at his son’s logic. “You make it sound like you’re not interested in marrying Toby at all.”
Justin shoveled in another bite of scrambled eggs and let the silence answer for him.
Toby glanced over at Roscoe and found his great-uncle’s brow deeply furrowed. Anyone else might think he was upset, but not Toby. He knew that calculating look for what it was. His great-uncle was planning something.
“I don’t think that we’re going to get through to them, Bailey,” Roscoe said. “We might as well get going. We have things to do.”
There was something about the way he said that last part that sent a chill up Toby’s spine. He cocked his head to the side.
“Where are you going?” he asked. “To the hardware store like usual?”
His great-uncle sneered back at him. “I can’t imagine how that’s any of your business, Mr. Come-and-Go-as-You-Please.”
Toby straightened his shoulders and took another sip of his coffee. Roscoe was right. It wasn’t his business. Besides, he should be more glad than upset that his great-uncle was getting out of his hair.
“So, I guess that means your morning just opened up,” Justin said, looking at Toby. “Which is great, because I could really use your help down at the newspaper office.”
“Why?” Bailey asked, his eyes lightning up. “Did you get finally get a scoop on the Phantom Pooper?”
Justin shook his head, dipping it down to hide the smile that was quickly spreading across his face.
“Nothing that big, Dad,” he said. “But the location crew for the movie is coming into town today, and I still need to get pictures of the Burke’s new baby.”
Toby nodded. “I’d be happy to give you a hand.”