Page 49 of Rivers and Roads

He laughed again, nipping my left ass cheek before he pulled all the way back. My cock was aching for some sort of friction, and I couldn’t decide if I wanted him to stuff me full or spread himself out beneath me.

We hadn’t done that since his heat. Every time I touched him there, I felt him tense, and I couldn’t help but wonder if it was because he was no longer slick—no longer an Omega. He didn’t talk about it after the morning he woke up with Beta blue eyes, but I could feel he was mourning something.

And there was still something different about him.

On the surface, he was the same stiff soldier I had known back in the First War. The same warrior who had stormed into my apartment and demanded that we do something about the mess our government was making. He was the Beta who stood up to Alphas of any rank when they were falling away from the cause.

And he was the Beta I had fallen in love with years ago.

But there was something new in his gaze, in his touch. It wasn’t just that he reacted to me, it was the way he reacted to me. And every now and again—in the right light, when I had him worked up and begging—I swore I could see a spark of orange right near his pupils.

I never said anything. I didn’t want to terrify him, and we still had no idea what the long-term effects of the serum were on his body. But that secret little part of him felt like mine, and it only made me want to bite him more.

“Zane,” he said, and I realized I had zoned out.

I reached for him, and he pressed his body along mine, laying kisses on my neck, trailing them up until he met my mouth. “Tell me what you want.”

“This,” he said. He thrust his cock against my hip, then grabbed me tight and rolled us both until I was on top of him. I looked down between our bodies as I adjusted my legs on either side of his, and he reached down, taking both of our cocks in his large hand. “Like this?”

I grinned at him, licking the seam of his lips before reaching over for the lube, and I drizzled a generous amount on his fingers. “Make me come.”

His neck flushed, and his body went hotter, and he met my gaze with an almost ferocity as he began to stroke. His pace was faster than I normally liked, but with him, it was like he was reaching inside me and dragging the pleasure out. I thrust against his palm, feeling his searing hot dick slick against my own, and it was almost too much.

“I need you.” Those weren’t the three words I wanted to say, but I had enough of my sense still to stop myself from going too far.

I had no doubt he heard them for what they were meant to be, and he sucked in a breath as he tightened his grip, then reached around with his other hand and grabbed the globe of my ass. He urged me to thrust faster, harder. The bed thumped against the wall as I chased my orgasm, and it wasn’t long before I was coming hot ropes against his stomach.

He followed shortly after, then let me collapse down on the mess as he dragged his clean hand up and down the length of my spine. I couldn’t get enough of the smell of us, mingled together on his skin. I wanted to roll around in it, bask in it until it was the only thing I knew.

“Mm,” he rumbled against the side of my neck. His lips parted, and I felt his tongue tasting the salt of my sweat. “Would you think less of me if I told you that this was my favorite part of sex with you?”

Something hot and needy rose up in me, and I squeezed my eyes shut against it for fear of saying too damn much. “Maybe a little.”

He scoffed and bit me gently on the shoulder. “You fucking love it.”

I did. And I loved him. There was no point in denying it, though I wasn’t going to say it. But I knew when I looked up, he’d be smiling that little grin that he only ever used with me. It was a new thing, appearing when we got here, and I started coming back to myself, and I was terrified that leaving would rob us of those small, sweet things that had come to life since he rescued me.

“How long ‘til Kor gets here?” I asked, gently rolling to the side.

I felt him stiffen against my arm. “Why? You in a hurry to get out?”

Burying my face in the pillow, I let out a sigh. I wasn’t in a hurry to leave, but I was in a hurry to get it over with. I wanted to hit fast-forward and skip all the awkward parts so I wouldn’t have to sit and wonder if we were going to fall apart or not.

“You know it’s not that,” I finally said, turning to face him. Lifting my hand, I brushed a line across his forehead. “There’s just so much left to do.”

He hummed a quiet agreement. He knew better than anyone what the road to war looked like. Even if it changed shape, lives would be lost—people we cared about, and strangers we couldn’t save. But if we were lucky—and I wanted to hold out a little bit of hope that we might be this time—it would be over soon.

“Let’s shower,” he said after a beat.

I knew he was deflecting, but it was too easy to let him pull me from the covers and drag me across the hall to the too-tiny bathroom. He started the water, and I sat on the toilet lid as I watched steam waft up from behind the shower curtain. He fussed with the knobs, his ass close enough to my face I could lean in and bite it if I wanted—and it was tempting.

When he looked over his shoulder at me, he grinned. “One thing I’m looking forward to when we get back?”

I stiffened and braced myself. “Mm?”

“A bathroom big enough that I can fuck you against the tiles and not feel like we’re gonna knock the wall down.” The words were playful, casual, but his tone was not. It was a small thing, but the importance of it was astronomical. He was making plans for after. Plans that included us.

And I didn’t want to hope too much that it meant he was willing to consider something permanent with me, but the door wasn’t closed.

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