Page 59 of Racing the Storm

He shrugged, a smile playing at his lips. “How did you meet?”

“The usual way,” I said, laughing a bit at the memory. “He and I were in the same place at the same time. He was shy for an Omega and smaller than most of them. He had these huge, ugly glasses, which I thought was hilarious because he clearly didn’t need them. He called them his fashion statement.”

Danyal grinned. “I remember feeling like that when I was younger. Wanting to embrace that whole nerd aesthetic. I got a pair once, but Zane made so much fun of me, I threw them out.”

I felt a growl in the back of my throat, and I held him tighter. “That’s fuckin’ mean.”

Danyal gently slapped my side, then shifted farther into my arms. “That’s having siblings.”

And well, I wouldn’t know. My parents were lucky to have me, and they were both gone before I met Galen. But it didn’t really hurt the way it used to. The loneliness was still there, but it wasn’t as profound as it once was. “I remember looking at him and wanting him because he was different. Soft,” I added. “He was an academic.”

“Sounds like you have a type,” Danyal pointed out.

I grazed a curled knuckle over his jaw, then leaned down to steal a kiss. “Seems so. Being with him didn’t feel like this, though.”

Danyal licked his lips, then met my gaze. “Like what?”

I smiled, because he knew the answer, but I gave it to him anyway. “Like we were made for each other. We fought all the time—and not in the way mates fight. We were so fundamentally different. He believed if we just stayed quiet and did whatever the humans told us to do, things would get better. I used to hate him for that.”

“I’m sorry,” Danyal muttered.

Shaking my head, I brushed my fingers through his hair again. “For years after he died, I wouldn’t let myself think of his flaws. I thought, if I could just keep him up on a pedestal, it wouldn’t hurt. Because admitting that things weren’t great meant facing all these things that were left unsaid—things I’d never be able to say.” I bit the inside of my cheek, then let out a breath. “He would have liked you, though.”

Danyal’s eyebrows rose. “Yeah?”

I shrugged. “Yes, and you probably would have liked him a lot more than you like me.”

Pushing up a little, Danyal turned to me and grinned. “Who says I like you, General? You’re a strict, uncompromising, Alpha asshole.”

“And yet,” I said, then leapt, pinning him to the sofa and grinding my hips down until I felt him start to harden, “you also have a type. Doctor.”

“Fuck, that should not sound hot. That’s my job.”

“Mm.” I thrust against him again, then took his mouth in a hot kiss before reaching between us and curling my hand around his dick. “I’m going to suck you. We can’t afford to lose time washing clothes and showering again.”

“Oh, gods,” Danyal gasped as I slid to the floor. He was pliant as I spread his legs, tucking the elastic waist of the sweats under his balls. They were heavy with need, his cock leaking—poking out of the foreskin, waiting to be tasted.

And I didn’t waste time. I hovered over him just long enough to torment him with a warm breath, then I swallowed him down and felt him thicken all the way against the back of my throat. Spurred on by the chest-deep moan, I sucked on the taste of him, savoring it before I dragged back, then sank down again.

Danyal’s hands flew to my hair, gripping tight and guiding me in the rhythm he wanted, and I was surprised at how easy it was to just give in. I was hard, but I wasn’t interested in my orgasm. I wanted to be used by him. I wanted him to look at me and see nothing but a thing created for his pleasure.

It sent tendrils of a new desire shooting through my limbs, and it was something I’d have to examine later, when we were safe again. For now though, we had this. I moaned as he fucked deeper into my mouth, and I heard when his breathing hitched, tasted when he was getting closer.

I reached up, taking him by the hips, urging him to fuck harder. He did, choking me with his cock, and when I looked up to meet his gaze, he came.

I swallowed deeply, licking around him to tidy up any mess, then I kissed my way up his stomach and crawled into his lap. I was bigger than him, but he made me feel strangely safe and small as his hands gripped my waste and his mouth devoured mine.

“Do you want me to…?”

“No,” I said, pressing a final peck to his lips. I flopped to the side, then gently reached over and tucked him back into the sweats. “I wanted you just like that.”

He looked at me like he was almost afraid to trust what I was saying, but after a moment, he relaxed and leaned back into my arms. We had a scant few hours left before we had to start preparing for our journey, and I wasn’t going to waste a single moment caught up in the details.

Night came quicker than I wanted it to, and I could feel the nervous energy humming from Danyal creeping under my skin almost like we were bonded. It was disconcerting, but oddly comforting, to know that I could sense him.

I spent the afternoon mapping out the coordinates, and if we ran at full Wolf speed, we’d make it in less than two hours. It was near the edge of the southern coast, a few miles outside of Montpellier. It would be a stretch to get there without stopping, but every time I brought it up to Danyal, he insisted we push ourselves.

“What’s the point of stopping when it could mean them catching up with us?” he demanded, and he was right.

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