Page 51 of Where the Current Takes Him
Loriun let out a startled bark of laughter.
Beau allowed himself to chuckle at his own joke, too. “What I mean is, don’t worry about that. I’m withyou. And I don’t want to be anywhere else.”
Loriun jerked the steering wheel off to the right and brought the car to a stop on the side of the road.
“What—” Beau started to say.
He never got the chance to finish. Loriun leaned across the center console, winding his fingers through the silken hair at the back of Beau’s head, and dragged him in for a hard, deep kiss. Their lips moved together, and tongues brushed gently against one another.
After a few moments, they broke apart, panting.
“So.” Beau cleared his throat. “Do you think you’d fit in the back seat?”
∞∞∞
It was nearly midnight when Loriun finally parked his car in the driveway of their beach home. As it turned out, he did not fit in the back seat, but he did fit just behind a wide-trunked tree nearby.
Beau made no move to exit the car. He was slumped in his seat, looking relatively boneless.
“Do you need me to carry you?” Loriun asked, fighting back a smile.
“I know you’re joking, but that feels like a real possibility.”
Loriun moved around the front of the car and scooped his mate into his arms. “Your wish is my command.”
Beau rested his head on Loriun’s shoulder. “Thank god for birth control,” he muttered. “I’d be pregnant five times over without it.”
Loriun chuckled and dropped a kiss on Beau’s head.
“I’ve never been this horny in my life,” Beau complained. “I don’t know what’s going on. I think you rearranged my guts or something, because this is ridiculous.”
“I do not believe my anatomy is quite that big.”
“Notliterally.” Beau rolled his eyes. “I had plenty of human boyfriends and hookups, but I’ve never beenferal.”
Loriun hummed as he laid Beau gently on the bed. “Perhaps your past lovers were less generous. Or less skilled.”
Beau narrowed his eyes at him. “Awfully confident, aren’t you?”
“Well.” Loriun shrugged. “It is difficult not to be when you make your mate come three times on the side of a road.”
Beau gasped.“Loriun.”
The Mer looked down at him quizzically. “What?”
The Omega just laughed. Once he managed to control himself, he asked, “What about you? Have you always been this… eager?”
Loriun scoffed, shucking his clothes into the floor and relaxing his tail. His cramped spine felt instantaneously better as his tail fin hit the floor. “Beau, I am thirty-three. I’ve had my share of Omegas. Not one of them comes close to you.”
Beau’s face went pink, a symptom of embarrassment, Loriun had learned.
“Why did you wait so long to find a mate?” Beau asked. “If you’ve been with other Omegas and Mer couples usually settle down quickly?”
Loriun sat on the edge of the bed. The truth was that he’d wanted a human Omega. He wanted children, not a lifetime of grieving unhatched eggs. But telling his young, nervous Omega his true motives felt like a poor choice.
“None of them were right for me,” Loriun said at last. It was also the truth, albeit an incomplete version.
“That’s surprising,” Beau grumbled. “With your job and your…” He gestured to Loriun’s entire body. “I’m shocked those Omegas didn’t turn themselves into someone right for you.”
