Page 123 of Let It Snow
"I think it’s coming much sooner. Your scent has shifted."
Silence settles between us. We both know this will be my first heat in years without Snow. For twelve years, he was always there with us, helping me and Tim. Tim only stepped in once in a while, but as an omega, he couldn’t go into rut and keep up with all the waves. It was the other way around too; I could not help Tim with his heats, so Snow was of immense help to us both.
"You’ll have to stay with me," I whisper, peering at him through half-lidded eyes.
"I have the election. I don’t know if I’ll even be in the right state of mind," he says through clenched teeth.
My fingers curl into his shirt. "I don’t want to look for anyone else. I’m not ready for that."
"That’s not what I meant." His tone softens. "I don’t want you with anyone either. I got used to Snow. But I thought maybe you should take suppressants?"
I blink. "I don’t want that," I blurt out nervously. "We both tried it once, don’t you remember? We felt awful."
He exhales deeply, tilting his head side to side until his spine cracks.
I watch him for a moment; even at forty-five, Tim is still such an attractive man. Somewhere along the way, I stopped seeing it, but he’s always drawn me in. As a bisexual omega, I feel that pull toward both alphas and omegas. With Tim, we started out with great chemistry.
But then… it was our fight to have kids that made our sex life more stressful. As omegas, our seed is infertile, so we went through a lot of experimental treatments before we finally succeeded. Then there was Tim’s work as a prosecutor, with the constant stress, the sense of threat, and the endless hours. Sometimes he’d leave me alone with the kids for weeks.
After ten years of marriage, we agreed to open things up, and meeting Snow felt like a release from being completely alone in the marital bed for days on end.
Tim studies me too, with a kind of sharpened awareness, as if something is dawning on him. Then he inhales slowly.
"I can smell sex on you. You haven’t showered yet."
Heat rises in my cheeks. "I’m sorry. I didn’t really get the chance. I didn’t expect things to go the way they did. Afterward, I just walked out of his house. His whole family was sitting on the patio, staring at me like… well, I didn’t want to stick around."
"At least you said goodbye. I can’t say I don’t understand. Snow is a good guy." Tim leans a bit.
He lifts his hand and brushes it lightly over my left gland. I shiver, realizing he might be right, my heat is building. The first shadow of a wave is already stirring inside me, unexpectedly, and stronger than it should be. His pupils dilate as he catches my reaction.
Then suddenly he closes the distance, pressing his body to mine.
He lowers his head and seals his mouth over my gland.
I gasp. It feels so fucking good!
"Shame Snow won’t be there for your heat anymore. We used to have so much fun together," he murmurs.
His lips move over my neck, and my desire flares inside me like a rapid eruption. I haven’t felt this way toward Tim in so long. Our ‘marital’ sex once a week was more of a duty than a pleasure.
"Maybe it’s better this way. It’ll be just you and me again, like it was at the start. Sometimes I miss those days, Tim," I whisper, breathless. "When it was just you and me."
He pulls back and looks straight into my eyes. Silence stretches.
"Maybe his leaving frees us. Maybe it lets us fix what’s broken," I say softly.
"I never thought our marriage was truly broken," he says quietly. "We always understood each other so well, even when the fire burned lower."
"I think opening the marriage pulled us apart, Tim. I gave too much of myself to Snow, but that’s over now. I feel the shift in me. He’s the past. You’re the one I love. You’re the sire of my children. I want us to find each other again."
He studies me for a long moment, then slowly nods.
"Oh, Theo… I think you’re right. Maybe this is the closing of one chapter that we both need. Maybe it’ll bring us closer."
He leans in, his mouth brushing mine. His fingers slip under my shirt, down my back, and then lower, under my waistband, until they press against my hole.
"You’re wet. Is that still him…"
