Page 16 of The Fall Before the Heat

“You’re hot, literally. Take that whichever way you want to,” Rex said, pulling back from the kiss.

I wasn’t letting him get away that easily. I grabbed a fistful of his evil shirt and pulled him back into the kiss. Our lips crashed together, and our tongues met between our mouths. I leaned into him, surrendering to the kiss, and just existing as a great big ball of need.

His hand moved between us, and I bucked my hips, thinking he was going for my fly. Except, his fingers kept wiggling up and down my chest.

“What are you doing?” I asked, muffled again.

I might never speak coherently for the rest of my life, because I couldn’t bear to stop kissing my mate.

“Unbuttoning my shirt. I thought you wanted the layers gone,” Rex laughed, leaning back from the kiss.

My wolf whined at the abandonment of our lips. I pushed Rex onto his back and straddled his hips.

“I’ll do it,” I sighed, feeling unreasonably frustrated about it all.

The frustration tickled the bottom of my spine as I undid the few buttons he missed while we kissed. I muttered about all the layers he wore as if he purposefully wanted to have extra steps before I got him naked. A smirk pulled at the corners of his mouth.

“What?” I asked, a growl lacing my words.

“You’re adorable when you’re all worked up like this.”

“I’m glad you think so. This is serious, you know? We’re true-mates and I’m in heat. Climate change is coming back and it’s starting right here in the bedroom.” I pushed open his shirt once all the buttons were undone.

Next, I pushed up his white undershirt and kissed his bare belly. With my hands resting on his chest, reveling in his pounding heartbeat, I traced the outline of his abs with my tongue savoring the taste of him inside my mouth. His breath hitched as I worked my way down to the sharp V that led to his groin. I stopped there and rubbed my cheek over his now moist flesh, marking him as mine. Rex was mine. He was my mate, my Alpha. He was the one I didn’t even know I was waiting for until a few years ago, but he was mine.

I wiggled my arms under his back and hugged him tight around the middle for a second, still nuzzling him, so that my scent covered his flesh. He reached down with a gentle hand and played with my hair. His fingers tickled my scalp and sent a cascade of tingles and longing down my spine. We stayed like that for a long time – until I lost track of time. Time wasn’t important anyway. I’d known him lifetimes ago and now wewere back together. Time was an illusion, and its sole job was to keep us apart. Time could eat a cactus, because Rex was mine.

Pressing my face into his belly and surrounding myself with his scent made it easier to think. Heat and the true-mate response were infamous for stealing thoughts and hijacking inhibitions. Rex was hard and his dick was pressed against my collarbone at this angle. I was hard too. Hard and slick and needy.

I drew in a sharp breath and Rex whispered that it was okay.

“It’s okay to be overwhelmed,” he said again.

Overwhelmed might’ve been an understatement. I was pretty sure I was going to lie like this – half on him and half off him - for the rest of eternity. I was never going to let go of him. We’d have to go through life like this.

“Del,” he whispered my name, running his fingers through my hair again.

“Just a few more minutes, please,” I said, trying to figure out how to gather my wits back up.

“As long as you’re okay,” he said.

“I’m okay. I’m okay right here.”

Chapter Ten

Rex

I drew in a deep breath willing both my wolf and my dick to sit the hell down. My fingers were practically magnetized to their trail through Del’s hair. I wanted to touch it for so long, to run my fingers through it like I was doing now. Except now with the magic of the true-mate response raging between us I wanted to touch him everywhere. Okay, maybe that was there before too, but my parents raised a gentleman who didn’t fantasize about running his tongue along his omega roommate’s collarbones.

“Let’s put our phones on the nightstand. You don’t even have to move. Just hand it to me. That way we don’t accidentally butt dial anyone,” I said.

It was nice to have a practical thing to focus on, something I could do while Del was lost to his own thoughts. His face burnt scorching against my stomach as he wiggled one arm out from under me to dig into his pocket for his phone. It took him a few tries before he passed it to me with a trembling hand, but that same hand dove into my pocket for my phone.

I swallowed down a groan as the side of his hand brushed against my hard dick. His hand froze inside my pocket, wrapped around my phone. Then turned away from the device and strained to wrap around my cock through the fabric of my pocket. I bit my lip, afraid moving too much would throw him back into his dazed-out state. He squeezed me and my toes curled into the edge of the mattress, and I swallowed hard again.

“You’re big,” he whispered, his cheek still pressed against my belly.

His fingers slid the fabric as far over my cock as it would allow. I sank into the feeling, forgetting about my phone for asecond, before grabbing it out of my pocket and tossing it on the nightstand next to Del’s. At least those were out of the way now.

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