He sounded like someone tore his heart out when it happened, his eyes finally falling closed so I had an unimpeded view of him being destroyed. I felt the moment his back arched, the first spurt, then the rhythmic pulses along his shaft that drew me with them.
The pleasure was like the falling of a fine mist, prickling against your skin, covering you, saturating you, until you were drowning in it. I rolled into his arms when he finally pulled free, and for a moment, we just lay there.
“Thank you for trusting me,” I whispered, and he replied by tugging me closer. “Was it good?”
“Words are pretty fucking inadequate to describe what that was like for me,” he said, wrapping his arms around me. “That was…everything.”
“Everything for me too,” I sighed, burrowing my head into his chest.
“How’re you doing, greedy girl?”
My eyes fluttered open to see a smiling Sen sitting and looking down at me.
“Aftercare can be pretty important during a heat. You OK? Not feeling cold or shaky?”
I shook my head. I just felt drowsy and happy. I told him that, and he reached over and kissed me on the forehead.
“Well, I might duck out and grab some clothes and stuff, if you still want me to stick around?”
I frowned at that, a pang of something unpleasant cutting through my haze at the thought of one of the guys leaving. So I rolled over, pushing him down on the bed, and was rewarded by a very surprised look on his face. It was kinda nice to see that confident façade rocked for a change. I moved him until he was in a good position, then laid my head down on his arm and snuggled into his side.
“Did you really want to leave?” I asked, drawing small circles in the light smattering of hair arrowing down from his bellybutton to his groin.
“No. That’s the problem. You all are flooding this room with all these feel good pack pheromones.”
Oh shit, I realised. I barely knew this guy, and here was I, snuggling up like he was my mate or something. I went to pull away, but his arm tightened around me.
“Not like that. I want to breathe them in and just…” His voice trailed off. “I’ve done a lot of this, heats. Quite a few women here have given me a spin, but it's never turned out to be anything other than heat fever.” He paused when he felt me stiffen, rolling over to face me. Those grey eyes searched mine, then he smoothed my hair back from my face. “That’s not your responsibility, so stop that little brain of yours from ticking away. Any break in the heat like this is a good time to eat, hydrate, look after your body. I was just gonna go for a quick drive to clear my head. I just didn’t want to step out while you were asleep, let you think I’d t
aken off.”
“Yeah, of course. I’m sorry, I didn’t really think this through. We’ve spoken more today than we ever have before. Fuck, this is weird.”
He smiled and shrugged. “It’s heat.”
“Look, if you need to tap out at any time, I’ll understand. I can’t promise you anything.”
“I know. I—”
“I want to. Right now, I’m full of all this soft, squishy goodness, and I want everyone to be included in it.” I thought of the mysterious Snowy relegated to the spare bedroom and frowned. “But I can’t. I’m done rushing into things, and I have to think of Kade.”
“It’s OK. I put two and two together. It's half the reason why I was keen to get to know him first. If he can’t accept me…” His eyes slid down. “One of the guys in my mum’s pack joined us when I was around his age. Said all the right things at the start… Let's just say seeing the way he was with my younger brothers was an interesting experience. They looked a lot like him, and all of a sudden, he was this patient, loving guy.” He pressed his lips to my hair. “Kade might not warm to me, you might not, but I never want to be the guy that ends up coming between a woman and her child.”
“Thanks for understanding,” I said, right as my stomach decided to ruin this little moment with a rowdy rumble. “What were you saying about food?”
“Oh my god, what is this?” I asked after swallowing down the spoonful Sen offered me.
“My mother’s truffle trifle. She developed the recipe when she went into heat. Said she needed something super sweet and rich to keep her energy levels up and to tempt her away from the bedroom.”
“She told you that?”
“When I was an adult, yeah. She’s pretty blunt about things like that. Doesn’t believe in pussyfooting around. If you let her get close, she’s gonna wanna talk allll about the situation with Monster there.”
“Please don’t call him that.”
I said the words quietly, but the terse tone was apparent. He nodded in response.
“Cool, I’m sorry. It just slipped out. Look.” He put the spoon down in the tray and dusted off his hands on his jeans. “I might take off for that walk, clear my head again, and then come back with some gear. Would that be OK?”