23. Ivy

23

IVY

I stared at my calendar, willing it to flip backwards and tell me that school was not in fact returning in two days. It remained stubbornly static, as did the mountain of prep work I still had left to do.

Logan was doing some maintenance upgrades for Stanley at the town hall. I had already received several texts outlining ways the mayor’s demise could be disguised as an accident.

But nothing was as rude as James sending me a single photograph of a kitten in his scrubs pocket and then presumably getting too caught up in work to respond.

I was working from home, papers fanned across my dining room table and giving myself future back problems in my unergonomic chair. At least, I was trying to work. As was Rome, who was seated on my couch in plain view.

We both knew inviting him over to work was a thinly veiled excuse to spend the day together. And by spend the day together, we meant attempting to steal glances from across my living room.

I didn’t know why he was sitting like that. Knees wide open, sleeves rolled up. Flashing those exposed forearms every time he scraped a runaway lock of hair back. He stuck his pen into the corner of his mouth and I chewed on my lip. My thoughts were consumed with crawling into laps. Touching, exploring. With tentative fingers to whole palms then hungry mouths.

It was pornographic and I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to work under such conditions.

“You’re perfuming, Ivy,” Rome stated easily, not looking up from his work.

I forced myself to tear my eyes away. “I need to switch seats,” I mumbled.

“If you think that will help.”

I plonked myself down on the opposite side of the table, reshuffling my laptop and papers to face me. Focus , I told myself. Lesson plans first. Then your classroom setup to-do list. That was the bare minimum of what I had to accomplish today. I’d never left things this last minute before.

Not looking at Rome did nothing to alleviate all the other ways his presence was affecting me. The letters on my page danced as his spiced wine scent filled me with a heated ache. I pulled my collar away from my neck as I inevitably slid into a daydream again.

We went on a pack date yesterday. There was a poetic brilliance to what they’d planned — making up for (almost) all the ways their individual dates had gone wrong. We skated without incident on the last day the rink was open. Gorged ourselves silly on everything Rome picked for us at Elephant Corridor. The banana leaf wrapped lamprais were a hit but to no one’s surprise, the spicy pickle dish achcharu was my favorite. Was I an independent woman? Maybe not anymore because I really liked sitting down, making no decisions and having delicious food appear for me. Finally, we stopped in at La Dolce Vita for Antonio’s famous tiramisu before heading back to my place clutching our middles.

Chez Lumiere, we all agreed, was an experience that did not need reliving.

They were a bit too ambitious with their plans in the end. Logan put on a film that had lots of explosions and not a single succulent plant in sight. I fell asleep before the heist team had even formed. I got carried to my nest — again — but this time, they knew to snuggle in with me.

After a full night exposed to the delirious cocktail of scents it was no wonder I had this… need building inside me. What had been done about it? Absolutely nothing. All I got were very thorough goodbye kisses from Logan and James this morning which made things worse. No wonder I’d practically begged Rome to bring his work over and spend the day with me.

I crossed and uncrossed my legs uncomfortably.

“How is your lesson plan coming along, Ivy?”

My blinking cursor mocked me from a blank page.

“Great,” I lied.

“Are you having trouble focusing?”

Rome’s tone was so mild it made me crazier. How was he so calm when I was sitting here roasting alive?

“Nope.” I couldn’t hide the grit this time.

“Good.” A beat passed. “I’m glad you suggested working together, I’m making excellent progress.”

I spun around to face him. “I’m sorry, but how ?” I flung at him accusingly. If I was perfuming then his alpha scent was certainly responding to it. The air was thick with citrus and spice swimming in dark wine. Drunk, hazy. Clouding my judgment with every breath.

No wonder it took me longer to notice the long, hard shape against his thigh.

“You liar. ” I marched furiously. “Show me how much you’ve done.”

He snapped his laptop closed with a hard click. “That’s confidential.”

“We work at the same school!” I snapped, reaching for his stack of papers. He dodged me easily and I scrambled over him, trying to snatch them from his grasp. Stupid tall alpha with long arms to match. “I want to see what you’ve done so far!”

Rome held them high over his head, a smirk fighting to escape those full lips of his. I couldn’t get ahold of them despite my best efforts. But I could see there was no writing anywhere matching the blue pen he’d been practically making out with earlier.

“You haven’t written anything on them!”

“They were simply for reference.”

“Sorry, since when is blank sheet music for reference?”

Rome tossed them aside and they scattered haphazardly across my living room floor. His hands bracketed my waist and he yanked me down hard, setting me firmly in place in his lap.

“Do you have a problem with how I plan my lessons, Ms. Winter?”

Holy hell. I’d been called ‘Ms. Winter’ for the better part of the last decade but it had never sounded like that. I squirmed and his hard bulge settled deeper against my core.

What was the question again?

“Do you know what I have a problem with?”

“What’s that?” I asked thinly.

His hands were sliding up my thighs and spanning wide over my ass, his grip possessive.

“You thinking you’re not a good omega.” He leaned close, his breath fluttering against my bare neck. “While you’re sitting there all pretty and perfuming, filling the room with the scent of your slick.”

I choked back an indignant gasp. “You’re lying. You can’t detect that.”

Rome hummed. “It’s so much more than that, Ivy.” His throat bobbed simply from the graze of his nose against my skin. “It’s everything your body is telling me just from how sweet you smell. It feels like…matchsticks. Striking me all over. My instincts want me to tend to you and give you what you need.”

He combed his fingers through my hair. “You know it’s a two-way street, right?”

“What do you mean?”

He placed a firm hand on the back of my neck. That alone made a very innate part of me go weak . My nose slid against his warm brown skin.

“Don’t think. Read what my scent is telling you and do what feels right.”

There was a flash of a familiar scene — Logan and I, except I was guiding his head to my neck.

Scent me.

I’d done it in the heat of the moment, without thinking. Being governed by our designations didn’t have to be a curse. Not when we could understand each other this way, speak without words this way.

I let Rome’s alluring scent fill my lungs. Limbs loosened and the edges of my world softened.

My hand snaked beneath his clothes. I relished the catch of his breath at the first electric touch of skin. His scent subtly changed. More of that alpha need, calling to me and drawing me in.

I unbuttoned and pushed aside his shirt slowly, admiring how the sunlight drew golden shapes across the contours of his chest. The intricate patterns of ink sprawled over his shoulder were beautiful. I ran the pad of my thumb along the strong line of his neck, leaning down to press a kiss where his pulse thudded. His scent flooded my senses harder as my tongue darted out to mark him with my own, blurring the line between us further.

“I told you…your instincts were perfect.”

So much held back behind those clenched teeth.

I continued to dot kisses around the base of his groaning throat as I slid the zip of his pants down. Fabric pooled at his feet, his thick cock laying hard and ready against his abs. His alpha rose closer to the surface, wanting to take over. Dissatisfied with my slow exploration.

I undressed carefully and the light shifted in his pupils as Rome’s ironclad will faltered. “Such a good omega for me,” he said, a hint of a purr rolling across his words. The cool air hit the slick coating my inner thighs as I spread myself over his lap again. I let my weight relax, my pussy settling right on top of his partially swollen knot.

“Fuck.” He shuddered. “Are you trying to make me break, Ivy?”

I leaned close, my hair falling to one side like a curtain. “I want my alpha,” I whispered softly into the shell of his ear.

Then I bared my teeth and — without breaking skin — bit deliberately into the strained muscle between his neck and shoulder.

The snap of his control felt so incredibly loud . An unstoppable, primal force. Fueled with the same energy that drove a guitarist to shatter their instrument against a sweat-soaked stage.

Rome sheathed himself deep inside with me with a single, powerful stroke. My teeth lost their grip as I cried out into his shoulder. The stretch was more than I expected but god , I loved it. I could barely remember what it had felt like to have him during my heat and I didn’t know how badly my body had been craving him until now.

“God, baby. You feel—” I didn’t catch the rest, his lips muffled by my cheek and hair.

Even if I wanted to ride him, I couldn’t. He was holding my hips, fucking up into me relentlessly. I wrapped my arms around his neck, every pounding thrust creating a hurtling friction between our bodies. My pebbled nipples across his hard chest. His knot rocking against my clit.

“So fucking wet and made for me. Dripping all over my cock.” My fingers seized in his hair at his filthy words. “Are you close already, baby?”

He already knew I was. It was written all over me, in the shake of my thighs, the clench of my pussy. That mind-numbing spot he was hitting over and over.

“Rome, god ,” I begged.

Maybe it was how his pace stuttered for one brief moment before he surged up into me even harder than before. Or maybe it was the punch of dominant alpha pheromones straight into my hindbrain. Or his consuming, hungry kiss, holding me by the nape of my neck. Probably all of it at once, really. I came with a thin scream, riding out each powerful convulsion to the sound of his praise.

“Look at you, baby.” Another rough kiss. “Coming so pretty for your alpha.”

I collapsed against him, breathing hard. “Nest,” I managed to get out. “Want you in my nest.”

Rome lifted me easily and I whined as soon as he slid out of me.

“God, soon. I promise, you can have it back soon.”

I bit him again in the hallway and he swore, crashing us against the wall and fucking back into me.

He groaned. “Shit, I?—”

Another ragged thrust.

“We’re…almost at your nest.”

I gave the tiniest shake of my head against his shoulder and he cursed again. Rome adjusted his hold on me, my legs hooked firmly over his arms, spreading me wide as he watched his cock disappear inside me. I rolled my hips against him, my slick letting me rub my clit easily against his hard knot.

“I want to come like this, alpha.”

“ Fuck .”

I decided then and there that I had to be an omega through and through because I loved his knot. If I wasn’t riding it then I wanted it inside me. I imagined palming it in my hands as I sucked his cock. Finding all the ways I could grind against it no matter what position he was taking me in. And finally having it lock tight inside me. The slight sting. The stretch. God. He would let me have it soon, right?

My head fell back, baring the column of my neck to him. He scraped his teeth along it and I felt myself rushing towards release.

“You’re going to make me lose control,” he snarled. “Bond you right here and now.”

Too soon , rang a warning bell somewhere in the foggy recesses of my mind.

“Mark me, instead,” I said desperately. “Suck on my neck and give me a?—”

My last word disappeared in a choked inhale as he latched onto me furiously. I was going to bruise in the perfect shape of his mouth.

“I’m going to do this for real one day.”

A soft, drawn out lick over sensitive flesh.

“You’re mine, omega.”

The orgasm that seized me certainly felt like it belonged to him.

We were moving again. Rome threw open the door to my nest. We dropped onto the mattress and he pulled away, leaving me sprawled and panting on my back.

“Rome, what are you…”

I stared up at the black, possessive gaze of an alpha teetering on the edge of rut. Without heat pheromones, the likelihood of him tipping over the line was slim. But his alpha was the one in control here and there was only one thing he wanted right now.

I swallowed, knowing it was me.

“Present for your alpha,” Rome demanded. A trace of his alpha bark filtered through. Command and dominance laced through every word. Assuring my omega that I was safe. Cherished. The most overwhelming urge to get on my hands and knees consumed me. I flipped onto my front, my ass rising into the air and exposing everything to him.

Waiting for him to touch me was achingly slow. I jerked as he cupped my pussy firmly in his large hand.

“This is mine.” I could hear the predator rippling in his voice. His other palm was heavy on the small of my back. I bent lower, my cheek against the sheets. “I won’t be satisfied until I’ve fucked you full of my cum.”

I whimpered when I felt the rounded head of his cock nudge against me.

“Yes,” I whispered, pushing back against him and letting my pussy sink a little over his tip. “I want it. Please. ”

He drove back inside me to the hilt. It was madness. Wild. As close to a claiming as it could be without my blood on his tongue. My body was driven by pure, lust-soaked need like a heat. Yet my mind was present, writing the feel of him into my DNA. Long powerful strokes, the sound filthy and wet as my pussy clung to him greedily.

“Finish inside me.” My throat was hoarse from crying out each time his knot thudded against me. It already felt huge and I didn’t know how it was going to fit let alone expand even further inside me.

Rome snarled and fisted my hair. “You feel what you’ve done to me, baby? Can you take all of it?”

“Yes,” I begged.

His chest curved over my back, sweat mingling with mine. Cinnamon. Cloves. We matched so perfectly. He palmed my breast and roamed down my stomach. Clever fingers swirled slick over my clit until my pussy clenched hard around his shaft. Only then did he grunt and push his knot deep, slurring my name as he came. He swelled and locked easily, perfectly, right against my G-spot. I felt the heat of him spill and spill inside me, each convulsion of my pussy coaxing more cum out of him.

“You wrecked me, baby.” I wasn’t sure if Rome was even aware he was talking, eyes half-lidded and mumbling against my skin.

I wanted to wear it like a badge of pride. I did that to him.

He let our joined bodies fall gently into the nest and pulled me against him possessively. I went slack against him. Safe. Warm. Sated. My world slowly faded down to the caress of his hand along my body. Along the top of my breast, sneaking down to trace the curved underside. Following my sternum and splaying wide fingers across my stomach. I traced up and down his forearm, our own language without words.

His knot remained inflated for a lot longer than I expected. Half an hour at least, if not more. When he finally loosened and slid out of me, he pushed my thighs back together immediately.

“Don’t lose it. I want you to keep my cum inside you.”

Possessive, feral beast.

It was almost frightening how much I loved it.

Rome rolled onto his back, his tattoo warping as he stretched his long body out. His half-hard cock was covered in slick and cum, listing to one side against his belly. Despite three orgasms and being fucked senseless all over my house…I wanted a taste.

“Alpha,” I whispered.

His eyebrow rose as he followed my line of vision. He fisted the base, fingers wrapping around his deflated knot. “You want more?”

I averted my eyes and nodded. He nudged my chin, forcing me to face him as he rose onto his knees. “Never be ashamed of needing anything from your pack.”

I couldn’t hold back a moan as I sucked his cock between my lips. My tongue explored along his crown, sliding down to lick his shaft too. I cleaned him thoroughly, streaks of white disappearing and leaving his length glistening. His grunts were dim and far away as I focused on my task. I was doing it for me , because I couldn’t get enough of the taste of us. Feeling him grow heavy on my tongue as I bobbed and stroked him back to hardness.

Rome let me play for as long as he could hold out before he was between my thighs, easing his way back into me again.

I sighed with satisfaction. His cock had barely left me all morning yet it was somehow not enough.

“Such a greedy little pussy.” He swiped my clit and I bucked against him. “So full of your alpha’s cum.”

The wet sound as he pushed deeper into me was unmistakable.

“Tell me, Ivy. Do you like taking your alpha’s cock and coming all over it?”

Every rational thought scattered when he spoke like that. “Rome, please.”

He kissed me, my top lip caught gently between his, one hand cradling my cheek. All while he held himself inside me without thrusting, working my clit and teasing the most slow-building, melting orgasm out of me.

I clung to him even as the aftershocks dissipated. My abdomen ached from clenching so hard, a thin layer of sweat beading my brow. He was still hard inside me, the heft and feeling of fullness so satisfying. There was such a quiet intimacy being with him like this, his kisses close by and the way he stroked my hair back from my damp forehead.

“Rome.” My voice came out shaky. Vulnerable.

“I know, baby.”

Time? Responsibilities? What were those? I didn’t care about anything except my alpha right now. I wrapped my arms and legs around him possessively. Needing more of this. More of him.

“I can do this for as long as you want me.” He was dotting little kisses all over my cheek and jaw. “I’ll be so good for you, Ivy, I promise. Tell me what you need.”

I shuddered. “I want to stay in my nest all day and keep you inside me,” I managed to rasp.

“Why?”

“Because you’re mine.” My throat tightened. “And good omegas take care of what’s theirs.”

Rome groaned and scent-marked me. His hand woven in my hair, tongue and teeth and lips against the sensitive spot right behind my ear. It was pointless, we were so intertwined yet I still chased his scent like it was the first time.

“You’re perfect.” He began to rock against me. “Now come for me again.”