SKYE.3

"I did," his tone was dry.

I cleared my throat. "I'm a bit rusty, but I could play for you sometime…"

Soren stayed quiet, stiff and very reserved. He didn't answer, but continued to stare at the money with a strange fixation. Not knowing what else to add, I walked to the door and said, "Well, take care then, and thanks a lot."

"My email is Soren3002@—"

"Oh, okay, thanks for offering to help."

"No problem," he muttered, still not looking at me. So weird.

And I left, quietly closing the door behind me.

The whole way back to my dorm, I felt like I was floating. Was I being stupid? The world seemed brighter… Despite his bizarre demeanor, Soren had offered to interact with me on something not related to ‘business'! His initiative!

After a while, I sobered up a bit—what the hell? It was silly. After all, Soren treated me like any other patron. I paid him for sex; there was nothing more to it.

But there was this odd thing, though—he was literally staring at the money I left him through the entire conversation, almost obsessively. Was he… considering something? But what? Returning the cash? Nah, stupid. He surely didn't want to have a relationship with me, so why would he give up on earning money?

And what about me?

My own feelings were all over the place. This situation could cost me a lot, not just financially. Unfortunately, I was a very jealous and possessive type, and knowing what he was involved in weighed heavily on me. I wasn't progressive enough to not mind if my boyfriend had a job like that. I had a more traditional approach that required exclusivity in a relationship.

Boyfriend?

Did I say that? Ridiculous. I was way too ahead of myself.

All too well I remembered what Alvin said about not getting entangled with Soren. He was probably right—with my attitude toward his job, it couldn't end well. But I wanted this to last a little longer… like a fleeting dream. He had this magical effect on me that couldn't be resisted.

As I was almost on the steps leading to my dorm, I heard a voice behind me, calling my name.

Confused, I turned around and saw Soren running toward me.

His long black hair was disheveled, his face looked strange—like he was an emotional mess, all over the place, red, flustered, nervous. He abruptly stopped right in front of me, and I felt his hand sliding over my hip, toward my pocket.

Shocked, I looked down. It was the money I gave him; he put it inside my pocket.

But not just the seventy bucks I gave him today—it was all the money I'd given him before!

"What… are you doing?" I mumbled.

He only glared at me with his brows furrowed and turned away, wanting to leave without a word.

But I grabbed his arm.

"Wait, you earned it, Soren."

He winced angrily. "I don't want your fucking money!"

He tried to free himself, but I didn't let him, feeling he was shaking slightly.

"Soren, it's… I know you need it, for the medical debts."

He snorted, his face angry and red. "I don't owe you any explanation! But if you want to know, I work more for DevApp. Half-time now, not one-third like before. I can pay the debts!"

"But—"

"Let me go!" He jerked his arm from my grasp and rushed away, so quickly I gave up on trying to catch him.

What just happened?

What did it mean? For… us?

For a while, I just stood there with my mouth hanging open, absolutely clueless as to how to interpret Soren's behavior. So… he didn't want to meet with me again? Or just not… for money?

Feeling a bit stressed, I went into the dorm, heading toward our room.

Archer was at the gym, and Alvin was napping.

I needed to finish my essay, so I did, feeling a bit unfocused, and sent an email to Soren:

"Hey, Soren, I hope we're good. I attached my essay to the email. If you want, you can check it, but if you changed your mind, it's okay too."

One hour later, I got a message from him with an attachment.

Soren wrote: "I made some edits, but overall, it was a really strong piece of writing. You probably don't give yourself enough credit."

That was it. Not a word about whether we were ‘good' now.

I opened the file and read the essay. He hadn't changed much, but his tweaks were in the right places, significantly improving the overall structure. I felt strangely touched and grateful because he didn't have to do that—we weren't even friends. It was really… sweet of him?

***

The next day, I waited for him outside the dorm, biting my nails. How was he gonna behave? Was he done with me? Or was this the start of something new between us?

When he came out, he seemed surprised to see me there. I offered him my warmest smile, but he just gave a slight grimace in return and immediately pulled out a cigarette.

"I wanted to thank you for the essay edits. It's really better now," I said quickly as he took a deep drag. I wanted to steer the conversation toward that, just in case he was about to start some ‘we shouldn't meet anymore' kind of talk.

He shrugged slightly, blowing smoke right in my face, like he obviously enjoyed doing. "It was no big deal, just a few corrections here and there. Nothing to discuss."

"Still, thank you very much," I whispered, stepping closer. Soren quickly brought the cigarette to his lips and took another drag, as if the smoke was his shield. His gray eyes were fixed on my face, seemingly indifferent.

I waited, unsure of what he would say next, but he… just didn't say anything, as if last night hadn't even happened. Like nothing strange was going on between us, like some… uncharted territory wasn't unfolding.

So we stood there for a moment, just like that, in a pleasant silence, close to each other. There was something… exciting about it. For the thousandth time, I glanced at his lips—pink and full. I wanted to taste them, but… it wasn't possible.

"What?" he murmured quietly, but to my surprise, he didn't look away this time.

He blew a smoke ring into the air above us. There was something almost… intimate about it. Slowly, I raised my hand and placed it on his slim hip. He didn't push me away, but kept smoking as my fingers gently slipped under his hoodie and brushed against his smooth naked skin. He exhaled and closed his eyes. My heart raced, and so did his…

Super slowly, I leaned down, and my nose hovered just above his neck. For a moment, I let it linger there, the tip of it skimming his skin. Soren allowed it! He even slightly tilted his head back, and we were standing in this weird constellation—me kinda sniffing his neck, and him with half-lidded eyes, taking deep drags.

We were having this strange moment of intimacy—kinda unexplainable.

Then I felt the first drops of rain on my face.

He flinched slightly and opened his eyes wider; with some satisfaction I noticed his pupils were dilated.

"Let's get to class before we get soaked," he murmured.

He put out his cigarette in the ashtray and walked past me toward the main building.

I followed him, staring at his ass. Because why not? He had narrow hips, typical for betas, but his ass cheeks were round and pert. Very… enticing. Did I imagine it, or did he sway them a bit more, knowing I was watching? Probably just my imagination.

During the first class, I couldn't take my eyes off him. I kept sneaking glances, and I noticed him doing the same a few times. At some moments, I was kinda zoning out, staring at his lips and the tip of his tongue playing with his piercing.

When we were in line at the cafeteria, Sean approached us with a slightly unsure expression. He was probably surprised to see us together two days in a row. It was a pretty big change—from total distance and hostility to seemingly hanging out all the time.

As we waited in line, Soren leaned forward slightly and murmured,

"Oh, my favorite broccoli cream soup! They haven't had it in a while!"

"You better hurry and get it then. Looks like they only have three left," Sean snarked.

Soren wasn't so lucky. A few students ahead of us took the soup, and the last one was snagged by a freshman omega standing right in front of us.

Disappointment showed on Soren's face.

Sean grabbed his tray first, followed by Soren, who settled for just a sandwich. They both headed toward a three-person table. Was that a sign I was invited too?

But what about the soup? I wasn't ready to give up. I quickly approached the young omega and pulled out $20.

"Hey, I really want that soup. I'll give you 20 bucks if you let me have it," I said.

The omega looked up at me through thick glasses, swallowed hard, and blinked. "But I'm really hungry," he squeaked.

"Okay, how about 50 bucks? That's enough to buy all the other soups," I offered.

His eyes widened at the money, then he tilted his head and smiled slightly. "Alrighty. Deal."

With a sigh of relief, I took the soup and walked over to the table where Sean and Soren were sitting.

Silently, I set the soup in front of Soren and then sat down in the last available chair.

When I looked at Soren, he was staring at me with a strange expression. Sean, on the other hand, tried to suppress his laughter.

Neither of them said anything about it, though. We all ate in almost total silence. Soren wasn't eager to engage with Sean, who also didn't look super comfortable; they only exchanged a few words about the rainy weather.

I zoned out again, kinda hypnotized by the way Soren's hands and fingers absentmindedly played with his long silver earrings. It was so… mesmerizing, his long, slim fingers with black-painted nails swirling around those shiny wires, making quiet tinkling, chiming sounds.

After I finished eating, I got up and left the cafeteria, heading toward the lecture hall alone, since it was one of the few courses I didn't have with Soren. I still had about fifteen minutes before class started.

But a moment later, I saw Soren walking quickly in my direction.

His cheeks were slightly flushed. He looked stiff and very serious as he stood next to me, and then he said…

"Would you like to go to the bathroom?"

Oh, wow, I hadn't expected this, but how could I refuse? I smiled happily and nodded.

As soon as we entered the stall, I hugged him and pulled him close to me.

God, what a wonderful feeling it was, my whole body trembled, he was trembling too, I felt his arms rise and embrace my back tightly, he had never done that before. My lips began their journey down his neck, and Soren seemed to know what lay ahead, tipping his head back to give me room for my lewd ministrations on his naked skin. I noticed a few pale hickeys there as well, a reminder of our session yesterday. My lips licked, nibbled, and sucked greedily, and he let me, making cute, raspy sounds of pleasure.

"I want to suck you off," I murmured into his neck. "I want you to facefuck me…"

"Okay," came the immediate reply.

Yep, it didn't take much convincing!

In an instant, I slid down to my knees and lifted my eyes up to meet his. His pupils were dilated, he was staring at me in anticipation, panting rapidly.

It took me two seconds to undo his zipper, nothing new here, he was already fully hard.

Slowly I slid his pink shaft, already dripping with pre-cum, into my mouth, never taking my eyes off Soren's face. I liked that he kept this intense eye contact while I was blowing him, I started to work with great eagerness, taking him as deep as I could, fighting through my gag reflex…

Meanwhile, my own dick was bothering me, so I unzipped my pants and while swallowing his dick, I jerked off mine.

But there was still more I wanted to do, so I put his hands on the back of my head and encouraged him to thrust into me.

Soren murmured, "Are you sure?"

Nodding eagerly, I prepared myself for a ride, but there wasn't much of one. Soren braced himself on my head and began to thrust into my throat, his face flaming red, but… the funny thing was, he had made maybe a dozen thrusts into my esophagus when he moaned loudly and unloaded into it. He certainly wasn't very good at holding back his orgasms. The feeling of his spasming, spurting dick in my mouth also drove me over the edge, although I don't think he even noticed, he was too deep in his own ecstasy.

Soren shivered and gasped, staring at me as I knelt down for him and slurped his cum. I also moved my lips lower, to his balls, and licked them too, as he continued to stare at me, his dick refusing to lose an ounce of blood. This was really strange, since betas weren't known for their staying power, but I didn't dare say anything about it.

I pulled up his jockstrap, navy blue this time, and stood up.

"What's with jockstraps? They aren't exactly the most comfortable," I murmured.

He lowered his hands to my zipper, muttering, "But I think they look great on my ass. Don't you agree?"

"They sure do! Wait, Soren," I had to tell him. "I already… came," I added, slowly wrapping my fingers around his wrist.

His hand froze on my crotch, and he blinked. "You did?"

Slightly embarrassed, I shrugged. "Yep."

There was this pleasant silence while he thought about it, his gaze fixed somewhere on my chest, those long black lashes on full display.

"I—" he trailed off, "I wanted to… say thanks for the soup. Fifty bucks is a lot for a bowl of broccoli cream."

"How do you know how much I paid?"

"I asked the omega. He wanted to know what I did that made guys willing to pay 50 bucks for my food…"

"And what did you tell him?"

"I said I was being an ass."

I chuckled, and Soren almost did too—but stopped himself and quickly averted his gaze.

"So, I guess I still owe you." He sighed.

"No, you owe me nothing. I… enjoyed it. I love making you come. I wanna do it again."

Soren swallowed, still looking sideways. I already knew he hated meeting my eyes when conversations got more… intimate.

Suddenly, in an impulse I couldn't control, I reached out and hugged him, pulling him close. He let me, but only for a second.

"Thank you for giving me… this joy," I whispered, kissing his cheek gently. He flinched slightly and pulled away, slowly but firmly.

"Your lecture's about to begin," he murmured, his voice back to its usual distant tone. And just like that, he left the stall, disappearing from the restroom.

Well, Rome wasn't built in a day.