His knot swells inside Felix, stretching him. Against his chest, Felix purrs, his body accommodating Kade, and it’s intimate, them locked together like this. It keeps Felix close to him, gives Kade time to run his wrists along Felix’s jaw, down his neck, along his arms.
“You’re okay with this?” Kade murmurs, nosing into Felix’s hair. Felix smells like sweat and musk, and a little whiff of lavender.
“Mm-hm.” Felix sighs against him, and Kade slips his hands up Felix’s shirt. Felix sucks his breath in. “Feels good.”
“You like me inside you,” Kade says. He rocks his hips lightly, just to feel the pull of Felix’s body around his knot. Felix moans.
“Was there ever any doubt about that?” Felix chuckles lowly, arching his neck so Kade runs his wrists along his throat. Kade scents his temples, his chest, his hips, and it feels familiar, his omega against him, taking his knot, sweat mingling on their skin.
“Guess not,” Kade says. “Sorry about my mom.”
Felix groans. “No. I’m not thinking about that.”
“It’s not like it’s the first time she’s done it,” Kade says, then pauses. He doesn’t know how much of their history he wants to bring up, when he doesn’t know where exactly he stands with Felix. Whether he can talk about the past, without Felix remembering the reasons he’d rejected him. What part of me is not good enough for you? “Remember that summer break? When we were in eighth grade? You stayed over for math homework and she opened the door.”
Against him, Felix sighs. “Oh, stop that. I still remember it. How can I not? It’s one of the top five embarrassing moments of my life. It’s not like we even had clothes on, Kade. I mean, how awkward is it to see your son kneeling in front of another boy?”
Kade winces. They’d remembered the locks since then, until now. “We’ll fuck at your place, I guess.”
Felix chuckles. “Yeah. But this wasn’t so bad. We were mostly dressed.”
“Now you are,” Kade says. He reaches down, rubbing his wrist down Felix’s cock, over his balls, and it gives him a thrill, marking his omega. Felix shivers. The last dregs of Felix’s release drip onto his fingers, and Kade rubs it into his own skin. Mine.
He bites lightly into the meat of Felix’s shoulder. Felix exhales, long and slow, his body warm against Kade’s. Then they fall silent for a while, Kade enjoying his bondmate’s presence, combing his fingers through Felix’s hair. When his knot recedes, he slides out of Felix, nuzzling his nape. “Get dressed. We’ll show her the painting.”
Felix whines, covering his face again. “Do I have to? I mean... She just walked in on us.”
“It’s not like she doesn’t know we’re fucking.” Or that you’re my bondmate.
Felix huffs. “I’m sure she saw you behind me. You shouldn’t kiss her anytime soon.”
That’s how you change the subject? Kade wipes his mouth, clicking his tongue. “‘Course not.”
Felix pulls back from the bike then, glancing down. “Oh, crap. Your bike. Um. You might have to clean it.”
Kade looks over his shoulder, at the smears of white streaked across the leather seat, down the gleaming inner workings and the exhaust pipes, and he can’t help smirking. “Don’t worry about it.”
As he steps away from his omega, Kade reaches down, slipping his fingers into the smooth cleft of Felix’s ass. He finds the smear of sticky fluids around his hole. Felix relaxes, lets him slip his fingers in, so he feels the ooze of his cum inside. Kade growls. Felix swallows noisily.
They dress in silence. Felix runs his fingers through his hair, and Kade zips up his own pants, pulling his shirt back on. Before they step through the door, he slips his hand around Felix’s elbow, pulling him close.
“My mom loves you,” Kade murmurs. “You know that.”
Felix’s gaze darts to meet his. “I... I guess,” he says, biting his lip. “I didn’t say goodbye to her before I left.”
You didn’t say goodbye to me either, Kade wants to say. In his pocket, the ring feels warm against his skin, satiny, and maybe Kade can settle for a friendship with Felix. He doesn’t want to.
He dips his head anyway, pressing his lips to Felix’s temple. “You’re fine. Don’t worry about it.”
Felix smiles then, a little brighter, and it feels like he’s warming up Kade from inside. “Thanks.”
16
Felix
Felix doesn’t want to be here, not really. He’d taken a bus to Kade’s house to drop off the bay painting, and maybe he’d hoped for some sex.
Then Kade had mentioned that his mom’s also living in the same house, and she’d opened the door and seen... She’d opened the door and said “See you both later,” and Felix doesn’t want to see her at all. He can’t face her after the bankruptcy, after the death of Kade’s father, knowing that he had been the one to cause it all.
Kade nudges him through the garage door. “Get in.”
Felix clutches the painting to his chest, pulse thudding in his ears. “You should be the one going in first.”
Kade looks at him again, sharp eyes contemplative. “You’re scared of something.”
“No, no,” Felix says, but it feels as though Kade can read him anyway. What else can he expect, after being together fifteen years?
He steps into the dim hallway, waiting while Kade shuts the door behind them. Kade eyes him, then turns, heading for a brightly-lit bathroom. Everything in this house smells like pine, cedar and lilac, and it’s almost familiar. In the home Kade had shared with his parents and brothers, it had been a jumble of smells—birch, hibiscus, cypress, layered on top of pine and lilac.
“You haven’t been in heat,” Kade murmurs, studying him.
Felix stops breathing. I didn’t think you noticed. Did you guess it? Kade can’t possibly know he’s pregnant, can he? “I’ve been taking suppressants to skip them.”
“Because of that bastard manager?” Kade frowns. “You shouldn’t be working at that place.”
“You don’t have to worry about me,” Felix says. But the
