Page 4 of What A Croc
His smile, aimed at Aiden and me, was warm and inviting. Heat started in my chest, spreading across my body. The child in his arms patted his cheek affectionately, momentarily bringing his focus back to her.
For a few beats of my heart, I forgot how to breathe.
Images of this man holding a child that looked like a mixture of the two of us, his eyes crinkling at the corners with fine laugh lines as he smiled broadly with happiness, swarmed my mind. Another image of him round and glowing with pregnancy had me nearly gasping out loud.
Desire, like I hadn’t felt in years, slammed into me hard; unfiltered lust mixed with pure need.
Whoa! Where the ever-loving-fuck had any of these thoughts come from?
Want!My croc demanded.
Watching the man move towards us gracefully, I guessed he was probably a good ten years or more older than me. There was a natural sexiness to him that I could tell he wasn’t even aware he had. As he moved closer, I noticed the hair at his temples was liberally sprinkled with white that just added to his sexiness, as well as the fiveo’clock shadow that was a couple of days old, and made my growing cock give a happy little twitch.
Nice to know my dick wasn’t dead after all, but now was definitely not the time for my libido to decide to work again.
Breathing in deeply, to calm my racing heart and to get a grip on whatever the fuck was happening inside me, my senses were flooded with the scent of…Christmas? Sniffing, I subtly took another whiff, warming as the scents of nutmeg, cinnamon, and something else washed over me.
It’s cloves, my croc supplied helpfully.He smells divine! Like spiced cookies!
Shush! I’m trying to…think.
Mmmm, no thinking, just sniffing! Nom Nom!My croc snapped his teeth sharply.
“Good morning!” he greeted us, his voice soft and smooth. “I’m sorry I wasn’t out here to greet you when you arrived.” He stuck his free hand out, hiking the toddler on his hip at the same time in a smooth, practiced motion. “Julianna needed a hug from her papa. I’m Mr. Robert.”
Robert. It fit him, somehow, and I rolled the name over in my head a few times.
“Jackson Sobek,” I engulfed his smaller hand in my large one, jolting when a burst of electricity shot between us. He yanked his hand back, frowning fiercely at me, before the smile was plastered back on his face. It didn’t escape my notice that the smile no longer met his warmbrown eyes. No, those gorgeous eyes of his now held confusion, and maybe just a hint of wonder.
We stared at each other for a full thirty seconds, before I stared down at my still outstretched hand.
Did that really just happen?
Could it mean what I think it means?
Were we…?
MATE!My croc roared in all his apex predator glory.Mate, mate, mate, mate.
I hadn’t imagined it then, and by the look on Robert’s face, I wasn’t the only one. He looked as shell shocked as I felt.
His breathing sped up, then hitched shakily as he took a slow, steadying breath. He blinked once, twice, looking dazed, before his vision cleared and he turned his attention to my son.
Okay, so we weren’t going to talk about what just happened then? Probably a smart move, but at some point, we were definitely going to have to have a conversation about it. Right?
“You must be Aiden?” Robert hunched down until he was eye level with Aiden, setting the little girl–Julianna, he had called her–down on her feet. “We’re so happy to have you join us.”
“I, ah, wasn’t sure what the usual drop off routine was,” I told him, watching as Aiden’s eyes became glued to a small group of children who were playing dress up in onecorner. There was a large chest that resembled something from a pirate’s ship, with the lid thrown open. The small group of children gleefully rifled through its contents.
Recognizing Brendan’s little girl, as she was helped into a blue princess dress by a little boy who looked to be a few years older than her, I told him, “Look, there’s Miss Charlie. Do you want to go play with her?”
Robert looked over his shoulder at the group, easily standing back up to his full height. Impressive core, I couldn’t help but notice, even though it was clear he was a bit soft around his midsection. I happened to find a little fluff sexy as fuck on a man. I loved my omegas soft and cuddly.
And older, my croc reminded me helpfully.You like them older.
He wasn’t wrong. I had always found older omegas much more attractive than men my age, or even younger. Levi had been a full ten years older than me.
Robert held out his hand to Aiden, and to my surprise, my son slipped his small hand in his with no hesitation. “We have all kinds of dress up clothes. You can be a pirate, a fireman, policeman, a prince…you name it, we probably have it.”
