Page 69 of Bitter Heat
Salvation for Kerry couldn’t come too soon.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Kerry sat alonein the hotel room. He’d refused to come down to dinner after the examination showed him to be perfectly healthy, with a robust passage that seemed well-stretched and ready for birth. The baby inside had shown off by doing lots of flips and kicks, delighting Monte out of his tearful state. His heartbeat had been strong, and the doctor had remarked that if he had to place a bet, he’d say there was every chance the child was an alpha. “Alphas are said to be more active in the womb,” he’d remarked with a toothy grin. “You’ll likely find this one is a sporty, active, dominant sort.”
Lukas hadn’t been quite as handsy as Monte, but he’d done plenty of touching, too, and when all was said and done, Kerry had claimed to be too tired to eat immediately and promised he’d ring for room service later. The doctor had said that was perfectly acceptable and expected given his drive down-mountain from Hud’s Basin, the emotional discussion over tea, and the poking and prodding afterward.
Monte had looked ready to argue, but Lukas had put his arm around him, whispered in his ear. Then they’d both been sweet as punch, asking how to make Kerry comfortable and whether or not he needed anything at all from them before they went down to eat and then retired for the night.
“Nothing,” Kerry had said, shutting the door and turning the lock on them. “Nothing at all, please. I just need to sleep now.”
He couldn’t sleep, though. He felt too violated and unsafe, even to close his eyes. Knowing Janus was somewhere there in the hotel did little to alleviate the sense of sick betrayal he’d experienced at Lukas’s admission at the table. It was one thing to know a horrible thing was true, quite another to have it confirmed.
And while Dr. Rose was a good doctor, and likely a good man, too, his fingers hadn’t had the delicacy and tenderness of Janus’s when he’d pushed inside to feel around, testing the resiliency of his passage, the position of his womb, and the fullness of his omega glands. He’d looked a bit surprised by his findings, and his eyes had lingered a bit questioningly on Kerry when he’d said that everything appeared “well-oiled.” He’d even dared to ask, “How often are you being serviced?” as part of his examination, and had only blinked once when Kerry had answered, “Never. There’s no one.”
Kerry closed the curtains in the room, sat on his bed, and stared straight ahead. He took long, deep breaths, trying to find any evidence of Janus in the air, but the hotel was large and well-ventilated with the latest fan system, plus there were all the scented perfumes and products coming from the Monhundys’ room. He scented nothing of Janus at all.
The room seemed to cave in on him then. Blackness surrounded him. It reeked of the abandonment and fear he’d been fighting off since the moment Monte had mentioned the warden’s agreement to allow Wilbet in-home imprisonment so he could rape Kerry.
He gagged.
Servicehim, rather.
A strange rustling sound came from the hotel room door. He ignored it, but then there came a rap, sharp and singular. He stood up to investigate and found a note slipped beneath the door.
It’s me. Let me in.
The handwriting was familiar from the notes Janus left around the house for him along with the small gifts, and so Kerry carefully unlocked the door and eased it open. Janus stood in the hallway, his hair a wreck like he’d done little but rub his hands in it for the last two hours since they’d made eye contact in the salon. Kerry stepped back and let Janus through, then locked the door behind him again and leaned back against it. His heart pounded, and his eyes filled with tears as he stared at Janus, who stalked around the hotel room as if checking it for predators.
When Janus turned and strode toward him, Kerry shuddered at the dark expression in his eyes. But when he reached Kerry, he gathered him into his arms so gently that Kerry lost whatever control he’d managed to keep and broke down crying in his arms.
Janus hushed and stroked him, kissing his hair and ears, kissing his jaw and neck. But there was no lust in it, only comfort and protection, and Kerry wallowed in that. He tried to shove it into his cells—a balm against violation—by pressing himself harder against Janus’s firm body. The baby was in the way, of course, as always, but Kerry pushed against him harder, wanting to fit more easily in his arms.
Janus kissed his mouth then, licking it open to press his tongue inside. His hands slipped into Kerry’s pants, sliding to cup his ass, and then to quest into the crack, touching where Kerry still felt a bit used from the doctor’s ministrations.
“Please,” Kerry whispered, feeling slick rush from him at the gentle tap of Janus’s fingertips. “Make me feel safe again.”
Janus didn’t need to hear more than that, apparently, because he took Kerry’s jaw in both hands, tilted his head up and kissed him with slow, determined moves that washed Kerry’s mind clean of anything but how entirely safe he felt in Janus’s arms.
The kiss turned passionate, and Janus steered Kerry to the bed, pressing him down on it and quickly removing all their clothes. He started with Kerry’s feet, kissing and licking his way up to his thighs, and then he nuzzled Kerry’s cock, where it pressed up against the bottom of his bulging stomach. As Janus worked, Kerry sank into a dazed reverie. A compelling need to be as close to Janus as physically possible, to join flesh, filled him. He didn’t even let Janus get around to sucking his dick into his mouth before he was urging him up, rolling onto his side, and presenting his ass in the closest thing to lordosis position he could manage with such a big stomach.
“That’s what you want?” Janus asked.
“I need it,” Kerry whispered, tears pricking at his eyes. “Please, Janus. Don’t make me wait.”
Janus was always so obedient when Kerry begged, and he wasn’t any different now. He positioned himself, and the delicious burn of his cockhead nudging against Kerry’s abused hole made Kerry moan. Then his omega glands released slick in a rush and Janus slid in, thick and long, deep enough to butt up against the tightly closed mouth of his womb.
“That’s right,” Janus muttered in Kerry’s ear. “You open up for me. Only me. Understand?”
Kerry shuddered at the possession in Janus’s words, tone, and grip on his hip, and when Janus pulled out and thrust back in, he came instantly, his cock spurting over the sheets and painting a stripe against the wall beside it.
“Fuck,” Janus whispered. “You like that, don’t you? Me owning you.”
Kerry twisted on Janus’s cock, and his own cock jolted again, a hollow, empty pleasure that was more like an ache. He wished Janusdidown him, was his alpha, but he wasn’t going to let himself think about anything but this moment right now.
Janus rubbed his hands down over the baby’s bump and then up again to pluck at Kerry’s sensitive nipples. Milk began to leak from them, and the scent rose up, clean and sweet, all around, adding to the mélange of odors they generated separately and together. Janus huffed against Kerry’s neck, lifting his long hair up and away, nuzzling behind his ear and kissing the shell.
“You’re my omega,” Janus whispered. “Mine. From here on out. And no one’s going to take you from me.”
