Page 43 of Omega Chattel
But younger Omegas, especially virgins, had a hard time with the concept of going slow.
Ah, virgins.
“I can come in? Really?” Alli asked.
“Get in. Go sit on the side of the bed.”
Alli glanced at the bed, pink rising in his cheeks, and stood, pulling his robe closed as he took a step forward, but not before I saw all. His firm slim thighs, his flat young belly, hipbones and the sides of his ass waiting for exploring fingers to discover them for the first time. His erection was as beautiful as I’d imagined, bobbing beautifully, pink-tipped, arching just before he closed the robe over himself in a quick attempt at decency.
Nothing was decent between us now.
Rushing into things had never been a good experience for me.
His sensations through the tiniest filaments of a new bond still forming had driven me to feelings not unlike the Burn. I admit, half a dozen times this night as I lay in my bed trying for sleep, I’d almost gone to him. My thoughts were outrageous—I had fantasies of smashing open the guest bedroom door, grabbing him from his own bed, throwing him over my shoulder and carrying him back to my room.
But here he was. And I could put that fantasy to rest. Maybe.
In the time after our kiss, I had briefly thought of Kee, how he’d stay in that room next to mine for only intervals of days, nothing more, how I’d wanted more, craved it, but Kee would have none of it beyond my Burns.
He’d laughed at my offers of a ward-ship.
Kee had never come to my bedroom door, leaning against it.
Now Alli was front and center, needing me even more after I’d sent him to his room, and I was familiar with that feeling. I knew how much it hurt.
I’d made the mistake of thinking Alli knew who I was when he’d followed me down the street. That I took Omegas into my home. That I was easy and generous with my money. But he hadn’t known any of it. He’d trailed my scent, tracking it in a simple manner. He had not been looking for an education or a guardian even though he needed both.
He’d wanted me from the start. He’d known before I did what our mixed scents meant, what his feelings were even if he couldn’t put them into words until we sat on the outside bench tonight.
Fated mates.
Omegas were known to be more intuitive than Alphas. He’d found me first. If he hadn’t, as closed off as I was, I am not sure I ever would have noticed him.
“I—I didn’t mean to intrude--” His voice started in a whisper and ended on a firmer note.
“You mean intruding on my thoughts?”
He opened his mouth to answer, then closed it, staring up at me with narrowed eyebrows.
“I know it can’t be helped with a new bond.”
“A—a bond?”
I nodded and his eyes got very wide.
He continued. “The link between us—yeah, I felt that. But I thought bonding came during an Alpha Burn. And—and--”
“Knotting?” I finished for him.
His lips went into a tight line and he blinked fast. He gulped.
“That’s true when both partners desire to form a bond,” I said. “But there are spontaneous bondings that happen as well. They’re more rare. And with fated mates, some myths talk of bonds happening before the two parties ever meet, and they search endlessly for the other until they find them.”
Alli had an odd look on his face that communicated both fascination and apprehension at the same time. As if he might be punished for this, a thing he could not control. Obviously, he couldn’t deny his body even through his nerves. This was all new to him.
It wasn’t his fault.
But suddenly his shoulders twitched, and he clasped his hands in front of him tight. They were shaking.
