Page 29 of Duke's Baby Deal
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Duke happily let Bram drag him to the bedroom. If Bram was this enthusiastic, was it possible that Justin hadn’t triggered whatever it was that Bax had been talking about? After all this, to find out that Bram loved him—his head was spinning like he’d already been drinking.
Bram spun around in the door of the bedroom and kissed him, his fingers already working at the knot in the belt holding Duke’s tunic closed. Duke returned the favor, running his fingers over the smooth skin of Bram’s chest—not skinny, but not over-muscled either. He looked sleek, like a wolf in fighting prime.
He was gorgeous.
Their tunics hit the floor and Bram pulled him down for another kiss. Duke was so hard it hurt at this point, but even with that distraction, he couldn’t miss the small frown line that appeared between Bram’s eyebrows. Bram pulled him toward the bed, the paint on his body smearing over Duke’s chest, leaving them both scented in moss and lavender and some other things Duke didn’t recognize.
Bram broke away from Duke’s mouth. “The sheets!” He turned and stripped the covers away from the bed, revealing a set of white sheets, pristine as summer clouds. Then he turned back to Duke. “We’re supposed to make a mess,” he said. The tension was back in his body, and the loose pants did nothing to hide the fact that, where Duke was ramrod straight and could barely think around the need to tumble Bram into that bed and make a real mess, Bram was completely unaroused.
Duke forced himself to take a step back. His hands clenched and he felt shaky and out-of-control. He wanted Bram, in a very alpha sort of way. He wanted to hold him down and smother him with kisses and explore every nook and cranny of his body, making him yelp with pleasure the entire time. But he couldn’t do that. Not the way things were now.
Bram reached for him. “Where are you going? It’s our mating night.” His voice was high with sudden anxiety, and Duke could smell the faint acrid edge of fear creeping into his scent.
“You don’t feel anything, do you?” Duke asked him.
“Of course I do. Come to bed, Duke.” Bram pressed himself against Duke, running his hands over every bit of exposed skin.
“Bram, hold on.” Duke took him by the upper arms and made him step back. It was painfully obvious that Bram wasn’t responding to his mating night the way most shifters did, and they both knew it. “You don’t have to do something you’re not ready for.”
“I am ready!” His voice held a lot of temper, and more than a hint of hysteria.
“Bram, Bram, sweetheart,” Duke said, and slid his hands up Bram’s arms and over his shoulders until he could cup Bram’s jaw from both sides. “How much fun do you think I’m going to have if you’re just pretending?”
“But I want to.” Thetoin the sentence stretched out in a desperate plea. “Duke, we’re supposed to be in here, you know…” His cheeks went pink. “I mean, I’ve been dreaming about this forever.”
“Forever?” Duke asked, startled.
“Well,” Bram admitted. “Maybe not since I was a pup. But definitely since you guys beat up the Montana Border guys, and you were walking around like you’d just stepped out of an action movie.”
“Really?” Duke said, surprised at how touched he was. He pulled Bram against him and laced his fingers together behind Bram’s back so the omega couldn’t go anywhere. “Well, I’d say I noticed you sometime during that summer before.”
“Did you?” Bram bounced and leaned against him. “When? What made you notice me?” His arms slipped around Duke’s back and, while his position made it obvious that Bax had been right, the expression on his face as he gazed up at Duke meant that Duke didn’t care. To think that Bram was surprised that Duke would have noticed him. Like you could ignore him, really, with that red-brown hair and the huge eyes, the long legs, and an ass that made mated men stop and stare.
Duke decided that there was no reason not to tell him the truth. And probably the truth was a good way to start a mating, especially one as strange as this one. “Yes. You were in the garden in the spring, bent over something, and you stood up and used the hem of your t-shirt to wipe your face. And the whole time Jason was yelling at you not to stain your clothes, I was trying to decide whether I liked your chest or your—” He stopped and cleared his throat. “Your, uh, backside better.”
Bram’s eyes narrowed. “My backside? You mean, my ass?” he drawled, his lips curling up in a grin that belonged on a man a good half dozen years older.
“It just feels wrong to say it.” But Duke couldn’t help a smile. Bram was adorable.
“We’re mated. You can call it an ass, you know. I do.” Bram wiggled a little and, before Duke knew what was happening, Bram had somehow grabbed Duke’s arms and pulled them down until his hands rested on top of…
“Fine,” Duke said at Bram’s triumphant expression. “Your ass. Happy?”
“Very.” Bram nodded, but then his expression sobered. “But really, Duke, I know you did this thinking there wouldn’t be anything in it for you, but I really don’t mind. I mean, I want you to be happy. This should be a proper mating. I’ll figure out a way around this.”
“Like what?”
“Try me.” Bram began to walk backwards, pulling Duke with him, until his legs hit the bed and he fell backwards, pulling Duke down on top of him.
They kissed fervently for a few minutes, the rest of their clothing disappearing in the rush. Duke picked Bram up with an arm under his hips and moved him into the middle of the mattress. In the back of his mind, he noted that Bram’s body paint had left a patchy green-blue trail across the sheet, which he figured would make Bram happy, for whatever reason it was important to him. He stroked a hand down Bram’s side, then back up again to tease his nipples, experimenting to see what Bram liked. Bram moaned, his eyes tight shut, and he rubbed his cock against Duke’s. He was starting to get hard, and Duke swooped in to kiss him again, swallowing the faint whimpers coming from his throat.
Bram groaned, and then made a noise that set Duke’s hackles rising. A sad, pitiful noise, like the squeak of a rabbit that knows its time is coming to an end.
Duke froze, and Bram rolled out from underneath him, pushing Duke away with surprising strength. He hid his face in the mattress and sobbed, beating at the soft surface with one clenched fist. “Damn you, damn you, damn you,” he repeated over and over again.
“Bram?” Duke asked in a low voice. He put his hand on Bram’s shoulder and tugged gently, until Bram rolled onto his back, tear-stained and flushed. “It’s okay, whatever it is.”
