Page 51 of A Baby for the Firefighter
“Why did you start baking?”
“My mom made me help her bake cookies one day. I wasn’t all that interested, really, but then I met you later that day and gave some of the cookies to you, and you ate them looking like the happiest boy in the world.”
I blinked. Was he saying the only reason he was baking was to make me happy? “You’re too much,” I told him, punching his arm and feeling my cheeks heat up. I didn’t even remember the day he was talking about, but it must have been important to him.
“I do enjoy baking now, for what it’s worth, but seeing the expression on your face when you bite into one of my cupcakes is still my favorite thing.”
“Yeah?” I laughed, feeling just a little bit self-conscious, but he seemed happy, so I decided to put on a show by grabbing one of the cupcakes from the box he’d brought and biting into it with the most passionate expression I could muster.
Dean simply stared at me, mouth hanging slightly open as I went to town on the cupcake. I noticed too late that I was basically mimicking orgasmic bliss and that it was definitely having an effect on him.
“Fuck, you’re hot,” he said under his breath.
I stopped and swallowed. I hadn’t meant to rile him up, but damn if his enthusiasm didn’t make me feel sexy—and just for the heck of it, I licked my fingers, just to see him twitch. I had no doubt now that he wanted me as much as I wanted him.
Sadly, I had no idea where to go from here.
Next to me, Dean took a deep breath. “Will you tell me what it is that’s scaring you?” he asked. “I mean, I know it’s sex and that you’re a virgin, but I just feel like… that’s not all it is, is it?”
“No,” I admitted, feeling myself deflate. “But I don’t know how to explain.”
“Try?” he asked. “And I promise I’ll try to understand.”
I licked my lips. “It’s… kind of an omega thing,” I started, lacking better words to put my thoughts into. “There’s this rush I get when I’m around an alpha, any alpha, but especially you.”
“I think I know what you’re talking about. I have a bit of a reaction to the way omegas smell too, although I imagine it’s a little different.”
“Yeah, probably just a little different.” I managed a smile, even though I wasn’t sure how. I wondered what exactly Dean felt when he caught the scent of an omega. Arousal, probably, but what else? For me, it was arousal along with a certain eagerness to be taken and thrown on a mattress—or the nearest available flat surface. What was it like for Dean? Did he want to dominate? Did all alphas want that? There was no way for me to find out other than asking him directly, even if that was a bit embarrassing. “When you smell an omega, does that ever make you want to do things?”
His gaze turned dark. “There’s a lot of things I want to do to you when I breathe in your scent.” The look of lust in his green eyes was so intense that for a moment, I forgot to breathe.
But at least he was taking my question seriously.
“What kinds of things?” I asked, because I needed to know, to prepare myself.
“Well…” His eyes darted to the door as if to make sure no one was listening in before settling on me again. “All sorts of things, really, but mostly, I want to be in you, I want to claim you, I want to mark your body to let the world know that you’re mine.” His eyes narrowed. “I can’t stand the thought of anyone else touching you. Like that creep from the school.”
“You’re still thinking about that?” I asked, trying to get my brain to work in spite of the images he’d just put in my head. Not an easy task. Not when such a large part of me wanted everything he talked about to happen in reality.
“Of course I am. That slimebag was trying to get into your pants, and you’re…”
“I’m what?”
Dean didn’t say anything for a second, as if he knew what he wasaboutto say was stupid, but then he let the word escape anyway. “Mine,” he growled with a quiet vehemence.
I had to smile at that. “Do you feel like that about every omega whose scent enters your nose?”
He snorted. “No. Not exactly. The need to take is there, to some extent, but never as strongly. With other omegas, it sounds like a good idea, with you, it’s an imperative.” He looked straight at me as he said this, and I wasn’t sure at all how to react.
“That’s how you feel?”
“Yes,” he confirmed. “I don’t think any other omega would interest me at all right now.”
I swallowed. He was so open and honest about all of this, and I loved all that he was telling me. But now I had to return the favor, didn’t I? Dean still wanted to know whatIfelt when I caught an alpha’s scent, when I caughthisscent. I took a deep breath, getting a whiff of him, as if I needed the reminder.
I wanted to suppress the thrill that ran through me at being this close to Dean, surrounded by his scent. Instead, I grasped on to it. This was the emotion that I had to communicate to Dean, what I had to put into words in order for him to understand.
I could do it.
