Page 72 of Legally Mated
The hair on my nape stood straighter, like my body knew something I didn't, and was getting ready for fight or flight. "Is this a good time for thinking?" I prodded, hoping to turn him away from whatever disastrous course he was on. Because something bone deep inside me knew that, whatever came out of his mouth, it was going to change everything. Forever. After I said the words, I held my breath andwaited.
"Maybe you're right," he muttered, and I breathed a sigh of relief that quickly turned into a gasp of arousal as he started paying attention to my body again. And, for the moment, I could forget--or at least push aside--my worries about what it was going on insidehishead.
Chapter59
Laine wokein the morning with the comfortable heat of Garrick curled against his side and the weight of his own cowardice in the middle of his chest. He should have talked to Garrick about it last night. Garrick was smart, and he felt something for Laine, evidenced by his sneaking away to spend these stolen days with him, by his constant negotiating with Holland and Quin over their relationship. And there was also the very solid evidence of his interest poking Laine in the hip. Of course, it had been a while. Laine wasn't at all averse to another bout of bedroom wrestling. Maybe they'd have to make it interesting, though, and come up with a prize for the winner. Though how you defined a winner in the bedroom was problematic. Laine was quite happy getting his brains fucked out, in which case, he could probably argue that he was the winner allthetime.
Garrick sighed in his sleep and cuddled closer, making noises like he was starting to climb his way back to consciousness. Laine smiled and closed his eyes again, then opened them to check the time. Shit. He really should have been heading into the office by now. Then again, he wasn't even supposed to be back yet. He couldbelate.
His bedmate snuffled against his chest and one arm jerked. Laine had a momentary bizarre thought--Is he dreaming he's chasing rabbits?--and then Garrick muttered, "It's too damn early." He stretched against Laine's side and then collapsed in a fluid heap against him again. "Damn." The evidence of his arousal grew harder against Laine's body and, it almost seemed unconsciously to Laine, his body undulated to rub as much of it as possible against Laine. "Do you have to be at work?" he asked in a tentativevoice.
"No." Laine dropped a kiss on the top of his head, and then let out a "Whoof!" of surprise as Garrick rolled him onto his back and kissed him thoroughly. "And good morning to you," he said, when he'd finally retaken ownership of hismouthback.
"Morning," Garrick replied, sliding down the side of Laine's neck, tonguing all the hollows, lips fixing over the beatingpulse.
"Don't give me a hickey. Looks bad incourt."
"Well, not where they can see it then?" Garrick chuckled and moved down to Laine's chest. "You smell delicious," he said offhandedly as he licked long, enticing lines up and down Laine'schest.
"Don't eat me," Laine joked, the grabbed Garrick and rolled him onto his back. "That's my job,withyou."
Garrick's eyes lit up. "Far be it from me to stop you." He crossed his arms behind his head and laid back against the pillows. "Be myguest."
And this might be the time to bring it up again, that huge truth that followed them around, taking up air and space in the room whenever they were together. The weight of Garrick's secret sat on Laine's heart like a small, heavy demon, sucking the happiness out of the day. In the beginning, he'd thought that it was only temporary, this hidden secret, but even after the shooting, Garrick had never taken Laine into his confidence. So maybe he was waiting for Laine to do something--he did sometimes have those fits, where he acted like the omega he was trying so hard not to be. But he'd have to do it right, to show Garrick that he wasn't bothered by Garrick's change in pack status. And really, what did it matter? He wasn't going to tell the pack. But he'd like it if Garrick had a place where he didn't have to lie allthetime.
Laine took his time on his way down Garrick's body, paying careful attention to every criss-cross of nerves that made Garrick arch and gasp beneath him. And when he got to that stretch of skin below Garrick's bellybutton, he rolled his eyes up and waited to catch Garrick's, the licked along the omega line stretching from hip to hip like a pale pink leyline to Garrick's sexuality and Laine'sheart.
Garrick struggled up on his elbows. "Laine! I told you not--" His eyes rolled up in their sockets, glimmers of white beneath his lids, and he made a sound that in any other circumstances would have beenpainful.
Laine placed his lips carefully on the smooth curve of belly just above it. "I know what this is. You don't have to hide it from me." And the instant the words were out of his mouth, he wished he could take them back, just open his mouth and breath them back inside. Because Garrick went tense, tight as a drum, and his hands dug into the mattress likeclaws.
"What didyousay?"
Shit. "I said I know what this line is. And I don't care." He kissed it, at least in part in defiance of what it meant to Garrick. "I've known since the spring, since before youwereshot."
Garrick sat abruptly up and when Laine met his gaze, he had to suppress a shudder. Was this what had driven humans to force shifters behind their high walls so long ago? Garrick's eye's practically glowed with the intensity of his anger and his upper lip had started to curl back from his useless, human teeth. Stubbornly, Laine kissed Garrick’s belly again, only to have his nose bent as Garrick rolled off the bed, pantingheavily.
"You bastard," Garrick said, a hint of a growl in his voice. "Why didn't youtellme?"
"I wasn't sure at first," Laine said, sitting up on the bed and checking out the non-existent damage to his nose. "But the more I thought about it, the more logical it seemed." He held up a hand, palm out to stop whatever Garrick was about to say. "You were the one who taught me everything I needed to know about omegas." At Garrick's puzzled look, he explained. "Jason's trial, remember? You sat me down one night and laid it all out for me, the biology, the culture, the expectations that were laid on omegas right from the moment they were born. And then this spring, you finally let me see you without your clothes, and I saw the line and it all made sense. And I don’t giveashit.”
“No, but thepackwill.”
“They don’t have to know. Who am I goingtotell?”
Garrick threw his hands up and raced out of the room, pounding down the stairs. Laine bolted after him, suddenly afraid that Garrick would leave before they’d had a chance to talk this out. He didn’t know what he’d done wrong, but he needed tofindout.
He found him in the kitchen, pacing in circles around the island. He was, to Laine’s surprise, still naked, and talking on the phone. “I…yeah, I can do that.” He looked up and saw Laine, standing in the doorway of the kitchen. “You need to leave me alone for now, do you understand? How dare you keep that informationfromme?”
The squawk of a voice from the phone distracted him and he half-turned away and swallowed hard. “Yeah, yeah. I will. How…how long before you cangethere?”
Shit, he was going home. “Garrick, will you let me talk to you?” Laine begged and stepped into thekitchen.
“Just, stop for a minute, will you Laine?” Garrick snarled at him. He put a hand over his eyes and took two deep, ragged breaths. “Yes, I’m still here,” he said to whoever was on the phone. “I…all right.” He held it out toward Laine. “Holland wants to talktoyou.”
Chapter60
Laine hadn’t felt so muchlike a naughty child since he’d actually been one. By the end of his phone call with Holland, he and Garrick had been exiled to separate floors of the house, Garrick upstairs, Laine downstairs. The time dragged, and Laine tried to break up the monotony and tension by leaving offerings of cookies and, once, a bowl of rice pudding he’d thrown hastily together. He held some hope, because they’d all been accepted, though only after he’d disappeared back to the nether regions of thehouse.
