Page 17 of Sanctuary
"So? We're going to Mercy Hills. I can work, you can work. We'll be fine." He raised one hand to play with the collar of Patton's jacket, his eyes fixed on the rough corduroy. "Did you know that if you take an omega in heat, you can argue that he's yours now? It’s the old laws, before the contracts started. It was what Hagen has planned." He raised his eyes back to Patton's. "I am determined to be yours. We've been friends all our lives. Isn't that a good basis for a mating?"
Patton searched his face, desperately ignoring the screams of his body as it cried out for Ori's. "Do you love me? I mean, the way a mate should?"
"Always," Ori whispered and kissed him again. "Do you? Love me like a mate?"
"Since forever," Patton told him, his voice shaking.
"Then come board me, Pirate King," Ori whispered and went boneless and irresistible against the scarred wood floor. "Claim your omega." He cupped the back of Patton's head and pulled him down until his breath feathered across Patton's lips. "Keep me safe."
Ori's lips were soft against his, and Patton could no more resist him now than he could have resisted the sun rising in the east. He laid himself over Ori, pressing him against the floor and the thin blanket that he'd given Ori last night to cushion his bones against the wood. Ori groaned and wrapped a leg around Patton's, his fingers digging into the muscle of Patton's back.
"Am I crushing you?" Patton whispered and nipped at Ori's lips.
"No. Good crushing." Ori sighed and stroked the length of Patton's back like he was stroking something made of rich fur. "You'll tell me if I do something wrong? The most I've ever done is kiss someone."
The most he'd ever done too, but with Ori looking up at him with those wide eyes, searching his for reassurance, he wasn't going to drop that chunk of dung in the soup. "You're doing fine. Like I wouldn't enjoy anything you did."
"I doubt it," Ori told him, but his body relaxed and he squirmed underneath Patton. "When do we take our clothes off?"
"Now?" Patton's voice broke on the word, his heart in his throat, but Ori didn't seem to notice. His eyes lit up and he wiggled out from underneath Patton, moving to stand in the sunshine streaming in the big front window. He turned to face Patton and caught his lower lip between his teeth as his fingers fiddled with the hem of his t-shirt. Then, with a determined look, he slowly raised it, the smooth skin beneath limned in the golden autumn light from the window.
Patton's heart tripped over itself as Ori pulled his shirt off and folded it to be carefully set aside. He licked his lips, unaccountably dry, and sat up to disguise the uncomfortable stiffness of his cock. Don't screw this up. What if he hurt him? Wasn't the first time supposed to be uncomfortable? Did that apply to male omegas too? He swallowed hard against the lump in his throat as Ori fumbled with the button of his jeans, then shoved them down his thighs with sharp cry of helpless frustration.
"Let me help you." The words tumbled from Patton's mouth without thought, but the heavy-lidded desire he saw on Ori's face made him glad his brain seemed to be slower on the uptake than his body was. This might be okay. He reached for the crumpled cloth tangling around Ori's knees and began to work it down his legs. Ori put a hand on his shoulder to steady himself and the warmth of his palm sent tendrils of excitement running over Patton's skin, raising the hair all over his body.
He put a hand on the back of Ori's calf, suppressing his own gasp at the same time as Ori let his escape. They worked Ori's foot out of the cloth, then did the same for the next, and then Ori was naked in front of him, beautiful in the sunlight like one of the old gods. Patton had a momentary thought that this was what the wolf god Lysoon must look like, the idea cut off like a pigeon's cry when Ori began to tug at Patton's clothes. "You too," he whispered. "Please."
Patton rose to his feet and let Ori tackle his jacket and shirt while he undid his pants, one-handed half the time as Ori insisted his clothes come off, "Right now!", and then he too was naked and he could take his Ori in his arms.
C H A P T E R S I X T E E N
O ri was like a flame, a forest fire in his arms. He felt like silk and muscle and smelled like every good thing in the world. His mouth was sweet as cider on Patton's and somehow they found their way to the floor, something Patton was infinitely grateful for, since his knees had gone to rubber and he was worried they might buckle beneath him. And he'd promised Ori he wouldn't hurt him.
They kissed some more, Ori wrapped around him like a strangler vine or old ivy. Patton braced his legs against the floor and rocked his hips, the blaze of arousal making him whine in frustrated desire. He wanted Ori, but he wanted Ori to enjoy this too. He wanted Ori to want him again.
"Oh, Patton," Ori breathed in his ear, arching up against him. "Do it, touch me. Put yourself inside. I don't want to wait any longer. Now, now!" He buried his face against Patton's neck, breathing heavily and clawed at Patton's back. "Don't wait. You don't want to wait, do you?"
"I don't want to hurt you. Don't you need, is there anything..."
Ori laughed and squirmed beneath him again. "No, just you, just you." His words shuddered out of him and he made a noise like someone in agony and tightened his legs around Patton's hips. "Patton!"
Lysoon, Lysoonka, whoever it is that cares for clumsy virgins, please let me do this right. He reached down between them, momentarily distracted by the sueded-steel of Ori's cock trapped between their bellies, then, with his heart hammering like a hummingbird's wings, delved deeper.
Ori spread his legs and rolled his hips, his heels making dull thunks against the floorboards as he pushed against it. Patton captured his mouth again and reached further, until his fingers moved past slick flesh to the heart of both their desires. Ori made a noise deep in his chest, something wild and triumphant, and thrust upward toward Patton. "Yes, now, I need--" His voice broke off and he made a face that at any other time would have looked like pain.
Maybe it was, if what he felt was anything like what Patton felt. "You're sure?"
"Yes." Ori tightened his grip around Patton's neck again and licked the edge of his jaw. "I--I don't know, I just need...something. I feel empty." He stole a kiss from Patton. "I don't know what to ask for, just that my body wants something that you have." He traced the bones of Patton's face, his own flushed with wonder and lust. "I trust you. You're mine and I'm yours."
Please let me not hurt him. "I'll do my best," he promised. The thunder of his heart was deafening.
Ori leaned back and delicately propped his heels in the small of Patton's back. "Good? Am I doing this right?" He settled himself slightly and laid his hands on Patton's shoulders. "Tell me what you like."
"I don't know what I like," Patton confessed after a long moment of silence. "I've never done this before either." Guiltily, he avoided Ori's gaze, until the omega caught his chin and made Patton look at him.
"I don't care. All it means is that we have to listen to our bodies, me to yours, you to mine. I promise to tell you if anything hurts. Will you tell me if I hurt you?"
"Of course!" He doubted, though, that Ori would hurt him. Everything he'd heard, all the late night tales the other betas told, seemed to say that it was the omega who found their first lovemaking uncomfortable.
