Page 2 of Bloom in Darkness

The tension in my shoulders keeps easing, but my body is finding something else to do with all that room. My cock stirs against my clothes, and warmth gathers lower, slick beginning to dampen my hole in a slow, unmistakable progression. It’s been happening more often lately around Bryn. The safer I feel with him, the needier my body seems to get, as though it’s been waiting for the rest of me to stop fighting long enough to want something.

Bryn’s palm moves slowly up my back before settling at my nape. “Any better?”

“A little.” I should step away now that the shaking has eased, but I only press closer and breathe him in again.

My scent sweetens between us. Bryn’s next inhale goes deeper, his hand staying at my nape while more slick gathers between my thighs.

I stay close enough to feel his next breath move through his chest. Bryn looks down at me but doesn’t push for anything more. His arms stay around me while my body gets wetter against him.

The Alpha scent is stronger at Bryn’s throat. Curiosity threads through the need, and I let my tongue brush once over his skin. Bryn goes still beneath me, a low purr starting in his chest before I even lift my head.

“You’re purring.”

His fingers tighten at my nape. “Do it again.”

I lean back in and drag my tongue slowly along the side of his throat. Salt and cedar come first, then that warmer trace underneath. The purr deepens against my mouth.

Whoever’s scent is tangled with Bryn’s tastes fucking good on him, and I stay there long enough to get another mouthful of both.

“I should clock out.” I finally step back, though my hands linger at Bryn’s sides for another second before I let go. “Sabine gets pissy if we don’t clock out right away.”

Bryn’s jaw tightens at her name. “Okay.” He stays where he is, close enough that the heat of him still reaches me, and when I shift my bag higher on my shoulder, his gaze drops briefly toward it. “How are you getting home?”

I tilt my head. “I usually take the bus. Why?” The answer hits me a second later, and I look up at him. “Are you offering me a ride, big guy?”

Bryn grins, and the whole severe guard-dog thing disappears for a second. He looks at me like there’s nobody else in the room.

“I really like when you smile like that. Makes me feel like, for a minute, I’m your whole world.”

Bryn keeps looking at me. “Ride?”

“Yeah.” I adjust the strap on my bag. “I’ll take the ride. Saves me from spending forty minutes trapped beside someone who thinks deodorant is a government conspiracy.”

Bryn’s mouth twitches again. “I’ll wait by the rear exit.”

Sabine is still at her desk when I reach the office, one finger moving slowly down the screen of her tablet while I stand there waiting. She knows I’m there; making me wait is part of the point. By the time she finally looks up, I have both hands shoved into my pockets to hide the twitch in my fingers.

“Two minutes late for your second set,” she says, her gaze moving from my face to the clock on the wall and back again. “Thursday’s private moved up to nine-thirty too, so don’t make me chase you for that one.”

“I won’t.” She taps something onto the tablet, and my stomach tightens. “What did you just add?”

Her eyes lift slowly. “Nothing you need to worry about.”

“That usually means I do.” Sabine doesn’t get angry. She doesn’t need to. One look at the tablet between us is enough to remind me which one of us keeps the numbers.

“Careful, Astra.” She rests the tablet against the desk and lets the silence sit until I look away first. “Clock out.”

I press my thumb to the pad beside the door and wait for the green light. Sabine is already back on her screen before it flashes. I still don’t know what she added.

Bryn is waiting near the rear exit when I come back. His eyes move over me once, slow enough that I know he’s checking whether anything has changed, then he pushes away from the wall and walks beside me toward the lot.

His truck carries even more of the unfamiliar Alpha scent than Bryn does. It’s in the jacket tossed behind the seats and worked into the passenger side, dark amber and oak mixed with Bryn’s cedar and leather every time the air shifts.

A few minutes into the drive, I look over at him. “Do you have someone?”

Bryn glances at me, and I rest my elbow against the door. “An Alpha. I can smell him on you, and he’s all over the truck too.”

His attention goes back to the road. For a few seconds, all I hear is the low hum of the engine and the tires against wet pavement. “We haven’t defined it.”