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They slept curled up together in Zach’s narrow bed. Someone knocked on the door sometime in the morning, but they both ignored it. Val hauled him against his chest, and Zach snuggled against his alpha’s warmth, feeling more settled than ever. Even his wayward stomach didn’t complain, thank God, allowing him to sleep in.
After the night of non-stop sex he’d had, he was grateful. These days he felt tired and sleepy anyway. He blamed it on the heat of late summer.
And now sex.
Grinning, he stretched on the bed, at some indeterminate hour marked by bright light slipping through the window slats and the urgent need to pee.
“Where are you going?” Val rumbled, drawing him back to his side.
“Need to take a leak.”
“Mm... Really?”
“Yes, really.” Zach would have rolled right back into his alpha’s arms if it wasn’t so urgent. “Gotta go or I’ll pee myself.”
“You mean, you’ll pee all over me.”
“That, too.”
“Yeah, I’m not into that.”
“Good to know.” Zach snickered and shifted again, his bladder about to burst. “Because I really gotta go.”
With one last grumble, Val released him, watching from hooded eyes as Zach grabbed his robe and trotted off, out of the room to the communal bathrooms where he finally relieved himself.
Zach stared at the wall as he peed and shook himself dry, grinning like an idiot. He was so happy, he thought his heart might burst. On the one hand, he wanted to tell someone, tell Tate and Kai maybe, all about it, share the good news of Valerian coming back, wanting to be with him. On the other hand, he wanted to keep the news to himself a while longer, revel in it, smile a secret smile about it while others didn’t know what was going on in his life.
He was supposed to go to rehearsals, to classes. He also had to exercise more, lose some of the weight accumulating in his middle, widen his underpants for the shows as they were growing a little tight.
But this felt more important. It was more important.
It was what a Lotus Boy’s goal was—to snag an alpha—and it was more than that. So much more. He felt as if his whole life had led him here, to this alpha, this moment, that what he had to do, all he had to do, was hold on to him.
Not cling. He knew clinging wasn’t good, even though that was his first urge. Just because he felt that Valerian was his alpha, that he was the one for him, didn’t mean that Valerian felt the same.
Tightening the sash on his robe, he frowned. Valerian had said he wanted him, right? The previous night.
“I’ll do everything I can to be with you. Everything I can to set you free from his place.”
That was what he’d said. The look in his eyes, the earnestness in his voice... he’d meant it, right? He’d sure sounded like it. The spark of hope in him had turned into a bright flame and it fed on his fears, burning down his defenses. Laying him wide open for his alpha to see.
See how he felt about him.
Hurrying back to his room, he let that flame take over him once more. Why was he afraid? Why couldn’t he accept joy when it came to him? Unless you opened your heart to the possibility of happiness, would you even notice when it found you? Don’t cut off your nose to spite your own face.
Open your heart, he told himself. Let him in. He came to you. Don’t push him away when you can have him.
Don’t you want to have him?
He was smiling when he walked back into his room only to find Valerian sprawled diagonally across the bed, bare feet hanging off the edge, dark hair over his face, snoring softly. Of course he wanted the gruff, sexy alpha with his rough edges and his hidden gentle side. He was gaining more and more ground in Zach’s heart. He still hadn’t explained why he’d disappeared in the first place, but they’d get to that.
Patience, he told himself. Give him a chance. All you’ve done since he arrived was to jump each other’s bones, repeatedly.
No regrets.
But he came back. Gave you a second chance, even though you don’t know yet why he walked away then. Least you can do is give him his second chance, too.
And you’d better not regret this, either. Because you feel it, because your heart races and your mouth smiles when you’re near him and it’s worth another try.
Promise...
***
They spent the afternoon lazing about, after a hearty lunch that Zach brought up from the cafeteria eaten on the bed, followed by lazy sex, and lazy kisses, and laughter.
Val seemed to find Zach’s ticklishness in certain spots of his body fascinating. He pressed kisses to the back of his knees, the arch of his feet, the back of his neck over and over, then turning Zach’s soft cries into moans of pleasure as he continued his exploration with tongue and lips.
Zach found Val’s insistence to make him come in various ways exhausting but wonderful.
Val apparently thought that Zach’s habit of pinning his hair on top of his head to shower was hilarious and sexy, pulling him back to the bed for more kissing and unpinning it again to run his fingers through it.
And Zach found Val’s snorting laughter cute and his kisses hot. It was so weird. Stupidly fun. He’d never felt freer, and more relaxed, more turned on, and more satisfied. He couldn’t remember ever feeling this happy.
It felt like a dream, one that Zach didn’t want to wake up from.
“This thong,” Val said, lying on his side on the bed, lifting the black thong he’d removed from Zach in his hand. “Where did you get this one?”
“Um, it was part of my graduation package.” Zach reached for it, but Val raised it out of reach. “They gave us a small package with our diploma.”
“Yeah? What else was in it?”
“A few more thongs.” Zach tried to remember. It was hard, with Val lying naked there, muscles bulging in his arm as he waved the flimsy piece of lace around, the dark scruff on his jaw making him so hot Zach wanted to jump on his cock and rut until he came again. “Some oil for massage... A collar... Nipple clamps...”
“Show me.”
“What?” Zach squeaked. “The nipple clamps?” He put his hands over his poor nipples that ached after Val’s attentions, too sensitive to even put his robe over them. “No way.”
“The other thongs.” Dark lashes swept up from hooded amber eyes. “On you. I wanna see them on you.”
“Oh. Phew.”
Still he felt hot all over as he went to his closet to get the other thongs. Hot and prickly and excited. Why was he feeling so self-conscious at the thought of Val seeing him in that lacy underwear? And horny?
He tried to tease as he put a red thong on as he’d been taught to do in class, but his bloated belly made it hard to bend over properly. What was up with that, huh? He’d never had a belly in his life. Now he couldn’t even sleep face down anymore, like he used to. Cutting down on all that food should do the trick, hopefully.
Somewhat awkwardly, he pulled the thong up, his cheeks hot enough to fry eggs on, and straightened, smoothing his hands over his hips. The scratchy lace was snug over his balls and cock, and it dug into his ass, over his well-used hole, sending sparks of sensation through him.
His cock strained under the red lace, getting really hard.
Val had sat up on the bed, eyes wide and dark. “Hot damn. You look amazing. Come here.”
Zach made his slow way back to the bed, where Val grabbed him and hauled him onto his lap. He yelped, then moaned when Val cupped his cock through the thong.
“Do you like wearing these things? You’re so hard. And wet.”
Zach tried to speak through another moan as Val kneaded his cock and balls. “I... yeah.”
“I’ll buy you more. You look...” Val put his mouth on Zach’s neck, unerringly finding his scent gland again, worrying at it with his lips and teeth. Zach’s cock jerked. “You look so fuckable like this. You always look so damn fuckable. Kissable. Loveable.”
Warmth spread through Zach, and it wasn’t only arousal. His blood rushed in his ears. Did the alpha mean those words he said? “Val...”
“I wanna spend my life making love to you,” Valerian said, nuzzling Zach’s neck. “Wringing cries of pleasure out of you. Holding you against me as I thrust into you, and then afterward, as we sleep.”
Zach gasped. Drawing back, he took his alpha’s face in his hands and kissed him, deeply and fully, hoping his kiss showed Val all that Zach felt for him. So many feelings emerging from the gloom of a childhood he’d tried to forget, vying for space, pushing out roots and green sprouts, waiting to bloom.
Val hauled him up against his chest and kissed him back, not savagely like before but more gently. Sweetly.
Zach was undone, surely, and irrevocably. Nobody had ever kissed him like that—nobody apart from Val had kissed him, period—but it was the first time Val held him so tightly, brushed his mouth over Zach’s with such care.
It brought tears to his eyes.
Then Val’s phone chimed from somewhere on the floor.
It began to ring. The annoying din went on and on, until they broke apart, chuckling.
“You’d better get that, I think,” Zach said. “Someone’s bound and determined to talk to you.”
“Let them wait,” Val said.
But then the phone started ringing and vibrating again, and again, until Val sighed and raised his eyes to the ceiling.
“There’s no escape,” Zach whispered and kissed him lightly, quickly on the lips.
“I’ll turn the phone off,” Val whispered back, with a vehemence that pleased Zach. “When I’m with you, I don’t care about the world.”
Releasing Zach with one last kiss, he swung his legs off the bed and lifted his phone from the heap of fabric his slacks made on the thin carpet. He frowned down at it.
“What is it?”
“It seems... the Dean of Howl Academy has been looking for me? I have... fuck, I have a fuckload of missed calls from him.”
“Call him.”
Val did, bringing the phone to his ear. “This is Valerian. I found your missed calls—”
Zach watched his face idly, wondering at the look of shock that went over those strong, handsome features, followed by dark anger and horror. “Val?”
“I’m on my way,” Val whispered, and put the phone away, frowning. He got up and walked a few steps, then stopped. The silence rang inside the small room.
Then he bent to gather his rumpled pants and shirt from the floor. He didn’t even bother with hunting down his boxer briefs or his socks.
Zach watched him get dressed in shocked silence, watched him drag on his clothes haphazardly, buttoning his shirt crookedly, shoving his bare feet into his shoes, until he couldn’t bear it anymore.
“Val, what is it? What happened?”
“I have to go, baby. I’ll call you.”
Zach froze. That didn’t sound good. Not good at all. The fact that Val wouldn’t tell him what the issue was. That absent, generic “I’ll call you” an alpha said to get rid of a persistent omega. He’d heard it said before.
A déjà vu.
“Please don’t go...” Zach whispered brokenly, then clamped his mouth shut.
Had he showed his feelings too soon, too clearly? Had he clung too much? Was this his fault?
“I’ll call you,” Val said again, more faintly, then he turned around and walked out of the room, leaving him alone.