When he heard the shower spraying water on tile, Nick kicked off his boxer briefs. He marched around the bed to his closet and, once he’d opened it, he shoved his underwear into a hamper he’d discovered inside while exploring his suite his first night in the Urals. He tried not to think about the dirty clothes the lodge’s employees had retrieved and laundered for him since his arrival. Growing up with maids, a cook, private tutors, and various other support staff, Nick would have thought such things wouldn’t bother him, but he guessed he’d lived in the lands of men too long. Mom had taught him to operate her washer and dryer when he was ten, and he’d been tending his own dirty laundry since. His skin crawled at the idea of others pawing his underwear, but Nick had tolerated the intrusion at every hotel he’d visited while touring the tribe’s territories. One more item on the list of crap he needed to adjust to.
He shut the closet door. Walked to the bed. He pulled the comforter down to drape over the footboard, out of the way. He grabbed the extra decorative pillows and tossed them toward a wingback chair. Chewing his bottom lip, he retrieved a bottle of lube he’d brought with him from home and shoved it under one of the remaining pillows but knew he could do better to set the scene for his mate’s seduction. Wanted to do better. While the shower steamed up his bathroom, Nick returned to the sitting area of the suite and examined the bottles on display on a wet bar tucked in one corner. He frowned because he didn’t yet know his mate enough to choose between spirits and wine. Because he was going for ambiance, he selected a pair of dainty wineglasses, a cork puller, and a bottle of chardonnay. He filled a bucket with ice from the mini fridge.
Though the sounds of the shower’s spray halted, Arit still hadn’t emerged from the bathroom when Nick returned to the bedroom. He set the wine on a bedside table. To give the wine opportunity to breathe, Nick deftly removed the cork and replaced the bottle in the ice. Still no Arit. Excitement skittered through him nonetheless. He hurried to the sitting room to steal flowers from an arrangement on a side table.
By the time Arit walked out of the master bath, towel hanging precariously on his lean hips, Nick had plucked petals from the blooms to scatter them across their mating bed.
Arit halted in the doorway, eyes narrowing on the mattress scattered with fragrant rose petals. He scrubbed his wet hair with a second towel. “Really?”
Frowning, Nick set aside the naked stems and marched to the wine and poured for them both. “You don’t seal a mating bond every day.”
Arit tossed the towel he’d used to dry his hair behind him and then yanked away the one covering his erect dick, too. One corner of his mouth curved when he accepted the wine Nick brought to him. “You realize shifters metabolize alcohol too quickly to get drunk, right?”
Nick tamped down his annoyance. “I like the taste.” He lifted his glass and tipped it in Arit’s direction in wry acknowledgment. “Which is why I imagine you keep the bar stocked for guests.”
Lifting his own glass to his ripe pink lips, Arit shrugged. “Dad takes care of amenities in the lodge.” He shoved his nose into the glass and sniffed. His brow furrowed. He tentatively sipped. And grimaced. “Not bad,” he lied.
Amusement flooded Nick. “Here.” Nick retrieved the glass from his mate and set both glasses on the table next to the chilling wine. When Arit’s arms looped around Nick’s waist and Arit pressed into him from behind, Nick jumped and then relaxed, his tension draining from his muscles at the solid weight of his mate pushing into his spine and Arit’s chin resting on Nick’s bare shoulder.
“I appreciate the effort.” Arit angled his head to skate an open-mouthed kiss on Nick’s warm skin. “But there’s no need. You realize I’m a sure thing?”
Nick did know, but his mate was also a virgin. At such a late age, Arit’s prolonged abstinence had to be significant to him. Had he been saving himself for his mate—for Nick—all these years? Apparently. Nick couldn’t grasp it, didn’t understand it, but he respected the discipline and control Arit had exerted to remain chaste until only a few moments ago in front of the suite’s picture window. Arit had sacrificed for his future mate and deserved all the romance Nick could muster, despite the strategic foundation of their relationship. Maybe because their mating was based on politics rather than affection, Arit had earned better than a perfunctory bedding. “I want to make this special for you.”
“It will be. Already is.” Arit licked Nick’s nape. “You’re nervous,” he said, voice husky. His warm breath heated Nick’s skin deliciously.
Shoulders sagging, Nick dipped his chin down, head lowering to give Arit greater access. “A little.”
At the scrape of Arit’s teeth, Nick shivered. Arit chuckled. “Me, too,” he said.
And struck.
Pain shot through Nick as Arit’s canines stabbed into him, the bite vicious, deep…and deeply arousing. Lust rocketed through Nick. His body bowed, his loosened muscles abruptly tightening at the twin sensations of hurt and pleasure s earing through him. He gritted his teeth, his dick jutting hard as flint at his groin. He lowered his hand to grasp his cock when Arit swallowed Nick’s blood, gave his dick a few lazy tugs while Arit drank and mauled him. Stroking Nick’s belly, Arit moaned and pushed his hard length against the crack of Nick’s ass.
If his mate wondered if Nick would mind bottoming, he need wonder no more. Nick arched his hips, squirming to lodge Arit’s dick in the seam of his ass, and then braced to provide Arit a solid base to thrust. Nick had never felt compelled to top to prove who and what he was to his lovers. In his heart of hearts, he’d always believed the expectation alphas should always top was another example of tribal foolishness that short-changed their peoples. Everyone had their preferences, but in his experience, an alpha who refused to bottom for his lovers—be the partner an omega, a beta, or another alpha—by no means demonstrated the alpha’s strength. Far from it. Such silly demands instead spotlighted the selfish alpha’s raging insecurities.
“Want me?” he asked, his breath stuttering. “Top or bottom. Blowjobs, frotting, rimming, or fucking, I love it all. If you’d feel more comfortable giving rather than receiving the first time, I’m game.” His stomach knotted with the intensity of his desire, his craving for his mate’s cock inside him a physical ache. “Very game.”
Grunting, Arit bit harder into the meat of Nick’s nape and settled his gloriously thick cock in Nick’s ass crack. Arit moaned, loud and low, when Nick clenched his ass cheeks to squeeze the dick riding him. “You are the most bizarre shifter I have ever met,” Arit said after his teeth finally released Nick.
Maybe. Probably. Nick hadn’t failed to notice the slick of pre-cum dampening the tip of his mate’s dick, though. “I want you.” He gave his needy dick another pump. “I don’t care about the how of it.” The slow cadence Arit set rubbing his cock against Nick’s ass sensitized Nick’s hole with every stroke. He tingled, the sensation of emptiness building inside him to nigh unbearable levels. “I put a bottle of lube under the pillow on the bed. Fuck me if you like.”