Sugar Coated

15

Emil West

The world felt right with her here. Just like it did when I'd walked through the front doors of Sugar Coated that first time. It settled the anxious roving soul inside me better than disappearing into my nest did.

Delaney needed to stay and if it meant ripping that jukebox apart wire by wire then so be it.

She'd quieted too in being settled on the other side of Jax and Andres at our small dining table —directly across from me. I'd watched the ease of her shoulders and the way her smile loosened to something quiet and unthinking.

Our plates had been cleared half an hour earlier and we'd sat chatting together over coffee while Jax's eclair casings cooled. Delaney looked sweeter and sweeter by the minute. And the others had noticed too if the way their attention lingered on her meant anything —and I of all people knew it did.

I positively itched to get her into my nest --naughty reasons be damned I just wanted to see if she liked the space. I wanted to know if it settled her in the same way that it did me. Would she soften in it as she had incrementally as each minute ticked by here in the middle of our group? With the plan for a grand tour of our apartments on the brink of becoming fully-fledged, Jax stepped in to pull my attention away from spiraling into thoughts of soft bedding and warm bodies.

With only the briefest glance my way he took control of the room, "I'd say it's been long enough waiting on the eclairs. We could probably get away with covering and filling them--"

Andres snorted so I wouldn't have to, and Jax was quick to tutting like the old hen he was.

"--hush. If you can't give me the respect I deserve at least give it to the eclairs, Andres. They've been waiting."

We all had been.

"Of course, alpha." Andres inclined his head to the side, baring his neck in a show that we never had taken seriously and the sharp slant of his mouth told me he was close to laughing, though I don't think Delaney noticed, since the exchange happened above her head as she passed between Andres and Jax.

The image struck me like a brick to the face and it did just as much lasting damage. Jax sent me another warning look that I'd already decided not to take personally. I'd gotten more warnings tonight than I ever had before, I think. There was something a little explicit about the feeling that I got from it and from the others. I think Jax liked the stretch of it without the follow through.

Andres attention chased our alpha reading the bunch of the muscles of his shoulders and the way his mouth was just slightly parted while he trailed after Delaney like a hunter.

He saw it too. We all did. It was a disservice to say we were hungry for the curvy little beta. She made us rabid; the feeling of it pumping through our veins and in our blood pouring between our bond.

It would be a little much —at this point— to say I loved her, but I wanted her in the most uncanny way. The sentiment was echoed in the bond.

She deserved love with a certainty and not thoughts that came straight from my cock, but I had a sneaking suspicion it knew what was up before I ever would. It always had before, but those were considerations for another day. Right now the project at hand was trying not to draw too many conclusions about Jax's activity for the evening, which just so happened to be a group creaming of these eclairs.

Andres would have enough of a field day as it was...and I liked to cause mischief but our alpha could only handle so much. Jax could call me a saint later.

*****

Saints could only take so much.

Delaney hovered at Jax side as those deft fingers of his did all the show of a porn star and a master craftsman. She ooh-ed and ahhhh-ed at the appropriate times and watched as he explained in detail how to fill and dip these little pastries. He was clinical about it, but he didn't strike at the opportunity like Andres had tried to when he'd asked our Alpha for insight on how to properly cream the hole.