Sugar Coated

42

Delaney Linwood

Em had left hours back. He'd said his classes tended to run pretty late and that I didn't have to wait up for him. The last comment was made with many a suggestive hand movement toward both myself and Jax.

But even Andres had returned after having closed up the shop.

"Do classes usually run this late?" I asked as I brought my plate up to the sink where Jax had started washing the mess from dinner.

He glanced up at the clock, "usually around this time maybe a hair earlier or later. It tends to depend on the discussion topics that crop up toward the end," Jax offered me a slightly damp squeeze against my hip, "he has the bond wide open and is mostly content. No stress. He isn't worried, though he does want to come home. Given the fact we have you here, I'm not surprised, plus he's more of a homebody near his heat."

"I assure you, Doll. Having you worry what he wants least right now," Andres quipped as he placed the plate they'd prepared for Em into the fridge, "what Jax is failing to mention is that he's flooding the bond with a low-grade aphrodisiac hoping he'll get Jax to fuck you before he comes home so that he can insinuate himself in the middle of it."

"And he's going to learn very quickly to share," Jax rumbled and the sound of it had my pussy clenching even before he shot a heated glance my way.

"Feeling warmer than normal, Doll?" Jax reached over and pressed the back of his hand to my forehead.

"Maybe?"

"Your cheeks are red," Jax teased enough that Andres rounded the kitchen island to have a look himself.

"Ah, no, that's just because of you I think," I hedged, wanting to hear more of his grumpy rumbling.

"Flattery already, Doll? He's already planning to drag you to his bed tonight, no need to make him even more of an animal."

"Andres...must you?"

"I'm just saying. He'll fuck you six ways to Sunday, no need to stroke his ego when there are so many better things worth stroking."

Jax side-eyed his beta before letting out a long-suffering breath and turning my way with a swift pinch to the bridge of his nose, "I asked because I can also smell you easier today. I was curious how you were feeling given Em's situation."

"Ah," I'd woken up nearly smoldering, but after leaving Em's nest it had calmed down, and now with him gone and my lingering in the communal spaces in the house, I felt mostly normal maybe a tad restless and more than a tad horny, but nothing that I'd consider out of place. "Mostly ok? I had a hot flash this morning though, before we got up."

They both looked me over with enough intensity that I started to fidget.

"I think it's...a good sign?" I offered. I hoped it was.

"It's a good sign doll. Fever or not you're pack. You're it for us. It's not an obligation for you, we want you as you are."

Andres nodded, his face thoughtful as his eyes tracked around my face and to my neck. I reached up and fingered the back of the ivory broach on my grandmother's choker, running my thumb over the engraving at my throat, just the way my mother told me not to.

Jax's hand dropped to cup my neck his thumb running along the line of the choker, "How important is this to you?" His eyes were as soft as the words, "If it's important I won't push it. If not I'd like it off of your neck." His attention was fixed on the spot where it sat against my pulse point, the same place he'd marked on both Em and Andres.

"It's...complicated." It was as honest an answer I could give both to them and myself. One day I told myself I'd be strong enough to take it off and trash it, or one day it was I'd be weak enough depending on my mood.