Sugar Coated

53

Delaney Linwood

There was a small piece of me that was disappointed when Jax took the phone from Andres and disappeared into the downstairs den. I'd never admit how much it had affected me when he tangled me up in the bed sheets and hefted me over his shoulder like it was nothing...well, I might admit it to Em, since I think he'd be of a mind with me.

"He's distracted enough we could probably hit the locks on the doors and make them stand outside while you ride my face you know," Em was at my ear as soon as Andres' door snapped shut.

I laughed rolling my shoulder to dislodge the chin he'd rested on it, "They have keys, you know."

Em's hazel eyes twinkled, "Wanna find out if they'll remember that when we're both naked?"

It was tempting, but Jax was already through the doorway and Andres was rounding the car to open the door for us, some part of his hindbrain aware that Em would have crowded into my space the second he had the chance.

"Another time," my refusal got a pout, but Em didn't argue with me when we hopped out of the car. I managed one step before I was hoisted into his arms and carried over the threshold into the pack home.

I wrapped my arms around Em's neck and he brushed a kiss to my temple, "Been wanting to do that for a while."

He made as if he was going to carry me all the way up the stairs, but I weaseled my way out of his arms and back onto my feet. The jukebox sat sad and forgotten in the corner of the room, my tools were still scattered around it from when Jax had barrelled down the stairs and hauled me up by my waist before I even had a chance to unfold my legs. I nodded my head to it to ease the disappointment I could read in the tight line of Em's lips, "At least let me button her up, then I'll come upstairs and we can figure out some mischief I'm sure."

The tight line of his smile eased and with only marginal dawdling, Em shot back out the door before returning with what was about 80% of my bedding before tearing up the stairs.

Andres was much slower, picking up the odd blanket or article of clothing that dropped to the ground as he approached me. We were back in the same room where he'd caught me eavesdropping before, and I'm sure this time he caught my wayward glances down the hallway to the closed door of that office. The frosted glass on the door was lit up warm and you could only just hear the shuffling sounds of something, maybe it was a conversation or the pacing steps of an anxious man, alpha or otherwise.

A hand gripped me at the back of my neck, turning me to look at Andres' face before he leaned forward and stole a kiss along with all the breath in my lungs, "Our business is your business by the way. He's got good hearing and will know if you eavesdrop, but you shouldn't let that stop you anyway," He rubbed his nose against the line of my own and I leaned into him just like I'd always been drawn to, only this time I had an understanding of the feeling.

Hesitantly, like I was on new-found legs I pressed my cheek to his and rubbed. Andres pushed back against me until I could feel the scratch of the shadow on his jaw and could hear the sharp intake of his breath. Only it was my words that were breathless when I finally spoke, "Any perfume yet?"

I could feel his smile even when I couldn't see it, "You taste sweeter."

That wasn't a perfume though. I must have actually said the thought, either that or Andres could read minds.

"Taste is at least 80% our sense of smell, sweetheart. Something is brewing inside you that's for sure." And with a chuckle, he leaned away from me and headed up the stairs with only one last quip and a sidelong glance to the same door I was itching to sneak over to, "You have as much of a right to hear your story as he has to tell his. An open-door policy, remember?"