He collapsed, spent and panting, against the sofa. Emery didn’t move except to softly chuckle around Sean’s wilting cock as he flicked his tongue around it, lapping up every last drop. He rested his cheek against Sean’s thigh. “Good?”
“Uh-huh!” He flopped over on his side, making Emery laugh. “Tired?”
“Uh-huh!”
* * * *
Erik watched from a wooded lot three houses down from Emery’s. He didn’t realize he’d been gripping the oak tree he was hiding behind until a chunk of bark came off in his hand. Emery had arrived home twenty minutes earlier with the human, who still hadn’t left.
He could only imagine what they were doing inside.
He didn’t want to think about it. But he was damn sure going to do something about it. He walked back to his car and drove to Emery’s, parking behind the human’s shitty truck. Before he could lose his nerve, he walked up to the front door and knocked.
A moment later, Emery opened the door, a frown flitting across his face before nodding. “Hey, what’s up?”
Erik tried to see past him but Emery stood firmly in the doorway, obviously not moving. “I wanted to stop by and check on you. Can I come in?”
“I’m fine. Thanks for dropping my stuff off. I appreciate it.”
Erik silently fumed, knowing Emery wasn’t going to invite him in. “Can I come in?” he asked again.
“It’s not a good time right now. I’ve got company.”
“Well why don’t you introduce me to your company?”
* * * *
Emery didn’t know what kind of damn game Erik was playing, but he didn’t like it. “Fine.” He glanced at Sean, who’d gotten his shorts pulled back up. He threw the door open and stepped aside. Erik walked in. Emery didn’t miss the frown on his face when Erik spotted Sean sitting on his couch.
“Erik Chait, I’d like to introduce you to Sean Morita.” He closed the door and walked over to stand beside Sean. “Sean is my mate.”
Erik’s face went blank for a split second, flashed over to fury, then returned to the frown. “What?”
Emery reached down for Sean’s hand. “My mate.” Sean stood, gripping his hand a little tighter.
“But he’s a human,” Erik said.
“So?”
“You can’t fucking mate with a human!”
“You’ve slept with humans before. We both have. What’s the big deal?”
“Yeah, slept with them. Fucked them. Dated them. You cannot mate with one! You’re the Alpha’s son!”
“Watch me. We already have a mate-bond. The Goddess is apparently very fickle.”
Erik blinked again, apparently stunned from his momentary lack of words. “What? A mate-bond?”
“Yeah. And yes, he knows what I am. I already showed him.”
“You just met him a few hours ago, and you’re telling me you’ve already mated with him? But he’s a human!”
Emery so wasn’t in the mood for this bullshit today. “That’s exactly what I’m telling you.” He didn’t understand why Erik was giving him so much hassle over this. He knew they weren’t ever going to be anything more than fuck buddies. He’d always made that clear to him and Erik had said he was fine with it.
“Your parents won’t allow it.”
“They have no choice.”
“You’re willing to risk exile over a human?”
“This doesn’t concern you.”
“The hell it doesn’t. You’re my…my friend. I can’t let you throw your life and family away like this. Not to mention your responsibilities to the pod.”
Emery let go of Sean’s hand and took a step forward, challenging. “I appreciate your concern, but I will not give him up. Did you not hear me say we have a mate-bond? You know as well as I do what that means.”
He wasn’t sure he liked the stony set to Erik’s jaw as he stared from him to Sean and back again. Then he jabbed a finger at him. “This isn’t over.” He turned on his heel and stormed out the front door, slamming it so hard behind him that windows rattled. Outside, he heard Erik’s SUV start up, then the squeal of tires as he pulled out.
He breathed a sigh of relief and turned to Sean. “Now, where were we?”
* * * *
Doesn’t fucking concern me? I’ll fucking show him. Mate-bond with a human? Erik dug his fingers into the steering wheel and forced himself to adhere to the speed limit. “If he thinks this is over, he’s dead wrong,” he muttered to himself.
Chapter Seven
“I don’t think he was very happy to hear the news,” Sean said. Not only that, Sean saw the daggers flashing in the other man’s eyes. An admittedly handsome and hunky man, but not as good-looking as Emery.
Emery scrubbed his face with his hands before engulfing him in a hug. “I told you, I don’t care what he or anyone else in my pod thinks. You don’t understand. A mate-bond isn’t something people choose. It chooses them.”
“He’s your ex, isn’t he?”
Emery let out a sigh. “Technically, no. He’s in my pod, and we’ve fucked around a few times in and out of the water. But I’ve told him from the start we were just fuck buddies.”
“I don’t think he got that memo.”
“That’s not my problem.” He kissed Sean, momentarily driving all thoughts of the angry man out of his mind. “I never lied to him. I never led him on. I’ve always told him there would never be more between us than just friendship.”
“And fucking.”
“On occasion. We weren’t regular, and most of the fucking we did was…” He didn’t finish.
“In the water?”
A delicious smile curved his lips. “Yes. Dolphin younglings often play together.”
“Younglings?”
“There’s a lot I have to tell you, but I’m really too tired and horny to talk right now.”
Sean didn’t know if the sudden flash of insight came from his own brain or was some part of the new psychic connection he had with Emery. “The three of you were out there playing some sort of fucking game this morning, weren’t you?”
“You won’t let this drop, will you?”
“What do you think?”
“Okay, fine.” He scrubbed his face with his hands. “We call it fuck tag. We take turns racing to whatever the safe zone is. First one to get caught gets his brains fucked out by the others. Then we switch off again and repeat.”
Jealousy twined through Sean’s heart. “So were you caught this morning? Or did you do the catching?” He couldn’t believe they’d just met. It felt like days, not hours ago. Deep in his soul, it felt like he’d loved Emery forever.
But the thought of him with someone else nearly made him sick.
Emery smirked. “No. We’d just gotten out there and we were chasing Denby. Erik and I haven’t screwed around together in a couple of months. In or out of the water. Does it really matter since that’s all in the past? I don’t care who’s in your past.”
“No one from my past showed up in my living room this morning, angry and determined to break us up, either.”
“There’s nothing he can do. It doesn’t matter how pissed off he is. The only thing he can do is be pissed off.”
“He could tell your family about us.”
He shrugged. “So? I’ve got to tell them. I’m not hiding you like some dark, dirty secret. I love you, and I don’t care who knows it. If my family won’t accept you, that’s their problem, not mine.”
* * * *
Emery hoped Sean couldn’t sense his deeper thoughts, that the look on Erik’s face and his tone of voice had Emery concerned. I’ll have to talk to him alone today or tomorrow. He needed to get to the bottom of this. He’d hoped they could still be friends, but if Erik was going to be this douchey about things, friendship wouldn’t be in the cards. Emery wouldn’t have anyone in his life who couldn’t accept his mate-bond with Sean.
Life was too damn short to waste it on negative people, or trying to change bigoted minds.
/> Next on the agenda, however, was a nap. He led Sean to his bedroom where they both stripped and crawled under the covers. Sean’s body felt right snuggled against him, like they were meant to fit together.
When they awoke a little after five o’clock, Emery made slow, teasing love to Sean, taking time to learn his body and wanting more than just an energetic fuck. This time, they lay on their sides, sucking on each other until they both came nearly at the same time.
“You’re gonna kill me at this rate,” Sean teased as he flopped onto his back.
Emery changed position to lie next to him and kissed his lips. He loved tasting himself on his mate’s mouth. “Me, too.” He grinned. “But what a way to go.”
Sean looked at him and laughed, fine lines crinkling the corners of his almond-shaped eyes. “That’s a really old cliché.”
“And yet, it’s still true.” He stretched. “How about I cook you dinner?”
Sean rolled over, fished for his shorts where he’d left them, and retrieved his cell phone. “Sounds good. Dammit.”
“What?”
He let out a sigh. “Four more texts from my dad.”
Emery rolled onto his side and propped himself on his elbow. “Serious?”
Sean shook his head. “Dad has no problem working eight days a week even though the rest of us would like a day off.”
“There’s only seven days in a week.”
“And my dad refuses to let me forget that. He says resting is for when you’re dead and there’s not enough time in the week to take days off. And he’s supposed to be retired.”
“Ah. Good old-fashioned work ethic.”
“More like slave-driver ethic.” Emery watched him thumb a reply before putting his phone down. “And he said Mom wants me there for dinner tonight. I told her I’d be bringing you with me.”
Emery couldn’t help the smile that turned the corner of his mouth. “Oh, reeeally? Sounds like a plan to me.”
* * * *
Sean loved the playful smirk on Emery’s face. “This should be interesting,” Sean said.
“Have you ever brought guys home before?”
“Once. My mom refused to acknowledge we were a couple. Kept asking him questions like if he had a girlfriend, stuff like that. I think she was an ostrich in a former life.”
“How’d your dad react?”
“He didn’t. He was polite, but he would have preferred I brought a woman home.”
“What time are we going?”
“Seven. Which means we’ll need to get moving because I need to go home and change.”
“Guess I’ll need to dress to impress.”
Sean was pleased to see him don khaki slacks, a button-down Oxford, and loafers. “Is a tie too much?” His grey eyes sparkled with merriment.
“A little. You look hot.”
“This?” He shrugged. “It’s what I usually wear to the office. Only with a tie.”
Emery pulled him close and kissed him. “You’d better get moving. I’ll come pick you up. Where do you want to sleep tonight?”
“With you.” Sean didn’t want to be away from him that long. He didn’t understand why he felt so needy all of a sudden, but the thought of not spending the night with Emery made his heart race and anxiety squeeze his soul in a bad, ugly way.
“I meant here or at your place? Together is implied.” He kissed Sean, hardening his cock and making him want to rip Emery’s clothes back off him. It was easy not to think about the crazy dolphin-shifter stuff when his cock seemed unable to stay flaccid for more than thirty seconds around Emery.
“My place. I have to be up and out the door by five.”
“Hmm. Crap.”
“What?”
He kissed Sean again. By the time Emery lifted his lips from Sean’s, Sean’s cock throbbed in his shorts. “It means I won’t have time to properly fuck you and send you out the door with an ass full of something to remember me by while you’re at work.”
Chapter Eight
Helen and Sam Morita lived in a gorgeous stilt house painted pale yellow on Manasota Key, on the Sarasota side of the county line and on the Gulf side of the road. Nestled amongst thick stands of hardy oak and sea grape trees, you couldn’t even see it from the road.
Emery parked the Mustang where Sean indicated and stared up at the house. He insured houses on the key. He knew this house, considering it sat on a decent-size lot, had to be worth well over half a mil.
“So our story is that we met at the marina?” Emery confirmed.
“Yeah. And we’ve been seeing each other a couple of months.”
“And we went out in the boat together today, which is why you called in.”
Sean smiled. “Yep. Don’t worry. My dad would give me a hard time regardless about taking a day off, even if I didn’t say you went with me. It’s just him. I’m used to it.”
Emery leaned over and kissed him and whispered in his mind, “You have no idea how much I love you.”
Sean grinned. “That skill might come in handy tonight,” he said aloud. “And I love you, too,” he whispered back mentally.
Emery gave Helen credit. Her frown spent less than a millisecond on her face before she gave him a smile anyone else would have mistaken for genuine. He also heard the way her pulse thrummed, agitated, when Sean introduced him as his boyfriend.
“It’s very nice to meet you, Mrs. Morita,” Emery said, taking her hand and brushing a kiss against her knuckles. “Sean has told me a lot about you both.” He’d try charm first. Not too over the top, but maybe he could at least thaw the ice wall she was rapidly throwing up in front of her.
“It’s nice to meet you, too, Emery. You can call me Helen.” She threw a glare at her son. “Unfortunately, Sean’s told us nothing about you.”
“Mom—”
Emery gently nudged him with his elbow. “It’s not his fault, Helen. We didn’t want to rush things.” He sent Sean a wink Helen couldn’t see. “My parents won’t be thrilled either, I’m afraid.”
Her brow knitted. “I didn’t mean—”
“It’s okay,” he gently assured her. “I understand. My parents have been insisting I was going to get married and father a passel of grandkids to continue the family line. They’re very strict, very traditional. Old-fashioned doesn’t begin to describe them.” He made sure his sad sigh didn’t sound too melodramatic, but was loud enough she could hear. “I know they’re going to disown me when I bring Sean home.” He let his gaze drop to the floor before he looked at her again.
“Oh, I’m sure they wouldn’t do that, would they?”
“Unfortunately, they would. And likely will. They’ve flat-out said they would. My relationship with Sean is against all their beliefs.” Okay, technically not a lie. “Tradition is extremely important to them.” Also technically not a lie.
Now her eyes widened. “I…I…” She grabbed his hand and squeezed. “Emery, you’re always welcomed in our home. We love our son.” Her face reddened. “I might not agree with how he lives his life, but we would never disown him. Or anyone he loves.”
He nearly winced at Sean’s silent cheer. “Score! You fucking rock!”
“Guilt is the first weapon of choice of my people, in or out of the water.”
* * * *
Sam Morita wasn’t as welcoming at first. Somewhere between them being seated in the living room and Sean’s father being summoned to the kitchen by his wife to help her with something, he had an apparent softening of his heart. Normally, Emery would have bristled at the blatant pity on the older man’s face, but in this case, he’d take the win.
They had a fantastic dinner. Sam, as he insisted Emery call him, didn’t even give Sean too much grief over playing hooky from work. Helen was pleased to find out Emery not only worked at an insurance agency, he owned it. She blushed as he raved about her brisket, and even favored him with a smile when he tried to help clear the table when they finished.
She shooed them out to the living room. “No, g
o sit with your father. I’ll be out in a few minutes.”
Emery needed to duck into the bathroom. When Sean showed him the way, they stole a quick kiss.
“You’re amazing!” Sean whispered. “Mom’s practically in love with you!”
“Your dad doesn’t seem too upset.”
“No, and I don’t know why unless Mom just flat-out put her foot down to him when we got here.”
Emery gave him another quick peck. “I’ll be out in a minute.” He locked himself in the bathroom. While he was seated, he looked at his phone, which he’d left on silent.
He had five missed calls from his father, and two text messages to call him ASAP.
He refused to play the four voice mails. It would only piss him off.
Fucking Erik. That was it. He’d give the asshole a piece of his mind and then turn his back on him. He had no room in his life for bullshit. Especially now that he had a mate to take care of.
* * * *
They left Sean’s parents’ house a little after nine o’clock that evening.
“You totally won Mom over!” He reached across the seat and let his hand rest on Emery’s thigh. “That was freaking amazing!” He watched Emery smile, illuminated by the instrument panel. His heart rolled over. When he woke up that morning, he never suspected this was where his day would end. The best he’d hoped for was some legal snapper in the cooler and maybe one rubbed-out orgasm under the afternoon sun.
“Like I said, guilt is the weapon of choice of my people. They make Jewish moms everywhere look like friggin’ amateurs.” Sean watched as he frowned briefly and dug out his phone. He glanced at it and thumbed the screen before tossing it into the backseat. Then he looked at Sean. “I think Erik went to my parents. My dad’s texted and called me.”
Sean felt guilty. “I’m sorry.”
“No, don’t be.” He found Sean’s hand and squeezed. “I’m not sorry. Like I said, I’m not alone if I have you. I really think your parents are going to be okay with it eventually.”
“I think so.” He couldn’t begin to express how much relief he felt over that.