Fuck.
It wasn’t a surprise that Tara was beautiful, not after all this time. But it was a surprise that she’d managed to look like a supermodel even when she was just in an OVWatch sweatshirt from StreamverseCon last year and a pair of leggings. Her dark hair cascaded down her back from her ponytail, loose pieces framing her slightly round cheeks and dark eyes glittering with excitement as they landed on me.
“Hi lemon drop,” she said, all but jumping into my arms. She ran her nose along my neck, inhaling my soft citrusy scent with a pleased sigh that made my stomach flip pleasantly. “I missed you.”
Tara was the most physically affectionate partner I’d ever had, like she thought any minute we weren’t spending holding hands was wasted. It was something I’d come to appreciate and even look forward to, knowing that she’d be all up in my business at the first opportunity.
“I missedyou,” I returned, hugging her tightly as I walked backward into the apartment. Though I was a beta, and scents were a bit muted to me, something about Tara always tickled my nose, an almost sharp, fruity scent she swore wasn’t perfume. Edgy, but with just enough subtle sweetness to make it feel feminine.
A bit like the omega herself.
“Today was so fucking long,” she complained, rising onto the balls of her feet for a deep kiss. “I’msoready for movies and hang.”
I grinned, stealing another, softer kiss before nudging her towards the prepared living room. “Your nest awaits.”
It wasn’t a real nest, of course. Though Tara had never been one of those omegas with a whole room dedicated to it. But it made her eyes get all shiny with excitement all the same as she hopped off me and started towards the prepped couch.
I followed, plopping down beside her as she rearranged pillows and blankets to her liking, pausing to sniff at them occasionally before replacing one with the other. Somehow, my pillow always ended up in the most coveted spot on her lap.
It felt… really good. To know that I made her feel safe. That my scent was good enough to want to cover herself in.
She wrapped herself in a blanket and crawled into my lap, burrowing up in another until we were both suffocating under the weight of it all. It used to make me feel a bit claustrophobic, but I’d started associating the feeling with her, and I enjoyed that enough that it made it worth it.
Except when it was like a hundred degrees in the dead of summer. My place didn’t have AC, and I’d nearly sweat my balls clean off last year.
“How was your stream?” she asked as I queued up the next episode of our show. It was a drama—that we’d managed to fall asleep right in the middle of the season climax the last time we’d watched—and I’d been dying to finish it since.
“It was good,” I told her. “I won the last match.” I left out the countless others I’d lost before that. But I didn’t need to say it aloud for her to read my face, those intelligent dark eyes of hers narrowing slightly as she read my tone.
“Still having fame jitters?” she asked, head tilting adorably to the side like she didn’t just read me like a book.
I sighed, adjusting her weight until she was draped comfortably against my chest. “Maybe. I don’t know, being invited as a featured creator at Streamverse Con this year has me a bit off my game.”
She adjusted, facing me to straddle my lap with her soft thighs. “I get it, it’s nerve-wracking.” I couldn’t help but let my hands fall to them and squeeze them like my personal stress ball. “But you’re an amazing player and your viewersloveyou. You’re gonna do great. Entertainer of the year, I’d bet anything.”
I smiled, but I wasn’t sure if it reached my eyes. “How was your stream?”
She shrugged, clearly unimpressed by the quick change of topic. “Fine.”
Okay, yeah, I was sort of avoiding talking about it.
But that was also a little weird.
“Just fine?” I asked, quirking a brow. Normally she’d regale me with some kind of crazy thing one of her viewers said or requested, or even complain about how sore she was. But stream was never, in the history of time I’d known her, justfine.
She nodded, dark ponytail bouncing. “You know, average? A lot of begging to be fucked by an alpha’s massive cock. Acting all submissive for the camera. Whining for knots, blah, blah, blah…”
I laughed, kissing her temple. Some people may feel intimidated about a partner streaming on a platform like SLCK’d, but I couldn’t care less. First of all, it was a job she’d donewaybefore I was in the mix, so demanding she quit would be insane. Plus, I knew therealTara. They may get the submissive, begging to be bred Tarable, but I got the other side.
The side that was justmine.
“Sounds exhausting,” I said, because honestly, it did.
She hummed, gaze far away like she was thinking about something else. I was going to ask her, but before I could, she was on me, pressing me to the couch, kissing me deeply.
“I thought you were tired,” I mumbled against her lips, my hands finding her ass with some effort through the duvet.
“Tired of not being in control,” Tara muttered irritably. “I need to feel like myself again.”
