“I want… I-I—” Pember’s voice was breathy again, and Blake could actually hear the dry rasp of his throat as he swallowed. “I can’t stop… I can’t stop thinking about you. Even before the heat, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I want… I like… you, and I’d really like to show you my nest. I worked hard on it in between… you know. But maybe that’s not appropriate. Maybe I’m reading too much into?—”
“I’ll come over,” Blake said, because as the words left Pember’s mouth not even the ground opening up in a fiery chasm could have stopped him.
“Y-you will?”
“If you’re sure it’s what you want?”
There was a pause. “Well, yes, it’s whatIwant, but what about you?”
Blake almost growled as he pulled on a T-shirt and slid on his slippers. “What do I want?” he said, shooing the dogs off the bed. “I want you to know whatever happens, I’ll never take advantage of you. If I come over, and you decide you want me to guard the front door all night, I’ll do it. If you want me to run you a bath or make you a sandwich, I’ll do it. Fuck, if you want me to read one of those boring fucking science journals you keep having delivered to the house, I will do it.”
Pember huffed out a laugh. “They aren’t boring.”
“Sure, if you can understand a single fucking word.”
He was getting flustered, he knew that, but was already across the landing and taking the stairs two at a time.
“Blake, can you stop changing the subject when I’m trying to proposition you?”
Blake smirked against the phone. “Oh? So you aren’t inviting me over to carry out household chores?”
“You’re so annoying.”
Blake’s hand was on the doorknob, and he was about to step out into the night when he stopped, realising he hadn’t answered Pember’s question.
“What I want…” he said, fingers tightening around the handle. “What I really want is for you to know that I can’t stop thinking about you either. And that I’m willing to wait until whenever you’re ready.”
Pember let out a long breath, stopping Blake in his tracks. “I’m not ready to have kids, Blake. A-and as I said, I’m not sureI trust the new meds. I don’t even think I’m ready to be knotted. I… I’ve never shared my heat with anyone; I don’t know what I’m doing, but I… you…” The words trailed off again.
Blake swallowed and smiled softly. “I thought you learned a lot about yourself?”
“Well, I mean, I did. Sharing that with a partner is kinda scary.”
“What did you learn?”
“W-what?”
“Tell me what you learned about yourself.”
Blake could practically hear the flush in Pember’s words. “Well, you know. This and that.”
Humming, Blake let his voice drop into a deep rumble. “Like what?”
“Like… like the cooling pad is a godsend. I have to eat in between waves, and that I need to be in my nestbeforethe cramping starts. And that a nest isn’t all about endorphins and oxytocin, it’s about safety, you know?”
“Mhm. Anything else?”
“Just that I?—”
“Yes?”
“Just that I really like vibrators.”
Blake grinned, the comment sending a bolt of arousal straight to his already heavy cock. “Is that so?”
“Y-yeah. Do they have something like that for alphas?”
“You mean during ruts? Of course.”
