Rowan had never been a relationship kind of guy in the past. He liked sex, liked having a steady partner, but he wasn’t exactly on-board with the whole mate thing. There had just never been anyone who he would want to tolerate in that manner outside of a brief interlude every couple of days.

Derrick was different. Derrick was more than tolerable. He was charming and sweet and irresistible, and there was something about him that made Rowan want to stick by his side and protect him until the end of their days together. It was crazy how he had developed those feelings so fast and maybe that had something to do with what he’d seen in the well, but there was no denying those feelings had indeed developed.

It frightened him, how deep he’d gotten in no time at all. It was even unsettling now, especially since Derrick had just shown how good he could be with children. He was the sort of omega you settled down with, that you had a family with.

Rowan just wasn’t sure if he was ready for that.

But, he did know one thing, and that was he couldn’t resist Derrick’s body any longer. They had been so chaste about it during their date together, only cuddling or holding hands, but there was a fire inside that both of them were feeling.

Pushing his lips hard against Derrick’s, trapping the heat between them, Rowan pressed forward until Derrick was forced to take a few steps back. Once they were both inside the apartment, he shut the door behind them. He couldn’t see to lock it, didn’t care. It didn’t matter.

In any case, he had already forgotten.

He turned both of them and pushed Derrick up against the wall with one hand, holding his face with the other. Their lips tangled between them, and then Derrick’s mouth parted beneath his; their tongues slid together, a knot of wet heat, pushing and thrusting together in an imitation of sex.

Derrick whimpered softly against his lips and Rowan pressed harder against him, their hips grinding together. His cock was hard and swollen in his jeans, a compass pointing him towards Derrick. He could feel Derrick’s cock similarly pressing towards him. They were two poles drawn together by a magnetic force that neither of them could explain, and they would not be replete until they were fully joined.

But not yet. There was so much more to come first.

Like breathing.

Surfacing with a gasp, shuddering, Rowan tried to get ahold of himself. He didn’t want to rush this and potentially spoil it for Derrick, who was currently looking shell-shocked and hazy. His eyes were half-closed and his lips were parted still as if they were continuing to kiss; they looked swollen and tender from the force of Rowan’s kiss, as if he had almost bruised them, and somehow seemed even more kissable than before.

“More,” Derrick said, breathless. “I need it. I need you.”

Rowan felt a grin forming, and he was only too happy to oblige, pressing his mouth to Derrick’s once more. Their lips moved between them like stormy waves, crashing together this way and that, again and again. Their tongues fucked together and they shared their breath, breathing the same air.

Derrick’s hands roamed freely over Rowan’s body, exploring him. His touch trailed a flame wherever it went, stoking the heat deep in Rowan’s groin. His cock was almost painfully hard now, straining to break free of its restraint.

They could have stayed there together like that for an eternity. Both of them felt that. They could be united here until the world ended, and it would be as beautiful at the finish as it was at the start.

Then, Derrick shuddered and stiffened. He moaned softly and it was the sound of a canine very much in need of something.

Pulling back, Rowan looked into that hazy blue gaze. Where once before there had been only coldness and ice, now he could see sunlight shining, a glow being reflected. The ice was warming, thawing, and he felt as if he was seeing the real Derrick for the first time.

Maybe that was when he fell in love. It was too soon to tell, and if it really was love, then it was a budding sort that still had plenty of room to grow. Contrary to the way all other things in nature worked, the fire inside him would only help that to happen.

“What do you need?” Rowan murmured. “Tell me what you need.”

“You,” Derrick replied immediately. He gasped out the word, his entire body shuddering with the effort. “God, I need you.”

Rowan took a step backwards and Derrick let out a whine of complaint. Holding out a hand for him, Rowan said, “Last chance to turn back.”

He felt as if he was speaking more to himself than anything else. If he continued down this path, he was going to have to face things that he never imagined he would. He would have to grow used to things that he didn’t like, become accustomed to all the things that came his way whether he liked it or not.

It was much too soon to make that kind of decision right after meeting someone, but he would be damned if he wasn’t going to do it anyway.

He knew his choice.

He saw Derrick’s answer glistening in his eyes just before it was spoken out loud. “Never,” the omega breathed.

Rowan turned and led him to the bedroom as if he belonged there. The only other time he’d been there was when he put the ice cream-soaked dishtowels in the laundry hamper, but at the same time it already felt as if he’d made the same walk a hundred times. His back was straight and he was in his element, so completely relaxed and content.

He was going to keep the lights dim but Derrick reached past him and flipped the switch up. “I want to see you,” he whispered.

Flashing his teeth in a fierce grin, Rowan was only too glad to obey. He stripped off his clothes as fast as he could while Derrick did the same, both of them just as eager to watch as they were to get naked. Undressed, Derrick was just as slender as he had otherwise appeared to be. That being said, he wasn’t scrawny; his body had definition and form, two things that other people of a similar size were often lacking. His cock was surprisingly lengthy and substantial, in complete contrast. The tip was red with need, leading down to a shaft threaded with pale blue veins.

Just looking at him wasn’t enough. Rowan wanted to feel him, to lose himself in the feel of that body underneath his. He only stood still where he was, however, letting Derrick look at him for as long as he wanted. He hoped that he was up to par, that he was good enough for the other man. Most alpha wolves were naturally broad and muscular, and Rowan had done his best to maintain that image.

Never before had he doubted his own worth, but he did sincerely hope that he was good enough.

Then the silence grew too long for him to be able to bear it. “Well?”

Derrick looked up at him and flashed a wicked smile. “You’ll do.”

Rowan growled and then laughed, and he grabbed Derrick into his arms again. Their mouths met once more and they kissed ferociously while pressing their bodies as close together as possible. Their hips ground together, their cocks rubbing and touching until they were both shaking and gasping. Sliding his hands down to Derrick’s ass, Rowan gave him a teasing squeeze and was rewarded when Derrick arched his back. Nails dug into his skin, not painful so much as simply exciting.

Tangled together, bodies entwined, they made their way to the bed and fell into it. Rowan climbed on top of Derrick and pinned him down against the mattress, leaning over him so their noses touched. Bucking his hips, he teasingly pushed the tip of his cock between Derrick’s closed ass cheeks.

Derrick writhed underneath him, his ass squirming as he tried to fuck himself on Rowan’s cock. “Dammit,” he growled, finding himself unable to move. He wiggled more and reached up to hold onto Rowan, trying to use him to propel himself further down. “You fucking tease…”

“Not a foreplay man?” Rowan growled softly while pressing his lips to the tip of Derrick’s nose, and then the corners of his mouth. He let the other man feel the vibration of his growl, hoping to leave him wondering what it would be like to feel that on other parts of his body.

All Derrick could do in response was moan. The sound was low and protracted, carrying on and on until it nearly became a howl. His body squirmed again, every fiber of his being begging for what he needed.

Rowan wasn’t about to be the one who denied him what he wanted. He pressed his hips more firmly to the inside of Derrick’s thighs, grinding against him. Their bodies strained towards each other. The scent of the heat they were making was all around them, heady and full and enticing. What remained of the rest of the world, the sounds of traffic outside, the occasional distant cries and thumps from elsewhere in the apartment building; all of it seemed to have gone somewhere very far away, like Rowan had entered into a different dimension composed mostly of scent and touch. All he cared about was Derrick. Everything else could wait.

As they were grinding together, Derrick continued to moan louder and louder. Deep and low at first, his expressions of lust gradually turned into pleading cries. His body started to move of its own accord, uncontrollable. His nails dug hard against Rowan’s back, clutching them both together tightly so that there was no escape.

Then Derrick went completely, utterly still. All movement ceased. His eyes closed tightly and didn’t open again.

That was when Rowan knew that he was ready.

“Lube,” Rowan commanded. His voice was hoarse and rough, so that he hardly recognized the sound of it.

“Under the pillow,” Derrick gasped in response. He spoke briefly, his words clipped as if it took too much effort to sustain them when he needed all his focus on trying to hold back his orgasm.

He keeps lube under his pillow?

Well, it was a very thick pillow and if it wasn’t uncomfortable, Rowan wasn’t going to judge. He reached underneath and his hand immediately made contact with a small tube. Pulling it out, Rowan saw that the tube was about half-empty. That amused him even though he didn’t really know why; as it was, such an ordinary emotion as amusement couldn’t survive in the face of his sexual heat.

He leaned back just enough to be able to get his hand between them, spreading a liberal amount of lube over his throbbing cock and then hastily applying some to Derrick’s opening. Just touching Derrick made him cry out and start writhing again, and now Rowan felt that desire echoed within himself. Their thoughts were joining, just as their bodies were.

Bracing himself with a hand on either side of Derrick, Rowan started to slowly push himself inside that slick pucker of flesh. Derrick made a small sound of discomfort but it was an insignificant thing that swiftly passed.

Rowan pushed himself fully inside.

The ease of it was astonishing to him, deep in the back of his mind where he was still capable of thoughts. It shouldn’t have been so easy. It hadn’t ever been this easy before. He even wondered for a moment if he had actually gotten himself inside Derrick or if he was about to start fucking empty air. But warmth surrounded his cock. He could feel muscles tensing around him, bearing down on him, goading him on. He was inside, and they were a perfect fit.

It hadn’t ever been like this with any other partner that Rowan ever had. Hell, they hardly even needed the lube.

“Do me,” Derrick gasped, hardly seeming aware that something was amiss. And maybe, just maybe, there was nothing amiss at all. Maybe this was the way it should always be, for a wolf to fit so perfectly with the one he wanted to be his…mate.

Mate.

Too soon. Much too soon for that.

Rowan closed his eyes as if that could block out the intrusive thoughts, and started to move inside Derrick. He rocked his hips in a slow circle, pulling out and then pushing himself back in again. Derrick moved with him, gasping and shaking, eyes closed to fully immerse himself in what he was feeling without being distracted by anything else.

These were all movements that would normally help loosen up his partner, to get them moving at the same rhythm, but Derrick was already loose and ready and they couldn’t have been more in tune with the other if they tried.

“Rowan!”

Rowan closed his eyes and let himself fully submerge into the heat. His hips started to pump as he thrust himself deep inside Derrick, pulling almost all the way out each time before pushing back in again. Growling and whimpering with delight, Derrick bucked with him. They were Shakespeare’s beast with two backs, a pretty phrase for a primitive union that had been happening since the dawn of time.

Never like this, though. Never like this.

Rowan was burning inside, consumed by fire. He could feel Derrick’s thoughts brushing against his, like fur on fur; it was as if they were fucking as wolves, their motions wild and tumultuous. Derrick’s pleasure was his to know, as his pleasure was known by Derrick, awareness flowing back and forth between them with every thrust.

The fire built and built, a volcano on the verge of eruption.

Suddenly, Derrick’s ass muscles clamped down around Rowan’s cock. Rowan cried out and that was it for him as he was pushed over the edge. He couldn’t bear the pressure. It was the seismic event to trigger his explosion, a match tossed into a pool of gasoline.

Tossing his head back, Rowan cried out again as he came. The pleasure was like nothing he had ever known before, crashing over him in waves that rendered him deaf, blind, and dumb.

There was no telling how long his orgasm lasted, or when exactly it ended. He came to awareness by slow degrees, first aware of the fact that only part of him was lying on a mattress. The rest of him was on, well, Derrick.

Was it good for you? He wanted to ask. Words couldn’t come to give voice to his query, though. He had to focus on breathing, had to remember how all that tricky stuff worked.

It seemed like Derrick was doing the same, his body slowly rising and falling with each breath. Occasional tremors ran through him, the aftermath of his powerful orgasm.

There was wetness between them, Derrick’s seed. Rowan himself was still buried inside the omega. The bedroom smelled of sex and his mouth tasted of blood. His tongue hurt, like he’d bitten it at some point, probably in an effort to keep from tossing Derrick onto his stomach and claiming him.

“Squishing me,” Derrick muttered.

Very slowly, Rowan withdrew himself from the other man. He felt lazy and incredibly relaxed, like he usually did after having sex. The one thing that was different between this time and all the others was that he didn’t feel a need to leave his partner as soon as possible. No, this time he wanted to stay.

Except, he really couldn’t. As much fun as this date had been and as much as he would like to continue with it, he had other things that needed to get done.

“I could call off from work,” he mused aloud.

From beside him came a soft chuckle. He turned his head to look at Derrick, marveling at the way that the omega was even more beautiful with his hair all mussed up.

“You need to work on your pillow talk.”

Rowan smiled and slung an arm over the other wolf. His heart felt warm as Derrick cuddled closer to him, still wanting to be near even though their sex was done. “Should I give you a rating?”

“Better be careful with that, Mr. Criminal.” Derrick paused, something seemed to have just occurred to him. “Does that bother you?”

“Nah.” It did, just not for a reason that Derrick would have understood. Rowan wanted to be more than just a criminal he had met in a police station. “But every time you do say it, I’m going to get even by calling you Derry.”

Derrick groaned and flopped one arm dramatically over his face. “Oh, god. Anything but that. Please, no affection. I can’t take it.”

The ice had truly thawed.

“You know,” Rowan murmured, “you’re a lot different than I thought you would be, when I first saw you.” He tangled his fingers idly in Derrick’s fucked-up golden curls, playing with the strands. The way they curled around his fingers was just so sweet, somehow. “You’re not all stuck-up or anything.”

“That’s just my face,” Derrick explained. He leaned his head over to Rowan’s hand. “I have resting bitch face. It’s a real thing. Look it up.”

Rowan chuckled. “I’ll take your word for it.”

“I’m also pretty much an introvert. So, there’s that.”

“I thought all that was just pseudo-science bullshit.”

“Oh, it might be. But it does a pretty good job of explaining some things.” Derrick closed his eyes. “I’ve done a lot of looking into it and it seems like a lot of people really agree with the result whenever they try to determine if they’re introverted or extroverted. For me, it just means that I don’t really want to go and put myself out there. Not everyone is deserving of everything from me all the time. It’s…grueling. I’ve always known what I wanted. I’ve never had to go out and try to discover it like a lot of people.”

“Communicating with other people is hard for me, too. Maybe I’m also introverted.”

Derrick smiled. His eyes had grown distinctly sleepy over the course of their conversation but he was still valiantly holding on. “Maybe you are. So, we can just be weirdos together.”

“I think I’d like that.” Rowan paused. “Does that mean you’d want to do this again?”

He wished he had been more careful with how he phrased the question, because a thin layer of new ice formed over Derrick’s blue eyes. Derrick leaned back slightly, his kiss-swollen lips pressing together. “Maybe you should tell me what you’d like to do.”

“There’s no doubt in my mind,” Rowan whispered. He slid closer to Derrick, closing the space that had grown between them. Their lips brushed together very, very gently. “I want to see you again. We’ll take it slow if you need to.”

I would do that for you. Just seeing you smile sometimes will be good enough for me.

A tremulous little smile formed on Derrick’s lips. “I think I’d like that very much.” Then, he sighed. “You have to go, don’t you? I know.”

“I could call off. That’s always an option.”

He could see by the look on Derrick’s face that the other man was considering it, but then he just shook his head. “No, I can’t ask you to do that. I know you aren’t asking me to ask you. But you have a job to do, and I think I need to spend some time trying to figure out what I’m going to do with my free month.”

Rowan nodded. “I understand.”

He hoped that Derrick would be able to find something to occupy his time, or else this month was going to be a very difficult time for him.

“But can you do me a favor? If you have the time?”

Anything for you, Rowan thought, and he wondered if Derrick heard it.

“Can you just stay here for a little bit? Ten minutes? I understand if you can’t, but…”

Before Derrick could finish what he was saying, Rowan folded him into his arms and held on tightly. Hormones were always crazy in the aftermath of sex. Sometimes that was a good thing. A person could combat a lot of stress with an orgasm or two. But there was something else that could happen, and Rowan had no doubt that everyone had experienced it before. Hormones could plummet instead of leveling out, leaving a participant in a lower mental state than when they’d begun.

He didn’t want to leave Derrick alone like that, thinking uncertain thoughts about his own future. So, he would stay.

And stay he did, until Derrick’s breathing slowed and his body gradually relaxed into the state of extreme bonelessness that always accompanies deep sleep. Though it pained Rowan to do so, he carefully extracted himself from the bed and pulled the covers up. Derrick snuggled down automatically underneath them without awakening, which was a good thing. Just looking at this angelic man was making it hard for Rowan to leave. He didn’t think he’d be able to do it at all if those beautiful blue eyes opened up to watch him go.

Gathering up his clothes, he tiptoed out to the living room to dress so the constant rustling of fabric wouldn’t disturb Derrick’s sleep. There was really no reason for him to stick around after that but he did so anyway, finding a pen on the coffee table and a pad of paper stuck to the fridge by a magnet. Rowan jotted down his phone number, then left the paper and pen in plain sight on the coffee table.

He was all the way to the door before he came back and added a note, so that the number by itself wouldn’t feel so damn impersonal: “Enjoy the waffles.” Not exactly the most romantic sentiment in the entire world, but he would learn. Hopefully.

Then, he left.