“Upstairs, the bedrooms are upstairs,” said Bisi, eyes unfocused for a moment. “I like this nickname. Very much. It means…”

“Treasure,” Mari confirmed.

Bisi felt her eyes flare gold again. She pushed herself swiftly to her feet and reached down for Mari, taking both her hands to tug her upwards, and then, keeping one, she turned towards the stairwell, tugging at it. “Come with me.”

 Bisi towed Mari up the first three stairs and then remembered that her mate, despite how incredibly tall she was for a person who was five-two, could not take stairs two at a time when she was in a hurry the way Bisi could. Bisi clucked her tongue at the situation in disapproval, and turned back to scoop her mate up. Mari whooped in surprise, but Bisi was already moving again. 

“Bisi, you’re going to hurt yourself,” Mari protested. “I can walk!”

Any pain Bisi felt as a result of carrying her mate in her arms was not centered in her lower back, although there was a certain amount of discomfort building again in her lower front. “It’s fine. I work out,” said Bisi, all thoughts on the bed. This was no mere courteous gesture, this was about speed. She climbed the next few stairs at a near-run and Mari, mildly alarmed, threw an arm around her and tucked her face into the crook of Bisi’s neck and laughed. “Ok. Bisi… you weren’t kidding. You are fast. I’m not going to turn into a pumpkin at midnight or anything. I told you I’m staying the night, we have plenty of time.”

“Not enough time in the world, Temi, for all the things I want to do to you.”

“Oh,” said Mari, looking unsettled, and Oh, yes, said her scent and Oh, my God, said Bisi’s clit, who was really outdoing herself for enthusiasm. 

“Mari, I am going to taste all of the rest of you, do you hear me?”

“Not if I taste you first.”

Bisi stumbled slightly and then found her balance, “Sh— Mari! Be easy with me, you could kill me like that. I could have dropped you!”

“Pssh. I’m curious. And thirsty. I mean…if we’re thinking this thing with us could go on for quite a while, then… I’d like to see what I’m getting away with.”

“Getting away with?” echoed Bisi as she bent to set Mari on her bed. 

“I stole Halston Hollis’s crush. It’s the crime of the century. I’d sell the story to Page Six myself if I wanted to get death threats. I guess some people would also send me flowers and candy, though, since I took out the competition for Halston’s hand. 

“Marisol,” said Bisi climbing over her, “That’s not why they would send you flowers and candy. Hush now, with the talking about other Alphas sending you things. You make me want to leave fang marks all over you.” 

“You could leave little fang marks in few places, if you liked,” said Mari amenably, smiling up at her, and Bisi squeezed her eyes shut and bit her lip until it hurt, thinking of how it would feel to see her marks on Mari’s honey-colored skin.

“Mari, you are…a very bad influence. Every time I manage to get a grip on myself, you encourage my bad behavior.” 

“Maybe I like it when you lose control because of me,” Mari suggested huskily.

“See? See there? Ok. You are definitely trying to cause trouble. You think that because I am a female, I have an infinite supply of self-control? Temi—” she finished in an admonitory tone, and then decided it would be better to show Mari what she was in for rather than lecture her. “Lift up your chin for me, Mari, let me scent you there.”

Obediently, Mari lifted her chin. So obediently. So invitingly. Lowering herself until she was pressing into Mari’s soft body, but most of her weight was balanced on her hands and knees, Bisi ran the bridge of her nose back and forth along Mari’s jawline, breathing her in. “So good. Let me have a little taste here, Mari.” She sucked at a spot on Mari’s jaw bone, a centimeter or two away from her scent gland and then angled her head to give Mari a gentle nip, adding pressure until Mari gasped and lifted her hips to push herself against Bisi’s torso. 

“Bisi! Unngh! Nnnn—Hurry!”

“No, Sweetness. Settle down.” Bisi ran her tongue over the spot she’d just nipped and a very friendly growl rumbled in her throat. “I am not going to hurry. I am going to enjoy you from this spot all the way down to your little red toenails. Haven’t you heard that Alphas are suckers for red, Mari?”

“I…may… be aware of that,” said Mari, eyes darting sideways under the dark curve of her lashes. The tip of a fang pressed into her bottom lip.

“So you admit you are trying to drive me crazy.”

Mari looked up at her and the corner of her mouth lifted, revealing a little more fang. “Can you blame me?”

Bisi clucked her tongue and shook her head in appreciation of Mari’s audacity. “Outrageous, Marisol. You are caught in the act and you just…double down. Exactly how desperate do you want me to get? Be careful, Temi. Desperate Alphas do desperate things. I may keep you up here all night.” Bisi looked down at her mate warningly, her pulse hammering in her throat. She wouldn’t ever hurt Mari, or let her be hurt, but if she got too worked up, she might take it closer to the line that she wanted to. Especially since it would be their first time together…

 “I’ll show you how desperate.” Mari reached up and pulled Bisi down for a kiss and then tried, fruitlessly, to throw her off balance. Bisi withstood the assault on her position effortlessly. 

“Are you trying to get the upper hand, here, Marisol?” asked Bisi with one eyebrow raised as Mari dropped her hands back to the mattress, temporarily defeated.

Mari met her mate’s wicked, white-fanged smile with a glower.  “Yes! And you should let me have it. Be nice! Roll over and let me be on top.”

“You will probably always have the upper hand with me. But… no. You’ll rush me and I have no intention of being rushed.”

“Ha! Big talk from the woman who almost dragged me up the stairs like a sack of…stuff. Fine, then. Don’t let me be on top. I don’t want to pull that sweater off of you that much. I’m not dying to bite your neck and your breasts and suck on your nipples. I can live without stripping those jeans off of you and running my tongue ar—”

“You win,” said Bisi hastily, falling onto her back beside Mari entirely voluntarily. “Hurry.”

Mari clambered over her happily, straddling her hips. She sat, and then her eyes widened. She looked down at Bisi with an expression of surprise. “Bisi…you are…Wow. Big!”

Bisi might have felt a touch of gratification mixed in with the pleasure of Mari’s heat and weight settling over her, but she tried to hide it as she reached up and rearranged Mari’s long hair so she could admire her pretty neck. Her smooth, pretty, unmarked neck. As casually as she could, she said, “Yes, well… Alphas were designed by nature for pleasing and satisfying Omegas wishing to breed, and nature saw fit to put the uteruses of male Omegas in out of the way places. You, however, are the only Omega I am interested in pleasing and satisfying.” 

“Is there anything you don’t excel at? Just so I know?” asked Mari, with a grinding of her hips and a happy moan as she rubbed herself over the ridge of Bisi’s engorged clit.

Bisi clutched Mari’s hips in both hands, her fingers pressing into the warm flesh as she arched her back, pressing upwards, wanting more heat, more pressure, more softness. It took her a few seconds longer than usual to formulate a reply, and the only reply she could think of was, “Yes. Waiting. For you.”

“Well, let’s stop waiting then.” Mari pulled Bisi’s sweater up and over her head and tossed it to one side and then her nimble fingers dove under the front clasp of Bisi’s simple triangle bralette and made short work of it.  Her expression victorious, Mari descended on her with purpose, her lips capturing Bisi’s as a warm hand slid up and over Bisi’s bare breast.

Teasingly, Mari lapped at her upper lip as her thumb strummed over Bisi’s stiffened nipple in perfect unison with her tongue. Like most female Alphas, Bisi’s breasts were small, but nevertheless as sensitive to touch as any other female’s. She shivered under Mari’s touch, little bumps rising up all over her skin, her nipples furling even tighter.

“Temi!” Bisi gasped as Mari moved from her lips to her throat, and the strumming became a pinch and then a series of small, tight plucks.