Well damn. Now he felt bad at Alek’s disappointed tone. The thought that he’d hurt him had Bell dropping his brush and spinning to face him. “No. That’s not it at all…”
Alek crossed his arms over his chest, quirking one thick brow at him, calling Bell on the bullshit.
Dropping the act, he sighed, “Well, maybe I was a bit… drained.”
“Too much, huh?” Alek murmured.
“No. I promise.” Bell shook his head, hating that he’d put doubt in Alek’s mind. “Being with you is amazing, you know that. I can’t fake those things.”
Alek wrapped his arms around Bell’s waist and rested their foreheads together. “I know I’ve been sexing the hell out of you, but if you’d gone without getting any for years, you’d be greedy too.”
“I have.” Bell stroked Alek’s scratchy cheek. He suddenly wanted to fill his mate up with all the sex he could. They were going to have to learn to coexist forever, which meant Alek would have to learn when Bell needed privacy and vice-versa. Just because they were fated, that didn’t mean they were doing twenty-four hours a day of each other.
“I’ll make you a deal. I’ll give you a small break today.” Alek pushed his dick against Bell’s hip. “A very small break.”
“Trust me.” Bell kissed Alek passionately. “I don’t need any more than that.”
After a PG-rated feeding, Bell was all dressed in a set of ‘outdoorsy clothes’, complete with hiking boots and a utility vest. He stepped out of the bedroom feeling like an absolute wanker. Alek was standing with his back to him, tinkering with some kind of plastic tool box on the kitchen island. His mate made those ripped jeans and large, dusty boots look hot. Bell looked like he was wearing a wannabe trail guide costume. And just what were all those stupid pockets on his vest? His mate’s sharp bark of laughter had him whipping his head up, glaring daggers at him.
“Just what’s so bloody funny, Aleksei?”
Alek turned all the way around. “Um, nothing. You look… great.” He laughed even louder.
“You can’t even say that with a straight face,” Bell grumbled, yanking the absurd wide-brimmed, safari cap off his head and tossing it across the room.
“Much better without the hat. I like it when you braid your hair.” Alek walked around the sectional, to where Bell stood brooding against the wall. He looked him up and down, flipping open several flaps on his vest. “So, which one of my siblings did this to you?”
Bell gritted his teeth. “Mac said I’d need this stuff. I told him I could borrow something of Taleb’s since we looked about the same size, but he contended you wouldn’t want me smelling like any of your brothers, so he made a quick run. And this is what he came back with.”
“Okay. Let’s see what we got going on here.” Alek tried his best to hide his amusement, but it wasn’t working as he continued to laugh when he discovered certain items. Alek frowned when he removed a four-by-four-inch notepad from an inside pocket. “Mac thought you’d need an outdoor journal.”
Bell snatched that out of Alek’s hand and tucked it neatly back in its place. “Actually. I might want that.”
Alek smiled adoringly. “Okay then. But, I’m positive you can lose the mini flashlight, the compass, the multi-tool knife, the flint starter—”
Bell swiped that out of Alek’s hand, enlightenment shining in his eyes. “Is that what that is? I thought it was like a chime, or a bell I ring if I get lost.”
Alek stood staring at him for a long time before he cracked up with more rambunctious laughter. Instead of getting ticked-off, Bell let his mate enjoy ridiculing him. So, it looked like he had a lot to learn about nature, but he was sure there’d be plenty he’d have to teach Alek as well.
“What are we doing today anyway, hiking?”
“A small hike… but we’re going fishing. I have a pond-fishing boat at the base of the lake.”
Bell’s mouth dropped open.
“We’re gonna backpack down the mountain. It’ll take a few hours, at a leisurely pace, to Greeley Ponds. I’m hoping to catch me a bass with a mouth as large as yours is right now, or maybe a trout. Then I’m gonna come home and cook ’em up.” Alek brushed past Bell as he continued to stand there slack-jawed. “Fun stuff, huh? Wolf has been looking forward to this.”
Bell wanted to scream abort but he couldn’t. One, he really wanted to see Wolf in his element, he hadn’t had much interaction with the protective beast that was more in tune with Bell’s feelings than he was. And two, this was a huge part of his mate and what he did to unwind. He was sure Alek would be beside himself with excitement when he learned that Bell’s idea of relaxation was curling up with a six-hundred-page book. He was a literature enthusiast, loving almost anything set during the late fifteen-hundreds through the Shakespearean era. At home, he had a library full of material to keep his mind occupied for hours. Maybe he’d prepare for his valuable possessions to be brought over soon, to his new home.