Alpha, Delta Read online

  And what did that say about attraction between two people? Because Niall was ready to jump the man’s bones and they’d barely shaken hands.

  “I’m going up to get some work done.” The time had long since passed eight p.m. and he was off the clock now. Someone else could be the expert, the one who answered questions, all Niall wanted was a tumbler of whiskey, his PJs and his laptop. And sleep.

  Ewan passed him another plate of whatever leftovers there were on the main table. Niall took them because he knew it was a waste of time arguing with his little brother. After all, Ewan was just looking after him.

  “I know you won’t call room service,” Ewan said on a sigh. He tucked a plastic bottle of Coke into Niall’s laptop bag and handed him the whole thing. “Go. Before Adam corners you again.”

  Niall did as he was told, edging his way out and making sure not to meet anyone’s gaze. He only did these safety audit assessments once a year and it seemed like everyone in NorsDev wanted a piece of him. When he made it out to the main corridor juggling plate and laptop bag it was like the last day of the summer term and he had the long stretch of weeks ahead of him. Okay so it was only one night but that was a long time in a really nice hotel with a shower built for two.

  Unbidden, thoughts of Finn in the shower had him groaning at the rush of lust. Jesus, he was losing it big time today. He pressed the button for the elevator and stood back. He was on floor seventeen of the Radisson Blu with a wonderful view of Oslo and he couldn’t wait to see it all lit up in the dark again. The elevator was way up there at twenty-four but he wasn’t moving. He’d have a long wait but climbing up seventeen flights of stairs would probably mean he’d be found near dead on floor thirteen. He chuckled at the thought but stiffened when a familiar voice spoke behind him.

  “Niall,” Finn said softly. “You going up?”

  Niall turned very slowly to face the object of his fascination and he swallowed. Finn had changed out of his uniform and into jeans that hugged his legs like a second skin, and a scarlet T-shirt that stuck very close to every single muscle. In uniform he looked edible, but dressed like this with damp hair from the shower he looked like every gay man’s wet dream. His eyes were so damn blue, his lashes long and dark. He may have showered but he hadn’t shaved and stubble darkened his jawline, which gave him an almost dangerous look. Niall needed to say something, Finn had asked him a question. Something about the elevator.

  “Seventeen,” he said.

  Clearly that was enough, Finn nodded. “Are you finished for the day now?”

  Niall nodded and heard himself sigh. “All done for another year.”

  “Except for my one-on-one,” Finn pointed out.

  “I didn’t say a one-on-one. I said I’d talk to your whole team.”

  The elevator arrived and they both got in. He pressed seventeen and stood back with the expectation that Finn would press for his own floor. When he didn’t Niall assumed that they were on the same floor. That was until the doors shut and Finn stepped right up in his space.

  “I wasn’t talking about the security briefing,” he said all sexy-growly. Niall moved back until his back hit the mirrored wall and Finn stepped forward.

  Abruptly, Niall was flustered and words failed him. “Wh-what were y-you referring to.”

  Carefully, oh so gently, Finn used a single finger to tilt Niall’s chin up.

  “Our one-on-one,” he said.

  “Ours…” Oh God, oh fuck, I am going to break the zipper in these pants.

  “Unless I read this wrong and you don’t want me to hold you down and suck your brains out through your cock.”

  Finn hadn’t moved any closer, in fact it appeared he was deliberately well out of Niall’s space. This was the moment that Niall had to make a decision. He could brush this off, ignore the erection pressing painfully against his zipper, forget the fact that desire and lust fought for every inch of his body. Hold me down. Fuck… Or he could take everything those blue eyes promised and have one night of the kind of sex that he imagined he would have with Finn. He heard his brother’s voice. Go for it. No one is ever promised a tomorrow. What do you have to lose?

  Swallowing, Niall shifted the weight of his computer bag from his shoulder, distracted by the flash of numbers as the elevator passed twelve, thirteen… He had to make a decision.

  “You didn’t read it wrong,” he said. His voice came out surprisingly normal despite the fact that his tongue felt too big for his mouth.

  The elevator came to a smooth stop and Finn moved his finger and stepped back.

  “Is your room okay?” he asked softly.

  Niall attempted to remember how he had left his room. The maids would have been in to tidy but Niall wasn’t the neatest. He’d been in the hotel three days and was still living out of his suitcase.

  It seemed suddenly sensible to set guidelines. “Yes. Tonight, just tonight. Okay? And do you have… Are you…”

  The elevator doors made to close but Finn held out a hand and stopped them. “Condoms, lube. Check.” He didn’t address the whole one-night thing.

  “This all seems a bit clinical,” Niall said, simply for something to say.

  In answer, Finn held out a hand and took the plate of food. He stepped out of the elevator and waited for Niall. When Niall let them into his room he had to concentrate on getting the card in the slot and disengaging the lock. He considered the sad fact that he wasn’t exactly coming off as the most competent engineer in the world.

  When they were in, Niall placed his laptop bag on the floor under the desk and watched as Finn placed the food on the desk then shrugged off a small runner’s backpack. That must be where the condoms were, because there was absolutely no room in the pockets in Finn’s jeans. Niall didn’t know what to do next. He’d never really had a one-night stand. How did it happen? Did they just get on with it? The first times he’d had with all three of his boyfriends had been after dinner where wine had played a part. “You look really worried,” Finn said. He was using a soft tone like you would with a child and that gave Niall a bit of confidence to prove he wasn’t actually in need of the tone.

  “I don’t really do this.” He waved between them.

  “Have sex?”

  “Have one-night stands.”

  Finn stepped in his space again, and this time, with the desk at his back Niall had nowhere to move. Then Finn did something that had Niall near melting into a puddle. The damned cop cradled his face gently.

  “Who said anything about one night?” He tilted Niall’s face and leaned down at the same time. With his hands cradling Niall, he kissed him. The kiss was firm but not pushy. There was none of the shit that happened in clubs whenever Ewan managed to drag Niall to one. Seemed like all that happened there was tongues and teeth and a whole lot of demands. This was…

  Different.

  Finn touched his lips with tongue, pressing inside. With a whimper that Niall hoped to hell was just in his own head, he opened his mouth and tentatively matched the movements. He didn’t know what to do with his hands. Should he leave them at his sides, or could he touch…? He rested them on Finn’s biceps but couldn’t stop with that touch, instead locking his hands at the base of Finn’s spine and pulling him closer. They kissed that way for the longest time, Niall so hard it was painful.

  Finn moved one of his hands from Niall’s face and trailed his fingers down Niall’s back, finally coming to a rest on his ass, pressing and lifting so that Finn was near on tiptoe. If they didn’t do something soon, release the pressure, if he couldn’t undo his pants, then he might do serious damage to his cock. As if he’d somehow telegraphed the message, Finn’s hand moved and this time it was to slip under the top button of Niall’s pants. He lowered the zipper, finally pushing his fingers into Niall’s jersey boxers and closing around Niall’s hard cock. Niall pulled back sharply from the kiss and cursed loudly.

  All Finn did was chuckle, the bastard, then guide Finn back for more kissing while twisting his fingers and
tugging on Niall. Niall could stand like this until he came, held up just with the desk at his thighs and Finn holding him upright, but he wanted his hands on Finn and he wanted it now. Copying Finn’s movements he loosened the tight buttons on Finn’s jeans and finally managed to get his hands inside Niall’s pants. Just the feel of his hands on Niall was enough to have him deepening the kiss, more frantic in his need to taste Finn. Then Finn released his hold of Niall’s cock but before Niall could complain Finn yanked at Niall’s hand on him, releasing the hold, then lifted him, hands under his ass, and carried him the short distance to the bed.

  They tumbled onto the wide mattress, bouncing and awkward and a mess of uncoordinated limbs. But all too soon they were stripping clothes until finally they lay naked and hard against one another. There were questions in Finn’s eyes and Niall instinctively wriggled and spread his legs, letting Finn settled between them. He wanted a lot, he wanted everything: Finn’s mouth on his cock, Finn’s fingers in his ass, more kissing, fucking. He wanted it now. Finn slid off and grabbed his bag, emptying the contents on the bed. Lube and condoms showered the quilt and in a quick movement he covered his erection and had his hands slick with lube.

  Crouching over Niall, with his fingers pressing against Niall, he paused. “Are you sure?” he asked.

  Niall didn’t say a word. He simply grabbed a pillow and pushed it under his ass, lifting himself, then held onto to the metal framework at the top of the bed. He didn’t want to turn over. If he was going to break all the rules and have some muscled cop fuck him into tomorrow then he wanted the visuals to go with it. Finn groaned and kissed him, a single finger breaching Niall, the burn of it a discomfort that edged away. For the longest time they played. Finn kissing a path from Niall’s lips to his throat then from one nipple to another, all the time pressing his fingers inside and adding lube.

  “Now,” Niall said a little desperately. He didn’t know what he was asking for. Finn’s lips were so close to his cock, but the fingers in his ass were making him want to screw down on them and he was torn.

  “If I suck you, will you come?” Finn asked raggedly and breathing heavy.

  Niall whimpered. “Yes, I don’t want…need you inside…please…fuck me…”

  There was time for blowjobs later. There had to be time for blowjobs later.

  Finn sat back on his heels and used more lube on his sheathed cock. He shuffled forward, his muscled thighs lifting Niall that little bit higher and guiding himself to Niall’s loosened hole. Then he pressed and slowly he moved inside. Niall inhaled sharply. He would never get over this first intrusion, the feeling that this wasn’t going to work. Then abruptly that stopped, he relaxed and he tilted his hips and inch-by-inch Finn was inside, until finally he stopped and hunched over to steal a heated kiss.

  They kissed until Niall couldn’t breathe and he realised Finn was moving, slowly, powerfully, he was pushing Niall to feel. Finn gripped the headboard hard, the slide of pillows under his ass and head meaning he couldn’t control his movement. No, the control was all Finn’s. With every push, Finn talked. He praised Niall, thanked him, his voice increasingly ragged as he was getting closer.

  “Touch yourself,” Finn said. Niall didn’t argue, circling his cock. He set a counter rhythm that made sense in his head, pushing down onto Finn then up into the circle of his hand. Above him Finn tensed, staring down at Niall, his lips parted. Then he was coming, great pushes into Niall’s body and the sight of this big man tensed and hard, his face contorted in pleasure, was enough to have Niall coming hard over his belly. He closed his eyes at the last minute, savoured every ripple of orgasm as it hit him.

  Finn collapsed against him, taking care to rest just to one side. Then, as he softened, he eased himself out and dealt with the condom. Niall didn’t want to move but someone had to deal with the trail of wet on him. He grabbed the tissues by the bed and wiped himself down.

  What happened next? Was Finn going to take his twenty or so remaining condoms, his lube and his tight body and go back to his own room. Or would they cuddle? Or maybe some more kissing?

  What actually happened next was not on Niall’s list of scenarios. Finn reached for the plate of food and set it on the bed before sitting cross-legged, unashamedly nude, his softened dick still an impressive size against the dark curls there.

  “Want food?” he asked.

  Finn scooted to sit in a similar position. Something about the decadence of this, of a one-night fuck, of sharing what they had just shared, had him not caring he was naked with a near stranger. Super-Confident Niall was running this show. Of course, it wouldn’t be long before Introverted Niall took control, but he’d work with what he had now.

  They picked at grapes and cheese and biscuits and shared the bottle of water. Neither spoke much until Finn opened his mouth and said something that was an unexpected to Niall as sitting naked was.

  “We have to do this again.”

  Chapter Three

  “You seeing Finn this weekend?” Ewan asked.

  “Hmm?” Niall entered the last row of data and saved the spreadsheet. That was the last of the preliminary workups on the Forseti platform and he had the buzz of achievement. Numbers were not his thing. Pipes and oil and steel and the mechanics of decommissioning, that is what he was good at.

  “Tall, dark, cop, gruff English accent, all around bad guy, three months of monkey sex.”

  “He’s the good guy,” Niall chose to comment on that one point on a yawn. He pushed himself back and away from the desk and stretched tall, his fingers just scraping the low ceilings. “And no, he’s on training manoeuvres this weekend up in Urskar.”

  “It’s been a few months you’ve been seeing him now. You getting kinda serious?”

  Niall huffed a laugh. Finn was the farthest from serious that a man could get. He was all fuck and leave. Yes, they talked, yes, they sometimes shared the same bed, but Finn wasn’t all hearts and flowers. He was a Delta and that meant he was on call in the hairiest of situations in Norway. Terrorist threats, hostage negotiation, riot. All the big bads that no one expected in a beautiful, peaceful country like Norway. But it was the oil at the end of the day, the platforms in the Norwegian sea, the proximity to the UK, all of this created a volatile mix that Finn was in the middle of.

  They’d only managed five hook-ups in three months. Niall knew this because he counted. Seven days was all they’d enjoyed, but hell, those seven days had been more than enough to keep Finn’s orgasm tally at a healthy level. A combination of alpha male who loved to be in charge, with Niall’s capacity for apparently being able to push all of Finn’s buttons and made their sex explosive. Added to that they talked about a lot of things from engineering to being a cop in London. Niall had fallen in love and he hated the feeling that he wasting his heart on someone who could never care.

  “I’m out of here,” Ewan said. He picked up his laptop bag and the files from his desk. What very few people knew was that Ewan held the same degrees as Niall, that he was just as much of an expert as Niall was. Ewan was just happy being the one in the background. Not that Niall really enjoyed all the talks he had to give, or the conventions he needed to attend, but he was, after all, the big brother and he’d taken his responsibility well enough. “I’ll pick up the bags and meet you at the helipad.”

  “Yeah, okay. But, Ewan, is Mel really okay with you coming to Forseti with me?”

  “You already asked that twice today.”

  Niall shrugged. “I’m just making sure.”

  “She said, and I quote, ‘It’s a boy and if he takes after his father he’ll be late and I’m having a baby, not dying’, so I think we’re okay.”

  Ewan left with a small wave and Niall closed everything down before turning off the lights and locking the door of their shared office. He had about an hour to collect his luggage from his apartment then it was his least favourite thing about working on the oil platforms. Actually getting to them.

  The Super Puma was on the helipad, ro
tors unmoving, the pilot talking to his co-pilot with a clipboard in his hand. There were six passengers. Niall was there before Ewan, who arrived five minutes later, still talking to Mel on his cell phone and gesticulating wildly.

  Niall crossed to his brother and caught him just outside the white ring of the landing area. “What’s wrong?” He’d never seen his brother as upset as he looked at this moment.

  “They’ve taken her in, I told her she looked all puffy and she just cried and I didn’t mention it again, but her blood pressure is climbing and they’re saying it could be the start of pre-eclampsia.”

  Niall laid a hand on Ewan’s shoulder. This was a three-week stay on an oil platform in the middle of the Norwegian Sea. This wasn’t a quick five-minute drive from home to hospital. Quickly, he assumed big brother mode.

  “You stay here with Mel. I can handle this one.”

  Ewan blinked, his mouth open. He was going to argue but Niall said nothing and waited. He could see all the decisions going on in Ewan’s head. The work Niall and he were doing on Forseti and the scheduling for decommissioning was something that with two would take three weeks, but with one would take longer.

  “I could come out when Mel’s been seen,” Ewan said finally.

  “There is nothing more important than Niall Jr.,” Niall said with a reassuring smile.

  “We’re not calling him Niall.”

  The brothers exchanged a hug and grins and Ewan stood on the pad until the Puma wheeled up and away, and both his brother and the station were ever-decreasing dots in the blur of rain.

  Sitting as comfortably as he could between the others on the copter, Niall took a moment to look around. The other four passengers were all in the standard black jackets of security and would be relieving the other team looking after the platform. Forseti itself had run pretty much dry two years before and the decision to decommission instead of move led to all the oil workers, except for a skeleton crew of six, being moved off.