Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
Shawn
It was humiliating having to leave a sex scenario because of my brother. And here I’d been given to believe that Enzo was the one who liked humiliation. Oh, how our roles had been reversed!
“I really appreciate this ride,” Enzo said as we walked out into the crisp, sunny October morning. “Sometimes I really hate being dependent on people, but it is what it is, so, yeah, I really appreciate it.”
“It’s not a problem,” I said, trying to smile and pretend like we were just two people who happened to be going the same way. I was so used to doing favors and being the reliable good guy that I could almost convince myself it was business as usual.
Except that I knew what it was like to hold Enzo’s beautiful, naked, and, as it turned out, flexible body in my arms. I knew what it was like to be surrounded by his vanilla scent. I knew what it was like to be deep inside him while he moaned in pleasure and came like there was no tomorrow.
“You’re still thinking about it, aren’t you,” Enzo said, jolting me out of my thoughts as we reached my car. I glanced up at him as he walked around to the passenger’s side and blushed hard at the saucy grin he wore. “Yeah, you are,” he said, looking absolutely delighted.
“How could I not?” I replied, trying to play it cool and knowing I was absolutely failing. “You’re a good—” I had no idea how to finish that sentence without making myself seem boorish or just dumb.
Enzo leaned his arms against the top of my sedan as I fished for my keys. “Good boy?” he suggested. “Good time? Good lay?”
Something bothered me about the way he seemed to be joking, but felt dark underneath his cheeky smile.
“You’re a good person, Enzo,” I said, clicking the fob to unlock my car but staying where I was for a second, facing him across the car roof. “I might not know very much about you, but I know you’re a good person.”
Enzo’s expression flickered through several emotions too fast for me to catch them before returning to his grin. “Thanks, Shawn,” he said. “Coming from someone like you, that means a lot.”
I frowned slightly, but the conversation was paused for a second as we got in the car, tossing the overnight bags we’d brought and barely used into the back seat.
I tried to let the comment go and not get to me as I started the car, backed out of the parking space, then faced forward and started driving down the mountain toward reality.
I couldn’t let it go, though.
“What does that mean?” I asked as we wound our way slowly down the mountain. There wasn’t anyone else around, which made me feel more confident, like no one would notice me leaving a kinky sex event with an omega by my side and judge me for it. And tell my dad.
“What does what mean?” Enzo asked, relaxing back into his seat.
“Someone like me,” I said, praying I didn’t sound like an insecure fool, but almost certain I did.
Enzo dragged his eyes away from the amazing scenery and stared at me for a second. “Someone nice and upstanding and, and, and moral.”
Moral. The word hit me in all the wrong ways, like it was a failing. Which was exactly the opposite of what it was supposed to mean.
“Moral?” I asked, sending him a quick, wry look before turning onto the main road that would take us to the highway.
Enzo laughed. “Okay, maybe that makes you sound like a buttoned-up seminary candidate or something.”
“I’m not,” I said, stealing another peek at him before focusing on the road like I should.
“What, moral?” Enzo asked. He was teasing me.
“No,” I said, forcing myself to loosen up a little. “A seminary candidate. I mean, I thought about it when I was in high school, but then it was made abundantly clear to me that I would go to college, major in business, get an MBA, and take over the family business someday.”
Enzo gaped at me. “But you wanted to be a priest?”
“Not really,” I said, pinching my face. “I was just a kid. You know how people are about what they want to be when they grow up while they’re still in high school.”
“Yeah,” Enzo said. The note of sadness in his voice made me peek at him again. He’d lost his cheeky grin and now stared out the window.
“What did you want to be when you grew up?” I asked, because I just couldn’t help myself.
I knew it was a touchy subject when Enzo shrugged and said, “I dunno. Something in business, maybe. I always used to tell myself that I would figure it out in college, but then college never happened.”
“It didn’t?”
He shook his head, and it felt to me like he had to drag the answer, “Nope,” out of himself.
“Why not?”
God, Shawn. Way to stick your foot in your mouth by asking questions he clearly doesn’t want to answer.
Enzo heaved a small sigh then said, “My papa got sick. Cancer.”
I immediately remembered what Caden had told me about Enzo and felt like a jerk for bringing it up.
Enzo went on. “He fought it as long as he could. I became his primary caretaker, and when Dad, who was a deadbeat anyhow, and my brother Jeff ditched us because we were, and I quote, ‘too boring’, I had to scramble to make enough money to keep the apartment and pay for the premiums for his care. Don’t ever get cancer, by the way,” he added sullenly. “It’s expensive.”
I flushed hot. Even if I did get sick, which I wasn’t planning to do, I had the absolute best health insurance money could buy through work, and even if I had to pay out of pocket, I’d be fine.
“Health insurance in this country is so broken,” I said, hoping he would see that I wanted to be in solidarity with him.
I wanted a lot more than that. We drove farther and farther away from Kincade Slopes, but my feelings of ownership and responsibility for Enzo continued.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was mine somehow, mine to take care of and to love.
We’d only had about twelve hours together, but I’d learned things about myself that I would have run away from under other circumstances.
I wanted to learn more. The freedom Enzo had allowed me had loosened something in me, and now I wanted more of it.
I wanted to test my limits and see how open and instinctual I could be in bed.
But not with any old omega. I wanted to explore myself and my boundaries with Enzo and with nobody else, but I wanted to explore them fully.
“So let me ask you something,” Enzo said when the silence in the car had gone on too long.
“Okay.”
Enzo faced me with a curious look and said, “Why would you cut short a perfectly fine scene that you had to have made plans for at the drop of a hat because your brother called about some venue for something?”
Oh boy. I guess it was only fair for Enzo to ask the loaded questions when I’d just done the same for him.
“It’s complicated,” I said.
“Are you in love with him?”
I nearly jerked the steering wheel and crashed into the car next to us. “What? Um, no. He’s my brother.”
“Just asking,” Enzo said, his broad, cheeky grin returning. “Because as taboo as it is, there are people who are into that.”
“I am not in love with my brother,” I insisted forcefully. “I feel responsible for him, guilty. Our parents never treated us equally, and because he’s the omega, he always got the thin end of the wedge. It’s made him—”
I stopped, mostly because Enzo was grinning at me like a Cheshire cat. The bastard. He’d deliberately provoked me with the whole incest thing so I would blurt out the truth instead of holding back.
Actually, that was incredibly clever of him. He would do brilliantly in a business negotiation. He’d have clients and colleagues eating out of his hand in minutes.
I looked at him, feeling how hot my face was. “Do you always do that?”
“Do what?” he asked with fake innocence.
“Get people to talk about things they might not otherwise talk about by nudging them into it.”
“I nudged?”
I smiled before I could stop myself. I liked him. God, how I liked him! Part of me wanted to pull over, drag Enzo into the back seat, yank his trousers down, and bury myself in him like he had the elixir of life up in his womb and I could only reach it through vigorous fucking.
That was not like me at all.
“Okay,” I said, smiling and relaxing way more than I thought I ever could under those circumstances.
“Yes, I think Walt is jealous of me, of the favoritism our parents show me, and of the position I’ve been given in the family company.
It bothers me, though. The older he’s gotten, the angrier he is.
We used to be close when we were kids, but now…
.” I sighed. “Sometimes I think he hates me.”
“Because as you grew into adults, your parents favored their alpha son instead of their omega,” Enzo said, nodding like he understood.
“It gets worse than that,” I said as I took the exit for central Norwalk. “It hasn’t just been favoritism these last couple years. I see it and Walt sees it. Dad has been trying to push Walt out of business and into getting married and starting a family.”
“Ouch,” Enzo said, like he understood and appreciated the pain of the situation without too much explanation. As an omega, it made sense that he’d get it.
“Walt is brilliant, though,” I went on, heading straight to the Pullman Center, where Walt was probably waiting. “He really is clever. Dad never appreciated it and Papa constantly warned him to tone it down because no decent, society alpha would want a clever omega for a husband.”
“Old school much?” Enzo asked.
I laughed humorlessly. “Very. A lot of the richest and most powerful families in Barrington and beyond would happily go back to the days of arranged marriages within top society circles if they could. Some actually do. I had an alpha friend growing up whose parents arranged his marriage. At least they ended up happy together. So far.”
Enzo’s brow shot up in surprise. “You’re actually, genuinely rich?”
Another bolt of embarrassed dread shot through me. “Um, yeah,” I said, eyeing him sideways. “That’s not a problem, is it?”