Chapter 1 #2
After a moment of quiet, Jay exhaled and rubbed his neck. “You might have heard alphas of a certain age and relationship status saying that omegas these days have too high standards.” He sounded serious, and I wondered if what he was saying was a test of some kind.
“I have. Always sounded like bullshit to me.”
“It is.”
“You don’t have high standards?”
He let out another laugh, but it sounded sad. “I really don’t.”
“What’s your ideal man, then?”
“There’s no such thing.”
I studied his face, waiting for him to elaborate. The play of his features and the shape of his plush mouth were most distracting. I wanted more time to just look at him and learn his expressions.
“You probably won’t need this for years to come,” he said. “But one day in the future, if you find yourself dating omegas my age, word of advice.”
“I’m listening.”
“Omegas like me, in their late thirties and forties, the single dads, the divorcés… We don’t want to be wooed.”
“No?”
He shook his head. “I don’t want romantic dinners, flowers, jewelry, or opera tickets. I don’t want expensive wine if it means I have to listen to some alphahole explaining in debilitating detail about stuff I already know.”
“I hear you. So what do omegas your age want?”
“It’s simple, Chase. We want dick.”
I sucked in a startled breath, and he laughed at my reaction.
“It’s true. I want an average guy with just enough brain cells to ask about my day and listen to the answer.
But most of all, I want him to fuck it all better.
That’s it. All the single dads out there would tell you the same thing if they dared.
We just want to get dicked deep enough to pump some endorphins into our brains.
Preferably by someone who knows when to shut up. ”
“Wow.”
And now my cock stirred. Because I saw myself as that average guy, dicking Jay so hard he’d be drowning in endorphins.
Think of sweaty benches. You’re sitting on one. Sweaty alpha ass cracks are imprinted here. Just please, don’t get hard.
“Sorry, that was oversharing,” Jay said, unaware of what mayhem his casual words caused in my system. “But it’s valuable information. You might have use for it ten years from now.”
“Uh.” Say something, idiot!
Jay eyed me with worry. “I apologize for being so blunt. I’m in a lousy mood, I guess. I didn’t mean to traumatize you.”
“No. God no, actually…I’m not traumatized. Not at all. I just…”
Now or never.
He glanced at me, curious. “Yes?”
“I really shouldn’t be saying this.”
“What?”
“You won’t get me fired, will you?”
“Is there a reason?”
Damn. The last time I felt like this was when a friend had taken me bungee jumping. Just before the plunge, my stomach had done the exact same thing it was doing now.
“Jay, I’ll ask you one question, and if you say no, we’ll forget about it. Like it never happened.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Then ask.”
“Do you want to come to my place? For sex.”
Fuck. I’ve said it out loud.
His eyes grew big, and his lips parted. He looked genuinely shocked.
“Oh my God, you mean it, don’t you?”
That was not a no. I suppressed a hopeful smile. “Yes.”
“Why?”
Again, not a no.
“I’m very attracted to you, your scent is making me half hard as we speak, and you just told me you want sex. I want to have sex with you. So, the only missing link is whether you’re attracted to me too.”
He rubbed his face with both hands. “This wasn’t my intention.”
And still, not a no.
“I live five blocks away, alone,” I said. “I’m currently single. And I swear, I’ve never hit on a client before.”
“Am I to believe that?”
I shrugged. “It’s true.”
“God. Stop with those puppy-dog eyes.”
“Do you find me attractive, Jay?”
“You’re a twenty-five-year-old PT with the body of a Viking god and the face of an angel. I would have to be dead not to find you attractive. And jeez, I’m such a cliché!”
I white-knuckled the edge of the bench to push back the urge to fist-bump the air. Then I stood up, and he followed my movement with his gaze, lingering on my thighs, bulge, and abs in my tight shirt. Yeah, he liked what he saw.
He licked his lips.
“I finish in fifteen,” I said. “Meet me at the bus stop in front of the parking lot just after eleven.”
I spent the last minutes of my shift obsessively reorganizing everything I could put my hands on—the heavier, the better. I even rolled the medicine balls around so they were lined up along the wall from lightest to heaviest.
At seven minutes to eleven, I ran to the staff showers.
At eleven, I jumped up and down at the bus stop, trying not to freak out. How long should I wait? Would he stand me up?
He came four minutes past eleven, his hair still damp from the shower.
He had his hands in his coat pockets, the canvas bag over his shoulder, and he rocked on his heels.
“This is a spectacularly bad idea,” he said, but he smiled a little too.
I decided not to respond to that. “I’m this way.”
I still half expected him to back out, but he got into step by my side.
It had stopped snowing, and the air was frigid, the sidewalk covered with almost an inch of powdery snow. This late, only a few footprints disturbed the perfect surface. For once, Dalton City looked clean and innocent, all the grime hidden under the pristine blanket.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Jay muttered. “And fuck, you’re young.”
“How old are you anyway?”
“I’m thirty-seven, Chase.”
Did he think that would put me off? No way. “And you said you were a nurse?”
“I work at an omega health clinic downtown. I have a thirteen-year-old son. I share a house with my older alpha brother, who’s helped me raise Monty.”
A thirteen-year-old named Monty. Thirteen years of caring for someone, always putting someone else first. What must that have been like? Jay’s being a single father only made him more fascinating to me.
“Monty. Is that short for Montgomery?”
“Lamont, actually.”
The name sounded unusual. How did he come up with it? I wanted to ask but didn’t. What if it weirded him out that his hookup wanted to talk about his kid?
“Your brother’s married, right?” I asked instead.
“Yes. It’s only been a couple of years since the wedding, but I think it’s for keeps. He and Kirby are sweet together.”
“And they have kids?”
“No. They don’t want to. I’m not complaining because now Monty has his uncles to himself. They’re spoiling him, especially Kirby, my brother-in-law.”
He gazed after a passing cab and blew out a breath, a white cloud forming in front of his face. His nose was getting pink, and so were his ears.
“Aren’t you cold?”
Startled, he glanced at me, then smiled. “I’m okay. The coat’s warm.”
“You should have a hat.”
“Really?” he said dryly.
I unwrapped the thick woolen scarf I had around my neck and handed it to him.
“I’m fine,” he said.
“Take it. You’re fresh from the shower.”
“You said it was only a few blocks.”
“Three more. Take the scarf, Jay.”
Shaking his head, he took it and wrapped it around his neck so it covered his chin and ears too. “Happy now?”
“Yes.”
He looked adorable, all wrapped up and cozy.
We walked in silence for a while, and curiously, I didn’t feel the need to come up with a question to fill the silence.
I watched him instead, how his eyebrows drew together and his nose crinkled a little as he sniffed my scarf.
He seemed to be thinking hard about something, and I wasn’t brave enough to ask him what.