Chapter 15 - Ollie
Ollie
Ihate being pissed off, but I hate being pissed off and horny even more.
I still sit at the desk, my arms and legs folded, glaring at Timber, who dwarfs the doorway as he watches me.
“Are you just going to stand there so I can admire your chest the whole time we talk, or are you actually going to sit down?”
I nod at the chair next to the desk, far enough away that I can’t touch him, but near enough that it’s going to drive me wild.
“It’s my house, and you’re ordering me around,” he says huffily as he sits.
“Yeah? Well, I didn’t come back smelling like a lavender popsicle.”
“That’s because I…” As soon as I raise a brow, he trails off, and I love how his cheeks go pink. There should be a law about guys his age looking this cute.
I just have to remember that ten minutes ago I was furiously rubbing one out in the bathroom two doors down because of him and my other asshole alpha. Just as I was warming up to Kane as well.
“If you’re going to fuck other people, at least get changed before you come and see me.”
I'm already working out a way to steal his shirt for my nest. It'll be even better than the last one.
Timber flushes harder, but he’s not denying it. He shuffles in his seat like I’m scolding him instead of hinting that he has a pipeline to my pussy and he knows how to fill it.
If he keeps this up, I could found my very own slicktopia, built on an island surrounded by oceans of slick.
“What was it you wanted to talk about?” he finally asks while I’m already dreaming of the throne of slick he could eat me out on. That’s a lot more fun than what I’m planning to say.
I clear my throat, my bunched fists hiding under my armpits.
“I think it’s best if I stop living here and working for you,” I say, looking away as his gaze suddenly grows heavy.
My awareness of him skyrockets as he takes a deep breath, and I can’t help peeking at his chest under his hockey tee to relieve some of the tension. That’s before his scowl appears.
“I mean, I can’t keep working for you under these conditions, so I’ve decided to move out. I can still provide meal plans, but I believe it would be best if they are prepared and cooked by someone else.”
The silence tightens my chest, but I have to stay firm. I can’t let myself be swayed by the look of shock on his face.
“Luke, are you serious? I don’t understand. I thought we were getting along.”
I rub my piercing against the roof of my mouth, swallowing before I answer. “I’m struggling to maintain an employee-boss relationship with you, and I think it would be easier for us both if I left now.”
I hate the way I speak. I practiced saying it formally so that I’d come off like a professional, but it sounds so unlike me that I want to turn around and say ‘haha, just kidding’ before word vomiting about how much I like him.
“‘Easier for us both’?” he echoes, gritting his jaw. “Is that a joke? How do you think that would be easy on me?”
He shifts to the edge of his seat, his pants tightening as he moves.
His thighs are so thick they’ll suffocate me if I take a nice trip down there.
I force myself to look straight into his eyes so I don’t do anything like drool over how his huge hands curl around the arms of the chair in the same way he cupped my ass at the restaurant.
“Is it your heat?” he asks. I flinch, stunned so quickly that my heart falls to the floor with my jaw.
Why did his mind have to go there? Couldn’t he just be a big ol’ romantic and ask if it’s because I love him?
Though considering what he was like on our ‘date’, maybe he’s just being awkward again.
“You told me you were going to help an omega in heat, remember? Was that you?”
My brow furrows as I look away from him. “This is what I mean about an employee-boss relationship. My heat shouldn’t have anything to do with you.”
“But I’m your—”
I cough loudly to cover up whatever else he was going to spit out, glaring at him. He gets the hint and snaps his lips shut.
Hopefully, that would give him a clue about why I’m running for the hills. It would hurt more if he came out and said it.
I could question how he knows, but he wouldn’t have held me like that this morning, or stolen the oatmeal bag if he hadn’t at least guessed we were mates.
I was stupid to think that Timber wouldn’t connect the dots and he’d stay blissfully ignorant of all the other layers of fuckery I’ve created.
His chair rattles as he moves, and I pray to the God of Motion Sickness that he stays there. But no. Because panic splashes across his face and he slides closer.
“You can’t just leave. There’s no reason to. Didn’t you make some kind of agreement with Marilyn to stay until the end of the season? You can’t just end that.”
“I’ll talk to her and get it sorted, so don’t worry about it.”
“Luke…” The way his voice dips goes straight to my pussy. “Do you really think I won’t worry?”
Wow, I knew it was going to be bad, but I didn’t think it would feel like my heart is being put through a meat grinder.
It wasn’t like we were breaking up or anything. From the outside, I’m just the guy who cooks his meals. Except there’s no mistaking the pain that beats through his gaze.
He goes silent, but he’s still edging closer on that dumb wheely chair.
My omega side wants him to fight, to try to stop me. Or he could at least get a bit growly and possessive and do the whole thrust me up against a wall thing that he’s so good at.
He just twists his fingers together in front of him, and I watch and wait to see what he’ll say.
“Why don’t I help you move? Can I do that?”
My mind instantly goes to my nest, and a shiver of pleasure hums through me. What would he do if he saw how many of his shirts I have? How would he react to my beanbag chair that’s probably more slick than beans at this point?
God, even just the thought of having Timber stand in my nest has slick building in me, and I shuffle in my seat.
“I think it’s better if I leave when you’re at your next set of away games,” I say, avoiding his gaze.
He rolls his chair right up to me, looking at me with puppy dog eyes, and I’m absolutely falling for it.
“Just let me do something. One last thing,” he says.
The market was supposed to be our ‘one last thing’. That was our goodbye.
“How about I cook you dinner? Isn’t it normal to say thank you once a job is over?”
I shake my head, my earrings clinking off each other. “You can’t taste it, so why would you bother?” I ask, repeating his question from the day I moved in.
“I can still follow a recipe. You’ve cooked for me all this time, so I’ll return the favor.”
I haven’t seen him look so hopeful before. After everything he said about never wanting an omega, this feels too close to courting. I don’t want to get wrapped up in thoughts like that; that’s how I got myself stuck on him in the first place.
I know I’m not imagining his feelings, or mine, but life would be so much easier if he didn’t reach for me and take my hand. He eases me toward him, and I unfold my arms so that my fingers disappear in his meaty paw.
His kisses and strokes in the restaurant had been so rushed when he thought I was Ollie. Now, actually feeling the brush of his fingers nearly makes my eyes roll as my pussy clenches.
“Kane suggested you come to a game with us. You and your sister. After that, you can both come back here, and I’ll cook for us.”
Alarm bells go off as soon as he said, Kane suggested. It’s such a bad idea on so many levels. I shouldn’t even consider it. I’m going to have to rip that alpha a new one after all his crap about trusting him and having no expectations.
“I don’t think Ollie can make it,” I say, and his face falls. Guilt stabs at me, but I totally deserve the twisting ache in my stomach.
“Oh, okay…” he says, his head drooping, making everything worse. “I wanted both of you to watch me and Kane play,” he says, turning the puppy look up to eleven.
How can I say no to that face?
“I’ll see what I can do,” I say stiffly, trying not to grimace as I lie straight at him. I mean, I lie to him every time I see him, but that’s kind of a base lie. This is the high note, where I don’t have any excuses.
I’ll tell him Ollie canceled and tear into Kane when I get the chance.
“It won’t change anything,” I say, and he squeezes my hand. He shouldn’t come any closer, but I’m letting him. The way he sighs and how his thumb softly strokes my palm are too addictive.
I thought he was awkward and nervous about stuff like this, but just that little movement says so much.
Dammit, I have to get away from him, but it feels so good and right.
I try to pull my hand back, but he won’t relax his grip.
“Timber,” I say, my voice filled with warning. “Let me go.”
“I don’t want you to go anywhere. Just stay with me, Luke. You don’t have to work for me or anything. But…” He presses his lips together, and the tremor in his hand echoes in mine. “Your heat…”
I suck in a sharp breath, yanking my hand back, pushing at the floor to roll away from him.
How the hell did we get to the stage where this hurt hung in the air around us? Why couldn’t we just go back to where he thought I was a beta and I could flirt with him and get horny without it really meaning anything?
Well, it always meant something. But it didn’t feel like there was anything more waiting for me. I’d just fantasize about him pounding me into oblivion, my body would throb every now and again, and I’d be sorted.
He stands up before I can, his expression dark like the Timber I first met. The tense hockey player who was so pissed off by my presence that I was down to fuck if he wanted to leap for me.
“I’ll send you the details of the game,” he says gruffly, and oh-so-alphy. “I want to see you both there, because we need to have a fucking conversation about this, where you aren’t just running away from me.”
“And if we don’t?” I push back.
“Do you want to see what will happen if you don’t, omega?” he growls.
His version of ‘try me’ is so hot I’m going to melt.
All the pain that built up as soon as he came into the office swirls into pure need as I tilt my head back to look at the mass of muscle that is my alpha.
He avoids one of those long, tense stares that are our thing now, choosing to storm out of the room instead.
The door rattles as it slams behind him, and my heart shudders.
“Fuck,” I gasp as the tension cracks, and I slump in my chair.
Tingles still dance over my skin as I groan.
No matter how much I push him away, there’s seriously no way I’ll ever get over that man.