2. Casey
TWO
Casey
Casey
After sex and breakfast, the best way to start our morning, we left our apartment and went to work. The short walk to my studio was the same direction Marshall took for the subway. We walked side by side down the sidewalk, savoring one last moment together.
A familiar tension remained in my body, even after a relaxing, pleasurable morning with him. Despite having three orgasms, I was still restless and uneasy. The week after my heat was always like this. It would pass. I just had to wait it out.
“You good?”
I pulled my bag across my chest, adjusting a fold in the strap to offset my tension. “It’s fine.”
After two years together, he knew my patterns without me saying anything.
The conversation was over before it even started, another thing I liked about him.
Marshall was perfect for me. Other Alphas lost interest when they knew about my problems, but Marshall stayed.
He loved me. It didn’t matter that my heats were hard to deal with, or I could never give him children.
Marshall wanted me for me, not for what I could give him.
I could handle a little sexual frustration if it meant not losing him.
“Breakfast was delicious, by the way,” I praised, playfully bumping him with my shoulder. “I wasn’t expecting fresh biscuits like that. From scratch, no less.”
“I wanted to treat you. Plus, I figured if I couldn’t convince you with sex, a special breakfast might do the trick.”
He really wanted me to meet his family. It must mean a lot to him if he was willing to do this much to convince me.
“Ahh, so that amazing breakfast was a bribe?” I cheeked.
Chuckling, he found my hand and walked us down a crosswalk. “I didn’t think you’d say yes so quickly. You’ve been against it since we first met.”
I clutched my bag tighter, my grip on his hand slowly loosening. “Family stuff just… never goes well. At first I seem fine, and parents love me. But the more they find out, the less they like.”
As soon as we were on the other side of the street, he pulled me away from the crowd, his arm tucked around my waist. His faint scent had disappeared with so many competing smells, but having him close comforted me all the same.
Those beautiful green eyes stared down at me, watching every flicker on my face.
“Your past doesn’t matter to me. And if my family has a problem with that, then we’ll deal with it.”
He said the words with absolute conviction.
My past made me less certain. A failed marriage.
An empty womb. Time after time, men deciding they were done with me after only a few weeks.
The past two years with Marshall had been my longest relationship, apart from my marriage.
That was a painful time I tried to forget.
I was barely twenty-six, and I already had baggage. No one wants that for their son.
Despite everything, Marshall made me feel valued. He knew about my past, and he still stayed with me. I could deal with almost anything as long as I had him.
I smiled back, and slowly slid my hands up his chest, clasping them behind his neck. “I’ll do my best to charm them.”
“Don’t try too hard. Just be yourself. Dad may take a bit to warm up to you, but he’ll come around.
My brother will follow his lead.” I wanted to throw up just thinking about meeting Marshall’s family, but it meant something to Marshall, and I would do anything for him.
“You don’t have to look like you’re being tortured,” he reminded me.
“Save that for when we’re actually there. ”
“Ha. Funny.”
Throwing his arm across my shoulder, we walked to the end of the sidewalk.
A cluster of Alphas were clustered around an ATM, just close enough that my arm brushed one of them when we walked by.
Marshall kept going, not even noticing the way those Alphas looked at me.
It was a brief glance, but they clocked me up and down before we passed them.
That slow smirk of approval on their faces made me want to hide in a hole.
I was with an Alpha. They wouldn’t try anything.
“Here we are,” Marshall announced as we stopped outside my building.
He gently tilted my head towards him, stealing my attention away from the Alphas.
“You have a good day at work, babe. I’ll gas up the car, and we’ll head out to my dad’s place after you get off.
You have enough vacation days for us to stay for a while. ”
He really planned all of this ahead of time. This had gone from a tiny request to a full blown trip in just a few hours. I still didn’t want to go, but I would do anything for Marshall.
“Got it. I love you.”
“You too.”