How’re you feeling? #3
“I don't think you fucked up,” he says, his tone razor-thin, trying so hard to sound detached. “You made it clear back at the hotel. The job was done, fake boyfriend duties were over. We had a fun couple of nights, and I read too much into it. I get it, Jed. You don’t owe me a debrief. I know I’m not exactly dateable omega material. ”
I flinch. “Wait—what?”
Aiden’s eyes flash with a sudden pain, the hard exterior cracking just enough to reveal something raw underneath.
“I know what I am, and I’m okay with it.
I’m a six-foot omega who bench-presses more than most alphas and talks back too much.
I’m fun as a novelty, but I’m not the kind of soft, gentle omega alphas actually stick around for.
You could have anyone, Jed. You said yourself you make it a rule never to go past a first date, so why would you make an exception for someone like me? ”
My heart drops straight to the pit of my stomach. Jesus Christ. The realization that I’ve inadvertently reinforced everything terrible, false thing he’s been raised to believe about himself makes me feel sick to my stomach.
He couldn’t be more wrong.
“Aid, stop, please,” I plead softly, my voice cracking on his name as I reach across the table.
“That’s not what it was, at all. When I brought up the fake-boyfriend thing ending that morning, I wasn't trying to blow you off. I was trying to figure out if you wanted this for real, but I panicked, thought you were brushing me off, and I retreated behind a bunch of stupid jokes because I was terrified of getting rejected.”
Aiden blinks, his guarded expression faltering just a fraction. He uncrosses his arms, his gaze locking onto mine across the table. “You thought… I didn’t want you?”
“Yes!” I rub a hand over the back of my neck, swallowing past the lump in my throat and trying to pull up the carefully organized words I’ve run through a thousand times in my head.
“I’ve spent my whole life jumping from one thing to the next, Aid.
I’d lived in eight cities before I was ten.
As soon as I could make friends, we picked up and moved somewhere else.
And somewhere along the way, I think that became ingrained; like anytime something good comes into my life, I’m just waiting for the moment it gets snatched away.
For a long time, boxing was the only thing that stuck, but then,” I tap my shoulder, “an injury took that away from me too.”
Aiden tilts his head sadly. “I noticed you were cagey about that. I didn’t want to push it.”
I hum. “I went kind of off the rails for a while after that, until Max and Marcus came to the rescue. The Foundry is the best thing that ever happened to me. Well, until…”
I pause. Aiden’s gray eyes linger on mine.
“Until you,” I say. My heart feels like it’s stopped beating.
Aiden’s eyes go wide. “When I woke up next to you on Sunday morning, I realized I was completely, helplessly in love with you. But instead of just saying it, I let my own insecurity spin it into this massive, terrifying thing. I thought there was no way a guy like me could keep a guy like you, so the second I felt you pulling away, I did what I always do, and fucked it up.”
I look him straight in the eyes, leaving every drop of joke and deflection off my face.
“You aren't 'too much,' Aid. You're everything. You’re simultaneously strong as hell, fierce, and the most stunning, incredible omega I’ve ever seen. I don't want a stereotype. I just want you. I’ve never wanted a second date with anyone in my entire life, but with you, I want every single day.”
Aiden stares at me, his chest rising and falling beneath his shirt.
For a few agonizing seconds during which I swear several of my hairs turn gray, he doesn’t move.
But then the tension drains out of him all at once.
His scent blooms around me, warm and sweet, and he’s stomping around the table and sliding into the booth next to me, slamming his palms lightly against my chest.
“You’re a fucking idiot, Jed Harrison,” he breathes, a watery, breathy laugh escaping his lips as he closes the gap between us and flings his arms around my neck. “We are both catastrophic idiots. And I love you too, you fucking dumbass.”
God, my heart could burst. I pull him into the kiss I’ve been dreaming of since the second his lips last left mine, and it feels like the world is righting itself. Like maybe I’ve been living on a slant my entire life, and suddenly everything has just tilted into place.
“Fuck, do you know how hard it was spending all those weeks sitting opposite you in Duke’s?
” I say breathlessly, brushing his curls off his forehead and taking in a lungful of his scent.
“Learning every tiny detail of your life and realizing that nothing in my life had ever felt that good? Not winning a professional fight, no meaningless fucking hookup, no wild night on the town. None of it compared to even five minutes just talking about your fucking shoe size, Aid.”
“I think I’ve got an idea,” he says, gray eyes sparkling with emotion. “In fact, I think I know exactly what that feels like.”
I grin, laughing out of sheer relief, because the alternative is crying in the middle of Duke’s. Warmth spreads all the way from my toes and bubbles up and out of my mouth in a happy sound, and Aid is laughing against my shoulder, and it’s fucking beautiful.
“So,” I say, nuzzling into the warm crook of his neck and holding him close. “Does this mean I’m rehired? As the real boyfriend, this time?”
“Hmm,” he hums happily. “I like the sound of that. Just in time for the next family dinner.”
I groan dramatically, but then he kisses me again, and I figure I’ll happily go to a thousand family dinners if I get to spend them with him.