38. Brutus
CHAPTER 38
brUTUS
I’d finally gotten Chloe away for a trip to Nesting Needs.
I couldn’t wait to help Chloe build the nest of her dreams.
“Go, crazy Love. We can get anything your heart desires.”
Chloe smiled widely as she power walked down the first aisle.
The first item that she threw into the shopping cart was a small pack of fairy lights.
Alright. People needed staples. Maybe she wasn’t sure exactly what she wanted and needed to get some lights to test the waters.
There wasn’t anything wrong with liking fairy lights.
Chloe took a leisurely stroll down the aisles, passing by some mood lighting fixtures with great architectural details. She stopped once she got to the Himalayan salt lamp, read the description on the back before placing it next to the fairy lights.
Okay. If my Baby girl wanted the generic salt lamp, my girl got that.
“Oh, I like this,” Chloe exclaimed as she picked up a pink neon sign that said breathe.
I chuckled, amused at her little joke… until she placed it in the shopping cart with the rest of the things.
Ah. She actually wasn’t joking.
Alright then, that was my mistake.
She then went on and completely bypassed the entire aisle that had high-end metallic accessories, as well as various types of vases.
God, we needed to go back to that aisle at some point. Chloe needed a minimum of two crystal vases. How was I even supposed to get my girl any flowers without that? At this point, it wasn’t even something I wanted, it was a room essential.
Then, Chloe started heading toward a section of rugs. The textures in fabrics had the potential to make drastic changes in the feel of a room. She could easily turn her nest space into something that felt sultry and sophisticated… especially with a vibrant piece like that Turkish cotton. Or Chloe couldn’t go wrong with that modern Persian or even the hand-woven Moroccan tassel… but no, Chloe walked past all of those to grab a lavender dyed shag carpet… made from synthetic fibers.
Everything that she was touching was so… basic.
Which was fine.
I just had to remind myself that this was Chloe’s space. She was picking the exact items in her nest that would help her feel safe. There wasn’t any rule anywhere that said that the items that made her feel most comfortable had to be high-end or luxurious in any way.
Well, however my omega chose to decorate her room, there was no way that she could end up making it look worse than Sabien’s pig sty. If worse came to worst, I would just pretend that the nest didn’t exist. We could always fuck in different rooms of the house.
I generally made it a rule with my lovers not to interfere with their preferences. I strove to make them happy… but Ch loe had just thrown sheets into the shopping bin without even looking at the thread count. When I grabbed the package and checked it, they were really at a thread count of one-hundred forty-four.
Absolutely not.
I drew the line at safety. This thread count was so low, it was going to give us all breakouts and eczema when Chloe’s heat hit. I refused to fuck on sheets that were this cheap—at that point we might as well just be rolling around on the mud, or in the literal hay. This was disgusting.
I cleared my throat to get her attention. I would be gentle about this and bring it up in a way that wouldn’t violate her autonomy. “Are you sure you don’t want this in Egyptian cotton?”
“Oh. What’s that?” Chloe had a breezy voice. She wasn’t even looking at the sheets anymore, she was checking out an oversized dream catcher. I didn’t even need to get closer to read the label jutting from the side that said it was made in China.
Holy shit.
My girl… didn’t know what Egyptian cotton was?
I forced myself to control the expression on my face. I wasn’t going to look shocked. I wasn’t going to express any horror. I refused to make a scene in a nesting store and make a huge deal over linen thread counts. “It’s made with higher quality material, so it’s softer and more durable.”
“I guess that sounds nice. But do you know where—”
I grabbed the sheets that I’d been eyeing, hoping that Chloe would choose. They were the same color she’d chosen but with a thread count of eight hundred; it was a much healthier choice for our skin. Not enough people realized how much bacteria could grow in low-quality linen.
While I was off grabbing the proper bed sheets, Chloe grabbed a throw pillow with the words “live, laugh, love” stitched on. My eye twitched involuntarily at the sight of it— but it was fine. As long as the pillow was meant to be decorative, and no human head actually had to come in contact with it, the cheap fabric wouldn’t harm anybody. Most likely.
The next box that Chloe chucked into the shopping cart was for an incense kit—one where the ceramic holder was shaped like a Buddha. My mind raced to think of excuses to get out of this aisle before—
“Oh! These are so pretty!” Chloe was hunched over a display of crystals. “Should I get a rose quartz or amethyst?”
I placed my hand over my mouth like I was lost in thought, as I attempted to hold back from voicing an opinion about her chosen design aesthetic.
Okay. So my omega was a bit of a basic bitch .
Okay fine. That was fine.
As long as she kept buying the good sheets for me to fuck her on… did it really matter?