Chapter 6
Six
Xavier
Acting casual was not my forte but Brady had me so tied up in knots, I didn’t know what way was up or down most days.
He had me putting on an act, pretending all was good, just so I could keep a place in his life.
I’d finally worked up the courage to ask Brady to let me take him through his heat after days of running it through my mind.
Perfectly scripted, it came across as an offhand comment, no big deal if he didn’t accept, which was a massive lie.
I would have been crushed if he had shot me down.
Luckily, Brady had accepted. With conditions, of course. Those I understood because navigating what we were to each other while also dealing with all the shit I had going on in my life was a lot. Too much, even.
Like Brady and my moms had suggested, I’d met with a therapist. Dr. Carver was professional, polite, and absolutely willing to call me out on my bullshit.
She got me to admit my avoidance was part of the problem in my marriage and Gio had manipulated me using it.
The sessions were tough, yet I could see progress being made with every single one.
Even when there was a bump in the road, I saw purpose in it.
Metaphorical tools in hand, I used what I learned to keep Brady in my life by learning how to recognize what was a boundary for him and by keeping a slight emotional distance.
I was liable to throw myself into a relationship, putting a burden on my partner, or partners, which I couldn’t afford to do with Brady until we were on surer footing.
He’d let me back into his life over the last few months, little by little.
It was a struggle, though, to keep myself from asking for more.
We’d created a friendship out of our situationship somehow.
Together we’d built something I hoped would last, even if our physical relationship beyond his heat didn’t.
Brady was important to me in a way very few people were. He was precious. I was willing to wait for him, to fight for him, if that’s what it took.
When he agreed—with rules—to a friends with benefits situation for his heat, I hoped it could become more.
I’d be a liar if I said anything else. There was no one like Brady with his quick mind and clever tongue.
He looked like a little angel but was a demon in the sheets.
He was more than his looks, though he’d been given more than his fair share of them.
Brady had the typical boyish stature and build of an omega, but his outward appearance belied his strength.
Under his business attire, he was slightly muscular from weight training, though his habit of swimming twice a week stopped him from getting bulky.
Brady was perfect in the water. He swam like a shark, barely coming up for air.
If he’d been six feet tall like me instead of five-six, then he would have been in competitions. He was that fast.
More than once, passersby had stopped Brady to ask if he was a model.
His golden tan skin shone like he’d captured a fragment of the sun.
His forest-green eyes always danced with mischief.
He had the model-perfect bone structure with high cheekbones offset with a soft jawline, giving him an eternally youthful appearance, and a perfectly pert nose.
At twenty-seven, he was often mistaken for a college student.
Gio had hated that because it made him feel creepy.
I didn’t mind since I was also blessed with looking younger than I was.
Forty was swiftly approaching, but I’d always taken care of my skin and didn’t have any gray hairs, so I could pass for thirty.
Before everything had blown up in our faces, I was planning on spending Brady’s heat with him with the hope it would be a permanent thing.
I knew his cycle and when he agreed to be with me for this heat, he added me to his tracking app.
While he was pretty regular—like clockwork, he said—the app gave him additional peace of mind because it synced with his smartwatch.
The watch used sensors to track his pheromones and predict his heat that way.
In the app there was also a useful tracking function.
It meant I could quickly get his location just in case he was caught off guard with his cycle.
It also logged my location as his partner, so he knew if I was getting closer to him, which was an important safety feature.
Of course, Gio had to throw a spanner in the works and blow up all of our lives. The plans we’d made with Brady before all this were gone. The life I’d built with my husband splintered, then completely cracked apart.
We were rebuilding slowly, just me and Brady. He was all I needed.
His rules were simple: no leaving things behind, leave an hour after everything is done, no pet names outside of sex, and no mention of the past. If I could abide by those four rules, then I could prove to Brady that trusting me was the right thing to do. I had to convince him to give me a chance.
The app dinged with the warning notification the morning Brady had expected to go into heat.
“Right on time,” I said to myself in the silence of my new home.
It was taking me more time than I would have liked to settle into the place.
Something about it was wrong. No, I knew what it was.
It didn’t feel like home because it was empty.
I didn’t do well living on my own, another thing I was dealing with in therapy.
I checked the app for an estimate of the first wave. Brady’s pheromones were still low enough he could still go outside, maybe even work for a couple of hours. To be certain, I texted him, asking what time I should come over.
Brady
Around dinner time. Bring takeout
Xavier
Are you going into the office today?
His reply took a little while to arrive.
Brady
No, it’s a work from home day. Jae has meetings with his lawyer friends, so we’re just going over his promo tour.
Jae, Brady’s best friend, was one of the affected omegas in the DuoStop scandal that had broken a few weeks ago and was releasing a children’s book soon.
The pharmaceutical company, AlphaPharm, knew their leading emergency contraception, DuoStop, had several faulty batches, yet rather than remove those from sale and take the financial loss, they had sold them anyway, resulting in many omegas getting pregnant though they had taken precautions.
The entire thing was a mess. My speciality was entertainment law, not what he needed. Luckily, I had contacts. It didn’t take long to reach out to some of my law school class for help. They were all eager to get on board with what was sure to be a landmark case.
Jae wanted support for affected omegas and new legislation to ensure this couldn’t happen again.
Both noble reasons for what was sure to be months of work.
My reason for helping wasn’t nearly as noble as Jae’s.
I just wanted to impress Brady. Of course omegas needed protection and AlphaPharm had to pay for what they had done, but my first thought was always Brady.
Although I hadn’t expected it, I had time to check in at my office. My firm represented artists, authors, actors, and even athletes, keeping us busy year-round.
Jess, my assistant, was startled when I walked in. “Xavi! What’re you doing here? Thought you had heat leave.”
As the closest person to me at work, Jess knew more than she probably should about my private life, including details about my divorce and my arrangement with Brady.
“He’s also working just now, thought I’d get a couple of hours in before I head out.”
She nodded, accepting my words. As a beta, she didn’t have to worry about heats or ruts.
Her lack of reaction to my pheromones was a point in her favor during the hiring process.
The fact was, I couldn’t do my job properly without her organizational skills.
Jess had a way of smoothing the most ruffled feathers, too. She was irreplaceable.
We worked for a few hours, had lunch in my office together, then I got an alert from the app: Brady’s heat pheromones were increasing. He would need me soon.
“I need to go, Jess. Anything you need me to sign before I leave?”
“No, I’ve got a handle on everything.” She paused, collecting up files.
“Oh! You should buy one of those heat hampers! I know you said he wanted takeout, but that’s better fresh.
The heat hamper has healthy snacks, massage oil, healing ointment, scent candles, the works.
My sister’s mate bought one once, and she swears that’s how they conceived so quickly! ”
One thing Brady hadn’t brought up was contraception.
I wasn’t sure how to broach the subject with him since we had planned to go without for his last heat.
A baby would complicate things. It could make Brady feel trapped with me, but I wanted a baby with him so damn badly.
I wanted to tie him to me, even though that was selfish of me.
On my way to the store to collect the hamper, I texted Brady asking about contraception. Did he want me to pick any up? His response stirred the butterflies in my belly that seemed only to exist for him.
Brady
No. Whatever happens, happens, right? If by some miracle I get pregnant, you’ll stay by me, won’t you?
Xavier
I’d never leave your side. I just wanted to be sure.
Brady
Thanks for checking. Are you on your way?
Xavier
Be there in 30.