Chapter 14
Fourteen
Xavier
At the same time Brady’s phone alerted him to a new match, mine also came up with a match. I hit the notification. My stomach felt as if it was tied up in knots. The match was so incredibly high, I doubted it was possible to get a higher match.
With one eye on Brady as he opened his notification, I hit accept.
It was him. All these matches, weeks of uncertainty, and there he was, my near perfect match: Brady.
My heart feeling full, I accepted, and saw Brady smirk as he did the same.
Congratulations, Xavier, you are now Mate Matched. Please contact your match to arrange your first date. May this be the first step towards love.
We didn’t need a date, but I’d take him on one, just as soon as I held him.
I opened my arms to him, and Brady came to me, tucking his head under my chin. I wrapped my arms around him and sighed, finally feeling like this whole ordeal was done.
The dates Brady had gone on were nightmare fuel. Each one had a chance of being the guy who would steal my Brady, my omega, from me for good. Yet each time they failed, I had this pit of guilt that grew because while I was relieved, I knew it hurt Brady.
During his time on the app, I didn’t accept a single date.
Of course, as an alpha, there were fewer opportunities for me.
Still, there had been two matches before the one I’d just declined, and neither ended up with anything more than a hello.
I politely explained to each one that they were not the one I was looking for, and I wished them the best. Hopefully, they were onto a better match. They deserved it.
We stood there in the gallery for a long time, just holding onto each other.
“Are we really doing this?” Brady whispered.
“Yeah. This time we’re doing this properly,” I answered in a low tone. “Brady, will you be my boyfriend? Completely exclusive, just me and you?”
Brady pulled away slightly and nodded. “Yes. Just us. I think we needed the time apart to start fresh.”
I untangled from him and threaded our fingers together. “Now, shall we continue to explore? This is technically our first date after all,” I teased with a wink.
His grin was wide, effortless, as he squeezed my hand. “I’d like that. Is there anywhere we can eat nearby? I barely touched breakfast. I felt so queasy.”
“There’s a cafe in the conservatory at the end of this hall, if I remember correctly. Why don’t we go there first?”
The walk to the cafe was done at a leisurely pace. Honestly, my mind was still reeling. I had done it! After weeks of being apart, I had won Brady over. No, I had won a fresh start with the man I loved.
We ordered at the counter and took a seat in a corner where we could have some privacy. I watched Brady sip his drink while we waited for our food, content to be with him with no need to speak.
“Are you happy? You said at my birthday dinner that this was going to happen. I wish I’d had your faith.” Brady’s fingers picked at the label of his bottle.
“Never been happier, though I must admit there were times I worried this wouldn’t happen.”
“If it hadn’t?”
“I would have stepped away. Taken some time.” I shrugged. “Not sure. As long as you were happy, then that’s all that would’ve mattered to me.”
“You really mean that, don’t you?” He shook his head. “No, I know you do.” He glanced at me before returning his gaze to his bottle. “There are still things we need to work out.”
“Like Gio.” My ex haunted our relationship.
It was time to exorcise that ghost for good.
Brady looked at me with pain in his eyes.
“I spoke to him. Went to his place the night after you told me what he’s been saying to you.
I’ve never been so angry with someone like I was with him.
He’s wrong, y’know? Even if we never have children, it doesn’t make you worthless—”
“Xavi—”
“No, sweetheart. Your worth comes from your heart, from how well you love the people in your life, not from having babies. Yes, I love kids, but we can be a family of two. Just you and me. That’s all I need to be the happiest man alive.
” I reached for his hand, relieved when he took it.
“We’ve got kids in our lives if it doesn’t happen for us.
We’ve got an honorary niece with Sora, and you have Leo. ”
“The twins are gonna be dads.” We were circling back to that later. My focus had to be on soothing Brady’s worries.
“See, all the little ones for us to love. They don’t have to come from us for us to love them.”
Brady gave a chuckle. “Pretty sure I’ve had this talk before. Mom was furious when I told him I thought I couldn’t have kids.” His headshake and the tiny smile were fond. “He gave me this lecture about fertility and how there are easier ways to boost our chances—”
“Is that what you want?” I interrupted. “You said before you didn’t want to go through all the things Malik did.”
“Yeah, I want to see if it’s as simple as Mom says it can be. He said that Malik might have had health problems, which made it harder.”
Thinking back to all Malik had endured to get and stay pregnant reminded me of how little Brady knew about my friend. He’d come to a conclusion without all the information. “Yeah, he’s got an autoimmune disorder he gets regular treatment for. Can’t say too much since that’s his business and all.”
“Okay. So, I know it’s a huge jump ahead when we’ve literally only started dating today, but should we talk to a doctor before my heat?”
“I’d love to, unless it puts pressure on you. I don’t want that.”
We stopped talking when the server approached with our food. Like Brady, I’d been too nervous to eat. His message the night before had been so ominous that I’d slept fitfully, terrified that he was ending things between us for good.
Now we had worked this out, I was pretty sure I was giddy from how happy he’d made me.
“There’s no pressure,” Brady said, spearing food with his fork. “It’s more like I want to check out our options. See how easy or hard the road might be for us.”
“Then I’ll text Malik and ask him about his doctor, if you don’t mind, that is?”
“Yeah, you should. I owe Jae and my parents a long phone call, but right now I want to enjoy this moment with you.”
We ate our meals with little conversation. Being with Brady was as simple as breathing. No wonder I’d been obsessed with him since the day I’d met him, with how high our match rate was.
Once we were done, Brady took my hand once more, and we finished a tour of the gallery. “Want to come back to my place? I could make us dinner.” Brady looked so tempting, I knew if we went back to his, I’d be having him, not food.
“How about I drop you home and come pick you up for part two of our first date? I’d like to take you out for a proper meal, not cafe food.”
“I enjoyed my sandwich, thank you very much,” Brady teased, “but yes, let’s do that.” He paused in front of the portrait where we’d made our Mate Match. “We should take a picture. I want to send it to Brent to tell him our news.”
“Poor, suffering Brent. Did you know he nearly didn’t put my profile up?”
Brady stood in front of me with his phone raised.
I wrapped my arms around him and rested my head against his shoulder so we were both in the frame.
Once he snapped the pic, he stepped away to upload it to the app.
He also dropped it on his socials with a grin.
“Seriously? You need to tell me how you convinced him. Okay, done! Can’t wait to see what he says. ”
He stopped me halfway to my car. “Everyone is so happy for us!” His beaming smile nearly stole my breath.
I drove us to Brady’s apartment block and paused in the parking garage.
“Come up, you know you want to.”
“Sweetheart, if I go upstairs with you, then we’ll stay in bed all night.”
“And?”
“And I’d like to do this properly.”
With a surprisingly swift move, Brady moved from his seat until he was straddling me. He shifted my seat back with a wink. “It’s been too long. Why don’t we take the edge off, then go out for dinner?” He pressed kisses and nips against my jaw, while rocking his hips against my hardening cock.
“How am I supposed to only knot you once? If I fuck you, I’ll want to stay inside you all night.”
His fingers delved into my pants and fisted around my cock. I groaned as he stroked me. I cupped his face and drew his lips to mine. “Evil,” I whispered against his mouth.
“You love it,” he teased, nipping my bottom lip.
I reached down for his cock. “No, I love you.”
Brady paused for a split second, then kissed me harder, his tongue plunging into my mouth. We stroked each other as we kissed and moaned. It was rough, messy, and slightly painful, but so real and raw that I had no chance of holding back.
We came within seconds of each other, panting and breathing each other’s air. Brady laid his head against my shoulder, his legs still astride me, and massaged my knot until it went down. When he did, he chuckled. “Fuck, I needed that!” He gave a breathy laugh. “What a mess.”
I found my gym bag in the back and pulled an old t-shirt out. “Here, clean up and go shower. I’ll be back in a couple of hours for you.”
He pecked my lips before returning to his seat and setting himself to rights.
Unless someone got close to him, they wouldn’t be able to tell what we’d just done.
He waited until I was decent before leaving the car.
There was a pause where he seemed to decide something.
He leaned down with a grin I wanted to burn into my memory. “Oh, I love you too.”
With a wave, he left me there, a come-stained t-shirt in hand and a smile on my face.
By the time I got home, there were a bunch of messages waiting for me on my phone. The most insistent from Malik.
Mal
Call me now
Mama
Congrats! Glad you got him back
Mom
Finally
Kaitlyn
OMG Brady is the cutest! Can’t wait to meet him!
Mal
I will come to your house with a teething baby. Answer your damn phone!
Unwilling to anger him further, I called him. “Hey, how’s Sora?”
“Nevermind her. She’s grumpy AF right now. Tell me! How’d it happen?”
“I did it. I got Brady to match with me on the app!”
“Seriously? Deets now!”
I quickly took him through the afternoon, minus the sex in the car. “Malik, I need to make a call. We need a reservation.”
“Come to our place!”
“You just want to see Brady again. I’d rather go somewhere more private right now. Soon for sure. We’ll do a double date or something.”
“Yes! We have to. I’ll send you the info for my doctor, too. Okay, gotta run, Sora’s grumbling again and soon I won’t be able to hear a word.” Malik ended the call, though he did follow it up with his doctor’s information, which earned him my eternal gratitude.
Since he’d finally had a baby, he’d complained that many of his friends had lost touch.
He was working less in the office and more from home, isolating him further.
I was determined to stay in his life. His friendship helped me get by during the divorce and the months without Brady, so it was the least I could do.
Malik was more than a best friend to me. He’d been my lifeline. There was no way I’d let his friendship go.
Once the reservation was sorted, I showered and dressed with more care than I’d usually put into this. Brady had told me he loved me. We were finally doing this for real. No weird situationship or friends with benefits, actually dating. I couldn’t fuck this up.
Brady was waiting for me outside his building with a blinding smile and a red rose when I approached. “Alphas never get flowers, do they? I thought it’d be cute.” Embarrassment stained his cheeks red.
“You’re perfect.” I took the rose and leaned down to kiss him. He went onto his tiptoes to meet my lips in a synchronized movement that spoke volumes to me. This was it. Brady was what I’d been looking for all this time.
Therapy had taught me that there was always a hole in my marriage.
Sure, I’d loved Gio for a long time, longer than was perhaps wise.
We’d opened our marriage after pressure from his more traditional parents and never really worked on keeping our bond together.
I’d never given or received a mating mark from my alpha husband because I think he had always been looking for an omega.
He loved me, or at least felt something akin to it, but we were fighting against conditioning and outside pressure without doing it as a pair.
I returned my focus to Brady, where it belonged. Our dinner was at an upscale restaurant where I knew the chef and could get a cancellation at the last minute. The gods were really smiling on me. We ate and talked as if we’d never been apart, picking up where we’d last been.
We caught each other up on our lives while feeding each other bites of our meals until we were done.
“Xavi?”
“Hmm?”
“Take me home to your place. I want to stay the night.”