by Bonnar King
The little minx was still openly defying me by getting his fundraising activities in motion: a bake sale, a concert, a book-signing event, a car wash, and everything you could think of under the sun.
It was stupendous.
It was brilliant.
And I realized, despite my earlier resolve that we were done.
I was also very curious if the sparks between us would still be there.
I had a feeling it would be stronger than ever.
And I was ready to face it.
9
Robin
“Robin, are you sure you’re feeling okay?”
Lance’s question penetrated through my clouded mind, and I could hear the worry in his tone. I tried to lift a box of goodies from a delivery van, but Lance beat me to it and took it right out of my hands.
“Robin?”
“I’m fine,” I assured him, forcing myself to smile. As if on cue, I coughed a couple of times and sneezed once, then felt slightly dizzy all over again. But it wasn’t anything I couldn’t manage, so I kept the smile on my face as I turned to him. “It’s just your regular cold blues, and it will be gone by tomorrow.”
He still shot me a worried look, but my words must have convinced him because he finally went off to place the boxes on the tables we set up in the library. Today was bake sale day, and the smell of all kinds of baked goods unimaginable permeated the air and made my mouth water despite my clogged nostrils. But I didn’t give into temptation yet, not when there were still some more orders we needed to take care of and a couple of school kids coming in an hour.
Our first bake sale was a success, and it looked like this one had the makings of one, too. That pleased me, because the feeling of helplessness had never sat well with me—and Lord knew how much I’d been feeling it since that awful confrontation.
“Robin, I really think you need to go home.”
I shook my head as Lance’s voice floated in the air again. He was hovering over me, and I shot him an exasperated look. Pretty soon I knew he was going to inform the others, and it would be them hovering over me as well. I gave him a bright smile and prepared to tease him to stop acting like such an old alpha and worrying so much—but the smile froze on my face when his hand went to my wrist and rubbed in a caressing manner.
“I’m just…you can’t stop me from worrying.” He stepped forward, and the earnest look in his eyes sent an unconscious alarm in my head. “I care about you, Robin.”
Care. I could handle care. “I care about you, too, Lance—”
“No. I mean I care about you more than a friend.”
Oh, God.
Stunned, I could only stare at him. I’d been working with him for six years and had never gotten a sliver of indication of his feelings. But there was no mistaking the love from his expression now.
“Since when?” I whispered.
“Since you grew up and became so beautiful,” he murmured.
Oh, God. What was I to say to that?
Charles saved me from answering by pulling me away. “Excuse me, but no slacking off, guys. I’m at my wits end trying to sell out there. And Robin, I need to talk to you, pronto. Big problem.”
I was so relieved for the interruption that I went willingly. When we were out of earshot, I shot him a puzzled look. “What’s the big problem?”
He rolled his eyes. “Lance is. Sweetheart, I saw the way he looked at you and how you basically panicked. I could smell rejection a mile away, and I don’t think you’d want to deal with with that drama today.”
I smiled at him. “You are my hero.”
He winked. “No problem, hotshot.” Then he wrinkled his nose. “Now will you go home and rest?”
I shook my head, my stance on the matter firm. “No. I organized, so I’m staying to see it through.”
“But you’re sick.”
“Nothing I can’t handle.” I shooed him. “Now go. Thanks for the save and I’ll see you later.”
And that was the last I saw of his until lunch, where we power ate before diving right back into things. So many people donated goods for our Save the Library program, and it warmed my heart that we weren’t alone in facing this ordeal. But we still had a long way to go in our month-long program. David didn’t protest, saying we could do whatever we wanted until Nicholas actually made the deal, and I took him for his word.
By the fourth day of it, my cold had turned into a full-blown flu, and I was feeling miserable. I could barely walk straight, but I did my best to hide it from my co-workers, who were too busy to notice anything. Even Lance had been avoiding me, and I felt bad for embarrassing him. I needed to prepare what I said to him soon, because even if I didn’t like him that way, I still considered him a friend.
“Rob? There’s someone on the phone for you.”
“Who is it?” I asked Charles, handing his the till for the daily goods.
“Mr. Chambers.”
I looked up, startled. He gave me a raised brow and handed me the library’s cordless phone, which I discreetly took away as I slipped in between some bookshelves. I could feel his eyes burning on my back, but I paid it no mind.
“Hello?”
“Robin.”
His deep voice still send a shiver down my spine, and I braced myself for it and willed myself to answer as calmly as I could. “Nick. What is it?”
“Nothing. I just wanted to hear your voice.”
His easy admission washed warmth over my body, and it was irrational. He could have been lying, really. But something deep inside me told me he was telling the truth, and somehow, that made things harder.
“Oh,” I whispered, biting my lip.
“How’s the fundraising going? He asked”
My back went up, prepared to defend myself—but I realized he wasn’t being sarcastic with his question, and there was genuine curiosity there.
“It’s doing okay,” I said cautiously, wondering how much I could reveal to him. Then I realized that since he already knew about the fundraising, then perhaps he already knew everything there was to know, too. “It will run for about a month—or at least until it’s not too late.” Too late, of course, equating to him and David finalizing the deal.
“Hmm,” was his only response. “Did you miss me?”
“No,” I said automatically. He chuckled at that.
“How come I’m not convinced?”
I clamped my mouth shut, not wanting to tell him the truth. Yes, I did miss him—a lot more than I ought to have. It was scary, especially after only knowing him for such a short amount of time. I had never felt this attached to any alpha before, and I didn’t know what to think about it.
“Anyway,” he continued when I still didn’t speak. “I’ve missed you a hell of a lot more than I should, and it’s driving me nuts.”
I inwardly gasped, clutching the phone hard. “Nick…”
“Go out with me,” he murmured.
I shook my head, even if he couldn’t see me. A part of me wanted to say yes, but I needed to stand firm on my earlier decision. I opened my mouth to reject him. Instead, a series of coughs came out, long and loud. When I was finally able to recover, it was Nicholas who spoke again.
“You’re sick.”
I croaked out a laugh despite myself. “No shit, Sherlock.”
“And you’re actually cursing,” he said in slight awe.
“I’m…I’m not myself right now,” I admitted lamely.
“No shit,” he shot back. “Robin, go home.”
“Stop ordering me around.”
“You need rest, damn it.”
“I can handle myself. And I’m not going out with you again, Nick,” I shot back. “Now, I’m busy. I’m sorry. Goodbye.”
I hung up the phone before I could say anything else I would regret. I was so deep in thought that it took me a while to notice footsteps approaching me. Then Charles’ voice was there, and there was an accusatory tone in it.
“Not going out with him again?”
His next words confirmed it.
“You went out with the man who’s trying to take away this library?”
“It’s not like that,” I began, but Charles cut me off right away.
“You were blushing while talking to him,” he said. “I know the signs of an omega who wants an alpha when I see it. Trust me. I wasn’t always an old omega.”
My eyes widened. Was I really that visible?
His face said so. I wanted to hang my head, but Charles wasn’t even giving me a chance to explain. And I felt it was unfair that I was being judged so thoroughly without him even knowing the story. Instead, I lifted my chin.
“Whoever I date shouldn’t really be a problem,” I said.
I expected my words to trigger some kind of argument between us, knowing his stand in the matter. But instead, he only eyed me critically and shook his head. “Go home.”
“I don’t wan—”
“Go home, Robin. You’re sick and distracting everyone. If you really want this program to be successful, you need to rest and come back healthy—otherwise I’m going to think the worst.”
Charles’ words pierced, hurting me. I nodded my head, watching as he walked away from me with a finality that indicated he wasn’t happy with me at the moment.
He wasn’t the only one, because I wasn’t happy with myself, either.
10
Nicholas
Our bizarre phone call led me to come to the decision to send Robin whatever I could get my hands on—chocolates, flowers, jewelry and even some medicine to help with his flu. But to my irritation, he sent all of them back with a note each time, telling me basically the same thing: that he wanted to thank me for the gifts but couldn’t accept them. He had to be the most stubborn omega I’d ever met, and it should have turned me off. Instead, I found myself driving after work toward his area and muttering under my breath the entire time.
By the time I got to the library, it was pretty crowded, and it looked like the library employees were right in the middle of it. I watched as the youngest-looking alpha stared at me as I passed by their table, intent on finding Robin and demanding why he refused to take my gifts when I wasn’t asking for anything in return. Then I was going to drag him home and demand he take a well needed rest, consequences be damned. He wasn’t a robot, for crying out loud.
The familiar omega who I knew was Robin’s co-worker blocked me before I could climb the stairs to the second floor. I remembered him briefly on my first meeting here with David—he had looked at me with awe and I had completely ignored him in favor of leaving there as soon as possible.
Now the awe was gone, and there was a disapproving look on his face.
“He’s not here,” he clipped out.
I raised a brow at him, slightly impressed when he didn’t budge from his spot. So he wasn’t intimidated, either. It looked like the omegas of this place weren’t as easy as I thought, then.
“Where is he?” I asked just as coolly.
“Home. And I don’t think he wants to see you,” the omega said in accusation.
We just had to see about that. I nodded my head and left as quickly as I came, already knowing Robin’s address and driving straight toward the location right away. Maybe Robin did listen to my advice, but I wasn’t going to rest easy until I actually saw him.
It took six knocks for me to realize that Robin’s apartment door was open, and it made me angry enough that I barged in right away, intending to scold him for being so carefree with his home and basically inviting strangers in to do all sorts of horrible things to the sweet omega.
I paused in the living room. It was smaller than expected, and messy. Somehow, I didn’t peg Robin as the messy type, cementing the gut feeling that something was seriously wrong.
I navigated the clothes on the floor at the edges of a laundry basket, sighting a tiny kitchen and a bathroom. Then I opened the door to what I deduced was the bedroom, where I found a light blue patterned rug and a single gray bed.
In the middle of the bed was Robin, sleeping.
He was covered in blankets and very pale, and I rushed over to him right away. A closer inspection determined that he was shivering under his blankets, and coughing slightly. There were bags under his eyes.
He looked utterly miserable.
All scolding left my face as I sat beside his and placed my palm on his forehead. He was burning hot.
“Oh, baby,” I murmured, stroking his hair as I tried to think of what to do. I took out my phone and called my PA, ordering a batch of medicine and some hot soup and comfort food to be brought over immediately. When I hung up, I found that Robin’s eyes were on me.
“What are you doing here?” he croaked out.
“Taking care of you,” I confirmed. He looked like he wanted to argue, but didn’t have the strength for it. Instead, he sniffed and slumped.
“Fine,” he mumbled. Robin yawned, then coughed again. Then he blinked his eyes sleepily.
“Go to sleep,” I told him, stroking his hair. “I’ll handle things from here.”
Robin murmured something, but it was unintelligible. Then he finally succumbed to sleep, still shivering and trying to make do with his blankets.
When the food and all the other items arrived, I went to work. I stripped him down to his underwear and tried to be clinical about it, washing his with a cold, wet cloth to bring the fever down and putting him in pajamas to make him more comfortable. I then urged him to wake up and take the medicine and some of the soup, amused when he tried to argue again but just had no energy. When he was fast asleep and breathing easier, I stripped out of my clothes and showered, then got comfortable in the jeans and shirt I had brought over. I proceeded to clean up his place, the silence in the apartment somewhat soothing. His place smelled like lemons, a scent that I’d always found quite nice. Cleaning up also reminded me of the simpler times in my life, when I didn’t have anyone to do things for me and had to do everything on my own. I found it rather relaxing.
I thought back to the basic things I knew about Robin—about his being a late miracle baby, and his parents now gone due to old age. They had died a year before he finished college, and he’d been alone since. It made his stubbornness and resilience make sense, and again, it pointed out the fact that we had more in common than we thought.
It also made me think that maybe trying to forget him just like that was easier said than done.
Robin’s flu lasted for three more days, and I called David up to pass the information on and have his co-workers informed. He was shocked that I was the one who called in, but thankfully didn’t make any comments about it. Still, I knew the news that I was in Robin’s apartment would spread like wildfire. Frankly, I didn’t care, because whatever was or wasn’t between Robin and me was none of their business.
In the meantime, I did my business at his couch, cancelling most meetings and having my laptop delivered so I could handle all other meetings via video call. I watched over Robin as much as I could, still unsure why I was even here, but knowing I wasn’t going to stay away.
When he finally woke up on that third day, I had just finished my call with an investor and was pretty happy with the negotiated deal. He stood on the doorway of the bedroom, rubbing his eyes and watching me openly as I sat on his couch with the laptop on the coffee table.
His eyes were a clear blue now, and I noticed the absence of coughing. There was still some slight sniffing, though. He looked rumpled and absolutely adorable, and I felt my cock stir in response. I hid it and cleared my throat, because only a complete alphahole would jump an omega at a time like this.
“Good morning.”
“Good morning. What day is it?” Robin asked.
“Saturday.”
He gasped. “I missed three
days of the fundraising!”
“I’m pretty sure they’d survive without you.”
“But they don’t know—”
“They do. I called in for you.”
Robin groaned, but I ignored the sound and stood up, studying him instead. “Are you feeling better now?”
Robin rubbed his face. “Yeah. Loads better. Thank you, Nick. I would never have expected…”
“That I had it in me?” I finished.
He shook his head. “No. I somehow knew you had it in you. I just didn’t know you’d care enough to.”
“I care,” I murmured.
Robin looked at me quietly, a smile spreading on his face and taking my breath with it. Damn. He was absolutely beautiful, even in his sleepwear. Again, I tried to erase thoughts of him in his underwear out of my mind. “Well, it’s a Saturday. We might as well go out and get something to eat.”
Robin nodded. “That’s fine. I owe you that much.”
“You don’t owe me anything,” I clarified. “I don’t do things so people would owe me. I do things because I want to.”
Robin looked at me again, like he was seeing me for the first time. I waited it out, watching as he hesitated. Then he nodded. “There’s somewhere I’d like to go after lunch. Will you come with me?”
“Where?”
“It’s a surprise.”
“Okay.”
I hated surprises, really—but ironically enough, Robin and surprise was something I couldn’t resist.
11
Robin
Lunch extended to a tour around Ford Springs, which Nicholas seemed to enjoy thoroughly—then, dinner, where I took him to a local diner that served the best comfort food in the form of burgers and fries and homemade ice cream. I could tell he appreciated the food, and I could tell that what really sold him was the warmth of the diner owner, who welcomed him with a friendly smile and amusing stories about how this place was made about. His husband was equally friendly, and their obvious lack of knowledge about who he was had him growing comfortable in their presence enough to crack a joke or two of his own.