I could feel Ethan's eye roll. "Let me apologize for my best friend," he said. "I know he has the manners of a barn animal, but I promise his fathers did raise him well. How did you meet? Aiden has told me basically nothing about you."
Which reminded me, the list. And did Chris want people knowing about the pregnancy yet? I had meant to tell Ethan the whole deal pretty much first thing this morning, but I hadn't taken the time to talk to Chris about what he was comfortable with yet.
Chris laughed uncertainly. "Yeah... I don't know too much about all this," he waved at everything around us, "either. We met at the coffee shop where I work."
"Café Om?" Ethan quirked an eyebrow at me. I may not have mentioned Chris, but I may have waxed poetic about the coffee a time or three hundred.
"That would be the one. Are you a fan as well?"
Ethan shrugged his shoulders.
"I work him too hard," I joked. "If he wants caffeine, he has to take it intravenously."
"You wouldn't need caffeine if you would settle into a decent sleep schedule," Ethan fussed. It was an old argument.
"And miss out on the midnight inspirations? Where would we be then?" I picked up Chris's hand again and tugged him after me. "I'll check back with you in a bit, Ethan."
"Nice to meet you!" Chris waved as I guided him to my office.
"Can I get you anything?" I asked. "Our selection is pretty limited. Okay, it's very limited. All we have are shakes. But we have strawberry, chocolate and vanilla, each in regular or high protein."
Chris made a face. "No offense, but I'll pass. I like real food too much."
I grabbed a strawberry regular out of my office fridge. No need for the high protein this morning after Chris's eggs. "No offense taken. So." I flopped on the couch that served the dual purpose of my brainstorming center and bed on nights where I was too deep into something to take more than a cat nap. "We have seriously got to get some of these questions out of the way. Are you up for that?"
Chris took one of the arm chairs. "What kind of questions do you have?"
16
Chris
Aiden wanted to go over all of the things we might need to know when meeting his father and friends. That was all fine and dandy, but I was stupid nervous just being in his office and meeting his best friend. Shouldn’t his best friend know about me and why I was there? Probably not, especially if he was close to Aiden’s parents.
I really didn’t have anyone to tell. My parents were far away and busy with their own lives and locally I had a few mere acquaintances but that was really it. I had made the mistake of thinking that coming to the city would make life all rainbows and sunshine. Not that it was awful, but it sure wasn’t the dream I held onto when I bought my bus pass.
“Do you want people to know you are pregnant right away?”
I tried my best not to roll my eyes. “Like I could hide it.” I waved my hand in front of my nose reminding him that any and all alphas would smell me right off. It was a nice thought, holding off telling people until I started to show, but that just wasn’t feasible.
“True.” He rubbed his chin in thought and I let the silence be until he formed his words. “I guess I mean, what do we tell people about that that would make you comfortable?”
“The truth, I guess.” There was no good way to go about that part. Single pregnant omegas were looked down upon in all circles. It was simply the way society was and there was nothing he nor I could do to change that. “I was pregnant before we got together by someone who was not my alpha.”
The tension rolled off him in waves, his scent crisp, almost burnt. Note to self: don’t mention other alphas and being pregnant in the same sentence. “Lift your legs up,” Aiden said, and I set my feet on the edge of the couch. As he grabbed them and pulled my legs onto his lap, I almost didn’t regret making him uncomfortable at the mention of Will. Almost.
“People will judge.” His head fell back against the couch and his hands settled on my thigh, holding my legs in place gently.
“Is that a problem for you? I mean, they’re going to judge me either which way. I am an unclaimed omega shooting off pregnancy hormones like nobody’s business. I can’t walk away from that, but you can.” That was the truth of it. I had nothing to lose in all of this. Whether I pretended to be his mate or not, I was a single pregnant omega. He, on the other hand, had a lot to lose. He was tying himself, even if in name only, to an undesirable element of society.
“I don’t want to.” The sincerity of his words floored me. He was a keeper. If only he was mine to keep.
“So, next question then. Do we need to have a first date story and all that?” I steered the conversation to something safe. It had gotten too heavy for me and that had to be doubly hard on Aiden with my hormones on overdrive, practically shouting my every emotion.
“I was thinking we focus on us meeting at Café Om and flirting, neither of us making a move until one day you joined me for a cup of coffee and the rest was history.” That was easy enough. Anytime we could stick with the truth the better. You don’t need to work at remembering your story if you lived it. “Next question: What about Will?”
Aiden sat up and my legs fell onto the couch. Before I even had a chance to regret the loss of his warmth, he waved his hands at me. “Come here.” He patted the couch next to him and pulled me closer than the edge I had been targeting. I leaned into him, now practically sitting on his nap. His arm wrapped around me as he waited for my answer. So much for sticking to the fluffy stuff. “What about him?”
“Will he be showing up, wanting his baby or you?”
“I know he is fine with no me. He hasn’t called once since we broke up.” He had mumbled something about me being a waste of his time and a sucky omega, but I left that part off. I might not truly be Aiden’s but he was protective and knowing how Will treated me was completely unnecessary. “I need to man up about the baby.”
“I could go with you.”
I was terrified of Will’s reaction. He was anti-kid, so I doubted he would try to take the baby, yet he was a vindictive prick based on the stories he told after too many drinks, so he might just because he could. Mostly I was afraid he would try to force me to get rid of the baby. Waiting until the baby was visibly showing before telling him had been a scenario running in the back of my head for a while. At that point the baby would be a foregone conclusion and not a problem to “deal with.” Maybe I was being unfair to Will. A nagging voice told me I wasn’t. Never again would I allow my loneliness to control my actions. Settling for Will was the epitome of bad life decisions. Although it brought me my baby so…
“You don’t have to.” But I want you to, went unsaid. Having him there, by my side, would make it so much easier and possibly safer. I had let Will bully me before, but with Aiden on my side, I knew I could avoid that trap this time around.
“I sort of feel I need to.” His arm wrapped around my body and I was no longer almost on his lap, I was there, all curled into my alpha. I felt safe and cared for. It was everything. “He could get violent and part of this deal is I get to protect you.”
“You say ‘get to’ as if it’s a privilege.” I looked up, hoping to catch his eyes. They were closed, Aiden lost in thought. It took him only a minute to process what was playing out in his head and when he opened his eyes before answering me, I saw nothing but warmth.
“It feels that way to me, so yes. It is a privilege.”
“You are a very complicated alpha.” I turned my head, inhaling his scent. What I had to say next could go either way and if this was the last of our snuggle time, I planned to experience it to its fullest. “I had a thought and I hope it doesn’t make you angry.”
“Shoot.” His back tensed up.
“Maybe with the baby and your parents and such, maybe we should have some sort of formal contract absolving you of responsibility for her?” He needed to know I was not going to turn this around into a money making scheme using my baby as a weapon. No, that was
n’t fair. He didn’t think that of me and wouldn’t. His family, they were a different story. This was for them, to keep them comfortable in a very uncomfortable situation.
“You think it’s a girl?”
I offered him a contract to make things less complicated and he focused on a pronoun. With a ginormous smile, no less.
“Not the point.” I quirked my eyebrow at him, which he abruptly put a stop to by pulling me in closer. He thought I hadn’t caught the amusement that flashed across his face at my antics. Silly alpha.
“That doesn’t work for me. It goes against every instinct that I have. If she has needs I can meet, especially financially, then I need to do that as long as you are mine. Possibly more, honestly.”
That was not the answer I was expecting. Freak out mode was barreling at me. She was mine.
“But she’s mine,” I blurted out, my voice cracking.
Aiden’s hand began tracing small circles in my hand. I was over reacting. Of course I was. That was a pregnancy thing, right? It had to be because there was no way Aiden would do harm by me. None
“One hundred percent.” His reassuring voice washed over me. “I will never try to take her from you, control your choices over her, or undermine your role as her omega dad. You have my word on that.”
“I apologize. I know that’s not who you are. Can I get a mulligan, being pregnant and all?”
He accepted with a gentle kiss on the top of my head just as his phone began to buzz.
“Just a second.” He pulled out his phone, looking at the screen before sighing and bringing it to his ear. “Ethan.” There was a long pause and I made out the word “now” and not much else. I’d have been an awful spy. “Sounds promising. I’m on my way.”
Slipping in his phone in his pocket first, he gave me a hug. “That was Ethan, my dad is downstairs and wants to see me.”
“Oh, do you need me?” Butterflies burst forth spontaneously in my stomach at the idea of seeing Aiden’s parents again, especially now that this was more than a one-time thing.
“No, no. You’re fine. It’ll just be a quick visit. I think he and Father are on their way to the airport today.”
“If you’re sure…” I nestled in, knowing he was leaving any moment.
“I need to go. You can stay here and rest or I can get you a car home.”
“I think I’ll stay here and lie down if that’s okay.” I knew I technically lived there now, but going home without him didn’t feel right.
“More than.” He kissed my head before lifting me off his lap and onto the couch behind him. He opened the trunk turned coffee table and pulled out a blanket, covering me with it. “I like you in my space.” As if realizing for the first time he’d spoken out loud, he quickly added, “And I just got all stalkery sounding again. I’m going now. Sleep well.”
And with that he was off. By some miracle, I was able to fall right asleep, surrounded by his scent. A man could get used to this, which, given the situation, was very, very bad.
17
Aiden
I wasn’t entirely sure how my parents would take my announcement that Chris and I were getting mated. It was sudden, no matter which way you looked at it from the outside. Thankfully, my dad was significantly less hot headed than my father. He would definitely be the easier one to tell, and then I could let him handle telling my father.
This was a time-tested strategy in our family. It led to a lot less internal strife and smoothed my relationship with my father ten-fold.
Dad was waiting in the lobby and I pulled him into a big hug. "Why didn't you call me instead of having Ethan call me?"
"Oh, I left my phone in the car with your father and ran into Ethan on my way in." I had certainly gotten my habit of losing my phone from someone...
"Where is Father? You guys are headed to DC for the week, right?"
"He dropped me off while he went to pick up some wine from Roger. He has a special vintage from their winery he wants to send with us for the Halvestons."
"And what are you up to?"
"Oh," he reached for a bag next to him. "Chef Norre sent some food. She said you were looking too skinny."
I excepted the bag with a silent sigh. My parents still didn't get the whole not needing food thing. And Chef Norre was fairly certain I was anorexic, which was frustrating and amusing at the same time. I was pretty sure Chris would enjoy it. Normally I had to toss things in the garbage. Which I hated, because Chef Norre really was an artist.
"Thanks."
"What are you up to this week?" Dad asked, sitting on one of the sofas. I sat on the other end.
"Well, about that... Remember Chris?"
"That nice young man you brought to dinner? The only person you've ever brought out to the house? No, I've forgotten him."
"Okay, fair point. Well, he's moved in to the apartment."
My dad was visibly trying to hold his excitement back. "Does that mean...?"
"I didn't want to say anything last weekend because I hadn't asked him yet--" that was true "--but he said yes."
"You sneaky boy! All this time, you were planning... Why didn't you say anything at brunch? Your father is going to be so pleased. I'm so happy! I've been so worried about you, son."
I tried to visualize my guilt like a little bug I could squish. It didn't work very well.
My phone rang. It was my father. "Hello?"
"Is that your father?" Dad whispered. "Can I break the news to him?"
"Can you tell your Dad I'll be pulling up outside in just a minute?"
"Yes," I said to both of them, then hung up and passed the information on to my dad.
"Oh, honey. This is going to be great! Listen, we need to have dinner when we get back. Next week. I'll text you details."
18
Chris
Dinner with my future in-laws, or at least pretend future in-laws. Things had been going so well with our fake mating, I forgot about the part where I needed to pretend.
At home we worked well together. I cooked breakfast every morning. He would pretend to refuse and then cave as we had a nice conversation. I hadn’t been able to get him to eat any other meal of the day, though, on the times where both our schedules had us home for lunch or dinner, and it irked me. Food was so much more than nourishment, it was a chance to connect. But, I reminded myself, we weren’t a real couple. It really was getting hard to remember that, except for the lack of sex. In the evenings, we watched my favorite science fiction shows and his favorite dystopian movies. From time to time he even drove me to work. Like I said, we worked.
The not having sex thing was driving me bonkers, but I wasn’t sure how much I could attribute it to Aiden in his glorious hotness and how much of it was my pregnancy. I’d heard a lot of stories about overactive sex drives during pregnancy, but I’d always assumed they were tales told to get alphas on board with babies sooner rather than later. Maybe I was wrong.
Or maybe Aiden was that amazing. Kind to a fault, very protective, yummy to look at and amazing to scent. His one downside, aside from the no sex thing, was that he worked too stupid much. I swear, he would move in there if it were allowed. I loved his passion for his work, but he needed to take care of himself if he were going to live long enough to actually find his true mate.
Just thinking about that saddened me. I often found myself wondering how things might’ve been different had I not stayed with Will long past the point where I knew we weren’t going to be long term, or if I’d grown a pair and actually asked Aiden out when I first wanted to. I dampened those thoughts. Anything different in my past meant that I wouldn’t be carrying this amazing little one within me. Sure she, my gut said girl, was unplanned, but that didn’t make it any less perfect, for the timing meant she was her and not someone else.
“Almost ready, Chris?” Aiden pulled me from my thoughts with a hand on my shoulder. He was constantly doing that. Subtle touches that soothed my omega instincts, as I’m sure it did his alpha ones. He never crossed
any lines, even though there were plenty of times I felt my need for more of his touch pushed so far to the brink that I was afraid my cock would break off it was so hard, but he was always the gentleman.
“Yeah, just nervous.” Wasn’t that the truth. We didn’t have to worry about my family. I wasn’t ready to tell them about this little one yet, and they were too many hours away. But his family nearby, and we could hardly hide from them when they were half of the reason we had created this whole sham.
“They already love you.” That was a stretch. One nice evening did not make them love me. Even if it did, things had changed.
“They don’t know I’m pregnant and that it’s not yours.” I had a scary feeling the first part would make them happy if it weren’t for the not second part. Their hearts were in the right place. Heck, even I wanted Aiden to slow down and enjoy life instead of working all the time. The difference was, I believed he would once he got the formula right and I knew he was close. So very close.
“They will adjust.” He shrugged off as if it were no big deal. Maybe they would, he knew them better than I did by far. The possibility that they would assume I was trying to take advantage of their son was more probably though.
“Still nervous.”
“We’re meeting in a public restaurant. Worst case scenario, they give you nasty looks.” He made a face that had me smiling despite myself.
“Or poison my food,” I offered in jest.
“Yeah, or poison your food. Either way you’re good. Home and happy, or dead with no worries.”
I smacked his shoulder, both to tease him and to touch him. His touch helped me stay grounded as the stress built, lately. I needed to learn to get along without it for after the baby came and we were on our own, but today was not that day.
“But what if my food looks amazing and I offer you a bite and then you’re dead and I’m stuck at the restaurant alone with them?” For good measure, I stuck out my tongue. I loved that I could get Aiden playful. I had a feeling before he had a roommate, he was all work and no play.
His Pretend Omega: M/M Non-Shifter Alpha/Omega MPREG (Cafe Om Book 2) Page 7