City Baby

by Eva Leon

  Whatever he wants to talk to me about must be important. Maybe it’s something I need to know about Jaxxon. Maybe it’s something that can help me out of this predicament. If I don’t figure out a way to deal with him, and my feelings for him, I’m going to have to quit. I should just quit right now, but instead I agree to have lunch with Aaron.

  “Let me get my phone and I’ll meet you in the lobby,” I tell him and head for my office.

  “Sounds good, Rory. See you in five,” he says to my back as I walk away.

  I close the door to my office to catch my breath and lock the desk drawer that contains my underwear. I’m an idiot, and I’m doing this to myself. I hope that whatever Aaron has to say makes this whole thing go away. A guy can dream, right? Once I’m feeling more steady, I head out of the building.

  We go to lunch at a little pizza place around the corner from work. You can get pizza by the slice, and it is delicious. Aaron fills me in on some of the office gossip, and I listen and nod. I want to tell him I don’t care, but I’m trying to avoid making enemies at work.

  “The juiciest rumor is about you and Mr. Avery.” He wads up his napkin and puts it on his half-eaten slice of pizza.

  “I wouldn’t listen to anything you hear about him and me.” I take another bite of my pizza. It’s good and I intend to eat the whole slice, even though Aaron looks a little horrified that I’m eating more than half of it.

  “People say you guys were a thing in high school and that he’s still into you.” He’s not even trying to hide how much this particular piece of information interests him.

  “We went to high school together, but we were barely a thing. And we’re certainly not a thing now. One of the other partners hired me for the position, and it seems that Jaxxon barely remembers who I am.”

  I’m lying so much right now, but I don’t need this hassle. If I’m going to quit, I want it to be on my terms. If I end up staying, I don’t want to be involved in any office drama. I have to find a way to extract myself from Jaxxon’s emotional and physical grasp. What Aaron tells me next is exactly what I need to hear.

  “Oh, that’s so good to hear.” He lets out an exaggerated sigh of relief. “I wanted us to be able to be friends, but that wasn’t going to happen if you were putting the moves on my man.” There is that smile that doesn’t reach his eyes again. It’s pretty creepy.

  “Your man?”

  “Yes, Jaxxon and I have to keep it under wraps at work. But after just a few months of being his secretary, we’ve fallen in love. I should find another job, but I can’t stand the thought of being away from him now that I’m used to being so close every day at work.”

  “Oh, well. Okay then. That’s great for you.” I fake a smile. “I have to get back. I have my first client meetings starting tomorrow, and I’ve got to get ready.” It’s an excuse, but I’ve got to get away from Aaron.

  Once I’m back in my office, I shut the door and smolder for at least an hour. That slimy motherfucker. I knew he was a bad boy, but it turns out he’s just a lying, degenerate asshole. I should have known better. He screwed me over once, and of course, he was going to do it again.

  If I didn’t have client meetings for the rest of the week and a professional reputation to protect, I’d walk out now. Since I’m trapped here, I’ll just make the best of it. No more meetings with Mr. Dick. I mean, Mr. Avery. He can fire me for not being his toy anymore, but I’m not putting up with this crap for one more second.

  Rory March will be keeping his underwear on at work from now on.

  Chapter Six

  Jaxxon

  Maybe I pushed him too far. I thought he liked over the top Alpha Jaxxon, but perhaps I should have kept the cocky dominating shit to a minimum. Hoping that sex would help him forget the way I left him when we were eighteen appeared to be the wrong approach.

  It’s the only approach I’ve taken with Omegas since I left him eight years ago, and others seem to like it. The piece of the puzzle I’m forgetting is that Rory isn’t like other Omegas. Sex, money, and power are all things that have attracted men to me in the past, but he wants something more substantial. At least I think that’s what he wants. Maybe Rory wants a new car and a diamond and platinum bracelet. Not knowing how to acquire what I want in this situation is driving me mad.

  “Maybe he wants you to stop thinking of him as something to be acquired,” I say to myself in an empty room.

  Can I change for him, though? Can I take down the walls I’ve spent the last eight years building? He didn’t break my heart; I did that all on my own, but he’s the reason my heart broke. I’ve not turned into a very good person, and the last thing I want is to show Rory that side of me.

  Rory’s presence in my life takes me back to a time when I had potential to be something more than a dumb, rich jock who rolls over people to get what he wants. I’ve been in survival mode for so long, but he makes me want to live. That’s why it’s so disturbing that I had him within arm’s reach, and now he’s pulling away from me again.

  He won’t take my calls on his office phone or his cellphone. Rory hasn’t been at one of our meetings for three days. Monday when he didn’t show, I just assumed it was related to a client, but it’s Wednesday today and it’s become obvious that he’s giving me the cold shoulder.

  Normally, if an Omega were to do this to me, I’d just blow him off and find another one to occupy my time. It’s been years since a man seemed worth any kind of trouble to me. My philosophy with Omegas up until lately was that if they want to have fun, we can have fun, but if they want to play games or have any kind of relationship, I’ll find something a little easier to dip my wick in. If you know what I mean.

  I need to tell Rory what happened the night I disappeared, but I can’t. If I could tell him, I believe it would fix everything. For a moment, I let myself think about how things would be if that night had never happened. My life would have turned out very differently, and I could have made things easier for Rory too. One of the partners who recruited him was telling me about how he had to work full time at night while he was in law school.

  I should have found a way to help him. I should have found a way to take care of what was mine. I’ll never forgive myself for leaving him to fend for himself. His parents did the best they could, but he had to struggle so much. One of the most beautiful things about Rory is that he didn’t let that struggle bring him down. He rose above it and made his way in the world, despite his adversity.

  The qualities that made Rory a success in high school, college, and law school are why the partners were so eager to have him work here. So many young lawyers have a sense of entitlement when they come in here looking for a job, and that’s especially true of the ones who are as smart and talented as Rory. He’s not like that, though, and he’s as smart as a whip and a hard worker too.

  He’ll be an exceptional parent too. Just thinking about him having our babies changes something in me. I’d even cut my hair and shave my beard if he wanted me to, but the thought of our baby pulling at my chin hair flashes into my mind and my heart stutters. Maybe I’d even give up my bike. No, no. He’d never ask me to do that. I want to know what life would have been like if I hadn’t had to leave that night.

  In my mind, I can see myself waking up next to Rory and driving him home instead of sneaking out of bed and disappearing. The next day at graduation, I would have kissed him and asked him to be my boyfriend in front of everyone. God, I wish I could have seen his speech. I heard, years later, that it was amazing.

  Everything would have been different. Rory and I would have lost our virginity together on some hot summer night before we both left for college. We would have called each other every day and spent all our breaks from school in each other’s arms. He and I would have gone to the same law school, and right now, he’d be planning our wedding instead of ignoring me.

  Instead, I became the biggest asshole I can stomach being. The farther I push people away, the safer I feel. Instead of making love to
Rory for the first time, I lost my virginity to some guy whose name I don’t even remember. I met him in a bar. I’ve probably screwed my way through half of the Omegas between the ages of nineteen and forty in this city. None of them ever filled the hole Rory left in me. Now I would trade my entire fortune to take it all back and have him be the one.

  I’m late to work on Thursday because of an automobile accident on my route to work. I decided last night that I’m going to go to his office and try to reason with him or make him moan again. Maybe both. I pass by the conference room on my way to his office and what I see makes my blood boil.

  Rory and an older man are sitting very close to each other at the conference table. Rory’s got his laptop and a bunch of files spread out, and they’re deep in conversation. Even though they have a computer and several folders open, it doesn’t look like they’re discussing them. It looks more as if the man is alternating between interrogating Rory and flirting with him. That’s pretty typical behavior for the man from what I remember.

  The man Rory is sitting at the conference table with shouldn’t be here. I stop and look through the window for a moment. I hope the way I’m looking at him makes him burst into flames. My hands start to tremble. I know I have to calm down before I go in there and remove him from my building.

  Rory sees me standing at the window glaring, but he gives me the go away look by frowning and furrowing his brow, and then he waves me away with his hand. The man is too busy staring at Rory’s crotch to notice what’s going on, and keeps talking at him while trying to scoot in between Rory’s knees. Rory thinks I’m glaring at him, and doesn’t realize my anger is directed at his “client”.

  I can tell he’s uncomfortable with the way the client is looking at him, and it makes me feel a little better to know Rory’s not enjoying his attention. That is, until the client reaches under the table and runs his hand up Rory’s thigh. He cringes and pushes the client’s hand away.

  Rory turns to me and pleads with his eyes. In an instant, he realizes he’s in over his head, and the look of fear and revulsion in his eyes makes the monster in me come alive. I’m not normally a violent man, but I will hurt someone for threatening any kind of harm to someone I love.

  Rory’s about to lay into the client verbally, but I burst through the door before he can speak. Rory can spit fire, and I have no doubt that he would have tried to put the client in his place even if he was afraid.

  He’s not going to have to, though, because I’m going to handle the asshole harassing my Omega. That man is dangerous, and all I want right now is to put myself between him and Rory. I grab him by the throat and pick him up out of the chair. Rory gasps and backs away from us.

  “What the fuck are you doing here, Father?”

  Chapter Seven

  Rory

  I jump out of my chair and back into the corner of the conference room. I want to leave, but Jaxxon and Andrew are between the door and me now. There is a fight when Jaxxon tries to take Andrew out of the room and Andrew punches him. I was shocked at the way Jaxxon grabbed Andrew, but he must have thought he was protecting me. The level of violence Andrew is engaging in is frightening. Jaxxon is trying to get his father away from me and out the door, but Andrew keeps swinging at him brutally. He’s trying to hurt him.

  I breathe a sigh of relief when two security guards come and drag Andrew out. Jaxxon’s lip is bleeding and I grab a tissue from the box on the table. When I hand it to him, he looks completely broken down and on the verge of tears.

  “Thanks,” he says and holds it to his lip.

  “Are you alright?”

  “Let’s go to my office. We can talk there. I need to be somewhere with a lock on the door right now,” he says, and walks out of the conference room.

  When we get into his office, Jaxxon locks the door behind him and rips off his tie. He unbuttons his top buttons and takes off his suit jacket.

  “What are you doing?” I ask him

  “Sorry, baby. I just need to breathe, and I can’t with that stupid tie on.”

  It’s the first time I get a glimpse of his tattoos. Under that perfectly tailored business suit, Jaxxon’s chiseled body is completely tatted up. Goddamn. Goddamn. Goddamn wow. I should be focused on what he wants to talk to me about, but I can’t concentrate. What I want more than anything is to get a better look at that body.

  “I’m sorry about that,” he says and breaks me out of my daydream. “I need to tell you what’s going on. But first, please tell me why you were meeting with him.”

  “Andrew scheduled a meeting with me through my secretary. I thought I was going to provide him with legal advice about his investments, but he just kept asking me about you. He also wanted to know about you and me. It was starting to get strange right when you showed up. Why was your father asking me about you? Why wouldn’t he just ask you?”

  “Okay, Rory. I owe you the truth,” he says and runs his hand through his thick wavy hair. “My father is an abusive prick, and he’s dangerous. I was lucky that I was able to get him to move out of the country for a while, but now he’s back. He’s not supposed to be allowed in the building, but he must have slipped past security.”

  “I don’t understand. If you and your father are estranged, how did you buy this law firm? We just graduated law school within the last year. I’m sorry, Jaxxon. That’s not important right now; I’m being an asshole. Sometimes I can’t shut the analytical part of my brain off.”

  “It’s okay, Rory. I know it’s confusing. My grandfather died when I was twelve. He didn’t pass his fortune on to my dad. He put it in a trust for me. I got a stipend for living expenses and enough to pay for any college and law school I wanted to attend. I inherited the money fully when I graduated and passed the bar. The partners here and I started working on the deal for me to buy the practice my second year of law school when it became obvious I would graduate and get my inheritance.”

  “So that’s why you don’t talk to you dad? He’s angry because you got the inheritance?” I ask him, but I sense that there has to be more to this.

  “No, Rory. It’s much more than that,” he says, and he looks so grief-stricken that I want to reach out and hold him. “I’m protecting someone else. The night I left you, I did it because I had to. I did it for my little sister, and for my mother too.”

  “Your sister? What happened to your sister to make you vanish without a trace?” I ask the question, but I’m not sure if I want to know the answer.

  Chapter Eight

  Jaxxon

  It’s time to come clean. Callie is twenty-one now, and I can’t carry this burden alone anymore. For reasons I still don’t understand, I feel connected to Rory in a way I’ve never felt connected to anybody else. If I can tell anybody about my father, it’s him.

  “The night of the party, my dad got drunk and let himself into Callie’s room after she went to bed.” I start to choke up and grab the arm of a chair for support as a wave of nausea threatens to overtake me.

  I don’t know how I’m going to get through this, but then I look up into Rory’s big, soulful eyes and I find the strength to keep going. He looks like he cares about me, and I desperately need someone to care about me right now. Screw the bravado and the Alpha bullshit, even if it’s just for a minute, because I need that connection I had with Rory our last night together eight years ago.

  Right now, I need to be vulnerable, but only with Rory. I’m drowning in my secret, and he’s my lifeline.

  Chapter Nine

  Rory

  “Oh no.” I could sense where this was going, given his father’s lecherous behavior with me. “Jaxxon, let’s sit down.”

  We walk over to his small conference table and sit down. I move my seat closer to him and take his hand. He takes a few moments to compose himself and then continues.

  “I know it’s not usual, but my sister is an Omega. I guess some Alphas can’t resist that, and my father thought he was entitled to her. He tried to rape her, Rory. At first,
he tried to drug her, and she wouldn’t finish the milk he brought her. It was spiked with something, and she could taste it when she took a drink. So then, he tried to force himself on her. She got away from him and locked herself in her bathroom. Fortunately, she’d left her phone on the bathroom counter when she was getting ready for bed. She sent me twenty text messages before I finally checked my phone,” he says in a voice just above a whisper.

  “Because you were with me.” I feel a sickening wave of guilt threatening to take me under, but I have to stay strong for him right now. This isn’t about me, and I have to do everything I can to avoid making it about me.

  “My mother woke up and heard him trying to beat down Callie’s bathroom door. He knocked her unconscious when she tried to stop him. I got home, and we fought. I knocked him out and tied him up. I locked him in a closet while my mom, my sister, and I all grabbed what we couldn’t bear to leave behind and fled.”

  “Oh Jesus, Jaxxon. I didn’t know,” I said, on the brink of tears. The pain he must have been holding in all these years is astonishing.

  “We all left our phones behind, so he couldn’t track us. Callie and I only came back here because I paid my father to leave. She wanted to be near where our mother is buried, so I offered him a big chunk of the inheritance to leave the country. I don’t know why he’s back, but it can’t be good. He’s a monster, Rory. That’s why his father, my grandpa, wrote him out of his will. He left everything to me, so I could take care of my family. I couldn’t save my mother, though,” he says, and I see a tear form in the corner of his eye. Jaxxon wipes it away quickly and clears his throat.

  “What happened to your mother, Jaxxon?” As soon as I ask it, I regret it. “I’m sorry. You don’t have to answer that. I’m being insensitive.”