“Ok’Ron! Ok’Ron!”
“Unmelt your heart!!”
“Listen to your son! Prince Laramie! Prince Laramie!”
But his grandfather remains stoic.
“Ok’Ron! He loves you!! Your grandson loves you!”
His face starts to crumble.
“Grandpa. Please,” Laramie says.
And he finally cracks.
That night, there is a gargantuan celebration in the crevasse, welcoming Laramie home and congratulating the couple on their child. Cameron and many of the dragons broke down when Ok’Ron embraced his only grandsons on the helm. It’s clear to them all a giant weight has lifted off both their chests. A pervasive feeling of hopefulness and gratitude overruns the gathering and now, Cameron can’t stop smiling.
As Laramie introduces Cameron to various shifters at the party, he is bombarded with advice from men who’ve been pregnant. Cam starts feeling excited about giving birth in the Dolomites, instead of terrified. He knows he will be all right.
Cameron performs some of his songs for the shifters. They dance and eat for hours, talking to everyone (especially Ok’Ron and Laramie’s grandmother), but Cameron doesn’t last long. His abdomen is already protruding out now, and the heaviness is more solid. Ok’Ron tells Cameron he set something up with the healers in the morning.
They wish everyone good night and Laramie transforms, carrying Cameron to his “apartment” in a different mountain, in a different crevasse where many shifters live in cozy compartments sculpted into the rock. Laramie’s place is dusty, but charming, and the bed is massive.
Cam immediately lies down. Laramie lies next to him, kissing his cheek.
“There’s no one else I’d want to do this with you know?” says Laramie.
“Me neither. Nobody.”
And Cam thinks about how, not too long ago, he couldn’t remember the last time he felt surprised. Now he thinks Laramie and their baby will forever keep him on his toes.
Cameron Leto smiles, before cuddling Laramie and drifting into sleep and more dreams.
**********The End**********
First Time Gay Contemporary
His Boss’s Request
Description:
My ex-girlfriend is marrying a billionaire, but not for love… it’s all a charade
He’s everything that I’m not… Built, rich, and dominating so why does he want me to be his assistant?
I’m not gay, but he doesn’t seem to care.
What Grey wants… Grey gets
*************************
Ethan hated going to weddings without a date. It was so completely awkward to be sitting there surrounded by people he didn’t know. The thing was, the person he would have taken as his date about a year ago was standing up there at the altar across from another guy.
He sighed a little and glanced down at his watch. The elderly woman he was sitting next to gave him a scalding glare but he shrugged a little and ignored her. It felt like the priest had been talking for ages. Why couldn’t Bethany just get on with it and kiss that guy already? She’d sure been quick to do it the moment they broke up.
Stop that, he scolded himself. The truth was, they made the decision to break up together. Their friendship was great but for some reason, they just couldn’t make their relationship work. It wasn’t like they argued all the time or fought or anything, but he could tell she was bored with him. Bored with the flowers he bought her, bored with the dinners he cooked –but he’d been raised to love and respect women like that, so there was nothing else he could do but try to make up for it in the bedroom. And he thought he always did pretty good in there. He could last for a really long time.
But when they broke up, Bethany had told him that sometimes a woman doesn’t need or want to be kept waiting for that long.
Women were confusing but if it made her happy to just be friends and then to go off and marry this guy, he’d be the first to congratulate her.
If the big moment ever came, that was. Time seemed to drag on for an eternity as the priest continued to just stand there and read from his Very Important Book. Bethany and the guy she was marrying, the famous billionaire real estate developer Mason Grey, kept holding hands and gazing patiently and lovingly into each other’s eyes.
She never did that with him.
Ethan grumbled. A jab of pain went through his side as the elderly woman shoved her elbow between his ribs. “Hush!” she scolded, rapturous tears on her face. “This is the best part!”
“Yeah, okay,” he muttered, and rubbed his aching ribs.
Bethany looked over at him just a little, a smirk on her lips.
Mason Grey tilted his head a little to look, as well. He wore a fantastic onyx-black three piece suit which hugged every inch of his massive body. Fabric strained across his muscles, especially his thighs and chest. His gaze was piercing and icy-blue.
Ethan shrank back a little in his seat, hoping that he hadn’t made an enemy, but all Mason did was look away again and go back to gazing at his soon-to-be-wife.
After another eternity, the famous words were finally announced. “You may now kiss the bride!”
Ethan leaned forward a little to watch, hoping he’d get to see some real action to see how other guys did it. Huge, hulking, billionaire Mason leaned in, grabbed Bethany, tilted her way back, and gave her a chaste peck on the lips before straightening up with her again.
That was the weirdest thing he’d seen all day.
The traditional music started playing, and the newlyweds wandered back down the center aisle with their fingers entwined. Guests pressed forward, waving and congratulating them. Ethan tried to shrink back but he was being shoved from behind, forced to mingle in the fray of loud voices and pressing bodies. Dozens of colognes and perfumes assailed his senses, choking the breath out of him, but there was nothing he could do but try and shuffle along with everyone else.
When Bethany announced her engagement to Ethan, she sounded so happy and excited. “Mason is going to pay for everything! It’s going to be like a fairytale.”
He didn’t know whether he’d consider this a fairytale or not, but it was definitely large and expensive. The church was clogged with decorations and so many attendants that they were practically double-stacked, which meant the parking lot was a mess. A dangerous mess. The streets were packed as everyone slogged their way towards the reception hall in a gigantic mass of honking vehicles, almost literally bringing half the city to a grinding halt. And of course, this whole event had been announced to heaven and back by newspapers and news channels, so everyone knew the reason for it. And it was being televised too, with a news chopper wavering up above and media vans threaded throughout the traffic.
Basically it was a nightmare and Ethan couldn’t believe he survived it, pulling into a parking space way in the back with his hands white-knuckled on the steering wheel. His heart was pounding in his chest and it took a minute before he could calm down, but by that time he was one of the last people in the hall. The people near him turned to look. He blushed, suddenly feeling embarrassed about the rented suit that didn’t really fit him very well, and he hurried away to find somewhere quiet and out of the way. Bethany would never forgive him for making a scene on her special day.
Luckily, no one actually really seemed to care if he was there, so he just quietly sampled from a buffet that was literally the length of the whole building, and enjoyed himself, and wished his current girlfriend was around to keep him company.
Someone poked his shoulder.
“Ah!” Ethan yelped, and threw his fork from shock. He had no idea where it went and didn’t care, grabbing at his chest. “You gave me a heart attack, Bethany!”
The blushing bride stared at him with joyful eyes. “Maybe but I’m glad you got to see me married before you died!”
Despite himself, he laughed and stood up to give her a hug. Then he pulled back and looked in her face. Her pretty skin was coated in so much makeup he could feel it clogging hi
s pores, and that wedding dress was a huge, gaudy mess of white chaos. “You look great! Like a real princess. Does it feel like a fairytale like you wanted?”
“Absolutely!” she gushed. “And it’s all thanks to Mason! I can’t believe I was lucky to get someone so rich.”
Whoa, Bethany.
“But you love him, right?”
She gave him an odd look that he really couldn’t make heads or tails of. ‘Oh, yes. Sure, absolutely.”
“I got a feeling you’re talking about me,” a deep, low voice rumbled.
Bethany let out a little squeal which sounded more surprised than happy. “Oh, Mason! I was just telling my friend Ethan how lucky I am to have you. Ethan, I would love for you to meet Mason!”
Mason stepped forward, but it was more like a skulk. His shoulders bunched with muscle as he walked, like a tiger stalking its prey. “It’s nice to meet you,” he rumbled and stuck out his hand.
Ethan stared down at that hand. It was bigger than his head! “Uh, uh, it’s, it’s nice to meet you too,” he squeaked, and stuck out his hand to grab onto Mason’s.
Mason’s fingers closed around his, and it was like a lightning bolt shot through his entire body. He gasped, his knees going weak, the only thing holding him up was the other man. His hand had him held in place, and so did his eyes. Those piercing blue eyes, such a smolder for such a cold color. It was like they saw right through his clothes, and he suddenly felt…naked.
The other man leaned in over his hand, and brought his broad head down close to Ethan. He was shaking, and the other man’s powerful scent of musk filled his nostrils, more delicious than any cologne. “Any friend of Bethany’s is a friend of mine.”
Another gasp ripped from Ethan’s lips as another shock shook through his entire body. His stomach ignited with nervous tingles and he couldn’t help but to look down again. Being so close to someone so important made him tremble.
What’s wrong with me? He’s just a normal guy.
He forced himself to look up again. Mason was still staring at him, a grin playing on his lips.
“Isn’t he so cute, Ethan?”
Suddenly, the magic was broken. Mason leaned back, his handsome face perfectly calm. It was like nothing ever happened. And nothing had happened, right? It was a handshake and that was it, so why did he feel so weird?
He shuffled a little, trying to remember what his friend just said. It was hard to think.
“Uh, yeah,” he muttered. “Cute.” Cute was definitely not the right word but he wasn’t going to argue. A guy didn’t just come out and start giving compliments to another man. It wasn’t right.
“Anyway, it’ll be way cuter when he gives you a job.”
Somehow, that cut through the fog in his brain. “A job? Huh?”
Mason spoke, his voice still low and partly a growl. Ethan could hardly believe it was how the man naturally sounded. “Yes. Bethany told me you were looking for a job. It just so happens that I recently lost a valuable assistant.” He grinned, and it was like watching a shark smile at a group of small fish. “You seem like the sort of…smart young man I need on my team.”
“Oh, wow! Thank you! But I…I don’t really have any qualifications.”
“I’m sure it will be a very…hard job.” Mason licked his lips. “But you’ll get used to it quickly. It will be like nothing you’ve ever experienced.”
Ethan let out a nervous little laugh. “Well, I don’t have any doubts about that!”
The powerful man grinned again, as if they’d just shared a wonderful joke. “I will need your number so I can call you for the interview after the honeymoon.”
“We’re going to Italy!” Bethany chirped.
Ethan swallowed hard. “Yeah, sure. I…Wait, Bethany can just give it to you later. She has it.” For some reason, he couldn’t help but feel relieved about that. The last person he gave his number to was a girl, so it would have felt weird doing the same with a man –even a potential employer. Except, it actually didn’t feel as weird as he might have thought and that worried him.
Mason frowned but nodded anyway. “That would also work, yes.”
“Well, thank you so much. Both of you,” Ethan stammered. “I should probably let you get to the other guests. I, I wish you the best marriage.”
“Thanks!” Bethany trilled, and practically danced away from the table, leaving the two men alone.
Mason just kept staring down at him. “Thank you for the well-wishes, Ethan. I look forward to having you, for a very long time.”
Then, he turned and strode away to catch up with his new wife, leaving Ethan baffled in his wake. What the hell had all that been about? He had been hoping all this time that rich people were just like regular people, but Mason had just thrown all that out the window. Talking to him was like talking to a bear! A massive, clean-shaven, dominating bear. A real Alpha male.
He sat back down in his chair and started to poke at his cold food with his spoon, but his thoughts were churning. It didn’t matter how manly a guy like that was, it shouldn’t have made him all flustered like that. He liked women. He had a girlfriend. He wasn’t gay for anyone, so why was he excited about seeing Mason again?
He heard sometimes people changed their sexuality later in life, but he never had doubts about his…until now.
He sighed and shook his head. There was no use thinking about it. Even if something else was going on, there was no way he was passing up that job opportunity.
A couple weeks later, Ethan woke up to the sound of his phone buzzing angrily on the bed beside him. Groaning, he reached out to pick it up and stared at the number with bleary eyes. He didn’t recognize it and cancelled the call and dropped his face back down against the pillow.
Five minutes later, the same number called again. He groaned again. “Leave me alone.” He cancelled that one too, but the caller was back again before he could even put the phone down. Sighing now, he sat up and slid his thumb across the green arrows, then placed the phone to his ear. “Uh, hello?” he said, his voice rasping with sleep.
“Is this Ethan Bakkar?” a deep voice rumbled.
His back stiffened and a cold finger traced down his spine, making him sit up even straighter. “Ah! Mason? I mean, Mr. Grey?”
“Mason is just fine,” the man said calmly. “I hope I didn’t wake you?”
Ethan glanced over at his alarm clock. 7:35 on a Saturday morning. It was his day off before he went back in to his job at the local McDonalds for another six days straight; he was floor manager, which meant he had all the same duties as everyone else while also being responsible for everyone else’s duties were done. It was a taxing, unforgiving job. “No, I wasn’t asleep. I was…I was just a little busy.”
Mason gave a low chuckle that sounded like a lion’s roar. “You were asleep.”
Is…Is this billionaire teasing me?
“I was not!” he insisted.
“I know what men sound like when they wake up,” Mason said, all the laughter gone from his voice. Ethan got chills again just listening to him. What was that supposed to mean? And then it was once more like nothing ever happened, as Mason cleared his throat. “In any case, I wondered if you were still interested in interviewing for the position of my assistant.”
“Yes! I am!”
“Are you free to come in today?”
Ethan looked over at the clock again. He’d been looking forward to sleeping all day but no way was he going to mess up this chance to get out of this job. “I am,” he said.
“Then, come to Grey Properties today at your convenience, though earlier is better. My evenings are busier than the rest of my day. I will shuffle things around and be able to squeeze in our interview whenever you arrive.”
“I’ll come immediately.”
All Mason said was, “Hmmm.” And then he hung up.
Ethan just sat there for a moment staring at the phone. He had never done anything like this before. All the jobs he ever applied for had him jumping throug
h hoops. Background checks and set appointment times, and resumes, and return interviews. Mounds of paperwork. He never just got to waltz into the office of a company president before and it was a little scary, but if he was going to make good on his promise to be there soon he’d best start getting ready.
Forty-five minutes later, he was staring at himself in the mirror, trying to decide if he was good enough. Green eyes, a thin face, blonde hair swept up as perfect and fine as he could get it. He had to return the suit he wore for the wedding, so he was pulled out a pair of slacks and his best shirt from the closet. Problem was, they didn’t exactly fit great anymore now that he was losing weight from being on his feet all day. The clothes just hung on him like they were draped over a stick. It was the best he could do. He just hoped it was going to be enough.
Thirty minutes later, he was pulling into the parking lot in front of the Grey Properties building. Mason Grey was the president, although his dad really owned the whole real estate development company. Ethan walked in through the grand front doors and approached the woman behind the counter in the lobby. She was dressed in Gorgio Couture, some of the most expensive fashion in America.
“May I help you, sir?” she asked, voice clipped and professional.
“Uh, hi.” His voice squeaked with nervousness and he started to clear his throat before suddenly wondering if that was considered impolite. “My name is Ethan Bakkar. Uh, Mr. Grey, that is, Mason Grey, told me to…”
“Of course, Mr. Bakkar,” the woman said, already turning away from him to pick up the phone at her elbow. “We were expecting you. I will call in and see if Mr. Grey is ready for you. Please wait one moment.”
Omega Wanted: Bad Boy Mpreg Romance Page 52