“Felix helped with dinner today,” Mom says, dishing some peas for herself. “He taught me a new recipe he learned from Highton.”
“Really?”
Felix nods, meeting his eyes for a second. Kade wants to brush the slope of his nose with his fingers. “It’s the pork. We roasted it with beef stock and powdered onion soup. I think you’ll like it.”
Kade bites into a slice. It melts on his tongue, savory and meaty with a hint of onion, and he could probably finish the whole damn roast by himself. How had he not discovered this earlier? “Not bad.”
“Isn’t it? We’ll have you cooking more often, Felix,” Mom says.
Kade can’t help looking at his bondmate. Are you...?
Felix blushes. He pokes around at his food, scooping some peas into his mouth. “I think I’ll take you up on moving in,” he says, looking first at Kade’s mom, then at Kade.
Kade’s breath catches. “When?”
His mom laughs. “Finish your dinner first, at least,” she says.
A wave of scarlet sweeps through Felix’s cheeks. “Whenever you’re free, I guess. It’s not as though I have a job right now.”
“So... you’re sleeping here tonight?” Kade swallows, and maybe he’s a bit too transparent right now. He doesn’t care. His mom knows, anyway. And Felix can’t tell how much Kade wants him here. “I mean, if you’re moving in before your lease ends.”
“I can stay tonight,” Felix murmurs, glancing sideways at Kade, and he blushes all the way to his hairline.
Kade reaches up, running the back of his finger against Felix’s cheek. Felix’s skin is velvety and soft against his fingers, and he wants to touch his bondmate for days, hold him in his lap and kiss him senseless. “I’ll take the couch.”
“No!” Felix pulls away. Kade looks back at his food. Did he push too hard? “I-I mean, it isn’t fair if I take your bed,” Felix says. “I’ll sleep on the couch.”
“But you’re pregnant.” Kade can’t help looking at the bump of his belly again, wondering how big that baby is right now. “You need to take better care of yourself.”
“Just one night,” Felix says, looking between Kade and his mom. “If the couch is bad, I’ll sleep in your bed.”
Something in Kade’s chest roars. Felix will sleep in his bed, and that’s the best thought he’s had in a while—his omega curled up, safe from everything else. So maybe he can wait while Felix sleeps on the couch for a night.
“Sure,” he says, a grin creeping up on his face. “We’ll ride down and get some of your things tonight, then we’ll get you moved in tomorrow.”
Across the table, his mom smiles. Kade thinks there might still be hope yet for Felix and him.
The next morning, Kade steps out of his bedroom into a heavy lavender scent.
It washes over his skin, up his nose, lighting his mind. Then it goes straight down to his cock. Felix.
He hasn’t smelled Felix’s scent this strong in a while, since... the day he discovered his bondmate was pregnant. Kade gulps, following the scent. And it figures—Felix hasn’t taken any scent suppressants since yesterday. The scent is mellow, laced with honey. Kade trails through the hallway to the living room, searching for its source. He’d find Felix anywhere, just by his scent alone.
In the living room, Felix has curled up on the couch, one arm over his belly, his back to the rest of the living room. Protective. And Kade can’t help stepping closer, admiring the peace in his face, the fall of blond hair over his eyes.
He slows at the end of the couch, wondering if he should wake his bondmate. Felix’s eyelids flutter open.
“Hey,” Kade says, his voice still husky with sleep.
Felix blinks, his attention fluttering around him—the couch, the living room—and his eyes snap open. But his gaze falls back on Kade, and the tension in his shoulders seeps away. “Morning,” Felix rasps, sucking in a deep breath. “I forgot where I was.”
“Slept well?” Kade steps closer, eyeing the spare pillow under Felix’s head, the blanket he’d tucked under himself. It can’t be comfortable like that, especially if Felix has been used to proper beds all his life.
“It was good,” Felix says. He squirms around, his gaze raking over Kade, lingering at his hips. “Need something?”
Kade glances down at the tented fabric of his own boxers. He doesn’t care about that, when Felix’s scent is lush and heavy and familiar. He drops to his knees next to his omega. After months of barely-there lavender, it’s now almost overwhelming. He wants to fill his lungs with it and hold it there forever.
“You smell good,” he says, lowering his head to the crook of Felix’s shoulder, where his scent gland is. It smells like fresh flowers and a hint of sweat, like days in the past when they’d tangled together and made love in the afternoons.
Kade runs his nose along Felix’s throat, filling his lungs with his omega’s scent. Felix’s skin is warm and soft against him, his pulse fluttering against Kade’s lips. So he licks it, and Felix gasps. The sound makes Kade’s cock strain against his clothes.
“You smell good too,” Felix whispers, shifting around on the couch to face him. His eyes are warm and forest-green, and Kade leans in, brushing their mouths together.
Felix’s lips are slightly chapped, but soft. Kade slides into his mouth, growling when Felix opens beneath him, his fingers coming up to curve against Kade’s nape. His tongue drags damply against Kade’s, slow and welcoming. Kade slips his hand under Felix’s thighs, squeezing his ass, pulling his legs open to stroke along his inner thigh, up the leg of his sleeping shorts. Felix’s breath puffs warm against his skin.
Kade rolls his soft balls between his fingers, teasing the base of his cock with his thumb. Felix groans, shoving his hips up, trying to push his cock into Kade’s palm.
“You like teasing, don’t you,” he gasps against Kade’s mouth. Kade thrusts between his lips, tasting him, sliding the flat of his fingers up against his omega’s cock, testing the heft of it.
“Should I come downstairs some other time?” Kade’s mom asks.
Kade tenses, breaking the kiss. This can’t be happening again. He pulls away from his bondmate, glowering up the stairs. “You have the worst timing.”
His mom waves down at them. “I hope the couch wasn’t uncomfortable, Felix.”
Felix groans, his cheeks scarlet. He covers his face with both his hands, and Kade wants to hug him. He’s adorable. “Good morning, Mrs. Brentwood. The couch was fine.”
“We’re going elsewhere,” Kade says, scooping his bondmate up into his arms. “Do whatever you like.”
His mom laughs. Felix hides his face in Kade’s chest, his fingers curling into the chain behind his shirt. Kade’s chest constricts. He forgot about the chain. And he can’t risk Felix fishing it out, because that ring hangs at the end of it.
Felix tightens his fingers on the chain. “When did you start wearing this?”
Five years ago. “Sometime back. It’s not important.”
“Oh.” But Felix picks at the chain, and Kade holds his breath. He can’t drop Felix to yank the chain out of his fingers.
Kade shoulders his way into his bedroom, kicking the door shut behind them. Then he drops Felix gently onto his bed, rolling him onto his knees.
“Spread for me,” he growls, slapping Felix’s ass. Felix sucks in a sharp breath, his pupils dilating.
“Here?” Felix whispers. But he’s wriggling out of his sleeping shorts, curling his fingers into his cheeks, spreading them to expose his damp hole. Kade throbs, at the same time relief feathers through his chest. He’s got Felix distracted, now.
“Good,” he says, slipping his own cock out. Felix gulps. Kade grinds his tip against his hole, sliding over it, up between his smooth cheeks, then back down. Musk rolls off his omega in waves.
Felix gasps, pushing back, and Kade rolls his hips, dipping into his tight, hot hole, groaning when Felix’s warmth squeezes around him.
And as Kade sheaths his
cock in his bondmate’s body, dragging a cry from his lips, they forget about the past for a while.
The moment the bathroom door clicks down the hallway, Kade fishes the sweat-slick chain out of his shirt, pulling it up over his head.
The chain whispers into a dollop of steel in his palm, gleaming in the sunlight. What snags his attention, though, is the ring at the end of it. It’s white-gold and smooth, its polish dulled after years against his skin, but it’s still the same ring he’d held up before, the ring that had carried all his hopes.
Five years ago, Kade had offered it to Felix, holding his breath. Felix’s face had crumpled, and he had slapped it from Kade’s fingers, turning to stalk out of the house they shared.
Why did you spend that money on me? Felix had cried. Kade still remembers the striped yellow wallpaper, the ugly second-hand couch they’d salvaged off a street corner. You know we can’t afford this.
He still remembers the breathless anticipation of getting the ring: exhausting Felix with hours of sex, and when he’d fallen asleep, tying a twist-tie around his finger to measure his ring size. Kade had expected him to wake the entire time. He remembers going to the shop, twist tie cradled carefully in his palm, picking out a ring that would fit Felix’s slim fingers. Then he’d collected the newly-forged ring a week later, engraved with their names, and it had sat heavy and important in his pocket for a day.
Kade swings his legs off the bed, tracing his thumb over the ring’s edge. Now that Felix has put on weight from the pregnancy, would it still fit his finger? Would he even want to be with Kade?
His heart squeezes, and he closes his fist around the ring, the metal pressing an indent into his palm.
The bathroom door unlocks with a click. Kade swears, looking around. He needs somewhere to hide the ring. When Felix moves in, he may catch Kade asleep. Kade can’t risk him looking at the chain then.
He can’t stash the ring at the uncluttered desk, and the display shelves are open, with no secret compartments. He can’t hide it on the bed.
So he tucks the ring and chain under the mattress, hoping that Felix won’t start looking too closely at the things in this room. In fact...
Kade hurries around his bedroom, pulling off the little photos of Felix behind his computer, the tiny plastic fire truck that Felix had given him on his fourteenth birthday, the yellowed picture of them that his dad had taken at a fair. These, Kade tucks into his desk drawer, under a pile of work folders.
When Felix pushes the door open, Kade exhales, looking up.
“I’ll help your mom with breakfast,” Felix says, smiling warmly. “Do you need anything from the kitchen?”
“No, but thanks.” His heart thuds against his ribs. I just need you.
Felix shuts the door behind him, and Kade stares at where his face was, touching the empty skin on his chest.
42
Felix
Breakfast passes far less awkwardly than Felix expects.
He steps out of the house to let the musky scents dissipate from his skin. By the time he enters the kitchen, Mrs. Brentwood has diced potatoes going on the stove, and some eggs boiling in a pot. “I really do hope you slept fine,” she says, looking pointedly at his belly. “Kade meant well when he offered his bed, you know.”
“I know,” he mumbles, looking at the floor. It would also save them some embarrassment if they keep all sex behind doors. “I’ll think about it.”
When Kade joins them in the kitchen, he looks sourly at his mother. The expression melts away when he glances at Felix, though, and Felix fidgets, wondering if he caused Kade to relax. If Kade truly wants him around, despite what Felix has done.
They sit down at the table, plates of potato hash and boiled eggs between them. Kade talks about the programs he has to adjust for work, and Mrs. Brentwood tells Felix about her garden.
“Feel free to paint in the backyard,” she says. “Some of the succulents are blossoming again.”
After breakfast, Kade rides out with Felix to a strip mall nearby, where they hire a trailer for the day. It takes them an hour to pack Felix’s things into boxes, and five trips to move all of it into Kade’s garage. The baby squirms in Felix’s belly as they unload the last haul, and Kade watches when Felix touches the curve of his abdomen.
“What should I name it?” Felix asks.
Kade fumbles a cardboard box. The plates inside rattle.
“Sorry,” Felix says, wincing. “I mean, I don’t know what to name it. I’m not good with names.” Besides, Kade should have a say too, shouldn’t he, if the baby is also his?
“We don’t even know if it’s a boy or girl,” Kade says, but a dark red tint fans across his cheeks. “Why are you asking me, anyway?”
Felix lowers his head, pulling open a box of clothes. “I... thought you might have a better idea than I do.”
Kade shrugs, his gaze lingering on Felix’s belly. “We still have to get clothes for it, right? Maybe you’ll have a better idea when we’re there. Or you could ask my mom.”
Felix sighs, tracing his finger over the tape on the box. “I’m glad about moving in.” Kade glances up, his eyes bright. Felix shrugs. “I mean, your mom knows a lot about caring for children, right? I figure I could learn something from her.”
“Oh.” Kade hauls the rest of the boxes onto the garage floor, his fingers smudged with dust. His shoulders sag a little. “Yeah, she has plenty of experience with that.”
Did I say something wrong? Felix cringes. Maybe he accidentally offended Kade’s mom. “Anyway, thanks for helping me move. And for letting me stay here. I really don’t want to bother you.”
Kade rolls his eyes. “When have you really bothered me?”
“I... don’t know.” Aside from five years ago? Felix riffles through his memories, remembering the wrong-number prank calls he pulled on Kade, the ice cubes down his shirt, distracting him at work with silly farting noises... “The time I caught a duck and it shat on you?”
Kade laughs. He dusts his hands off, striding over to take the box of clothes from Felix. “I’ll move your stuff in for you.”
“This is light enough,” Felix says, but Kade wraps his hands around the box anyway. Then he lowers his face over Felix, so his lips hover an inch away, and his warm breath feathers over Felix’s skin.
When Kade kisses him, his lips slide soft and insistent. Felix doesn’t know why he’s doing this, but it feels good. Kade’s kissing him, Kade’s helping him move, and he’ll never have enough of this.
He nips at Kade’s mouth, sliding in. Kade’s tongue tangles with his own. It feels like love and concern and affection, and it steals the breath from Felix’s lungs.
Kade pulls away sometime later, his lips glistening. His eyes are dark, beautiful and mahogany, and Felix can’t look away.
“You look good like that,” Kade rumbles.
“Like what?” His pulse stutters.
Kade shrugs. His gaze rakes over Felix’s face, though, and he pulls away, taking the box of clothes with him. “Go help my mom with stuff. I’ll move your things inside.”
“Okay,” Felix says, feeling as though he should protest. But his body is starting to ache with the pregnancy, and maybe it’ll be better to let his alpha lift the heavy boxes instead. “How about I follow you around and give orders?’
Kade snorts, but he grins, his eyes lighting up. “Yeah, sure. Whatever you want.”
And so Felix follows him into the house with a smile, the unease in his limbs trickling away.
Felix tosses on the couch late that night, drained and restless. His sleeping clothes catch and pull on his skin, uncomfortable, and the couch is too warm. When he turns, his skin sticks to the wooly blanket. Maybe he should have asked for a different one instead.
He squirms on the couch, sighing when he finds a comfortable spot.
Through the day, Kade had moved his things into the house. Three boxes of clothes in his bedroom, a crate of framed paintings in the guest room upstairs, and four boxes of
painting supplies tucked against the garage wall.
Kade never once mentioned rent, or how long he’ll allow Felix to stay here. Felix looks down at the shadowed bump of his belly, smoothing a hand over it. I guess we aren’t moving away from Meadowfall now.
And he doesn’t want to, either. Kade has offered Felix his home. Felix isn’t strong enough to reject him, when his alpha welcomes him in his arms, in his bed, and he has a family here that he hasn’t expected to regain.
The living room yawns around him, full of empty furniture and shadows. The rest of the house rings with silence; Mrs. Brentwood has gone to sleep. Kade had said goodnight an hour ago, and Felix wonders if his alpha is still awake. If he should try texting Kade. Will he answer?
There’s no point texting him if I’m just a room away.
Heat creeps up his cheeks. He could knock on the door and say hi, and Kade wouldn’t mind. It’ll be better than falling asleep alone. He’s been falling asleep alone for years, and... falling asleep with his bondmate is a thousand times better.
Felix rolls off the couch, padding over to Kade’s door. It swings open quietly.
Inside, the glow of the laptop screen shines weakly from the desk. Across the room, Kade lies on his side in bed, eyes closed, the little figurines on his display shelves behind gleaming in the white-blue light.
Felix pads into the room. “Kade?” he whispers.
When Kade breathes in and out, Felix tiptoes forward, sitting carefully on the edge of the mattress. The room smells like cedar and pine, like a faint hint of musk and lavender. This morning was nice, when Kade leaned over him in bed, running his wrists over Felix’s skin.
It doesn’t seem like he’d mind if Felix stays over for a while. So Felix lifts the thin sheet, climbing in next to his alpha, tucking his back against Kade’s chest.
Kade stirs. For a second, Felix’s chest squeezes. What if he doesn’t want me here?
But Kade slips a hand around his waist, nosing into Felix’s hair. His breaths puff evenly against Felix’s scalp, gentle and warm. Felix moves Kade’s hand further up, so it presses flat against his chest. The heat of his palm soaks into Felix’s heart.
The Omega's Secret Pregnancy (Men of Meadowfall Book 1) Page 27