Page 54 of Alpha Heat

“So I shouldn’t court him then?”

“Oh definitely court him. That would be too fun to miss.”

Xan rolled his eyes, but in the back of his mind made note to call a florist when he could. He’d have a beautiful bouquet delivered to Urho at his home. He wanted to make sure Urho didn’t forget him, and most of all he needed to make sure Urho understood that Xan’s intentions toward him weren’t purely sexual.

His gut tensed.

What if sex was all Urho wanted from him, though? He squirmed.Everythingwas so tentative. The offer Urho had made was for one thing only, but his behavior implied another. It would be foolish to trust in it, surely.

“Here,” Caleb said, passing over another book from his bag. “Read. It’ll get your mind off things.”

Xan sighed when he looked at the title. It was a book of Vale’s poetry. “What else do you have in your bag? A puppy?”

Caleb laughed and flipped the page of his book. Over his shoulder, Xan saw that it was also poetry.

With a groan, Xan stared unseeingly at the opening stanza of the first poem for a few minutes. Then he snapped the book shut, flopped back in his seat, and stared out the window. He wished he had the book Urho had given him, but he’d packed it up in a box he’d sent ahead with Ren and the servants.

The fields outside flashed by in grays, browns, greens, and the occasional splash of red or purple from early turning leaves or late blooming wildflowers.

Caleb patted his knee gently, but continued to puruse his book of poetry.

“How do you know about relationships and courting?” Xan asked, sitting up straight again. “It’s not like I’ve ever been very good at that stuff with you.” Or vice versa, for that matter, but he wasn’t about to say that.

“You forget I was highly sought after for several years.” Caleb smiled gently. “Until I turned down so many offers to contract that rumors began.Andyou forget that I do have omega friends. We talk, you realize. Trade stories. I have little to offer of my own, of course, so I mainly listen. When I was younger, courting was all anyone ever talked about.”

Xan took his hand and stroked the palm lovingly, tracing the lines. “You’re not exactly old.”

“Of course not, butnowall my omega friends want to talk about is babies.” His voice went wistful. “My dear friend Tad from school is due any day now. Did I tell you?”

Xan shook his head. Caleb rarely talked about his days at Mount Juror and even more rarely of his friends from school.

“Yes, Tad is excited. His third child.” Caleb frowned, removed his hand from Xan’s, and went back to his book.

“We’ll have a child,” Xan said softly. “I promise.”

“Of course.”

Xan studied the side of Caleb’s face, admiring his strong, high cheekbones, fluttery gold lashes, and soft lips. “We should invite some of your friends to stay with us in Virona. Probably not Tad until he’s delivered, but any of your other friends you miss. It’s a big house and the sea is beautiful any time of the year.”

Caleb dropped his head to Xan’s shoulder again. “I do love you, dear. You try so hard to make me happy and I couldn’t ask for more.”

Xan dropped a kiss to Caleb’s hair before closing his eyes and letting the rocking of the train send him off into a dream. In it Urho held a fat baby by the sea, water splashing around his legs, and Caleb stood by him cooing, both of them lit by the light of a pale, wintery sun.

Xan woke several hours later with anxious hope thriving in his heart.

The house roseup high above the town of Virona. It’s size and aging grandeur promised more space than either Caleb or Xan could hope to fill with children in their lifetime.

They stood beside the rather ordinary car they had rented at the railway station and stared up at the pale marble facade of the house, which appeared blue-ish beneath the overcast sky.

Wide, tall columns reached up to a flat, red barrel-tiled roof that had faded out to orange. Expansive arched windows mirrored even more gray sky, broken only by reflected glint of the colorful town below. The front entrance consisted of broad, imposing marble steps leading up two large, dull bronze doors. Both were currently shut and without doormen to open them.

The house was beautiful, but in its neglected state, it felt cold. Nothing about it reached out to welcome them. It was a hard, barren womb.

“It looks haunted,” Caleb said, tilting his head and studying their new residence gravely.

“It’s just the gray day,” Xan murmured reassuringly, tucking his arm around Caleb’s back. “The oppressive clouds and the storm blowing in off the shore are playing with our imaginations.”

“Hmm. Regardless, the view is lovely. It’ll be even more so on a sunny day, I’m sure.”