Page 65 of Alpha Heat

“Jason talks to him.”

“I talk to him too,” Urho said defensively.

Vale’s brows lifted, and his voice dropped conspiratorially. “How often?”

“Daily,” Urho admitted. His cheeks felt warm.

“I see. So it’s not serious, but you talk every day, and you miss him. I can tell.”

“I didn’t say it wasn’t serious. I said it’s complicated.”

“You said you didn’t know what it was.”

“You’re so exasperating today!” Urho started to stand, but Vale took hold of his shoulders and pressed him back down to the sofa.

“You have to tell me everything. Now.”

“It’s a long story and it’s been a long day.”

Vale rolled his eyes. “I’m a miserably pregnant omega who is essentially trapped in this house by the flu epidemic and tortured daily by the attentions of my loving in-laws.Pleasetalk to me.”

Urho gave a quick half-smile and then eyed the liquor cabinet across the room. The truth would come out more smoothly with a bit of bourbon.

“I’ll pour you a drink if you tell me how it all began.” Vale crossed the room and lifted the bottle temptingly.

“I found out that he was involved…” Urho trailed off. That wasn’t his information to share. “He was in a dangerous situation. So I offered to fuck him, like a surrogate for an omega.”

Vale blinked rapidly and then choked on a laugh. After pouring a generous glass, he collapsed beside Urho on the sofa and passed the bourbon over with a grin spreading his lips. “I see.”

Urho wet his throat with the bourbon before going on. “I didn’t anticipate how that turned out.”

“Oh, I imagine you didn’t.” Vale sounded utterly delighted.

Urho rolled his shoulders and took another drink. “I hadn’t realized that it would become something so…”

“Different?”

“More.”

Vale’s grin sliced across his face again, and he leaned back on the sofa, his hand on his bulging stomach. “Ah, then you’re still the idiot I’ve always known and loved.”

Urho tried to explain it so that it made sense to them both. “I wanted to believe that what I was offering was no different than helping an omega in heat, but, in reality, it was nothing like that at all.”

“It was forbidden,” Vale supplied. “Which is definitely different.”

“Yes, but—” He’d apparently developed feelings for the little brat somehow. What he wanted from Xan wasn’t sex and sex alone, like with a typical surrogacy. He didn’t want to fulfill his animal lusts and then walk away. He wanted to build something real.

“But?” Vale prompted.

“He reminds me of Riki.”

“I thought Riki was a paragon of gentleness and obedience. Something Xan is decidedly not.”

“Riki was. No, Xan isn’t like him in that way at all.” Urho scrubbed a hand over his head and tried to put the words into the right shape. “I meant the way I feel about him reminds me of Riki. The way I react to his scent and the way I want to…”

Vale sat up again. “Yes?”

“The way I want to own him.”