Page 64 of Bully for Sale

“I wouldn’t have let them hurt you. Like I told you at the heat house, I’ve loved you since I first saw you. I was just trying to figure out how—”

“How to what? How to say, ‘Let’s not fucking rape Ezer because I’m in love with him, and you all suck, and I hope you die in a firebomb?’ How to say that?”

“Yeah. Pretty much.” Ned sounded like he was holding back a laugh, but the topic was so far from funny that Ezer wanted to spit in his face. He could still feel the panic surging through him that day, the bruising hands on his body, the weight of Ned’s foot resting on his chest for a brief moment.

Had Ned really been about to kick Braden? Or was that a pretty story to tell his pregnant, horny, desperate-to-believe omega so they could get on with fucking and making babies and building a life together without any hard feelings over times past?

God this situation was so absurd. So messed up.

Ezer gazed out of the window at the waves crashing white onto the brown cliffs. How had he ended up here, naked, and already feeling like he needed another dose of what Ned had to offer, when just three weeks ago he’d been dying from angst over his Literature oral exam?

Literature. Biology. Physics.

All classes he’d never attend again.

Whyhad he attended them anyway? Omegas never went on to have careers. Not when they were from wealthy families. The only omegas who got to have careers were those who are poor enough to be allowed to auction off their heats, rather than have them arranged privately. They got to live however they damn well chose. That was why Ezer had wanted that path for himself.

That was why…

It didn’t matter now. He had a new path ahead. He needed to find a way to follow it without wanting it to end on that cliff with a long jump to the rocks below. He turned his gaze from the view out of the window and back to Ned’s annoyingly handsome face.

Ned was still talking. “Just before this—” He gestured between them. “Like, just a few days before, I’d had a meal with my uncle.”

“Heath Clearwater,” Ezer clarified.

“Yes. He told me he’d support me in cutting Braden and Finch out of my life. He said he’d make sure it wasn’t a financial hardship for me to do that. So it’s all right, you see?”

Ezer blinked. “Are you saying that you’d still be friends with them if Heath wanted you to be?”

“Well, there’s no need to even think about that because he doesn’t want me to be. And with the money from your father…”

Ezer snorted. “With the money from my father, you don’t need to suck up to those shits anymore. I get it. So my body and my father’s money have paid for your peace of mind. You get the rewards while I pay the price.”

“No, I just mean—”

“You just mean that you’d still suck those assholes’ dicks if you thought you had to for the money. To live like this,” Ezer said, waving around at the nest, the view, and the part of the city they were in. “You’d sacrifice your pride, the omega you claim to care about, the—”

“Stop,” Ned said. “Please stop interpreting everything I say in the worst light possible.”

“How else should I interpret it?”

“I’m saying that you’re safe now!” he exclaimed. “That you’re with me, and I’m done with them, and we have money, and a nice home, and the support of a man like Heath Clearwater. That’s what I’m saying and that’s how you should interpret it.”

“Ah.” Ezer hated that his cock was getting hard as Ned’s cheeks flushed with passion while he was defending himself. He hated that his hole was leaking slick, that his nipples were tightening. He hated that he knew what came next.

“‘Ah’ what?” Ned challenged.

“I just mean thatyou’resafe, so you think I’m safe.”

“Youaresafe. It was me or Finch. They were going to offer you to Finch!” Ned yelled, standing up, his face going redder. “Fucking Finch!”

Ezer swallowed hard. “Is that true?”

Ned pulled his phone out of his robe pocket and pushed it into Ezer’s hand. “Read for yourself.”

Ezer stared at the screen. The letters swam. He had no idea what it said.

“Fucking Finch,” Ned said again, raking a hand through his hair. “So yeah. You’re safe compared to that. I know you don’t love me, or maybe even like me yet, but…I’m not fucking Finch.”