Page 68 of Bully for Sale

The living room opened onto the pool deck, and for the first time since he’d arrived, Ezer felt like he could breathe. He stepped into the sunshine, naked as he’d ever been, and lifted his arms. He heard Ned’s surprised hitch of breath before he realized that a huge smile had broken over his own face. The first one, he suspected, Ned had ever seen.

“Not a smirk, not a bitter lip grimace,” Ned muttered. “A smile. A real smile. This is what it took? I’d have brought you up here the moment we arrived if I’d known that.”

Ezer ignored him, turning to face the sun, breathing deeply. When he opened his eyes again, he took in the sparkle of the blue water against the white-and-beige-tiled interior of the pool, and the brown-painted concrete pool deck. The rails of the deck were a tan wood, and he could see the cliffs and the sea beyond them.

It wasn’t a boiling hot day, but it wasn’t cold either. It was like being given a delicious piece of cake after being denied a dessert for far too long. Ezer was, in this moment, satisfied and settled like he hadn’t been in weeks. Since way before all this had begun with Ned. Probably since his da had been forced out of the house.

“Fucking semen and sunshine,” he muttered to himself. He knew what it was, that it was what everyone wanted of him, but it didn’t make the peace humming through his veins feel less true.

“There you are!” Earl’s voice rang out.

Ezer jumped into the pool in a fit of shame, embarrassment, and modesty. He cried out as the cold water engulfed him, and then swam to keep his head above water, finding the pool was deeper than he’d expected.

“Oh!” Earl exclaimed, seeing that Ned wasn’t alone. “I’m sorry. I thought it was just you out here, darling.” He said, holding out a robe to Ned, as if his ward had come out here naked in a fit of forgetfulness.

Ned waved the robe off. “If Ezer’s naked out here, then so am I,” he said, with a huff of a laugh.

“Oh, is that the case?” Earl smiled. “If you prefer not to be naked, sir,” he said to Ezer. “I can ask my Simon where he got the robe that Heath’s Adrien preferred to wear during his first pregnancy. He was very modest back then.”

Ezer gave a tight, close-lipped smile, not sure what answer to give. He didn’t think he’d mind being naked in front of Earl eventually. He’d never seen omegas who preferred to be in a robe. His da and Pete both preferred to be naked. Pete, when he wore the robe, always said it felt too confining and scratchy, though the time Ezer had touched it out of curiosity, he’d thought it’d been as soft as clouds.

“That’s not his real smile,” Ned informed Earl. “That’s a fake one. I saw the real one earlier. It was beautiful.”

Ezer rolled his eyes.

Earl laughed. “Alphas always go weak for their omegas,” he said.

Ezer thought Ned was plenty weak before they’d come together.

“So should I ask Heath?”

“We don’t want to bother him right now,” Ned said, with a small frown. “Not while he’s dealing with…” he trailed off as if he didn’t want to mention Heath’s troubles in front of Ezer. Probably because he was pregnant, and it was considered very bad luck to say anything at all about omegas dying in childbirth, or babies not making it, or anything negative at all in front of a pregnant omega.

“Oh, so you haven’t heard? Simon called this morning! Heath’s son will live!” Earl’s smile was big and genuine. He was pleased by this infant’s survival, and, in principle, so was Ezer.

It was objectively good news. He continued to swim in place, keeping his body beneath the blue water.

“They’re going to call him Laya.”

“A beta called Laya,” Ned said, softly. “That’s a good outcome.”

“Yes, better than they thought.”

Ned bit into his lower lip and his gaze shifted from where Ezer was still swimming, over to the cliffs and the ocean. He frowned.

“What’s wrong?” Earl asked.

“Nothing,” Ned was quick to say, but Ezer could see that Earl didn’t believe him, and, frankly, Ezer didn’t believe him either.

Earl’s gaze shifted away from Ned down to Ezer, and he said, “Oh, of course. Yes, well, we’ll have to see what happens won’t we? I’m sure Heath will understand and, if not, then we’ll blame your father. It’s the right thing to do.”

Ned shook his head. “No, I’ll take the blame. It was my choice.”

Earl didn’t argue. “Well, it’s time to start lunch. I’ll go see what we have. Would you like more of those sweet potatoes, sir,” he asked Ezer. “I noticed you enjoyed them last night.”

“Yes, please,” Ezer said, surprised that he could even think about eating again after his big breakfast.

“Then you’ll have them.”