Page 74 of Bully for Sale

Ezer’s heart still tumbled faster than he thought could be healthy, but if Ned wanted Earl gone for whatever he was going to say next, then it was best if the old man left. “Yes, I’m fine now.”

Earl looked doubtful, but he left the room as Ned had requested.

Ned kissed Ezer’s stomach again, pressing Ezer’s hand with his own, and then he met Ezer’s gaze.

“Tell me,” Ezer urged. “What did Braden say?”

“He told me about George Fersee not being your father. He thought that might make me ‘come to my senses’ about what you could realistically offer me. He thinks you’re bribing me to protect you from him and Finch. But…yeah, now I know.”

Ezer’s chin wobbled. So what if Ned knew he was Amos’s love child with another alpha? So what if Ned now understood the real reason George had gotten rid of him? And yet, somehow after everything, it was too low a blow. It took the breath from him again, and tears welled over, spilling down his cheeks.

“If my father had turned your father down, and your father had gone to Finch, he’d have taken you. The money is that good. He wouldn’t have hesitated. And he wouldn’t have been kind during the heat, or gentle after. He’s a sadist, just like Braden, and you know it,” Ned said. “Worse, if he’d found out after the fact,afteryou were pregnant with his son, that you weren’t who you seemed to be…”

The implications hung between them.

“He’d have hurt you. He’d have made your life miserable.” Ned nuzzled Ezer’s throat, sniffing and kissing in quick alternation. “I saved you.”

“You expect me to be grateful?” Ezer choked out.

“I just want you to understand. I protected you then, and I’ll protect you always.”

“I hate you,” Ezer whispered. “I hate you so much.”

Ned got up from his kneeling position on the floor, and slipped onto the sofa, putting his arm around Ezer’s shoulders, and pulling him close. “I know you do.”

They didn’t fuck. They didn’t even talk.

They just sat in silence, Ned holding Ezer until he relaxed against him, both watching as the sun glistened on the pool outside, and listening as the birds chirruped cheerfully. They stayed that way until Earl came back and announced that lunch was ready.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Ezer’s thighs wereslick-wet and trembling as he collapsed onto the sofa with Ned behind him, cock still buried deep. He missed the delirious fullness that came with a knot, and how it kept the crashing post-sex clarity at bay for a longer period of time.

Now he lay pulled tight to Ned’s body, feeling him shrink in size until he slipped out, wondering if Ned was going to force him to confess everything now, to own up to what Braden had told him.

Minutes ticked by with Ned playing with Ezer’s hole, pressing the leaking cum back inside, pushing fingers in to massage the glands and prostate until Ezer squirmed enough for him to stop.

“We don’t have to talk about it,” Ned said, pulling his fingers free and wiping them on Ezer’s stomach, the cum sliding over his skin like a stripe of ownership. “Not tonight. Not even tomorrow.”

“We don’t?” The cum was doing its job, calming and soothing him, and at Ned’s words Ezer’s hopes lifted.

“No. But wedohave to talk,” Ned said. “About ourselves. About the things we like and who we are. Like…like new friends.”

“Friends,” Ezer scoffed.

Ned shrugged. “I don’t know how else to do this, baby. We either try, like actuallytryto make this work, or we just go on forever misunderstanding each other, and being intimate strangers.”

Ezer rubbed a hand over his face.Intimate strangers? Is that a new word for slave and owner?He almost bit the bitter words out, but he held them in. Hadn’t he promised himself as he’d fallen asleep by the pool that he’d stop fighting Ned at every turn? He didn’t want to raise his son in a house where his parents couldn’t carry on a civil conversation.

“All right. What do you want to know about me?”

Ned smiled and flipped Ezer around as easily as if he were a doll. Brushing Ezer’s hair off his face with soft fingers, he asked, “What’s your favorite TV show?”

“I’m not much of a TV person. I prefer movies.”

“All right, your favorite movie then.”

Ezer hesitated. “Knotting Hill.”