Page 24 of His Reward (Omegas After Dark: Omega Auction #2)

I frowned and peeked at him again as I drove on. Was Lucien upset about his appearance? He hadn’t said anything about that so far, though his scarring was pretty severe. His ear and the side of his head were…distinct now.

“I’m still on call,” I explained. “The guys have been willing to cut me a lot of slack this past month.”

“You’re going to be in big trouble if you keep this up, though,” Lucien said.

Had he been talking to Ernie?

“It’s all good, I swear,” I said, even though he was righter than I wanted to admit. “Is this your condo here?”

The discussion was dropped as I pulled into the lot for Lucien’s building.

I was a little surprised that someone as famous as Lucien only lived in a condo, but as soon as I helped him down from the car, fetched his bag, and walked him into the building, I changed my assessment of the sort of place Lucien owned.

“Wow. Look at that view,” I said once Lucien unlocked the door and opened it into a gorgeous, tastefully decorated main room with French doors that led to a balcony.

“Yeah, the view is the reason I bought the place,” Lucien said, moving into the center of the room and glancing around.

Any appreciation of the stunning view of the beach as it curved to the north and the purple haze of the mountains behind that shifted when I saw the slightly lost look in Lucien’s eyes.

He looked at the furniture, the artwork on the walls, the display cabinet filled with trophies and medals from his skating competitions, and everything else like he didn’t recognize any of it.

“Okay, now it’s my turn to ask what gives,” I said.

Lucien dragged his gaze around to me and tried to smile. He shrugged, which just made him look tired. “I don’t know who this person is,” he said, then rubbed his forehead with his good hand. “I don’t know how I’m going to keep going as if everything hasn’t changed.”

The alpha within me roared at the defeatist attitude Lucien was flirting with.

“You don’t have to know,” I said, putting his bag down and marching over to him, “you just have to keep going.”

Lucien grinned up at me. “Are you sure you don’t want a job working for a greeting card company?” he asked. “Because that’s incredibly sentimental and cheesy.”

“Yeah, well, it’s true,” I said keeping things light. I moved in close to him, closer than I’d been able to be in ages, and took his face in my hands. “You are strong, Lucien. You can do whatever you want with your life.”

I punctuated my point by slanting my mouth over his.

I’d wanted to kiss my omega every day for weeks now but had been prevented, first by bandages, then by the constant presence of his mom and nurses.

It was incredible to taste him at last. So much so that I got a little carried away.

I parted his lips with my own and explored his mouth with my tongue.

The closeness was so wonderful that I groaned with it and kissed him harder.

Only when I felt Lucien tense and moan, but not with lust, did I realize something might be wrong.

“What?” I whispered, inching back a bit but not wanting to let go of him.

Lucien had grabbed my wrists and held them tightly, but he didn’t try to pull my hands off his face, and even though he vibrated like a bowstring about to snap, he didn’t try to push away from me.

“I—” he started, then bit his lip as he gazed up at me.

His eyes were glassy with emotion. I waited patiently, trying to exude alpha confidence and command, and finally, he blurted, “Are you sure you want to touch me?”

My heart broke a little. It wasn’t that I thought Lucien was stronger than that. You’d’ve had to be made of stone not to be affected when you received disfiguring wounds. None of that changed how I felt about him even a little bit, though.

“I want to touch all of you,” I said, not holding back any of the lust I felt. “I want to run my hands all over your body and smack that bubble ass of yours until you’ve got hand-shaped bruises for me to admire.”

Lucien let out a strangled sound, then burst into tears. “Dammit,” he said, sniffing and pulling back so he could wipe his eyes. “I hate crying, but you kind of just said exactly what I needed to hear right now.”

“That I still think you’re desirable as fuck and that I can’t decide whether I want to throw you over that sofa and fuck you silly or tie you up and flog that back of yours until it glows?” I asked with a sly grin.

“Both,” Lucien said, weeping even more. “Dammit, I need to stop this!” he growled, then marched over to the side of the room to grab a box of tissue.

Oddly enough, his outburst and the subsequent sound of him blowing his nose diffused all the tension we’d both carried into the condo.

“You probably just need a nap,” I called to him as I fetched his bag and walked it through an open doorway into an absolutely gorgeous bedroom.

I would have thought Lucien, as an omega and a figure skater, would have his room decorated in frothy shades of light blue and silver or something, but it was a deep, almost subversive hunter green with bronze accents.

“I can snuggle into bed with you if you’d like,” I added over my shoulder through the bedroom door as I set his bag on a long, mahogany bureau.

Lucien’s laughter came from the other room. “You need to get back to the firehouse,” he said as I heard the sink turn on. When I walked back into the room, he had poured himself a glass of water. “I really don’t want you to get fired or something because of me.”

“It’s fine,” I lied, walking with him as he took his glass of water to the large, cushy sofa in the middle of the main room. “I can sweet talk my way around the district chief.”

“You’re in trouble with the district chief?” Lucien said, sitting down, his eyes wide.

“No, no, I didn’t say that.” I sat next to him.

Lucien stared flatly at me.

“I’m not in trouble with the district chief yet,” I said.

“Boston.” Once again, he sounded exactly like his mom. He also sounded seriously tired.

“Okay, okay,” I said, holding up my hands. “I’ll spend more time at work and less time with you. Is that what you want?”

I could tell from the immediate emotion in his expression that was the last thing he wanted. “I can take care of myself,” he said. “I’ve been doing it for years.”

I hummed doubtfully, then shifted closer to him, and like the possessive alpha I was, I slung my arm around his shoulders, resting it against the back of the sofa, while he reached for the remote and turned the TV on.

The last thing he’d watched must have been some skating program. The TV turned on to what looked like an entire skating channel. A pair of commentators were sitting at a desk talking about some national competition from Europe over the weekend and the various skaters who had won.

“This means that Strauss will be entering the Winter Games next month as the European champion,” the male commentator said.

“And with Lucien Monteverdi out of competitive skating for good, Strauss will be favored to win gold,” the female commentator said.

I could feel Lucien bristle beside me, but he didn’t say anything.

“You want to change the channel?” I asked quietly.

Lucien didn’t answer me. Instead, he said, “Wilhelm Strauss is a great guy. He’s been working just as hard as me for just as long. He deserves that gold.”

I nodded, not really knowing what to say. I could feel frustration and grief radiating from my omega.

“What do you want to do?” I asked once the program was over and Lucien turned off the TV.

“I want to take a nap,” Lucien sighed, reaching for one of the bigger pillows at the side of the sofa. “Right here, where I can look out the window at the ocean.”

“Do you want me to get you a blanket or something?” I asked, getting up and immediately looking around for one.

“Yeah,” Lucien said, swinging his body around with a wince and lying on the couch. “And then I want you to go back to your firehouse and do the work you need to do so you don’t get fired.”

I laughed, but warning bells went off in my head. “I swear, Lucien, I’m fine,” I said.

He’d closed his eyes, but he opened one and arched an eyebrow at me as I brought the blanket I’d found on a chair at the side of the room to cover him with. “Don’t make me scold you again for lying,” he said.

I grinned. I couldn’t help myself. Lucien was so perfect in so many ways. All I wanted to do was to spend the rest of my life taking care of him.

And wouldn’t Mr. Monteverdi just love that.

I covered him with the blanket then bent over to kiss his lips. My heart thrilled a little when he kissed me back freely. “I’m going,” I said. “But you have my number. Promise me you’ll call me if you need anything at all.”

“I will,” he said with a sigh, settling in for his nap. “Don’t get in trouble because of me,” he charged me as I walked over to where I’d set my phone and keys on the counter in his open kitchen.

“I won’t, I swear,” I said.

I paused by the door to watch Lucien for a second.

He’d closed his eyes, and if he hadn’t instantly fallen asleep, I was reasonably certain he’d be gone before I made it down to the parking lot.

I hated leaving him, though. He had a sadness around him that I wanted to battle like a five-alarm blaze.

Saying that he wanted to make a comeback in the skating world was one thing, but I had the feeling he knew just how much of an uphill climb that would be.

I would be there for him every step of the way, but I knew that doing so would only play into his father’s hands.