Page 43 of Slow Heat

Jason swallowed his reply.

Xan turned away. “See you in class.”

Jason watched him walk down the hall to the staircase. His heart ached and his balls thudded from their recent release. As he turned to go back into his room, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye and smelled tobacco smoke. Sitting on the steps going up to the attic, Pater stared at him meaningfully.

Jason’s skin went hot as fire. “How long have you been there?”

Pater shrugged and indicated the three boxes on the stairs beneath his perch. All labeled as Autumn Nights ornaments. “I could use some help.”

“Of course. Sure.” Jason wiped his sweaty palms on his pants and double-checked to make sure he was buttoned up. Downstairs, he heard the front door open and close.

Taking the biggest box from the attic steps, he smiled to cover his nerves. “Let’s decorate a lot this year, huh? If Vale comes over for any of the celebrations, I want him to be impressed.”

“Perhaps.” Pater stood and ran his fingers through Jason’s hair, straightening the mess. “So, that was the last time with him?”

“What?” Heat crept up his throat and suddenly he could smell it: the scent of him and Xan together wafting out of his open bedroom.

Pater sighed and lifted a smaller box of ornaments waiting on the attic stairs. “Just say it was the last time.”

“Yeah. It was.”

“Good.” Pater shifted the box to his hip and stared into Jason’s eyes. “Omegas don’t like it when their alphas fuck other people without permission.”

Jason swallowed. He’d never heard Pater be so crass. He usually spoke of making love or, if talking about something less emotional, just plain sex. “It was the last time,” Jason repeated. He couldn’t explain more or better than that. Not without giving away Xan’s secret.

“There’s a lot at stake here for you.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” Jason fidgeted, but his pater didn’t seem done with him yet.

“Xan needs to be careful,” Pater said. “Boyish indulgences are fine—typical even, despite the Holy Book of Wolf—when you’re young, horny, and stuck together at Mont Nessadare. But if they aren’t renounced, they can cause real problems when you start to woo an omega.”

Jason nodded wordlessly.

Pater started down the attic stairs, and Jason followed. “If Valendo Aman hears about it, he won’t like it. Contract or not.” He shook his head. “Just keep what happened today to yourself and make sure you don’t do it again.”

Jason sighed. “Please, Pater, don’t be disappointed in me. It was a goodbye thing. I promise. It will never happen again.”

Pater lifted a brow. “I’m glad to hear it. Now, go shower and open your windows to air that room out. It reeks of sex.”

The roots of Jason’s hair burned, and he wished the floor would open up and devour him whole.

“Then bring these boxes downstairs to the conservatory to help me sort through them.” He gave Jason a pale smile. “We’ll decide what we want to put out for the first Autumn Nights celebration this weekend.”

Jason smiled. “You’ll invite Vale to The Feast of Alpha’s Blessings?”

“I had planned on it.” Pater shifted the box in his arms. “And yes, we’ll make everything very nice. For your Vale.”

That evening, afterJason had taken his final dose of alpha quell and before he headed up to bed, his pater pulled him aside and handed him a small stack of papers with ragged edges. “These are the poems I thought appropriate for you to see right now.”

Jason took them, his head swimming. “Thank you.”

Father shuffled past them in the hall, a dark expression on his face, but Pater only rolled his eyes at him. “He’ll get over the poetry eventually. But perhaps you should take them to your room to read.”

Jason had intended to do just that. He couldn’t imagine reading Vale’s poems while his parents breathed down his neck, watching for his reactions and fretting. The words of the first poem danced on the page, and he started quickly toward the staircase before stopping and turning back to his pater anxiously.

“Yes, Jason?”

“I just wondered, before I read them, I guess I want to know—” He stroked his hair off his forehead and frowned, bracing himself. “Are they any good?”