Page 92 of Slow Heat

“You should learn to use a phone.” Vale crossed his arms over his chest.

“You should learn to answer one,” Jason shot back.

Vale’s cock rushed with blood, and he groaned as he fought to keep from getting an erection. Simultaneously, his asshole grew wet. “Fuck,” he whispered. “This has to stop.”

Jason’s nostrils flared, but he said nothing.

“When someone doesn’t pick up the phone, it usually means they want to be alone,” Vale went on. “It doesn’t mean come to their house and harass them.”

“I’m here to let you know that Mox and the other betas will be here in an hour. We’re working in the back again today like we planned. I’m sorry I bothered you.” He stepped back from the window and headed out into the garden, where he picked up a shovel and started to chop through a matted mass of weeds.

Vale shivered in the breeze and lifted his hand to shut the window, but stopped. He could smell Jason’s sadness, taste it in his mouth, and it hurt him deep inside like a thorn twisting in his gut. “Come here,” he called out, leaning through the window. “Jason, please, come here.”

Jason threw the shovel down and trudged over with a sullen expression. Vale hadn’t ever seen his baby alpha looking so dispirited and it was all his fault. “I’m sorry I’m being unkind to you this morning. You don’t deserve it. I’m a bit hungover.”

And confused. And scared.

“What about ignoring my calls last night?”

“You didn’t deserve that, either.”

“What’s wrong,” Jason asked, stepping close with his hands out beseechingly. “What did I do? Was it the kitchen? Do you want me to apologize for that?”

Vale’s throat grew tight. “No, it wasn’t anything you did at all.”

It’s what I did years ago. It’s what you deserve that I can’t give you. It’s that I like you, Jason, and you deserve the best. And that’s not me.

Vale chewed on his cheek to keep the words inside.

“Talk to me. What went wrong between when we were together in the kitchen and yesterday when you showed up for negotiations? Was it my father’s attitude? Pater took care of him.”

Vale’s heart skipped. “It does have a great deal to do with your father. But it also has to do with me.”

Jason gazed at him warily; his eyes looked bruised. Had he cried during the night? Wolf-god, help him if he made this boy cry and he hadn’t even told him the truth yet. He needed to confess the full reason why Jason should look for a surrogate. Jason deserved a better omega. That Vale knew for sure.

“Your father and your pater…” He rubbed at his aching head. Why had he nearly drained the tumbler? He could barely think.

“What about them?”

“I heard from a source, adiscreetsource, that your pater regularly uses…” he broke off. “Oh, for wolf’s sake, you can’t stand out there looking at me like that. Come around to the kitchen. We’ll talk. But that’s it. Nothing else.”

His asshole quivered and he gritted his teeth.Nothing else, he repeated silently.

Jason nodded and turned without a word toward the kitchen. When Vale reached the door, Jason was already removing his shoes.

“They’re not muddy yet,” Vale pointed out. “You could wear them in.”

Jason shrugged. “They’re dirty enough.”

Vale glanced over his shoulder at the dishes piled in the sink and the mess of kibble Zephyr had left on the floor. “It wouldn’t matter.”

Jason moved past him into the kitchen, his socks on inside-out from what Vale could tell. He hovered by the table, waiting to be invited to sit, and Vale motioned for him to do so and then grabbed the last clean teacup from the cabinet and poured the dregs from his teapot into it.

He handed it to Jason as he sat down next to him. It was probably too close to be wise, but he needed the closeness for comfort almost as much as Jason did.

Jason put the cup on the table without tasting it. “Thanks,” he said, quietly. “So you heard something about my parents that you don’t like?”

Vale swallowed. “I don’t know how I feel about it, actually.”