Page 22 of The Omega's Fake Mate

Someone needed to watch out for him, after all.

But I was getting ahead of myself.

“What is it you got in mind?” I prompted.

In response, Nick put the book aside, stepped around my desk and fell to one knee beside me.What?The obvious confusion on my face made Nick smile as he grabbed for my hand. He was messing with me, wasn't he? “Alexander Cornelius Kerner,” he addressed me all formally, “would you like to be my fake husband?”

What?!

Had I heard that correctly?

“Are you serious right now?”

Nick's grin only grew wider. “As a heart attack.” He rose to his feet again, but he didn't—as I noticed—let go of my hand. His fingers were warm, as if he hadn't just walked through the rain. He smelled like rain, though. No, not like rain. Like the air after the rain, when the sun broke through the clouds and the world was new again and full of possibilities.

I'd missed that smell.

But I couldn't linger on that now. I needed to figure out what had gotten in Nick's head. “You want to get married?”

“Of course not.” He looked at me as if I was being silly. “Weren't you listening? I said fake.”

“Yes, but you also said husband and my brain sort of shut down at that point. My apologies.” And I was still no closer to understanding what he wanted.

“I thought you'd get this.” He let go of my hand to pick up the book he'd discarded earlier. “You gave me this book. You've read it, right? I'm sure you've readallthe books in here.”

I glanced around the store. “Not quite, but close.”

“Yeah, anyway, so my point is, the characters in this book get into a fake relationship to fool their parents. I want to do that too, but not so we can fool our parents but so we can get into the gated community where my brother lives.”

“Your brother?” There was so much information coming at me that my brain wasn't sure what to process first. Iknewgiving him that book had been a bad idea.

“Rhys,” he explained. “I don't know if you've heard, but he's married a Vinist.”

“He did?” I hadn't heard. But how would I? I wasn't really in contact with Nick's family anymore. The only reason I'd attended Dean's wedding was because my sister had dragged me along after seeing that I'd received an invitation—and I'd only received the invitation because Dean had come into the store looking for baby books and recognized me. “How's Rhys doing?” I asked. The three of us had played together sometimes when Rhys wasn't too busy with all his self-assigned extra homework.

“I'm not sure. That's why we have to do this.”

“You're moving a little too fast for me,” I tried to slow Nick down. “And I don't just mean the fake marriage thing. What's up with your brother and why do we need to be married to visit him?”

Nick sighed and leaned back against a shelf as if he was already tired of explaining. “I know that Rhys' husband is an asshole. I mean, he obviously is. He's aVinist. I wasn't even invited to the wedding, you know? Nobody was. And now I hardly hear from my brother anymore.”

“I'm sorry.” But I was still not quite up to speed so I shot Nick an expectant look, waiting for him to go on.

“He and his husband, they live in this gated community. They don't allow strange omegas inside. At least notunmatedstrange omegas, and that's where you come in.” He snapped his fingers as if to underline how brilliant this idea was. “If you pretend to be my husband, they'll let me in and I can figure out what's going on with Rhys.”

My eyes narrowed. “What do you think is going on?” I didn't know too much about Vinists. I'dreadabout them, yeah, but I didn't know any of them personally. I knew about their cultish religion and what they thought of omegas, though. I'd never have thought anyone like Rhys would willingly marry into that cult.

“I don't know but...” Nick shook his head. “I know there's something wrong with him.” He sought my eyes. “You have to believe me.”

“Is this your twin thing?” I had to admit, I'd always been a bit skeptical of that. There had to be some more scientific explanation for what Nick felt rather than justit's an emotional bond.

“Please, Zander. I know I'm right about this. I've got to do something.”

“Even if I believe you...” I ran a hand through my hair in thought. “Why me?”

“Because you know how much Rhys means to me. You won't end up thinking I’ve got some other motive for asking you to be my fake husband.” He grabbed my hand again as he pleaded with me. “I trust you.”

How could I say no to that? The truth was, I couldn't. Nick thought he'd grabbed my hand, but in reality, he still held my heart between his fingertips.