Page 78 of The Omega's Fake Mate

“For example?”

I led Nick down from the porch. “Let's step away from the door. Knowing my mother, she's probably still standing on the other side.”

“Yeah, that wouldn't surprise me. Now tell me what you'd like to do to me.”

Nick's demand got a smile from me. Was he trying to distract me from the fact that my parents were assholes? He'd always been good at that. When I was with him, I never thought about home. “Oh, there's a lot of things I would like to do to you. I'll start by feeding you. How do you feel about pasta? Or pizza?” I couldn't cook difficult things, but thankfully, my mate was a man with simple tastes.

Probably the reason he'd pickedme.

“Sounds good.” Nick laughed. “I’ll take the pizza.” He paused. “You know, I love this.”

“What exactly?” I drew him closer to me because the night was cool around us.

“I was expecting you to make some sort of sex reference when I gave you the chance, but you just want to feed me. It's not all about sex with you, with us. There's always been more. I love that.”

“I love that too.”

“I think the reason I was never interested in relationships before was because I never knew they could be like this. Like... feeling you can take on the world together even when all you're doing is bantering in the snow.” He looked up at the sky as if he expected more snow to fall as he spoke, but the night was clear. The only snow to be seen lay at our feet. I liked it that way. Winter had been long enough. I was looking forward to spring.

“I'm sure we'll be just as good together in the summer too,” I said, reaching for Nick's hand.

He smiled at me as if he could see the future before his eyes. “Our child will be born at the end of summer.”

That was true. I hadn't thought of that. “Even more reason to look forward to warmer weather.”

“Yeah.” Nick squeezed my hand. “You know what your parents said about marriage—”

“Don't worry about that,” I cut him off. “I'm not going to let them dictate my life. Our life. You don't have a problem with our child being born out of wedlock, do you?”

“No.” Nick bit his lower lip. For a moment, it seemed he had something more to say, but the words never came. “Let's go home,” he said finally.

“After you,” I said, opening the car door for him.

This evening could have gone better, but all in all, I still felt happy with my life that night as I took Nick home with me.

To hell with whatever my parents wanted. Nick and I would walk the path that was right for us.

Hand in hand.

28

Nick

The latter halfof February and the first week of March, I spent in LA, trying to get ready for the big move. Most of my things I was going to sell or otherwise get rid of, taking only what I could fit into my suitcases. Sorting through everything took time, though. I couldn't get out of my lease before May either, but that didn't matter.

The second week of March, I quit my job and returned to Oceanport. Five weeks was about as long as I could go without seeing Zander.

This time, because I'd told him I was coming, he collected me from the airport like a proper alpha gentleman. I fell into his arms and for long minutes, we didn't separate.

I won't lie, part of me wanted to drag him to the nearest restroom and get it on. I was fairly sure I could have convinced him to play along too, but then I decided to be a good omega for his sake. He'd already given me a blowjob in his bookstore after all. I didn't need to push him further. I'd waited five weeks, I could wait the couple hours it would take us to get home from the airport.

I had no illusions that it was going to beeasy, but I would manage.

When we arrived in Oceanport, though, it seemed my mate had other plans for us. “I have a surprise for you,” he said, parking the car in front of the bookstore.

“A surprise?”

Zander grinned as if we were playing Monopoly and I'd just landed on his hotel. “You surprised me last time, now it's my turn.”