Heat for sale

“You did wonderfully,” Heath said, sitting on the edge of the tub, tenderness in his tone that tugged at Adrien’s spent balls. If he could get hard again after the days of constant sexual activity, that quality in Heath’s voice would do it for him. Heath tested the water with one hand before shaking the excess from his fingers and reaching toward Adrien. “I’m proud of you. Such a strong, beautiful, sexy man.”

Adrien swallowed hard, his cock thickening almost painfully. Heath’s smile broadened, and he took Adrien’s hardness in hand, then bent to kiss the tip gently. “You are deliciously responsive.” He looked up at Adrien then, as though assessing something important. “You do everything I ask of you and more.”

“It felt right to please you. It still does.”

Heath’s jaw worked a moment and then he replied huskily, “You deserve a final reward.”

Adrien was about to ask about the word ‘final’ when Heath opened up and sucked him in deep. He moaned. His flesh was sensitive all over, a nervous, exhausted feeling, but his cock in Heath’s mouth felt wonderful.

Bathed by Heath’s tongue and stoked by the soft inside of his cheeks as he sucked, Adrien gave in to the surprising pleasure.

He closed his eyes, gripped Heath’s hair, and then sobbed as an orgasm fluttered through him, like a shadow of the intense orgasms of heat. He whimpered and gazed in glassy-eyed wonder as Heath swallowed the small load he’d produced and kissed the head of his dick again.

“Sweet,” Heath said softly. “Like the rest of you.”

The water was warm and steaming up the room. Heath guided Adrien beneath the stream before following him into the shower. “You’re wobbly after everything,” Heath murmured softly. “It’s my job to keep you safe.”

Adrien surrendered to Heath’s touch, letting him wash him with a cloth and soap, and then suds up his hair, too. The plug stayed tight inside, improving the chance of conception, and Heath washed around it, too. By the time the shower was over, Adrien was both rejuvenated and drained, and all he wanted to do was find a quiet place to sit where he could see the sky and breathe. Maybe eat again, too. Something heartier than fruit this time.

His stomach growled in agreement.

HEATH WAS LOATHE to admit it even to himself, but he couldn’t deny he was sorry Adrien’s heat had come to an end. And not just because he wasn’t sure if he would ever again have the privilege to witness the beguiling way Adrien’s throat arched when he cried out with pleasure, or the fragile vulnerability of his i

With every moment, Adrien’s resemblance to Nathan faded away, replaced by the stu

Alone in the bathroom, Heath took his time dressing and considered what

he was going to do now. The heat had passed, but his crush remained. The desire to protect and pleasure, to discover more about the sweet puzzle of a man he’d only started to know clawed at his insides like a predator. There was nothing i

Zipping his jeans, he turned to the mirror and combed his dark hair as he tried to think his way out of what he knew he needed to do. He didn’t want to say goodbye today. He hated the thought of giving Adrien up now that he’d had him. Not even for a few weeks while they waited to see if the breeding took.

But that was the agreement, and it was written into the contract per Heath’s original wishes to keep it all transactional, to keep his distance and preserve his heart. Damn, but his heart was definitely in danger. There was no doubt about that. Heath’s hand shook as he continued to brush his hair.

Adrien wasn’t Nathan, he reminded himself. Nathan was a different kind of omega entirely.

But he’d originally insisted on the more liberal contract that allowed a bred omega to return to their life as they awaited signs of pregnancy. The idea being that until a pregnancy was confirmed, it benefited the omega to get back to their work, school, or whatever else. Traditionally, omegas stayed with alphas until pregnancy was confirmed or denied, but omega rights had changed all that. Therefore, Heath and Adrien’s contract made it clear: unless Adrien was carrying Heath’s child, his progeny, he would never have any rights over Adrien again.

Heath dropped the comb to the bathroom sink and stared at himself in the mirror. What a fool he’d been. He smiled grimly, not sure what he’d been more foolish about: believing he could keep affection for Adrien out of his heart or failing entirely to do so.

It had been less than twenty-four hours since the last cycle had hit, but Heath was contractually obligated to accept that it was time for Adrien to go.

The knock on the bathroom door brought him out of his reverie.

“Can I get dressed now?” Adrien called through the wood. “It’s almost time for me to go.”

Heath jerked the door open and took one last look at Adrien’s lean body, and he still ached to fatten him up. “Yes,” he said, gruff and irritable that he had no choice but to agree. “And hurry.”

Watching Adrien put clothes on again for the first time since he’d taken

them off in front of the cabin was like having a tooth drilled without Novocain. It took all of his willpower not to reach out to Adrien and demand that he stay, order him to get those awful clothes off his body and climb back in bed where he belonged.

But he restrained himself, forcing a close-lipped smile, before saying,

“Drive carefully. You might be carrying my child.”

Adrien swallowed hard, pushing up the glasses Heath had let him don again after the rage of the heat was over. “I will.”

They left the cabin and stepped out into the bright light of day.

They stared at each other as the birds cawed and swooped overhead. The trees rustled and swayed in the forest around them, and the house stood behind him like an empty, cavernous maw, devoid of anything but echoes of recent joy.

“Um, so, thanks,” Adrien said quietly. He licked his lips and looked down at the ground and then up at Heath again. “For, you know…”

“Buying your heat?”

“Yeah, and for being so nice.”

“Was I nice?” Heath asked. He remembered ordering Adrien to the ground outside and then rough-fucking him in the entryway. He regretted that treatment now.

“You were…” Adrien glanced away and then seemed to force himself to meet Heath’s eyes again. “You were what I needed. Thank you for taking charge.”

“Anytime.” He meant it, too. He’d take charge again right now if he thought Adrien truly wanted him to. There was a glimmer in the boy’s eye that made him wonder…but, no, he’d follow the contracts to the letter. There was every reason to hope the breeding would take, and then he’d have over a year of Adrien at his side. He could get to know every inch of Adrien inside and out, find out what made him tick, discover what motivated a young man like him. Learn the scent and look of him in every season. There was no reason to push it now.

Well, aside from the growing sense of despair at the thought of Adrien getting into his car and driving away. The impending loss reminded him of how he’d felt after Nathan died. Not so soul-wrenching, but a similar imprint of pain, just enough that it was horribly familiar.

“I guess I should go,” Adrien said, scuffing his te

ground.

You don’t have to, Heath almost said, but he kept his mouth tightly closed on the words.

“I’ll, uh, I guess I’ll be in touch. About how it goes. If the breeding took or not. I should know in a week or so.”

Heath nodded.

Adrien chewed on his bottom lip. “Before I leave, though, I wanted to ask one more thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Would you kiss me?”

Heath grunted and took two long strides forward, grabbed Adrien by the waist, and kissed him hard and possessively. He tasted the boy’s tongue and plunged deeper, taking ownership of his mouth. Then he released him, his heart pounding and his throat working to keep from demanding that Adrien stay.

“Thank you,” Adrien whispered, his lips red from their kiss. “I’m glad it was you.”

He broke out of Heath’s arms like he was in some kind of rush, jumped into his car, and started it. He pulled away down the drive, kicking up dust and leaves behind him.

Heath stared after him, stood his ground and let the surrounding forest soothe his sense of loss.

PART TWO

Pregnancy

Chapter Eight

THE DAYS FOLLOWING Adrien’s first heat were covered in a strange sense of unreality. He walked through the world as though barely tethered to it. Some vital part of himself remained behind in Heath’s heat cabin, and only his shell went about his day-to-day life.

For the third day in a row, he sat at his desk in the campus’s old art building staring at the latest swatches of the Hontu fabric he was studying.

The patterns were as bright as ever, the design as flawless, and the mystery of meaning just as deeply hidden within the heart of the fabric itself, but he couldn’t seem to summon a passion for it. Today, he held an orange and blue swath, noting that it demonstrated a more evenly battened weft than any he’d previously studied, but he couldn’t focus his mind long enough to start a list of investigative questions. Even wondering “why this change?” and “how this change?” didn’t come to him.

He rested his chin in his hand and growled at his own lack of focus. After a few more minutes of staring at the new fabric, he put it aside, and spoke sternly to himself. “What’s wrong with you? You did this so you could stay in school and continue on to become a professor. You’re ambitious and intelligent, remember? Get it together.”