Heat for sale

“You’re not going to let that go, are you?”

“Look. You can’t stay here. This place isn’t for babies, and it isn’t for you. If you won’t go back to him, then come home with me. My new apartment has a guest room with a bathroom attached. And a kitchen. And I’ll borrow a crib from my parents’ house. No one’s pregnant right now, thank God.”

“Wait, so when you say omega step-parents, you mean you have more than one right now?”

“Polyamory. Look it up.”

As Adrien changed Michael’s diaper, he made up his mind.

Lance was right. He needed to go back to Heath, work things out. Not only because he loved Heath and the dream of the future he’d nursed while pregnant in the nest, but also for Michael’s sake. A baby deserved both of his parents, and his father’s mistake made out of confusion and misguided love shouldn’t prevent him from having that. Trust would need to be earned again, but that was still possible. There would be time.

Michael was all greased up below and in a new diaper when a mighty thump fell on the door. Both of them jumped. Lance’s eyes went wide. “Holy shit,” he gasped, looking around like he wanted to find a place to hide the pints. “You didn’t think he’d come looking for you here? It’s not like he didn’t know where you used to live.”

Another thump, and then Heath’s voice. “I just need to see Michael.”

Then another loud thump. “Please, Adrien. I know you’re in there. I can hear you.”

Adrien grabbed Michael to his chest, opened the door, and found Heath looking haggard as hell. His beard was wild and his eyes bright. He took in the sight of Adrien and sagged in relief against the door. “And Michael?” he asked.

“Right here,” Adrien said, indicating the baby in his arms.

Heath reached out and touched the baby’s cheek. Then he nodded. “Okay.

All right. Can I talk to you or should I go?”

“Stay,” Adrien said before he’d fully made up his mind that was even

what he wanted. “Come in. See Michael.”

A small crowd had gathered in the hallway. The resident assistant called out, “Everything okay, Adrien?”

“We’re fine.”

The RA gave a thumbs-up. “Just shout if you need help.”

“We’re okay.”

Lance was standing with both pints behind his back, like Heath was their father and they were drinking underage. “I’m go

“I’m cool.” Adrien was surprised it was true. Somehow just seeing Heath, all rumpled and exhausted, soothed him. Made him feel strong enough to handle this.

Lance cleared his throat but nodded. “Okay. Remember what I said about that baby.”

“He’s too pretty for the box. I know.”

Lance slinked around Heath like he was afraid Heath might throw a punch, and maybe that would have been a risk if Heath didn’t look like he’d gone a few rounds with himself already and had no strength to do anything but stare with wide, miserable, hungry eyes at Adrien and the baby.

“Can I hold him?” Heath asked, reaching out for Michael as soon as the door was shut behind Lance.

Adrien passed him over, his heart aching in all kinds of ways as Heath pressed kisses to the top of the baby’s head and his fat cheeks. “He’s okay, see?”

Heath breathed the baby in, and then he turned to Adrien. “And you? Are you okay?”

Adrien huffed. “No. I miss you. I haven’t even gone to class or my office in the art department because I don’t know what to do with Michael, and I don’t know what I’m even doing here.”

“And I don’t know what I’m doing without you. Adrien, I made a terrible mistake. I’m so sorry.”

“I forgive you.”

Heath took a sharp breath. “Excuse me?”

“You said you made a terrible mistake and apologized. I forgive you.”

“Just like that?”

“No, there’s more I’ll need from you over time, but, Heath…” Adrien

took off his glasses, rubbed at his eyes, and put them back on again. “I see you clearly now. You chose me at the auction, and this time I choose you.”

Heath stared at him. “Why?”

Adrien bit into his lower lip and stepped closer, his hands itching to touch. He let them rest on Heath’s hips. “You loved Nathan so much you bought me to try to have a piece of him back. If you love me even half as much—”

“More. I love you more.”

Adrien shook his head. “No, you don’t. Not yet. And that’s okay. You will love me more. Because I’m going to be everything Nathan wasn’t. I’m going to be the man who you come home to, the man who raises your children, and the man who holds your hand in old age. I’m going to have you in every mood, every season. I will get to have every minute he gave up while he was out on his adventures, being ‘free.’ And you’re going to prove that we were right to trust you, my omega parent and me.”

“How?”

“You’re going to love me forever.”

“Yes. I promise.” Heath reached out to him, hands trembling, and gray eyes soft with want. “Come home.”

“To the nest?”

“To wherever. We don’t have to live there,” he said pleadingly. “I’ll make a home wherever you want. Build any house you want, designed just for you, anywhere in the fifteen nations. I just want to be with you.”

“What if I want us to stay here? In the dorm?” Adrien didn’t want that at all, but he wanted to push just to see what Heath would do.

Heath’s eyes darted to the cardboard box crib. “We should aim a little higher than here. But otherwise, anywhere.”

Adrien laughed, and it shocked him that he could. “Lance wasn’t impressed with my setup either.”

“Who’s Lance?”

“My friend. The guy who just left?”

“Oh. Him. Right.” Heath kissed Michael some more before closing his eyes and reaching out for Adrien again, almost like he couldn’t bear to watch Adrien reject him. His sigh when Adrien stepped into his arms was more like a sob.

“I’ve always wanted to see the beach,” Adrien whispered.

“We can live there if that’s what you want,” Heath said, voice straining with emotion.

“I was already going to come home, you know.”

Heath shook in his arms, saying nothing.

“I’m not like Nathan. I hated being away from you.”

Heath clung to him hard, and Michael squirmed between them.

“From now on, you’ll be honest with me. No more secrets.” Adrien breathed in Heath’s warm, familiar scent. He smelled like he might not have bathed in a few days. He smelled like he was desperate and in love. “Not even for, like, a surprise party. Zero secrets.”

“I promise.”

“And to that effect I have to confess something.”

“All right.”

“I’m glad you bid on me because I was Nathan’s son. I’m grateful because I love you, and because now we have Michael.”

“Thank you.”

“I also have one question and one thing you must know.”

Heath nodded, holding him close. “Okay.”

“Nathan died of a heart flaw. Could I have it? Could Michael?” Adrien’s blood zipped quickly, and he met Heath’s eyes, reading them. “Be honest.”

“I promise. You and Michael are safe from it. It was a flaw from overuse.

He had abused some powders that gave him extra energy at times. The doctors said it wasn’t congenital.”

Adrien nodded sharply. “Thank you. I needed to hear that. I’ve been worried.” He cleared his throat. “Now, you have to know—I want to do more with my life than make babies all the time. I want to have a career in studying material art.”

“All right.”

“But I do want to make babies some of the time.”

Heath laughed, a sobbing huff against Nathan’s hair. “You make beautiful ones.”

“And I like being pregnant.”

“Will you want to return to the heat cabin? Or should I think about having somewhere else prepared?”

“Let’s wait until I’m closer to my next heat. Then we can decide.”

“Yes.” Heath said it like a prayer of thanks. “So you will marry me?”

“I will. But in the meantime, I want you to take me away from here. I’m tired, and I want to be home.”

“To the nest?”

“Please.” Adrien nuzzled Heath’s neck, the baby squirming between them. “Where you can take care of me and command me. Where you’re the alpha, and I’m your omega.”

Heath straightened, standing tall. “Then let’s go home, little one.”

Epilogue

HEATH SAID THE house they built by the sea was much homier than the castle had ever been. He had a nest area added on to it, too. Four cozy and breezy rooms where Adrien could ruminate and grow their next child, but not quite so isolated from the rest of the house this time, so that Michael would always have access to his omega parent.

Adrien hated to leave their fresh, beautiful home for the week, but he also knew the comforts of the new nest would be waiting for him when they got back.

The heat cabin was exactly the way Adrien remembered it, small and set deep into the woods. But this time, he approached it with a light step and expectation. This was his choice and his life. A second child to be Michael’s younger sibling, hopefully a better one than Lidell had been to Heath, and then Adrien would return to school until he finished his research. They’d consider a third child at that point if Adrien wanted one.

“Show me your hole,” Heath said as they climbed out of the car. The winter air was chill, and Adrien shivered. “So I know what I paid for.”

Adrien laughed. He stripped down and shoved his clothes and glasses back into the car. He wouldn’t be needing them. Then he turned around, bent over the warm hood, cold air on his back and heat spreading over his front.

He pulled his ass cheeks wide. “Do you like it?” he asked, a flutter of embarrassment in his chest. He was still unsure about his body after the first pregnancy and birth, but Heath couldn’t seem to get enough.

“That’s my gorgeous slutty man,” Heath muttered. “Oh, little one, I’m going to knot you so hard.”

“I’m counting on it,” Adrien said, as Heath moved in behind him, knelt on the ground, and began to tongue his asshole hungrily. He reached back with one hand and gripped Heath’s hair, dragging him in closer to get more.

“Oh, yes. Fuck me.”