Page 23 of Rut Bar

“Lead the way.” I reach around and smack his ass, then follow him inside.

We fill our bellies with cold Chinese leftovers, then take a quick shower together. His sweatpants are too big on me, so I cinch the waist tight and roll the band until they’re snug on my slimmer hips. He’s offered me a drawer to keep my things, but I enjoy wearing his stuff. It’s soft, and it smells like him.

In bed, Jamie is the little spoon. I wrap my arm around him and go up on the other elbow so I can see his face while we talk.

“You did a good job today,” I tell him, enjoying the way he blushes with the praise. “Good work, babe.” I slide my hand up and down his arm and wiggle against him until there’s no space between us.

“Thanks.” Jamie lays his hand over mine and threads his fingers with mine. “At one point I thought I messed it all up, but you were right.”

“So what do you think?” I ask him.

“It’s her. I knew it would be, but… it’s really her. I can feel it. Smell it. Taste it.”

It’s the answer I expected. We’ve talked about this for months now. “She won’t make it easy to court her. Vee seems determined to do the opposite of what society thinks an omega should be and do.”

Jamie threads his hand with mine and presses it to his flat stomach. “I know. That’s what I love about her. And she’s so pretty and smart.”

“What did she say about helping her through her heat?” I ask.

“Ah… I’m sorry. That’s the part I messed up. I told you that you should do it. I never know what to say to her. She’s just so pretty that I forget what I’m supposed to say and then the words come out, but they’re wrong. Half the time I don’t remember what I said.”

“It can’t have gone that badly,” I insist, smoothing a lock of hair off her face. “She let you eat her out.”

He snorts, his belly moving under my hand with the rapid movement. “It was bad. I quit Rut.”

“What?” I sit up so I can see him better and the guilty look on his face makes my heart drop into my stomach. “What happened?”

Jamie waves his hand in the air for dramatic emphasis. “She said she’d never let me help her with her heat while I worked for her.”

A headache forms between my eyes, and I let his hand go so I can pinch the bridge of my nose. “So you quit. Okay… We can fix this. It’s okay,” I reassure him. “I’ll talk to her when Rut opens.”

He rolls over so he’s facing me, his eyes wide and sad. “I took it back right away. You should have seen her, she almost cried! I felt horrible. I’m the worst alpha ever. I almost made my omega cry. And then I…” Jamie scrubs a hand over his face and he looks near to tears himself.

It’s probably the subdrop making things seem worse than they are. She ended up in our arms tonight, so whatever happened, it’s salvageable. I can fix this. I know it.

“Hey, it’s okay.” I rub his shoulder and brush his hair from his face. “She let you lick her, right? If she hated you, she wouldn’t have done that.”

“Really?” he asks, his voice watery and thin.

“Really. And you’re not a bad alpha. If you were, I wouldn’t love you.”

His smile is slow and weak, but hopeful. “I love you too. So you can fix it?”

“I’ll fix it. I promise. Want to tell me what happened with the redhead?”

Jamie sighs. “She cornered me and told me there was something I had to see in the bathroom. By the time I realized there was nothing wrong, she already had her hand in my pants. And then, I don’t know, I guess all the pheromones got to me and I thought if Vee was never gonna be with us… She smelled okay. I thought maybe we needed to try with someone else. I’m sorry. Are you mad?”

I bite back a comment that fooling around with a bride at her bachelorette party isn’t a good way to meet omegas. It’ll only make him feel bad and it won’t change anything. But I don’t like that he was cornered and felt like he had to go along with what some stranger wanted. That’s not okay. If that bride had been a guy, I’d have kicked his ass.

“That’s assault,” I tell Jamie.

“What? I never… I wouldn’t.”

“Not from you,” I say before he gets too confused and worked up. “From her. She shouldn’t have touched you like that. I’m not mad, babe. We’ve talked about it enough. The only way we’re going to find the others is if we’re flexible. But I knew it was weird that you were gone for so long. I should have looked for you sooner. But then Vee came downstairs and I got distracted watching her. I’m sorry I let that happen. I’ll talk to Dan about the redhead. She’ll probably be too embarrassed to come back, at least for a while.”

Jamie gives me an odd look. “I doubt it. They touch us all the time. I’m used to it.”

“That doesn’t make it right.” Neither of us pushes the subject anymore, and when the silence grows uncomfortable and Jamie’s expression is far too serious, I distract him. “I have a treat for you.”

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