Page 114 of Juliet & Her Romeos

“My parents had forbidden me from playing any of the instruments that were around the house.” Benedict’s voice aches with a thousand painful things left unsaid. “Some nights, I couldn’t resist. I’d creep down and forage for food first because often, they forgot to feed me. Then, I’d play the grand piano in the lounge but without pressing down on the keys. After watching my parents and listening for so many years, I could seethe music in my head. I knew where my fingers needed to go. It was the same as purring. A part of me. Then Ambrose walked in. He has this skill of understanding without you explaining things. That suits me. Each night after that, he’d cook for me and serve me a meal. Then I’d play a new, silent song for him, and he’d tell me about his day and the world outside my library. It was the happiest that I’d ever been. And he told me that he’d fallen in love with me.”

I stroke down Benedict’s pale cheek, pleased that his scent has returned to a sweet honey, as he talks about Ambrose. “And did you fall in love with Amby?”

Benedict scrunches up his nose. “He was younger than me. Reckless, loud, and dominant. He didn’t care about the danger. But ifin lovemeans that I looked forward to seeing him every night and couldn’t imagine a time when I wasn’t with him, then yes, I did. But I never thought that he’d bond with me. I was simply grateful that I’d have some time with this Alpha.”

“Why wouldn’t you think that he’d bond with you?”

Benedict bites his lip, and I worry that he’s going to break the skin. “I was a Reject. He was a billionaire from one of the best families. Plus, I knew that he was already in love with an Omega and a Beta back in his hometown in America.”

“What?” My heart skips a beat.

“The first term that Ambrose was lodging with us, he excitedly showed me a photo that his brother had sent him. It was of a beautiful pair of ballet dancers: a Beta and an Omega. I was entranced. Ambrose simply said:They’re mine. He left it for me. I propped the picture above my nest. It made me feel less lonely over the next four years.Youdid.”

I hiss out a sharp breath.

Laurent, the sneaky asshole.

He must have secretly taken a picture of Swan and me during practice and sent it to Ambrose in England.

Actually, I’m fucking overjoyed that he did.

Ambrose truly never did forget about us. He loved us back then and even told his new male Omega about us.

The male Omega who looked at our photograph every day for four years to stop himself feeling lonely but still believed that he’d be abandoned because of us.

Yet accepted that for Ambrose’s sake.

Benedict may not understand it but the fact that he was prepared to give up his own happiness for his Alpha’s, proves that he was truly in love in the purest way.

“Ambrose would never abandon you.” I grip hard onto Benedict’s naked shoulders. His skin is silky, although his muscles are hard underneath. “He wanted to share his family and love with you. But that didn’t make you worth any less, Foxy.”

“My parents told me that I wasunmatchable.” Benedict leans into my touch, asking for more. I massage his back and am satisfied when he melts, despite the strain in his voice. “They said that no one would ever want me. They swore that if I hit thirty and no one had bonded with me by then, I’d be sent to the Omega House. My next birthday, I will be thirty.”

I don’t want to ask but I have to. “What’s the Omega House?”

Benedict whines. “It’s a place every English Omega fears. If an Omega is too bad, breaks the law, or can’t be matched, then they’re sent to live in the Omega House. They must work from dawn to dusk within its walls, while at night being locked in cages. It’s cruel because they want to ensure families control their Omegas and make every effort to arrange a bond for them.”

I growl, furious. “Fuck that. It’s messed up.”

“Mum bought me a cage that she left in the library to help me practice for when I hit thirty. Ambrose went crazy when he saw me crouched in it. He helped me out and then he dragged the whole thing through the house and hurled it at my parents’feet. He was growling and snarling, and they were terrified. He backed them against the wall and told them that he was asking me if I wanted to bond and they could fucking fight him, if they intended to stop him. Dad called him adamn Yank who didn’t understand English matching lawsand demanded that he pay them for breaking the rules. Ambrose offered to transfer precisely ten million, five hundred thousand and forty dollars as compensation.”

“Heboughtyou?” I hiss.

“Look how much I’m worth.” When Benedict preens, I realize why Ambrose did it.

For an Omega who was taught that just because he was a Rej about to hit thirty he was worthless and deserved to be thrown away to an Omega House, paying millions was the best therapy in the world.

“So, you said yes.” I grin.

Benedict returns it. “I kissed Ambrose so hard that he was breathless. Then I begged him to take me to a hotel or anywhere but my parent’s house to bond me. I wanted to see the sky. To be free of that cage. And he did. He took me to this incredible place with a jacuzzi, fluffy blankets, and all these sex toys. I didn’t know that they made toys for sex. I like them. We have a whole chest of them in our bedroom. Knotted ones, vibrating ones, ones that pulse or have beads that you put up your—”

I stop Benedict’s list, which I suspect may go on for minutes, with a kiss that leaveshimbreathless.

It’s unexpectedly hot to hear Benedict casually talk about sex toys in his educated English voice.

I also can’t wait to explore that chest and try some of those knotted ones out on him.

Possibly, the vibrating ones on Ambrose’s cock.

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