Page 35 of Heat Me

"That’s still a lot! With those skills, finding a job shouldn’t be hard. My cousin Nathaniel runs a programming startup, and two of my brothers work for him as developers."

"Omegas or betas?"

"All alphas."

"Wow, that’s rare. Alphas aren’t usually into programming."

"Yeah, my family’s a bit unusual. So, what are your plans for the future?" I inquired.

Damien shrugged. "I want to work in the mobile game industry. I already have a part-time job at my uncle’s company, DevApp. After I graduate, I’d like to go full-time with them."

Something popped into my mind. I hesitated, but asked, "Why did you offer so little at the beginning? Just $1,000? Was it a test?"

Damien flinched a bit. "Sort of. I had mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I wanted you to pick me quickly, but on the other, I didn’t want you to do it for money…"

I froze. Did Damien misspeak? "What? You wantedmeto pick you?"

He watched my face closely, his breath accelerated, but stayed silent.

I frowned. "Damien, what’s going on? Nathaniel told me your offer was only visible to me. Did you… choose me on purpose?"

Damien sighed, averting his gaze. "My best friend is a client of yours. He’s kind of a strange guy by most people’s standards—he’s into cosplay and furries and stuff like that."

It could be the one and only pug role-playing guy…

"The dog-man is your best friend?! What the fuck?!" I stood up, feeling a mix of shock and annoyance.

I vaguely remembered some beta guy sitting next to Damien while they ate at the campus cafeteria. He had a pug-print on his chest, but I obviously hadn’t connected the dots.

But that would be a good fit. The beta was young and seemed rich, judging by his fancy house, so it would make sense for him to keep close to a Lowen. Kinda logical; the rich tend to congregate.

Damien bit his lip. "Yeah. He mentioned that the big guy they assigned to him was a purple alpha. He saw your eyes and your wrists. I got curious and started obsessing over the thought. I just… the idea wouldn’t leave my mind. I’m a rose omega, but I rarely meet purple alphas. I went back and forth for two months before deciding I wanted my first time to be with someone of my own subspecies."

I stared at him, trying to process what he was saying. Suddenly, the dog-man’s weird interest in my personal life made sense, as did what Nathaniel had told me about the visibility status of Damien’s assignment.

"He humped my leg before!" I blurted out randomly.

"I know. But he… told me he didn’t do it the last time."

"Yeah, but… it’s still so weird. Are you even into home invasion scenarios?" I narrowed my eyes.

"Not really. But out of all the ideas I could come up with, it was the one that didn’t involve much face-to-face confrontation. I just… couldn’t stop thinking about it. And I’ll admit, I was so confused about what I truly wanted from you. On one hand, I didn’t want you to go for the money, just… for my looks. I stupidly hoped for a miracle that somebody would be attracted to me." His voice quavered. "So it was kind of disappointing when you didn’t pick my assignment on the first day," he added with a grimace.

I let out a loud sigh.

"Damien, I was! I kept staring at your photo like crazy! But I had this whole strategy of avoiding sex commissions in the first place. You were my first. The price being low didn’t help—if I was going to force myself to do it for money, it had to be a lot of money. I didn’t want to sell myself cheap."

"I get that. In the end, it actually worked in your favor. I realized you respected yourself; you weren’t desperate enough to jump at the first cheap assignment."

We both remained silent for a while. Slowly I rubbed my temples and decided to mention it, maybe there was a place for it now?

"You know, it's all so mysterious. How it all started. There were these crazy, weird things happening. It felt like Fate was telling me something, pushing me to choose your assignment. It was all so strange," I murmured, rising my eyes to meet his, still feeling a bit taken aback by the whole conversation.

The fact that he kinda picked me shifted something subtly.

Our meeting wasn't a coincidence after all. Damien wanted me… maybe this was a good sign for the future? He was sort of 'obsessing' over the idea of meeting me for two months, while I did it for four days—shorter, but much more intensely. From the beginning, we were both, in a way, hooked on each other.

Maybe, ultimately, there was a little bit of Fate in all of this?

---