Page 17 of Such a Sweet Omega

Goddess, I was out of my league. This man was a healer and a successful businessman with omegas probably lining up to be with him. Strike probably. There were tons of omegas who watched him at the club with desire in their eyes.

“Come in. Please. Make yourself at home.”

The office was all clean lines and no extraneous items, just like his office at the club. The only frames on the walls held his accolades from various trainings and some honors from the hospital itself.

“I’m going to change.” Jabez went into the bathroom while I read over his achievements. The alpha was talented in all ways. From what I could tell, he was as close to perfect as I could imagine anyone getting.

That only begged the question louder. Why in the world was an alpha like him interested in an omega like me?

He came out of the bathroom in dark-blue scrubs. The top was tucked in, and the thin material gave his body virtually no protection.

I could see his abs. The thickness of his thighs. All kinds of thickness going on under the blue fabric.

“If you don’t stop looking at me like that, I’ll never get to the patient.”

“You’d better go then because I’m having a hard time not drooling.”

Chuckling, he walked over and put his hands on my shoulders. “There is a pillow and a blanket on the couch and snacks are in the bottom right drawer. Water—in the fridge.” He leaned down, pressing his forehead to mine. “I’m having a very hard time leaving you right now.”

“You have to. People need you. Go on. Do your job and then come back to me. I’ll be fine.”

He nodded and kissed my forehead and then my lips—twice. “I’ll be back.”

As the door shut behind him, I let out a sigh. Not the way I wanted to end this date but at least I wasn’t home alone. He would come back once he’d finished up.

I got on my phone and read some of my latest book until my eyelids drooped. The pillow and blanket smelled like Jabez, and I pressed it to my face, inhaling the vanilla and brown sugar goodness. Lying with my legs curled up on the short couch, I took a moment to let myself dream about what it would be like to be mated to Jabez. Would this be my life, waiting and hoping he was okay, not a lot of time between his two jobs?

Still, it would be worth it to have even a few moments with him.

I sighed as sleep took me. Jabez would be the best dad.

Chapter Fifteen

Jabez

I thought I’d only be an hour or so, assuming one of the on-call doctors would be able to take over once the patient was stabilized, but no such luck. The patient remained an active emergency well into the night and almost until dawn, giving me not even a few minutes to go back and send the omega home in a rideshare.

Not even time to check my phone in case he’d texted to say he’d decided to leave, but as the sun was red-lining the horizon, I opened the door to my office to find he had not left but instead had fallen asleep on my couch.

I knew it was short for me but had somehow thought his shorter stature would afford him more comfort. Seeing him curled up with his knees to his chest, I felt terrible. Despite the fact I’d been occupied with the pack alpha of a local pack who suffered from one of those rare diseases I was known for dealing with. His own healer had not known anything about it, being an older and more traditional fellow who had learned at his own mentor’s knee and never studied a thing beyond what that wolf knew.

If he hadn’t been brought in that night, and if they had not called in someone familiar with the issue, he’d be a dead one this morning, leaving a pack challenge in the offing.

This was why I was here. Why I hadn’t hung up my stethoscope. Why I traveled so much. And…why I was such a bad choice for a mate. I should probably just enjoy his company while I could and try not to think of the day when he would realize that I wasn’t worth all the waiting around.

Gods, that was going to happen, wasn’t it?”

Beale didn’t look very comfortable, even covered with my blanket and with his head on the pillow, but I didn’t know how much sleep he might have had, so I hesitated to waken him. My office faced east and the sun as it rose would flood the room with light, helping him to wake naturally. Until then, I would just sit at my desk and take care of some paperwork. Not actual paper, of course, it was on the laptop. Same idea. Or it would have been, if I hadn’t fallen asleep about two seconds after landing my butt in my chair.

Sometime later, I woke bathed in midmorning light, my exhausted self not having been disturbed by any of the earlier sunshine. But what did make me stir was the feeling of being watched.

I opened my eyes to find Beale sitting up on the sofa, the blanket folded next to him with the pillow sitting neatly atop it.

“Good morning, Jabez,” he said. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

“I know.” I rubbed my face, trying to push the last of the sleep away. “I didn’t want to disturb you.”

“You had a long night,” he said. “I tried to stay awake, but finally I gave up, figured if I got a bit of sleep, I’d be in better shape to face the day.”

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