Page 118 of Omega's Secret Guardian

“Nice to meet you,” Mom said slowly as though she was still coming to terms with all of this. “So you two met at college?”

Storm coughed. Obviously,I began secretly living in his apartmentwas not a good answer.

Linus’ mouth twitched. “On Youtube, actually. We started talking on my programming class videos.”

Andthatwas why he was the professor in their maybe-relationship.

“Yes, that.” Storm nodded agreeably. “Linus gave me a better idea of where I wanted my life to go. We’ve had some reallylong conversations.” Over the years, Storm had thought Linus must have gotten bored answering his unending questions on programming, but Linus never once grew impatient with him.

“You didn’t have time for your family, but you had time for him,” Tripp muttered.

Storm froze. Yeah, that was the biggest elephant in the room.

Linus gave his hand a comforting squeeze, then released him. It was clear what he wanted Storm to do.

Storm squared his shoulders. “Tripp. Wanna take a walk with me?”

Tripp’s mouth twisted on one side. “I guess.”

He left the house with a hard push on his wheelchair, maneuvering it a lot more nimbly than Storm expected. With a series of practiced movements, Tripp opened the backdoor and pushed himself through.

He was waiting on the sidewalk at the end of the ramp, staring stiffly at the neighbors’ parked cars. Storm stopped next to him.

“It was never my intention to leave you,” Storm said.

Tripp clenched his jaw, refusing to answer.

Storm sighed. “I thought you wanted space. That was what you kept saying when I tried to help.”

“I didn’t need help. Still don’t. You were too much,” Tripp muttered, looking mad at... himself?

And maybe Storm could understand that. He could understand wanting someone around, but not having them too close.

“I know I can be a lot.” Storm tucked his hands into his pockets. “I don’t know hownotto be, to be honest. What you heard back there was the sanitized version. When I first met Linus in person, I was protecting him while secretly living in his apartment. He didn’t know I had been sharing that space with him for four months.”

Tripp froze. Then he turned slowly to stare at Storm. “You... You were hiding in his apartment.”

“Yup.”

“Forfour months.”

“Yup.”

“He didn’t know you were there.”

“Nope. I slept under his bed, and he didn’t know.”

Tripp looked horrified. “What the hell. And he... He knows now? That you were doing... all that?”

“Yes.”

“He doesn’tmind?”

“Nope. He agreed to wear my bonding marks a couple days ago.” Storm rubbed his chest, his heart so full.

Tripp gaped at him. “That’s... That’s crazy.”

Storm gave him a sideways look. “So are you still mad that I’m protecting him instead of you?”

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