Page 20 of Omega's Pretend Mate
I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a couple bottles of water from the fridge. I handed one to Gabe as I entered the living room, then I took a seat in the chair opposite him.
“How about you back up a bit,” I said. “Why me?”
Gabe set the bottle of water on a coaster, then started wringing his hands. “Don’t be offended, but you make the most sense.”
“How so?”
He took a deep breath, and released it slowly. “Remember how I told you that not many people know about my money?”
“Yeah.”
“That number gets even smaller when I think about people who aren’t already mated or married. I thought about omega friends, but that felt too much like asking for problems. I’d considered a few family friends, but they live on the east coast, and… there would be a lot of pressure to relocate and start having babies from both families. Which seems to create its own set of problems.”
“So you were left with me,” I guessed.
Gabe cringed. “Yeah…”
I stood and paced behind the chair. My alpha side insisted that I agree immediately. I’d admired Gabe from afar for years. He was kind, smart, and his good looks were icing on the cake.
He was my dream omega, if I wasn’t so much older, and that was a problem. Sooner or later I’d want more, especially if we had to be in close proximity.
I sat again with a sigh, and I could feel his eyes on me.
“This was a bad idea,” he said, shifting to stand.
I held out my hand to stop him.
“I haven’t said ‘no’ yet,” I stated. “But I haven’t said ‘yes’ either. There are a lot of things to think about.”
He settled on the couch again, and I took a moment to collect my thoughts.
“You know we’ll have to sell it, right?” I asked. “Live together, kiss in public, the works.”
He nodded.
“You also realize that this skirts our ethics requirements. While it would be within the scope of the trust rules, it would violate the spirit. We probably wouldn’t lose our licenses to practice, but we could end up with a censure if it ever came out that this was planned.”
Gabe paled, and I couldn’t blame him. It would make both our jobs harder, if not cost us significant advancement opportunities, if things went sideways. Still, the alpha part of me insisted that the risk was worth it for this man.
I moved and sat next to him on the couch, then took his hands in mine.
“Christian?”
I licked my lips. “Before I give you an answer, we need to make sure we can do this. It’ll all fall apart if we rush into a wedding and decide we can’t stand each other.”
He nodded. “What do you have in mind?”
“Whirlwind romance,” I stated. “We clicked after I brought you home the other day. Several dates later and we decide to jump and move in together. That gives us both a chance to see if we can spend any real time living under one roof, and will have us be seen as a couple.”
He stared. “You’re suggesting that we fake-date before we get married?”
I chuckled. “That’s the gist of it. Make it look as real as possible.”
“That… makes sense.”
“Good,” I replied. Then I slid my fingers underneath his chin, and ran my thumb over his lips.
Gabe’s eyes widened slightly as I leaned in.
