Page 40 of His Gift
Which, of course, was exactly the reason I was laying down the law and wouldn’t take no for an answer.
“I’m telling you, you’re not asking me to do any of it,” I said in the authoritative voice he seemed to respond well to. “I’ll give you the rest of the week to get acclimated to your new home,” I went on. “You can tell whoever you want about the move, and if you have any friends you’d like to invite over, you are more than welcome to do that so they can see that I haven’t kidnapped you and I’m not holding you against your will.”
“I have a couple friends,” he said weakly, which made me smile and my alpha preen. He was going to go along with my plan. “There’s Amy and her partner, Erica. I know Amy from work.” He gasped suddenly, then said, “I have to go to work. They probably think I disappeared.”
I shook my head. “I called that store where you work when you were sleeping after your third heat wave.”
“How do you know where I work?”
“Worked, past tense,” I said. “Although to be clear, I didn’t tell Mr. York you resigned when I called. And for the record, you told me where you worked when I asked you, although you were a little fuzzy after that heat wave and possibly half asleep.”
He nodded like the whole thing seemed plausible.
“I’m your alpha now, Zo-Zo,” I said, actually enjoying using a dominant, commanding voice. “We didn’t bond during this heat, but I do feel an extra closeness to you, like we’re in tune and could bond at some point.”
“I think that happens when two people have strong bond potential,” Enzo said halfheartedly.
“It does, or so I’m told. The point is, you’re carrying my child now, and no matter how that happened, I will take that responsibility seriously and provide for both of you.” An uncomfortable thought hit me, and because I felt like I had to, even though my alpha screamed no, I said, “If that’s what you want, of course. This is your decision.”
Enzo looked at me like he was guilty of a grievous crime and whispered, “It’s exactly what I want. All I’ve ever wanted is to belong to an alpha. But I feel like I trapped you into it.”
“I think we’ve established that neither of us did this deliberately,” I said. “And we might need to talk about the whole you wanting to be owned by someone.”
I was just joking, but the look he gave me felt like a rock dropping in my gut. Did he actually want to be owned by an alpha? He’d been submissive in the bedroom, but that was just sex-play, right?
That was something else to think about later.
“Come on,” I said at last, standing and offering a hand to him. “Let’s get started with our plan for the rest of our life. Shower first.”
He looked gratefully up at me, then obediently took my hand, only flinching slightly at the skin-to-skin contact.
We followedthrough with every part of the plan, from the shower to getting Enzo situated in my condo.
“Wow. You actually live here?” he asked at his first glance of my place.
My condo wasn’t all that different from the Riverview Hotel’s penthouse suite, to be honest. It was also on the top floor of one of Barrington’s pricier high-rises. The view on one side looked out over the ocean instead of the river, and the other side had an amazing view of the city’s skyline. Most telling of all, my place was decorated in the same calming but impersonal style of a corporate living space.
“For my sins, yes, I live here,” I said, grinning at my omega’s awe. The place wasn’t exactly my lair, but it felt like I’d brought my omega home to my territory anyhow.
“It’s…it’s….”
I tilted my head to one side and waited for Enzo to gather his thoughts for his first impression.
“It looks expensive,” he said, taking a few more steps into the main part of the living area, one hand on his belly. “I’m almost afraid to touch anything.”
If that wasn’t a red flag about my lifestyle, I didn’t know what was.
“Feel free to redecorate all you want,” I said. “Or better still, we’ll go looking for a suitable family home after the holidays, once things settle down a bit. I’ll let you take the lead on that,since omegas have an inherent sense of nesting and know what they want for their young, right?”
Enzo turned and gaped at me like I’d spoken in a foreign language. “Excuse me?”
I winced. “Sorry, that’s offensive, isn’t it. I shouldn’t refer to our children as ‘young’.”
Enzo gaped harder. “Children?”
It was the weirdest way to emphasize the word, but I knew what he meant.
I sighed and rubbed a hand over my face, then shrugged and said, “I’m treading on new ground here. I know what I want, but I feel like I’m going to say it wrong, no matter how I say it.”
