Page 282 of Labor of Love

“Uh-huh. And what’s your plan for tonight again?”

I closed my eyes and sighed. “Walk and picnic on the beach.”

“I rest my case, Your Honor. That right there is some romantic shit.”

“Okay, fine. I see your point.”

Cas shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. I have a feeling if you just keep doing what you’re doing, Milo will come around. He’s still new in town and still getting settled. Give it time.”

I nodded. My brother was right, and I’d keep Milo in my life however I could. I couldn’t give him up now. If I wanted Milo forever, I needed to practice patience. Too bad I’d never been good at waiting.

5

MILO

Despite my nerves and the fact that I’d woken up feeling…weird, almost like I did the few days before my heat, my meeting with Matteo Marsh had been a success. He’d agreed to do a show at my gallery, and we’d spent the better part of the morning hammering out all the details. The second I left Matteo and Charlie’s little blue bungalow, I called Noah.

“I’m so proud of you, Milo. I knew you could do it.” Like it always did, his subtle praise made me light up inside. There was something about Noah that settled me and made me feel whole in the best possible way. Which was a problem.

While the meeting with Matteo had been a professional success, it had been a personal punch in the gut. Seeing Matteo with his son, Morgan, had made me ache for a baby of my own, for a family of my own.

With Noah.

Since I’d left Matteo’s, I couldn’t get the idea of Noah as my alpha out of my head, and with every fantasy that flitted through my head, my skin felt tighter, and my hole felt more empty, craving Noah’s cock in a way that made me ache for him down to my bones.

Noah had insisted on taking me out to celebrate, and by the time I got to the cute little restaurant on the water that he’d chosen, I was leaking slick and my cock was half-hard. It really felt like I was days away from going into heat even though my heat wasn’t due for another few months. I was antsy and kept squirming in my seat, trying to get comfortable when all I really wanted was to go home and ride the biggest dildo I had until I came screaming Noah’s name.

Noah had also insisted on ordering a bottle of champagne, a glass of which he now held up in a toast. “To your first show!” He clinked his glass against mine, and we both took a sip, the bubbles immediately going to my head. “I know it’s going to be amazing because you’re amazing.”

His praise filled me up and patched the holes in my self-confidence. It also made me crazy horny, and there was no way Noah couldn’t smell my arousal, but because Noah was a gentleman and an amazing friend, he hadn’t said anything.

At some point during dinner, I’d made peace with the inevitable. My heat was coming early, and there was nothing I could do about it. The stress of the move and the pressure of getting the gallery ready to go, plus the meeting with Matteo must have thrown my body off somehow, and now, I was probably only a day or two away. It was a mistake to be having dinner with Noah. I should have told him what was going on and taken a rain check on the celebration until after my heat was over. Sitting here, breathing in his alpha pheromones when I was already pretty damn sure I was already in love with him—when I was pretty damn sure he was meant to be mine—was a lesson in torture.

I pushed the food around on my plate, taking just enough bites to keep Noah from noticing that I wasn’t really eating, but I had a feeling I was doing a shitty job of playing it cool. He keptstudying me over his plate, his eyes narrowed like he was trying to figure out the best way to call me on my bullshit.

When the server cleared away our dishes, mine still mostly full, Noah smiled at me. “The key lime pie here is the best. You’ve gotta try it. Do you want to split a piece?”

I nodded because I didn’t trust myself to open my mouth without begging him to lay me out on the table and fuck me until I couldn’t stand. Conversation between us faded to nothing, and when the server brought out a huge slice of pie covered in a mountain of toasted meringue, I was sweating and starting to tremble with need. I had miscalculated.

My heat was starting.

Now.

Noah dug his fork into the slice of pie we were supposed to be sharing and brought the bite to his mouth. He slid the fork inside, and I felt a moan reverberate in my chest as he closed his eyes and pulled the fork from between his plush, kissable lips. His tongue darted out to lick the last of the meringue from the tines, and a gush of slick pulsed from my hole. Noah’s eyes snapped open, noticing my white-knuckled grip on the tablecloth.

“Milo? Are you okay?”

I stood quickly, feeling slick slide down my inner thighs. “I have to go. Right now. I’m sorry.”

“Milo—“ Noah called after me, but I was almost running as I bolted from the restaurant, need cresting within me. I needed to feel full. I needed an alpha’s cock, his knot.

It was Noah’s cock, his knot, that I craved.

But how could I ask him for what I needed without ruining everything?

Tears slid down my cheeks as my feet pounded the pavement, carrying me toward my house as fast as I could gowith my cock hard and aching between my legs and my hole dripping and begging to be stretched around a fat alpha knot.

“Milo, wait!” Footsteps sounded on the sidewalk behind me, but I didn’t slow down. “Milo!” Noah’s hand wrapped around my bicep, pulling me to a halt, and I couldn’t resist. His fingers on my skin felt too good. I wanted to feel them everywhere—on me, inside me, stroking my dick.

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