Page 2 of The Hitman's Omega Priest
King and his various guards spokeatKensley.
“Can you wiggle your toes?” Bishop asked.
He tried. It hurt, but Kensley didn’t feel any sharp pain and nothing seemed broken. He also didn’t want Bishop to stop touching him. “Yeah, I’m okay.”
“Let’s go upstairs and put some ice on it. Just in case.” Bishop smiled, and that sent a wiggle of familiar warmth into Kensley’s belly. He loved Bishop’s smiles, because he handed them out so rarely. “I’d hate for King to come home and find out I let you get hurt while doing laundry.”
Kensley grunted. “You didn’t let me get hurt. I was the dumbass who dropped the detergent.”
“Well, I’m the dumbass that startled you, so we’re even.” Bishop moved into a crouch, and before Kensley could object, scooped him up in his arms like he was carrying a small child. For a brief moment, the cuddling felt nice, comfortable. Almost loving.
His heart skipped a beat, because Bishop smelled really good. Too good. Kensley knuckled Bishop’s shoulder. “Put me down. I can walk by my own damned self.”
“Okay, okay.” He gently deposited Kensley onto his feet and took a step backward.
Kensley immediately missed Bishop’s nearness, but he didn’t need to be carried around like a baby. He shifted his weight to his right foot, because his left did hurt. It wasn’t broken, but he probably did need ice, and he could walk to the kitchen like a grownup. He couldn’t be weak in front of Bishop. He wanted Bishop to respect him. Tolikehim.
Bishop, who was brushing at the front of his shirt, and Kensley’s stomach dropped. A damp spot. Shit.
“Kens, why are you doing laundry at eight-thirty in the morning?” His tone had changed in a weird way. Still concerned but with an edge of…panic? Nah, Bishop Anders didn’t panic. He’d only ever been calm, cool and collected around Kensley. His centeredness was one of the things Kensley loved about him.
“I felt like it.” Mostly true.
“Have you done laundry once since you moved here?”
“Sure.” Bishop stared, unblinking, and Kensley wilted. He couldn’t lie to Bishop’s face. Kensley wanted to impress him, not make him mad. “No, I haven’t. Not here. These machines are weird.”
Bishop hunched, as if trying to make himself smaller. Less of an authority figure and more like a friend. Someone who wanted Kensley to be honest with him, and part of Kensley wanted to confide in Bishop. He trusted Bishop. And he’d never admit out loud that he had a huge crush on the gorgeous guy. Bishop was way too old and totally not interested in a teenager, which made it a useless crush.
Ugh, why did everything have to be so confusing?
“I know we aren’t super close friends, Kens,” Bishop said, “but if something’s wrong, you can trust me. Do you trust me?”
“Yes.” As far as he could tell, Bishop had never lied to him. He’d definitely never made fun of him, not once. “It’s embarrassing.”
“What is?” He glanced at the washer. “If you were sick this morning, it’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
“I don’t know if I’m sick.”
“Okay. What happened?”
Kensley leaned against the dryer, so he could take some weight off his throbbing foot. “I woke up and my bed was wet, but I didn’t, like, pee on myself. I felt a little sick, but it’s not stomachache sick. I don’t know how to describe it, and it’s still kind of happening. It’s like my butt’s sweating.”
Bishop’s face slowly shifted from concerned friend to almost blank. Like all the other guards in the house, and that annoyed Kensley. “You’re fourteen,” Bishop said.
“Yeah, so? Is this, like, some weird puberty thing no one told me about? I thought my voice just dropped and I got hairy balls.”
“Yeah, that’s probably happening, but…” Bishop made a funny face, like he was thinking about Kensley’s balls. “Kens, do you know what alphas and omegas are?”
“Isn’t that something from the High Holy Book scriptures?”
“Maybe, I’m not religious. I didn’t think you were.”
Kensley shrugged. “Mom liked to read them sometimes for comfort, but we never really went to services. I just remember some prayer or something about the alpha and the omega.”
“So, your mother never taught you about all the genders?”
He shook his head, more confused than ever. People were men or women, what was so complicated? “What are you talking about?”
