Page 91 of Slow Heat
Father paled. “Miner, please. I didn’t…I’m sorry.”
“If you wish that man had even one heat without help, Wolf-god save you, Yule.”
“Miner, I swear to all that’s holy I didn’t mean it that way.” He reached out in remorse. “Forgive me.”
Pater glared at Father until he lowered his gaze and ducked his head. Then he turned to Jason, pointing at him with his cigarette. “Remember this. This is the power he’ll have over you. You may hold the assets, the legal rights, and be able to subjugate him during sex, but you’ll never be satisfied a moment in your life if he’s not happy. Do you trust him enough for that?”
Jason felt a trickle of sweat slide down his temple. He wanted to trust Vale. The idea of crawling to him, begging for his forgiveness didn’t horrify him the way it should. He’d do it happily if it meant Vale was his.
Pater touched Father’s shoulder. “Chin up.” When Father met his eyes, he said softly, “I’ll consider accepting your apology when you’ve made me believe you hold this man in the esteem he deserves as a human being.”
Father groaned and covered his hands with his face. “Miner, you’re killing me.”
Pater flicked a glance to Jason but then returned his full focus to Father. He stabbed his cigarette out before taking hold of Father’s chin and whispering, “Nothing you say here today is going to change the outcome ofanything. Do you understand me?”
Father shoulders curved. He tugged his chin out of Pater’s grasp and rubbed a hand through his hair.
At that moment, the door opened from the hall and Vale entered, his face red above his beard, and his eyes wary. Seeing the attorneys gone, he raised a brow at Jason and then asked, “Am I interrupting? Should I go again?”
“No,” Jason said quickly. “We’re ready. Aren’t we, Father?”
Father took hold of Pater’s free hand and kissed his fingers gently. “We are. If you’ll have a seat, Vale, I’ll get Yosef and Bisme. We’ll leave aside the discussion of births for now.” He rose and paused before opening the door to the kitchen. “When I return, we’ll begin with the next item on the agenda. The plan for your assets.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Vale’s head throbbed.
He’d refused Yosef’s offer for company the night before and drowned out the awfulness of the negotiations by consuming half a tumbler of gin. Now he felt like his nerves were on the outside of his skin, and his miniscule breakfast threatened to crawl out of his mouth.
Gingerly, he sipped tea and leaned back in his desk chair. The late-autumn sun filtered in through the windows as he watched a bird pick at lingering mulberries on the tree near the back of the garden.
Zephyr was curled in his lap, kneading the smooth material of his robe and pajama bottoms, putting needle-like pricks in the fabric. He didn’t care. The allowance the Sabels would give him would buy him a dozen of these robes a week if he wanted. But that didn’t quell his anxiety about the future or the magnitude of what signing the contract, or not, would mean for his life.
Poor Jason. He hadn’t known what to make of the tension in the room. His was a good heart and he clearly wanted what was best for Vale even at the expense of his own desires. He must get that generosity from his pater, because his father certainly didn’t share it.
Vale had wanted to strangle Yule Sabel’s handsome neck when he’d tried to insist on a live birth with so much sanctimoniousness. As if he wasn’t a monster knocking up his omega every heat and forcing him to endure the loss of it! As if he had any moral standing at all! He rubbed his temples and glared out the window at the cleared-out garden. Who did the man think he was asking Vale to risk his life for the sake of passing on his callous genes?
Zephyr stopped kneading, her ears perking up, and a meow wrenched from her throat as she bolted from his lap and out the door into the hallway heading for the kitchen. Vale hoped he’d put food out for her when he woke but couldn’t remember now. His brain was packed with itchy cotton balls of irritable rage. She’d screech if there wasn’t anything in her bowl when she got there.
He rested his head against the back of his chair, paper strewn over his desk with unfinished poems he’d started the night before when he was drunk off his ass. Not a one was any good. They were all about Jason, and that was the worst thing they could be about. Because he didn’t want anyone to know how the thought of not being with the boy made him feel like he was being sliced to ribbons inside. He hadn’t eaten anything solid for dinner the night before, and his stomach rebelled against tea, even.
He rubbed sleep from his eyes and sat up straighter, grabbing all the paper from his desk and shoving it into an overstuffed drawer without looking at what he’d written. There might be something good to salvage later when he wasn’t so raw about it all.
His mind slipped back to the negotiations the day before. He wasn’t sure what had happened when he left the room to clean up the annoying slick that continued to plague him whenever Jason asserted himself in any way, shape, or form, but the atmosphere had changed when he came back. Not necessarily for the better, but not for the worse, either. They’d discussed the properties dispassionately—Vale refusing to give up his home and Jason backing him. Then he agreed to allow them to fix up the cabin his parents had left to him. They could decide to sell or keep it once that was done.
But beneath it all, despite the progress made, he’d felt the current of truth pulling him farther and farther away from a signed contract.
When it was over, they’d attempted to give him details for when he should arrive tonight for Feast of the Expectant Wolf, but he’d cut Miner short, saying, “I don’t feel it’s appropriate to share such an important feast when the negotiations are still so unsettled. It’s intended for family members as a celebration of new life and family is something I might never be.”
Jason had looked gutted, but he hadn’t protested.
The phone on Vale’s desk had rung several times last night while he’d been scribbling furiously and gargling mouthfuls of gin. He hadn’t answered it. He knew who it was. But what would he tell the boy? “I’ve led you on. I’ve let you think…”
Wolf-god, he couldn’t even complete the sentence in his own mind. Not even in the light of morning with a thundering headache proving he was sober. He wanted Jason so much, wanted desperately to contract with him, and yet…
A tap on his window startled him and his head jerked up. His heart somersaulted. He swallowed hard and rose slowly to go unfasten the lock and raise the sash.
“Hi.” Jason pushed his hair out of his eyes. They were swollen and he didn’t look like he’d slept all night. The cold breeze flowed into the room, chilling Vale through his pajama bottoms and robe.
