Page 97 of Slow Heat
Jason shrugged. “I’m your alpha. It’s my job to know.”
Vale blamed the coming heat on the fact that his knees went weak. “Thank you.” He took the bag and nearly invited Jason in before remembering he needed to keep his distance.
“I’ll get back to work now,” Jason said, smiling.
“Did you eat?”
“At the food booths, yeah.” Jason licked his lips and said, “You didn’t watch us working this morning.”
“I took a nap.” He left off the fact that he’d done so in part because he felt so safe with Jason outside. “I needed the sleep.”
Because his heat was coming on and his body was storing up strength while simultaneously shutting down his digestive system and thickening his colon to make way for the stress of knotting.
“Watch us this afternoon,” Jason said commandingly. “Be in your study. I want you there.”
Vale’s asshole went wet and quivery, and he had to grit his teeth to keep from issuing the invitation inside.
Jason smiled, the light of the early afternoon sun glinting on his teeth. “Say you will.”
“I will.” Vale’s voice was rough.
He shouldn’t. But he would. What harm did it do?
Vale shut the door on Jason’s retreating back and then sat down at the kitchen table. The delicious sandwich tasted sufficiently good to overcome his reluctance to eat. He managed half of it before he couldn’t stuff in another bite.
Four days.
If he was lucky.
He left the bag and the half-eaten sandwich on the kitchen table and trailed into the library. Tired again already, he flopped down on the sofa with a book, warm blanket, and a cat, angling his head so he could see out the open window. A chilly breeze blew in—the weather called for a fire, truly—but it calmed Vale’s prickling heat and he stretched a bare foot out to feel it more fully.
Jason lifted a hand toward him but didn’t approach, instead going back to planting and tilling, digging and smoothing, and generally getting dirty all over. His cheeks glowed and his hair shone in the sun. Vale’s balls drew up and his cock grew thick just watching the way he moved so effortlessly. His alpha would be big and strong one day.
Drowsily, he marinated in low-grade lust, pretending to read while desperately searching his mind for a solution to the heat problem. Finally, unable to come to any reliable conclusion, he put the book aside and napped again. His dream was sweetly sexual: Jason by the seaside sporting a tan. He stood naked where the tide raced in, his cock in his hand, jerking himself off slowly while Vale knelt at his feet, waves rushing over his thighs, mouth open, straining to capture another burst of that delicious flavor on his tongue.
He woke with a start as the word “Goodbye” drifted into his study. Zephyr meeped and jumped from her perch on his thighs, crawling beneath the sofa. The afternoon light shifted gracing the room with a golden sheen. Vale stretched, his cock was still half-hard and his asshole was as wet as the waves in his dream.
“Thanks for your help,” Jason’s voice said, and Vale spotted him alone in the garden, shading the sun from his eyes with his hand. “Send the bill and I’ll take care of it. And don’t forget the extra you spent on the bulbs from Calitan.”
“It’s been a pleasure working with you,” Mox’s voice called from what sounded like the side of the house. “Too bad your pater would probably frown on you helping us out in his gardens this spring.”
Jason smiled. “It’s unlikely he’d allow it, but if I’m still living there by the time you start, I might sneak out and try.”
“Good luck to you with everything, especially that omega,” Mox said with a tone that somehow implied he thought Jason would need it. Vale couldn’t argue with that opinion, though. They both needed luck and Vale needed some kind of clarity. Urgently.
Then there was silence. Jason stood in the garden, looking around proudly. Vale didn’t know what all they’d planted but he had to admit that even from his position on the sofa the place appeared neat and held an air of promise it’d been lacking for years.
Jason’s gaze fell toward the open window of the study and directly to Vale. He walked through the newly cleared paths and came to stand right outside just as he had that first morning.
“You smell amazing. Like slick and sweat.” Jason’s voice was husky. “What were you dreaming about in there, Sleeping Beauty?”
“Of the shore. I haven’t been in too long. I miss the ocean.”
Jason’s grin was thrilled. “We’ll go for our first heat together, then. My parents have a cottage there. We’ll head over in the days leading up, when you know it’s coming, and enjoy the water before we lock ourselves up in the bedroom for the duration.”
Vale swallowed. “That sounds nice.”
Jason leaned against the windowsill and glanced back over his shoulder like he was making sure the men really were gone. “Come here.”
