Page 90 of Bully for Sale
Ned loved him.
PART FOUR
The Break
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Ezer’s entire bodyached, and his hole was constantly dripping with slick and Ned’s cum. He was exhausted and enormous, and horny, and he spent most of his time sleeping, eating, or fucking.And, if he wasn’t too tired, doing math problems for Ned’s homework and for himself for fun.
Ezer hadn’t called his brothers again, and no one in his family had reached out as far as he knew. He trusted Ned to tell him if Amos had texted. So, given the lack of care shown for him, Ezer figured he was alone in this world outside of Ned’s devotion. His brothers hadn’t bothered to check in, and his own da, for whom he’d done all this, was, presumably too busy making love to the man he’d shared an illicit and life-altering heat encounter with, safe in his nice lakeside apartment, to make sure that Ezer was all right, to see if his pregnancy was progressing well, to see if his “favorite son” was safe.
Sometimes Ezer thought he was a fool.
Other times, he knew he was.
“Please,” he begged, clinging to Ned’s hand. “I just need it one more time before you go.”
Ned laughed and kissed his hair. “I would, baby, but I have to leave now—like right now—because I’m already late.”
“So what?”
“It’s important. I have too much going on at school right now, and I can’t afford to bring attention to myself,” Ned said, and then stood to go. “I’ll be home as soon as I can. Rest.”
Ezer stayed in the soft blankets, feeling the babies moving inside him. They flipped and kicked, and sometimes it seemed they wrestled each other like puppies, though surely not. Sibling rivalry couldn’t start in the womb, could it?
Ezer ate and napped by the pool for the rest of the afternoon. Earl had gone to the grocery store, and he reveled in being alone in the house. It was the best way to be, in his opinion, if he couldn’t have Ned with him. He loved the silence of it, and the fact he could let down his guard entirely, just breathe.
It was only after Ezer’s first nap by the pool that Ned’s words fully registered:“I have too much going on at school right now, and I can’t afford to bring attention to myself.”
There’d been something in the way he’d said it. He wasn’t talking about classes. He wasn’t talking about schoolwork. He was talking about people. And Ezer knew exactly which people he was obliquely referring to: Braden and Finch.
Were they harassing Ned now? Tormenting him the way they’d tormented Ezer? But how? Ned was enormous. He could take both of those assholes down easily. But Ned was also a softie. He was gentle on the inside. Braden and Finch could easily hurt him with their words alone.
Because Ned was, at heart, a coward.
Sure, he’d been enraged when Braden had confronted him by the garden gate, but that was the reaction of any alpha when his pregnant omega was threatened. Ned would never do anything to protecthimself. Ezer was sure Ned would let Braden and Finch bully him.
But what could Ezer do to help him? Nothing. He was pregnant, small, and huge at the same time. Unwieldy. That was what he was now. Not to mention so very trapped. So Ned would have to deal with it all on his own. There was nothing Ezer could do to relieve any pressure or discomfort his alpha might be facing at school.
The week before when Earl had been at the store and Ned at school, Ezer had taken the opportunity to snoop. He’d perused the whole house, looking into Ned’s room still decorated with his childhood things, and the guest rooms, and even Lidell’s bedroom…
He needed to ask Ned what the plan was for his father’s residence when the babies came. Were they going to live here with Lidell forever? Or was Lidell going to stay gone and find his own place? Or was he planning to return to live with them after the children came?
Ezer wasn’t sure about the idea of living with a man he hadn’t even met yet while trying to care for two babies. It wasn’t like he was an old pro at baby care, though he’d helped with Rodan. He knew post-partum drops could be rough, and he didn’t think it would help to have a stranger around for it.
But those were worries for another day. Today, his mind was preoccupied with what sorts of troubles Ned had been keeping from him. What sorts of issues he’d been facing on his own. They were a team now, or were becoming one, anyway. They should work as a team in all ways.
Eventually, Ezer got tired of chasing the circles of his own thoughts and went back into the house and down to the nest to get his advanced calculus book.
As he settled back at the table by the pool, starting on some math problems that appeared deliciously complicated, he heard a noise from near the garden gate. He glanced that direction, and, seeing nothing, decided it must be the squirrels he’d seen earlier in the day chasing each other.
He squinted at the equation, noting that the letters didn’t move around on him, and he wondered why that was. It always seemed unfair that they wouldn’t just stay still like that when they were in actual words.
“Well, look at you, Cocksleeve, ripe as a peach, and still full of a nut, too, I bet.”
Ezer’s blood ran cold. His heart thumped so hard he saw spots and felt the sudden restless movements of his babies inside, jolted by his adrenaline flooding their tiny bodies as well.
Lifting his head, Ezer took in Braden leaning against the garden gate, insolent and tousled in his school uniform. He must have climbed the fence in the garden and not landed cleanly, because the knees of his pants were grass-stained, and his blazer had dirt on it.
