Page 19 of Bully for Sale
“George Fersee hasmade an offer I’m loathe to refuse,” Lidell, Ned’s father, said over dinner two nights after Ned’s visit to Amos Elson’s apartment building.
The days in between had been filled with a restless, inexplicable longing to return. As if maybe if Ned talked to Amos again, he’d find a way to be closer to Ezer. Maybe even see him there, too. But when Amos had closed his door on Ned’s back, he’d made it clear that Ned shouldn’t return.
“Mm,” Ned said, not giving his father any kind of real answer. He didn’t feel comfortable talking about whatever had Lidell’s eyes alight like that. Not at the dinner table anyway, and not while they had company.
His father’s latest hired omega, a young man with brown eyes and white-blond hair, sat at the opposite end of the table, eating. Ned had already forgotten the man’s name—Henry? Hopper? The man was boring, and he wasn’t likely to be around more than a few more days since—Harry? No,Hunter’s heat had ended a week ago. No breeding had been negotiated, per his father’s customary habit.
So, as usual with these things: pleasure had been had, intimacies exchanged, and when Lidell was tired of Hunter, he’d be sent on his way with money to fund the next stage of his life. And, Ned supposed, to soothe any heartbreak at separating, though he had a hard time imagining any omega falling in love with his father. Lidell wasn’t a soft man; he wasn’t romantic or interested in being in love. Sometimes Ned wondered how his omega parent—the beautiful Sandrino—had managed to get Lidell to fall for him. So far as Ned had seen, Lidell always kept his heart closed off.
Regardless, Hunter would be gone soon, and his father would be sated for a year or so, until he felt compelled to take on another omega to slake his carnal desires. At which point he’d spend a few weeks studying the auction pages, and then make his choice.
It was a sordid cycle Ned was familiar with and secretly disdained. After seeing how happy his uncle was with Adrien, and getting into trouble over fleeting pleasures in the past, Ned no longer wanted to indulge in short-term connections for the sake of physical gratification. He wanted to mate a single omega for life like Heath had done.
To be fair, he supposed Lidell had once wanted that too with Ned’s omega parent. Earl said it was after Sandrino’s death that Lidell had changed his focus to obtaining power and money. By shunning love and connection, he’d tried to protect himself from ever losing so much again.
But even Ned knew that was shortsighted.
Ned didn’t care that much about power. He’d seen the way his father’s desire for it had driven a wedge between him and Heath. And, sure, money was nice, but his father was never satisfied financially and always wanted more.
According to Lidell Clearwater’s occasional drunken ramblings, relationships with a definite end date and a set cash incentive never involved the complications of emotions. Ned thought it all seemed empty and sad. He didn’t want to make do with short bursts of mutual understanding that ended with nothing but a nice memory and a photograph or two.
“I saw George at the club this afternoon and had a very serious conversation with him alone in the garden. Aren’t you curious what he’s put on the table?” Lidell asked again.
Ezer Fersee’s blue eyes popped into Ned’s mind with the ferocity of obsession. His cheeks flushed as he recalled what he’d done just a few hours earlier in the privacy of his room, touching himself while thinking of Ezer’s fine-boned face and wide eyes. He’d exploded in ecstasy imagining Ezer’s face coated with Ned’s juices. But no sooner had he come down from that joy, than the shame had risen again. He’d cleaned up his physical mess, mourning that he couldn’t clean up the one he’d made with Ezer. There was no erasing that a few days before, he’d had his boot on Ezer’s shoulder, complicit in the boy’s humiliation, even if only for a few seconds.
“George Fersee is a wealthy, powerful man. This could be our chance.” Lidell cleared his throat, annoyed at Ned’s apparent lack of interest.
Ned sighed and took the bait. “What has Mr. Fersee offered, Father?”
“A breeding.”
“What?” Ned tilted his head in disgust mingled with confusion. “Mr. Fersee is an alpha.”
“Yes, he’s an alpha. With four omega sons, and a powerful need to offload a few of them. Beginning with the troublemaker.”
A tingle of alarm began in Ned’s fingers. “‘The troublemaker’?”
His father nodded. “It seems one of his omega sons is a bit too uppity and has forgotten his place in the world. Mr. Fersee plans to auction off his first heat, along with a breeding, early. Get the boy knocked up and under control.” Lidell smiled, leaking smarm from his pores as he added, “There’s nothing like a pregnancy to calm an omega down.”
From the other end of the table, Hunter released a condemning cough.
Ned worried on his lower lip for a moment. “Which son is it?”
“I believe you know him.” Lidell smiled as if he somehow knew this would matter to Ned. “He’s in your class at school. The name is Ezer?”
Ned’s gut twisted. Ezer’s small form flashed before his eyes, along with memories of the fear in his face as Braden had held him down, the way he’d struggled. He thought of Ezer’s strong-minded lift of his chin, never taking a hit to his pride while taking a hit to his body. Ned hoped his voice was steady as he asked, “Mr. Fersee is going to auction him?”
“That was his original plan,” Lidell said, with a lifted finger indicating that Ned should wait for the real prize. “But he expressed some interest in us taking the boy off his handspermanently—for a price. And by us, I mean you.”
“Me?”
“Yes. Surely you don’t think I intend to take on a nineteen-year-old omega and breed him.” Lidell scoffed. “Of course it would be you.”
His head whirled. The words didn’t make sense. “I don’t understand.”
“There’s a price of course.”
That made even less sense. “If Mr. Fersee wants money, we have nothing to offer.” Without his uncle’s backing, they couldn’t afford to pay for a heat right now, and there was no way Uncle Heath would approve of this situation. Ned and Ezer weren’t even in college yet. He shook his head. There had to be a misunderstanding. “Besides, Ezer is too young.”
