Page 22 of Omega Chattel
The unspoken part of that sentence was:Just not in my office.
“What if I need help? What if I have questions? Will I be able to come into your office?”
“Of course. I work away from home Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have a smart phone on order for you.”
“A phone? Really?” I asked.
“Yeah.” Oren pointed at me with his syrup-laden fork. “We just text him if we have questions that can’t wait until the end of the day.”
I half-resented Oren for speaking up, interrupting my time with Tarin. But it wasn’t his fault I was such a ridiculous Omega who wanted the first Alpha he’d laid eyes on. I needed to get hold of myself. Yet, I didn’t want to.
If that bully Gray had taught me anything, it was to stand up for myself, keep pushing. It got me punished in the past, but created a fire in me to not give up.
I looked away from Oren and back at Tarin’s crotch, which was now, sadly, moving back and away from me.
I said, trying to keep Tarin from turning away, “It’s too much, but thank you. You don’t need to keep giving me expensive things.”
“But you need them or you can’t move forward with your life.”
“His students pay him back if they can.” Oren again. Interrupting again.
“I don’t require it,” Tarin said, ruffling Oren’s pristine hair.
“The team cleaning the house here, right now, it’s an Omega-owned business. Tarin set them up. They come in every week and clean the house for free.” Oren looked pleased with himself for knowing and providing all this information.
“I met Enin,” I said.
“I pay them,” Tarin countered with a smile. “But they give me the family discount.”
When Tarin smiled, his lips parted and his white teeth flashed. My neck muscles stiffened almost painfully as I gazed up at his face, the strong jaw, the dark bristle there from an unclose shave. It would feel rough and tingly on my fingertips, I decided. If could run my hands over and over that bristle, holding his face in place while I looked at him, sniffed him, tasted his plush pink lips—then I would be happy. Only then.
My face flushed at the thought.
Tarin didn’t seem to notice. Oren snickered, and filled his mouth with big bites of pancake to cover it.
Tarin turned to the countertop, grabbed his keys which jingled against his palm, and said, “I’ll be home at five, men. I expect you have to have your assignments done and be prepared to answer any questions. You have lunch fixings in the fridge. You get an hour. And you can take an hour in the afternoon for whatever.”
The others all nodded knowingly. They’d been doing this for a while. Tarin turned and gave me a quizzical look, one eyebrow raised.
“Yes, sir.” The reason I spoke aloud was because it seemed his words were for me and me alone.
I wanted to please Tarin. But also, I had thought when I reached the age of eighteen, my schooling would be over. I didn’t hate school, but I had had a plan. To service Alphas in their Burns until I met the man of my dreams. We would then bond, marry and have a family.
Now the plan seemed to be “Let’s find Alli work.” That work was obviously and only something outside the sex trade. I wasn’t ungrateful, but everything was new and strange, happening so fast. And I felt if I screwed it all up, I’d be out on my ass again.
I had to make this work. At the same time, I had to get control of my feelings. Tarin had made it clear he didn’t want me.
If I didn’t make myself work hard, he might toss me out and I’d be right back where I started. I’d have to go back to the Trenches and learn to sell myself. It was a hard life, but what other options did I have?
No, I had to make this student thing work with Tarin. I had to do well so he would keep me until I had skills enough to make it with him as my sponsor and guardian. I had to be like Enin and make my own business. Or like Oren, who was the epitome of the proper son, doing everything right and perfect. He’d be a great paralegal. He was perfect, polite and obedient. And those traits would certainly land him an Alpha mate as well, if that was what he aimed for.
I needed to do the same.
*
By afternoon, my frustration level had grown. The assignments were long and boring. Stuff about numbers which didn’t make sense. Math. Science. Even boring literature—not the good stuff I liked like comics and sexy adventures. Tarin had assigned me stories to read that were all big words and awkward language, stuff about the old days I couldn’t relate to, and one story was all about how the sun shone on a mountain range and made some guy lonely all the time until he stared too long into the sun and went blind. It was awful!
I confess, I scanned that one to the end.
