Page 23 of Duke's Baby Deal
“I know better.” Abel grinned and leaned back in the chair, obviously trying for relaxed, but not making it.
Duke guessed that they were worried about him. This wasn’t the first conversation he’d had with either Abel or Mac about Bram, and Duke’s infatuation. He kind of wished they’d just come out and say it, but maybe they were planning a tag team type of thing.
Bax came in, breaking several minutes of uncomfortable silence, handing a mug to each of the men. “Tea. The boys are coming inside to wash up and clean up the Legos.” He gave Abel a look that implied the Legos were Abel’s fault, quickly supported by Abel’s “We set them up in a corner!” and then Bax’s laugh.
“You still need to clean them up after, or at least the ones that make it out to the middle of the floor.” He leaned in and dropped a kiss on Abel’s lips, then bent over the cradle where the baby was sound asleep. “Oh, good, I was hoping he’d still be asleep.” He pulled another chair, a scratched-up old wooden one with one odd leg. “Rules are: the person who makes enough noise towakethe baby has to lookafterthe baby. And, they have to do the dishes.” He cast an imperious glance at the two of them, though Duke couldn’t miss the glint of humor in his eyes. “Ready?” Bax asked and waited for their unenthusiastic nods. “Okay. Abel might as well start, since he’s the most worried.”
“I’m not that worried,” he began, but stumbled to a stop at Bax’s raised eyebrow. “I didn’t say I wasn’t worried at all, just not as much as you seem to think.”
“Given that you stayed home today and talked my ear off, I think you might be more concerned than you realize,” Bax told him. “It’s okay. Maybe I should go first then?”
Abel waved a dismissive hand and Duke could feel his irritation, a red prickling sensation against his skin. Bax’s body immediately went stiff and Abel reached out to him, remorse on his face. “Sorry,” was all Abel said, and Bax gazed back at him wide-eyed, his nostrils flared. Duke could smell his apprehension, then just like that it faded. For a moment he wondered, distracted by this interchange, how bad Bax’s life had been that he still got spooked by his mate, who obviously adored him.
“Yeah, maybe you should go first. I’m still too close to being Alpha.”
Bax kissed the knuckles of the hand he held. “All right.” He turned back to Duke. “We heard you offered for Bram.”
“I did,” Duke agreed gravely.
Bax took a deep breath. “I know you were interested in him before, but you never really had much opportunity to spend time with him. I don’t know how much you know about how omegas work.”
Duke felt the heat rising up his neck and face like a fire through August forest. “Uh, I mean, what’s there to know?” Holy shitballs, he wasnothaving this conversation with the omega mate of his friend and former Alpha.
But Bax wasn’t the least bit discomfited, except for a slight flush in his cheeks. “Some of the stories are true. Omegas are—” He seemed to search for a word, then shrugged and spat out “—randy, I suppose. We like to perform our conjugal duties. It seems to be consistent with being an omega. But there’s another part of the myth around that that’s also true.” He took a deep breath and looked at Duke with both sorrow and regret in his eyes. “An omega, once mated in heat, is tied to the one who mated him or her. Whatever Bram might have felt before, his body is tuned only to Justin now, and he’s incapable of feeling arousal for another man.”
“What?” Duke looked back and forth between Bax and Abel, a full dozen questions hammering to be asked. Invasive, incredibly rude questions about Abel and Bax and how they’d ended up in bed long before Bax ever got pregnant and…
Abel cleared his throat. “Patrick was dead. Maybe that was the difference. We don’t know. Bax asked Holland what he felt, but he says he feels nothing, except for his old mate. We don’t know how long this lasts, Duke. And there’s other concerns.”
Never feel desire… Poor Bram. “What concerns?” he asked, suddenly annoyed with the whole issue. Did they think he was just going to abandon Bram for a reason that selfish? No!
Bax put a hand on Duke’s arm. “Just listen to him, okay? I’m not a hundred percent in agreement with him, but he has a point. Points, really.”
“Yeah.” Okay, he’d listen. What was it about Bax that he could change a person’s mind, just with a touch and a few words? Maybe therewassomething to that True Omega shit.
Abel leaned forward, his hand still in Bax’s. “Bram’s not ready to be mated yet. He doesn’t have the same ideas about it as someone our age would. He still thinks it’s all romance and flowers.”
I could give him romance and flowers.“He’ll learn. He’s not dumb.”
“I never said he was. What he is, is young. And spoiled.”
But he’s good, and smart, and a hard worker.“I’m okay with that.” He didn’t know how to explain to Abel that he saw all those things, but what he saw underneath them was still worth more. “I know I’m not as smart as him, or as outgoing. That doesn’t mean I’m the wrong mate for him.”
“We never said you were,” Abel said. “But this isn’t the best way to start a mating.”
“It’s not the worst, either,” Duke spat back, with a glance at Bax. Bax’s eyes widened and he pressed his lips together as if to hold back memories, and Duke felt like a heel. “I’m sorry, that was shitty of me. I won’t do it again. But if you keep on about this, you’re going to end up making us both unhappy. It’s done, I’ve offered for him and the whole pack likely knows by now. There’s no going back.” Duke stood up from his chair. “If that’s all you’re going to do, I might as well head home.”
“No, Duke, stay!” Bax leaped to his feet and grabbed Duke’s arm before he could leave. “That’s not what we meant, or what we meant to do.”
Abel stood up as well. “Duke, if it’s what you really want, we’ll be here for you. Tell us what to do, and we’ll do it. We don’t want to see our friends unhappy if we can do something about it.”
Duke thought about it for a moment. “Just, be kind to him. He’s having a hard time, and none of this is going the way he’d dreamed it would.” He gazed down at Bax’s anxious expression for a moment, then looked up at Abel. “But if you can get me in a room for ten minutes with Justin sometime, I’d greatly appreciate it.”
Abel smiled, but it was grim and sad. “I’d be tempted to hold his arms for you.”
“Now where would be the fun in that?” Duke drawled, and the tension in the room broke. “Thank you,” he said again. “I know you’re just looking out for us.”
“We’re friends,” Bax said and smiled. The air exploded with the sound of rampaging pups, barely muffled by the closed door of the office. “I’d better go get them fed. Our food will be ready in about twenty minutes. You’ll still stay?” He laid a diffident hand on Duke’s arm, as if he was afraid Duke might bite it off.
