Page 42 of Roommates
Being separated from Lucas was hard. While I was at school and Lucas was hiding in his hometown, we kept in touch via messenger and facetime. I really wished I could have just quit school to stay with Lucas, but I needed to graduate if I wanted to support our little family while my partner got his law degree.
During my last months at school, I threw myself at my studies every minute that I didn't spend talking to Lucas—who was justifiably bored out of his mind, staying at home this whole time. He was studying too, but even for Lucas, there was a limit to how many hours a day he could spend reading text books without wanting to claw his eyes out.
Once I was finally done with my last exam, I ditched school. I didn't even stick around for the graduation ceremony. I didn't need to be wearing a funny hat, I only needed to be with my heavily pregnant partner.
I took the train to Lucas' town. He'd told me one of his parents (not the scary one) would come pick me up, but when I arrived at the station, it wasn't Lucas' father who greeted me.
It was Lucas himself. Standing at the platform where all the world could see him in his wide paternity clothes—which did nothing to hide his belly. I would have probably stood there staring for a full five minutes or so if Lucas hadn't grabbed my hands and kissed me. That broke me out of my stupor. I hadn't been able to touch Lucas in so long... I nearly whined when he broke away again. Didn't he know that a few seconds of contact were not enough?
“I've missed you,” he said with a bright smile, still holding one of my hands and leading me out of the station.
“I've missed you too,” I said, almost automatically while my eyes—and my thoughts—strayed back to his belly. “Are you sure it's okay for you to be outside like this?” I loved the sight. Seriously, I could hardly get enough of it, but wasn't he risking everything? Why would he do that?
For a second, Lucas stopped in his step to look at me, but then he simply resumed walking without giving me an explanation for his actions. “Let's go to my place first before we talk about this. My parents are gone for the weekend, so we have the house to ourselves.”
“Your parents are gone? Is that why you had to come pick me up by yourself? I could have gotten a taxi or something.”
“It's not like that.” Lucas gave me a soft smile. “Isentmy parents away, if you really need to know. I figured we could use some privacy. They agreed. Well, my papa agreed and he has his ways to get my dad to fall in line.”
“Oh,” I found myself saying, catching on to his intentions. Well, part of his intentions anyway. I still had no clue why he thought it was a good idea to go out in public like this.
But he'd said he would tell me when we got home, so I waited patiently and didn't ask any more questions on the car ride. It wasn't all that hard, really. I could distract myself from all the thoughts in my head simply by staring at Lucas' belly. I'd been seeing him through the webcam while we were apart, but the grainy video resolution failed to show me just how gorgeous he'd become.
“You can touch it later, if you want to,” Lucas said almost casually, eyes still on the road. “Maybe you'll be able to feel the baby kick too. She's been crazy active.”
“You still think it's a girl?”
“Who knows? Maybe. You seemed happy at the idea.”
“I'll be happy no matter what.” And the thought of getting to feel the little one kick excited me too.
Almost as much as the idea of touching Lucas after all this time.
Lucas shot me a grin. “You better be!”
I smiled back at him. Something was different about Lucas today, but I couldn't quite place my finger on what. All I knew was it wasn't just that he'd grown bigger. There was an almost carefree air to his behavior that day. I'd never seen him like that before, but I liked it.
We only spent a few minutes in the car before Lucas parked us in the drive way to his parents' home where he'd been hiding for the past couple of weeks. Or, not-hiding, as I thought looking at him now.
We both got out of the car and Lucas unlocked the door for us to enter the house.
Once we were in the privacy of Lucas' home, I kissed him again. I'd been patient in the car and all, but there was a limit to how long I could wait when my omega was this close to me and smelling this good.
“You're not taking scent suppressors anymore,” I muttered, nuzzling his cheek.
He laughed. A happy sound that made my stomach flutter. There was nothing better than knowing that my omega was happy—and with me. I never wanted to be away from him for weeks at a time again.
“I'm not taking any pills anymore,” he said. “I mean, I wasn't leaving the house anymore anyway, and now it's kind of a moot point. Besides, I figured you would appreciate this.”
Appreciate itwas an understatement for how much I enjoyed Lucas' pure, unchanged scent in my nose.
There was no better smell in the world. I wanted to bury my nose in his hair and forget about everything else for a while.
But it wasn't time for that yet. No, I had to stay on top of the situation for at least as long as it would take me to figure out what was going on with Lucas. “Are you going to tell me now?” I asked, forcing myself to take a step back so I could keep a clear mind.
“Tell you what? Oh.” Lucas glanced down at this belly. “I guess you want to know why I came to get you.”
“I do.”
