Page 26 of Jake and Conner
"And my response made you not want to go through with it?"
"It wasn'tjustyour response, but it contributed."
"And you've been suffering in silence ever since," I concluded, feeling myself grow agitated. "God, Conner, you say I'm too alpha. Fuck that. If I'm too alpha you're too goddamn stubborn."
His scowl resurfaced. "I'm not--"
"Yeah, you are," I insisted. "If you had just told me the truth--"
"You wouldn't have broken up with me, I know." He shot me a defiant look. "But I didn't feel supported by you, you know? I didn't want you to see me just as an omega you have to protect. I didn't want to be reduced to my baby making abilities."
"I would never reduce you to that! That's in your head. Maybe you just see me as an alpha instead of the person I am too." I huffed, exasperated. "We're not all the same."
"I know that." Conner's voice softened. "You were never just an alpha to me."
"You were never just an omega to me."
Conner looked into my eyes, uncertainty shining in his. Shit. Had I done that bad a job of showing him how I felt about him? How could I change that? For now, I didn't have a good idea, so, naturally, I followed my first instinct. I closed the little bit of distance between us and kissed Conner. He didn't resist. He didn't even seem surprised. His eyes fluttered close and he leaned into the kiss as if no time had passed at all between now and when we'd been a couple. Kissing him felt natural. I wanted to keep doing it all night, every night.
If only I could...
"Give me another chance," I asked, keeping my eyes on his as our lips parted. His scent was still so strong in my nose I wanted nothing more than to join our bodies together fully, but I knew it wasn't time for that yet. "Let me take you out."
"Where would you take me?"
"I don't know yet. I'll come up with something."
Conner hesitated, licked his lips, but then a cautious smile lit up his features. My heart skipped a beat, watching him. "Okay," he said. "Next week. You can take me out Saturday."
10
Conner
Icouldn't focus on work at all the following day. Every time there was a lull in my day, my thoughts kept spinning around to Jake and what he might be planning for Saturday. Had I made the right decision, saying yes to him?
There was no time to keep worrying about it. I had a backlog to work through from when I'd had to take the day off to deal with my Jake-induced heat.
Darn it, I was thinking about Jake again.
Quickly, I shuffled through the papers on my desk, trying to figure out what needed my attention most urgently. My eyes caught on something yellow in the corner of my eye. A note one of my coworkers had left for me. I picked it up and read it. Mark had been here when I’d called in sick and left a phone number asking for me to please call.
My stomach churned. I should have been here to meet him. Had he made his decision yet or did he just need someone to lend an ear? In any case, I'd promised him my help and I'd flaked.
All because of my stupid disorder that I couldn’t get treatment for. I sighed. Whining about this now wasn’t going to do anyone any good. The only thing I could do was to make up for lost time.
Without wasting another minute, I grabbed my phone and punched in the number that had been jotted down on the note.
Mark picked up after only a few rings. I wondered if he’d been waiting for my call. "Hi, it’s Conner Hayes," I said. "From the Omega Shelter Second Chances. My colleague let me know that you wanted to be called."
"Mr. Hayes!" he exclaimed, forgetting that I’d asked him to call me Conner. I didn’t mind, though. He sounded so relieved to hear from me.
"Would you like to come in again?" I asked. "I’ll be in the office all day." Probably until late at night, and if I didn’t go home at all it wouldn’t be the first time.
"I don't know, I don't have the time today. My father passed away and my mother is losing her shit. She’s taking me to see a priest because of the baby.”
There was a lot of information to process there. "I’m sorry for your loss,” I said almost automatically while the rest of my brain analyzed what else he had said.
"It’s okay. I mean…" His voice broke a little. "We weren’t close or anything."
