“I can’t promise that. But come on, at least tell him,” Taylor says. “Give him a chance to respond.”
Felix winces. He turns the stove on again, poking at the half-cooked eggs with his spatula. “It’ll kill me if he says no.”
“And he hasn’t smelled the pregnancy yet.”
“I’ve been taking the suppressants, so no.”
Taylor throws his arms in the air, exasperated. “You guys are idiots.”
“Better an idiot than a divorcee,” Felix mumbles, poking at the eggs. When they’re done, he slides them onto a plate, then pours himself a bowl of cereal. “Things are better this way.”
“Are they really?” Taylor props his chin on his hand, his eyes flickering toward the windows, then the doors. It’s a habit, and Felix has learned to ignore it. He glances at the pale scar on his wrist, tiny tooth marks that have never really faded.
“Did you meet anyone cute?” Felix asks instead. “On your big, scary mission.”
At that, Taylor laughs. “Maybe.”
Felix brightens, glad to focus on something other than his own problems. “A big, handsome alpha?”
To his delight, his brother grins, warmth shining in his eyes. “Yeah, he’s cute,” he says. “Just that he’s working for someone else, and we may or may not be on opposite sides.”
“But did you fuck? I think that’s the most important question,” Felix says, and Taylor laughs.
“Yeah. Once so far.”
“So far? You’ll be seeing him again?” And Felix is truly glad for Taylor, because unlike himself, Taylor doesn’t have a mark on his wrist, doesn’t have a bondmate who will disappoint him. When Taylor shrugs, smiling, Felix scoots closer pulling his eggs along. “Okay, tell me about him,” he says. “I want all the details!”
And Taylor grins, slinging an arm around his shoulder. “Of course.”
Kade visits again the next Saturday. This time, Felix is expecting him, and the house smells like bacon and eggs when he opens the front door. Felix is dressed, too, in another bulky sweater and jeans, and he holds his breath when Kade’s eyes flicker down his body, past his abdomen. He didn’t notice.
“You look like you dropped out of a magazine,” Kade says, meeting Felix’s eyes.
Felix exhales, heat creeping up his cheeks. He wasn’t expecting a compliment. “Thanks. Uh, I’m just making breakfast. Would you like to come inside? I—I mean. Oh, gods.”
Kade’s gaze darkens, as though he’d like to do just that. “Sure.”
Felix gulps, swearing inwardly. “I didn’t mean sex. Definitely not.”
Kade deflates a little. Felix bites his lip. They really shouldn’t fuck again. If they do, he’ll forget that he’s supposed to be keeping secrets from this man, that he’ll be running from Kade at some point, leaving clueless about everything. Including the unborn child. It’ll be better if they stop getting so close.
“Your laptop’s in the kitchen,” Felix says.
“Right.” Kade follows him through the house, and Felix can’t help the tingle on his skin, knowing that Kade’s watching him.
In his mind, he hears Taylor’s voice. You can’t keep this from him forever. He’ll find out at some point. Felix frowns at the bare kitchen walls, pulling a couple mugs from the cabinets. “Yes, I can,” he mutters.
“What?” Kade glances over.
“Nothing.” Felix fills the mugs with water, sliding them into the microwave. “The food’s on the stove if you want any.”
“Okay.” Kade looks through the cabinet for a plate.
Felix watches him, his pulse pattering at having his alpha just three feet away. Over the past two weeks, Kade has visited the gas station four times, but he hasn’t tried to kiss Felix again, hasn’t been hard in the store.
Even though Felix knows it’s a good thing, it makes him uneasy. He hadn’t meant to reject Kade so suddenly the last time. He’d remembered the pregnancy while he touched Kade’s knot, and his guilt had burned.
When Kade crosses over to the stove, Felix steps back. His scent is sharp and woodsy: a hint of sex, a hint of Kade. His bondmate’s shoulders are broad, tapering down to his waist, and from the back, Felix admires the way his jeans cling to his ass, the way his thighs stretch his pants. He wants to crawl onto Kade, rub against him, and...
He snaps his gaze away when Kade turns, but Kade’s eyes anchor on his face. Felix blushes, turning away to grab his own plate.
When he joins Kade at the table with steaming mugs of coffee, Kade smiles. “It’s pretty good,” he says. “Better than the stuff I make.”
Felix shrugs, his breath catching. “They’re simple things. Just eggs and bacon. It’s not like I’m making cream of mushroom soup.”
Kade’s knee bumps into his when he sits. Felix swallows. “I still think you cook well. How are the website graphics going?”
“I have them on the laptop,” Felix says. “I just need to know the dimensions to resize them.”
Kade nods. He opens the laptop, glancing at the password he’d written down at the corner of the screen. “Did you have any problems using this?”
Felix shakes his head. Most of his issues had been figuring out the tools he needed, but he’d done that quickly. All the same, it’s nice of Kade to ask, nice of him to care. “No, I did okay. It wasn’t too bad.”
“Okay.”
They eat in silence, Kade’s gaze flickering over to him, Felix anchoring his eyes on his food. They’re almost done with breakfast when Kade says, “I was looking through the hosting site details. You’re currently using the lowest pricing option, but that won’t give you the best graphics. You’d want to host the larger image files so people can zoom in on the details.”
Felix sighs, wincing. Between rent and setting aside money for moving, and the baby, he hasn’t got much left. “How much is that going to be?”
“Looks like fifty bucks a year. It’s not too bad.” But Kade sees his wince and reaches
