“It’s not like I can change it,” Wyatt said, his eyes darkening with regret. “I’ve already left him.”
Raph pressed his nose to Wyatt’s neck, filling his lungs with magnolia. It was a scent from an age ago, from the years he’d watched Wyatt learn how to wink and smile, playing at the piano, his fingers dancing across the keys. The sweet, mellow scent shouldn’t ignite his body the way it did. “I won’t hurt you.”
“I know,” Wyatt murmured, slipping his hand out of Raph’s pants, stroking his side. “You tried protecting me from Grandma.”
“Didn’t work very well, did it?” Raph kissed his jaw, his cheek, his earlobe. This felt right, too.
“I’m sorry I never spoke to you,” Wyatt said. “I just... I couldn’t. I didn’t want you to get involved with me, after I tried to seduce you. I’m sorry.”
“You shouldn’t be.” Raph pressed a kiss to his lips. “I care for you, you know. I was so fucking pissed when I found out about Max.”
Wyatt cracked a smile, a faint blush rising on his cheeks. “I’m sorry.”
“Stop saying sorry.”
Wyatt sighed. “We’re stepbrothers, Raph. I’m surprised you’re even here. That you’re this close and... well, I’m pregnant.”
Raph’s stomach dropped. Yeah, there was that, too. They should’ve used a condom. Raph shouldn’t have stayed inside him until he couldn’t anymore. “Sorry,” he said.
“I won’t regret it. Not with you,” Wyatt whispered. He slid his palm against his belly, and Raph covered Wyatt’s small hand with his own. In Wy’s abdomen somewhere, there was a merging of their DNA, a life they had made together.
If their parents had never married... there wouldn’t have been anything wrong about this pregnancy.
Raph pressed their foreheads together. “If we left Meadowfall... this would be okay.”
“It wouldn’t, would it?” Wyatt chuckled. “I can’t leave. The drive-in is here. Hazel’s made a few new friends this semester, and I just... I don’t want to uproot her if I can.”
It wasn’t like Raph could ask Wyatt to move to Highton. Wyatt had nothing in the big city, and Raph doubted that Wyatt would want to rely on him for help. “Either way, I’ll stand by your decision,” he said. “You’re the omega.”
Wyatt swallowed noisily. “Does that... does that make you my alpha?”
Raph’s heart thumped. “Do you want me to be?”
“I don’t know. I’ve given up trying to find an alpha, so... the position is open.”
If he were Wyatt’s alpha... he’d have every right to protect him. And something in Raph’s gut rumbled with satisfaction.
He thought about his parents, telling them Wyatt is my omega. We’re having a baby together. Dad would grimace. Grandma would smash her teapots. And the illusion vanished, leaving Raph with a bitter taste on his tongue.
“We’ll think about it, yeah?” He kissed Wyatt’s cheek.
“Yeah. We don’t have to make a decision yet.” Wyatt eased out from between Raph and the wall, wrapping up the pregnancy test in a sheet of paper. He dropped it in the bin. “I’ve got to get back to work. If there’s anything you need...”
“Do you need help? With Hazel, or anything? I’m free this evening.”
Wyatt smiled. “I’d really like to get Hazel home earlier. She’s got some school projects to finish, and I was going to step out to drop her off. Both Sam and Penny are busy—they’re her usual babysitters.”
“I can do that,” Raph said. Hazel had been fun to talk to, and maybe he wanted to find out more about Wyatt, see if Hazel would tell him anything her dad hadn’t.
“Thanks.” Wyatt paused at the office door, tucking his hair behind his ear. “I’m serious, though. If you’re hungry, order something from the kitchen. Hazel has a booth she does her homework at. If she needs help with math...”
“I’ll help,” Raph said.
Wyatt broke into a smile. The years fell away from his face, and he looked like the carefree brother Raph had known, once upon a time. Raph swallowed. Stepped forward, just to touch Wyatt’s cheek again.
“You’re great, you know,” Raph murmured. “I don’t care if you’re my brother or my omega. You’re important.”
Crimson flooded through Wyatt’s face. “You should be saying that to another omega. Not me. You can do so much better.”
That had been what Grandma had told Raph, too, after she’d whispered it a dozen times in Wyatt’s ears. Raph growled. “I don’t care what Grandma says,” he muttered. “She’s not important.”
Wyatt looked at his feet. “She’s your boss.”
“Screw her.”
He stepped closer, caught Wyatt’s chin. Then he kissed Wyatt, hot and hard, and Wyatt gasped, his fingers curling into Raph’s shirt.
“Gods, Raph,” Wyatt hissed, his breath puffing against Raph’s cheek.
“Not the last time,” Raph whispered back. “Tonight?”
Wyatt groaned, leaning into him with a shiver. “Don’t say things like that. I need... need more.”
“Then I’ll give you more,” Raph murmured. “Everything you want.”
A soft whine slipped from Wyatt’s throat. “We’ll see.”
Except he smelled like musk, and Raph couldn’t help caressing Wyatt’s cock, just to feel how hard Wyatt was for him. “Tonight, then,” he whispered. “Don’t forget.”
Wyatt gulped.
With a great effort, Raph stepped back from Wyatt. The office smelled like sex, like magnolia and teak. And if that wasn’t incriminating, he didn’t know what was.
8
Wyatt
When he stepped out of his office, Wyatt remembered his outstanding tasks at the drive-in. There was a kitchen to run. Patrons to tend to. The murmur of conversation filled the hallway, accompanied by the clinks of cutlery in bowls.
Raph stood close by as Wyatt locked the door, his broad shoulders crowding out the space in the corridor. And Wyatt remembered the hot slide of his mouth, the drag of Raph’s teeth over his lip.
That, and the two blue lines on the pregnancy test.
Gods, he really was pregnant. It was Raph’s baby inside him. All it took was just one night. How terrible was it, that his first child was from someone who had hurt him, and his second
