“Here,” Heath said, striding back in the room.

“No more stew,” Adrien murmured, rubbing at his eyes in order to avoid being confronted with Heath’s full-frontal nudity and his swinging dick. It was ridiculous to be so reticent now. He’d had the man inside of him, begged for his knot, and was currently plugged up with the semen from their last bout. And yet…

Heath climbed into the bed beside him. “Fruit. Fresh strawberries. Melon.

Orange slices.”

Adrien’s mouth watered, and he scooted close, taking the proffered bowl from Heath’s hands. The sweet and tart flavors spangled over his tongue as he scarfed down the contents of the bowl. “Thank you. This is so good.”

“Do you need more?”

Nodding, Adrien waited as Heath took off back to the kitchen and returned with another bowl of fruit. After eating that second helping just as quickly, he was finally satisfied. He smiled up at Heath hopefully. “Now what?”

“Let’s shower,” Heath said, taking the empty bowl from him. “Then you’ll want to see daylight. It’s been almost a week.”

Adrien nodded, letting Heath lead him to the bathroom by the hand. A brief flash of modesty struck him, a memory of his father telling him to always cover up, but he ignored it. There was a shimmering, shy sense of rightness in being naked for Heath now. Especially when Heath turned to smile at him as he cranked on the water in the plain, white-tiled room.

“You’re steady?”

“Yes.” Adrien’s stomach fluttered, a flock of butterflies rising in response to the brightness of Heath’s teeth in his dark beard.

“You did wonderfully,” Heath said, sitting on the edge of the tub, tenderness in his tone that tugged at Adrien’s spent balls. If he could get hard again after the days of constant sexual activity, that quality in Heath’s voice would do it for him. Heath tested the water with one hand before shaking the excess from his fingers and reaching toward Adrien. “I’m proud of you. Such a strong, beautiful, sexy man.”

Adrien swallowed hard, his cock thickening almost painfully. Heath’s smile broadened, and he took Adrien’s hardness in hand, then bent to kiss the tip gently. “You are deliciously responsive.” He looked up at Adrien then, as though assessing something important. “You do everything I ask of you and more.”

“It felt right to please you. It still does.”

Heath’s jaw worked a moment and then he replied huskily, “You deserve a final reward.”

Adrien was about to ask about the word ‘final’ when Heath opened up and sucked him in deep. He moaned. His flesh was sensitive all over, a nervous, exhausted feeling, but his cock in Heath’s mouth felt wonderful.

Bathed by Heath’s tongue and stoked by the soft inside of his cheeks as he sucked, Adrien gave in to the surprising pleasure.

He closed his eyes, gripped Heath’s hair, and then sobbed as an orgasm fluttered through him, like a shadow of the intense orgasms of heat. He whimpered and gazed in glassy-eyed wonder as Heath swallowed the small load he’d produced and kissed the head of his dick again.

“Sweet,” Heath said softly. “Like the rest of you.”

The water was warm and steaming up the room. Heath guided Adrien beneath the stream before following him into the shower. “You’re wobbly after everything,” Heath murmured softly. “It’s my job to keep you safe.”

Adrien surrendered to Heath’s touch, letting him wash him with a cloth and soap, and then suds up his hair, too. The plug stayed tight inside, improving the chance of conception, and Heath washed around it, too. By the time the shower was over, Adrien was both rejuvenated and drained, and all he wanted to do was find a quiet place to sit where he could see the sky and breathe. Maybe eat again, too. Something heartier than fruit this time.

His stomach growled in agreement.

HEATH WAS LOATHE to admit it even to himself, but he couldn’t deny he was sorry Adrien’s heat had come to an end. And not just because he wasn’t sure if he would ever again have the privilege to witness the beguiling way Adrien’s throat arched when he cried out with pleasure, or the fragile vulnerability of his innocence, or the wide-eyed faith he demonstrated as he clung to Heath while they rode the heat cycles together. It was because when Heath was in Adrien’s presence he felt himself complete: an alpha, a man, a lover. He thrived on what Adrien gave him effortlessly, a priceless thing that he handed over like it was as simple as breathing. A gift Nathan had never expressed: trust. Complete and utter, boundless, unrestrained, and unreasonable trust.

With every moment, Adrien’s resemblance to Nathan faded away, replaced by the stunning transparency of his soul, the complete lack of machinations, and the sense that his future was still so unwritten, so blank and open. So potentially Heath’s.

Alone in the bathroom, Heath took his time dressing and considered what

he was going to do now. The heat had passed, but his crush remained. The desire to protect and pleasure, to discover more about the sweet puzzle of a man he’d only started to know clawed at his insides like a predator. There was nothing innocent about the feeling.

Zipping his jeans, he turned to the mirror and combed his dark hair as he tried to think his way out of what he knew he needed to do. He didn’t want to say goodbye today. He hated the thought of giving Adrien up now that he’d had him. Not even for a few weeks while they waited to see if the breeding took.

But that was the agreement, and it was written into the contract per Heath’s original wishes to keep it all transactional, to keep his distance and preserve his heart. Damn, but his heart was definitely in danger. There was no doubt about that. Heath’s hand shook as he continued to brush his hair.

Adrien wasn’t Nathan, he reminded himself. Nathan was a different kind of omega entirely.

But he’d originally insisted on the more liberal contract that allowed a bred omega to return to their life as they awaited signs of pregnancy. The idea being that until a pregnancy was confirmed, it benefited the omega to get back to their work, school, or whatever else. Traditionally, omegas stayed with alphas until pregnancy was confirmed or denied, but omega rights had changed all that. Therefore, Heath and Adrien’s contract made it clear: unless Adrien was carrying Heath’s child, his progeny, he would never have any rights over Adrien again.

Heath dropped the comb to the bathroom sink and stared at himself in the mirror. What a fool he’d been. He smiled grimly, not sure what he’d been more foolish about: believing he could keep affection for Adrien out of his heart or failing entirely to do so.

It had been less than twenty-four hours since the last cycle had hit, but Heath was contractually obligated to accept that it was time for Adrien to go.

The knock on the bathroom door brought him out of his reverie.

“Can I get dressed now?” Adrien called through the wood. “It’s almost time for me to go.”

Heath jerked the door open and took one last look at Adrien’s lean body, and he still ached to fatten him up. “Yes,” he said, gruff and irritable that he had no choice but to agree. “And hurry.”

Watching Adrien put clothes on again for the first time since he’d taken

them off in front of the cabin was like having a tooth drilled without Novocain. It took all of his willpower not to reach out to Adrien and demand that he stay, order him to get those awful clothes off his body and climb back in bed where he belonged.

But he restrained himself, forcing a close-lipped smile, before saying,

“Drive carefully. You might be carrying my child.”

Adrien swallowed hard, pushing up the glasses Heath had let him don again after the rage of the heat was over. “I will.”

They left the cabin and stepped out into the bright light of day.