Adrien’s heart fluttered. “You believe omegas should be allowed to inherit?”

“I believe that my own child should take precedence of another no matter the sex.”

Adrien nodded, thinking about Heath’s words about Lidell. “Your brother’s anger would make you unhappy, and if you were unhappy that would bring tension into the nest. Maybe I’m selfish to say this, but I don’t know that causing your brother upset would really be beneficial to anyone right now. Once the child is born, healthy and strong, then you will have a better position to endure his rage. Don’t you think?”

“So you advocate keeping our nest free of upset?”

“Until the baby comes,” Adrien said, touching his stomach, which had started to feel taut from the pressure inside but which wasn’t bulging quite yet. “I have put aside my worries about school and my fears for the future.

I’ve taken your command to enjoy myself to heart. I want you, as much as possible, to do the same.”

Heath studied Adrien’s face intently and then nodded. “I’ll do all I can to keep your nest a place of peace.”

Adrien smiled and leaned against Heath. He nuzzled his neck, enjoying the soft scrape of his suit against skin. “Our nest,” he corrected. “I’m still pretending this is the place you built for me, for us.”

Heath wrapped his arms around Adrien and pulled him close. “You don’t need to pretend. This nest has never seen a happier moment than the ones we share together.” They stood in the soft evening sun, the rosebushes casting shadows that danced on Adrien’s skin.

“Did I tell you I used to want to be an architect?” Heath asked. “That I designed this nest myself?”

“No,” Adrien said, looking up with wonder. “Tell me about it now.”

They found a bench in the gazebo. Heath stroked Adrien’s naked body as he talked, bringing him up to a full erection. Adrien asked halting questions as Heath chatted like he wasn’t also erect inside his suit. “And then my parents died, and my duties as heir took over my life.”

“You were passionate about it,” Adrien said, squirming as Heath began giving him a slow hand job.

“I still enjoy dabbling in design. I’d like to build a house away from here one day. I’ve never loved living in this rococo monstrosity.”

“What kind of house?”

“I’m not sure yet. When I decide, I’ll start drafting plans for it.” He rubbed his thumb over Adrien’s cock, smearing the pre-cum around the head.

“When I was younger, I used to dream at night about a house,” Adrien said, his hips shifting up and down in rhythm. “Not fantasize, dream. When I was asleep.”

“What was it like?”

“By the sea. Open. Broad. A lot of light.” Adrien moaned and turned his face to hide it in Heath’s neck. “I’m going to come.”

“Yes, I think you should.”

“I want to come with your cock in me.”

“That can happen later. Tell me more about this house.”

“The light was changeable…like…like the tunnel. Oh!” Adrien gripped Heath’s suit jacket, crying out against Heath’s neck, and orgasmed hard. Cum shot up in the space between them, and then fell, marking Heath’s beautiful suit pants.

“That’s good,” Heath whispered as Adrien came down from the sweet high. He indicated the cum on his pants. “Lick that up.”

Adrien hunched over and complied. His cum tasted different now that he was pregnant. It was less harsh like a salt-and-sour kick, more alluring like the sea. He hummed softly, wishing it was Heath’s cum, though. That always settled him down. Kept him flying high.

“You’re a good boy,” Heath whispered. “I could grow to…”

Adrien looked up, his heart feeling like it had been hooked by a fishing rod and jerked onto dry land. Please, he wanted to say. Please say you could care for me.

“You must be hungry to eat that up so fast.” Heath tugged Adrien to his feet. “Let’s go inside. Over dinner, I want to hear about your studies at school. You mentioned Hontu fabric the other day. What drew you to that?”

Adrien let himself be led inside, his balls buzzing with recent release and his body singing joyfully. He didn’t know what the future would bring, but this time-out from life was beautiful, and being with Heath only made it better.

He didn’t want anything to disturb it.

Chapter Sixteen

IT WAS HARD to believe that just under four months ago, Adrien hadn’t even been in Ron Finch’s office yet. His life had been so normal then. He’d woken up every morning, showered, eaten breakfast in the dorm, and gone to his classes. He’d been consumed by the questions of Hontu design, fascinated by the details of his studies. He’d hung on the lectures of his professors like his father had hung on the words of the preacher. Like they spoke the word of God.

Now, rubbing his gradually expanding stomach, he had a hard time understanding what had seemed so important in all that academia, what had held his attention so tenaciously. This new life, his changing body, and his slow-growing relationship with Heath seemed much more compelling. The inner world of his heart and mind, the development of the child inside, the small movements he was beginning to feel, and the peaceful pace of his thoughts were addictive.

His current life was far from dynamic. It was, if anything, even more steady and easygoing than the way he’d lived before. There was no pressure to be anywhere or do anything other than what pleased him. The academic world seemed fuzzy and almost silly in the scheme of the beautiful, endless mystery of generating new life.

None of the science he’d studied could fully explain the animalistic urges inside him to bond with Heath, to fuck and suck, or explain his sense of the growing child’s nature, already so different from his own. Life was slow and sensual now, but there was something new every day—in his body, in his small world of the nest Heath had built for this purpose.

The blossoms of the roses, the caterpillars, the butterflies, and the bluebird feather found on the bench in the gazebo kept him company while he sat naked most afternoons feeling the cooling breeze against his hot skin.

His baby was moving inside of him now, shifting languidly from one side to another, and he loved the flutter and kicks. They made him feel simultaneously tiny and infinite, tied to the universe yet just a speck of it. He

sometimes got a glimpse of the world from so far away that it was as though he were in the stars, and what he saw was the same across species: life striving for life. It was simple and stunning.

He was calm more often than not despite having not left the nest to even explore the castle. Heath had been right: the semen he swallowed or had deposited up his ass kept him sated and happy. It was almost like a drug, he supposed. But he couldn’t be bothered to really mind it.

Everything about his life now was sweet, and he couldn’t help but want it to last.

“Adrien,” Simon said, stepping out of the nest with his butler’s outfit askew. Heath had suggested he stop wearing it while taking care of Adrien, since they kept the nest so hot for Adrien’s comfort, but the old man was set in his ways and refused to completely let it go. He did unbutton and untuck his shirt, sometimes, to waft in some cooler air against his skin, and he carried a fan, too.

“Yes, Simon?”

“Dinner is ready. Unfortunately, lovey, Heath won’t be here tonight with you. He sends his greatest sorrow and wants you to know he’ll be back before the night is up, but he’s been called to the city to deal with a problem regarding his nephew.” Simon frowned. “He’s a disaster in the making, that one is. But that’s what we all said about Heath, too, and he’s turned out just fine.”

Adrien’s ears perked up at the mention of Heath’s younger days. He’d wanted to know so much more about his alpha’s life before him, but Heath was tight-lipped about much of it, saying it didn’t matter anymore. The future, the baby, and what they shared right now was the most important thing, he claimed. He often reminded Adrien, too, of his own words about wanting to keep the nest peaceful for the pregnancy, claiming the past was an unnecessary hornet’s nest and it was best not to kick it.