Ever since the day we met, he’s been my one true weakness.
There’s nothing he could ask that would make me hesitate.
No one else could have gotten me to walk into a fancy place like this, dressed up in a suit and tie, no less.
Standing here twice a week, every week, always makes me itch to be at home wearing nothing but my boxers.
The suit feels too tight, especially on my upper arms.
The shirt is restrictive, and the tie makes it worse.
It’s not choking me, but it might as well be.
The only redeeming factor is how much Harper likes the sight of me in a suit, and I won’t get the chance to take full advantage of its effects until later, when we’re on the road home and he inevitably decides he can’t wait to get to our place to show his appreciation.
The thought of the ride home brings a smile to my lips.
My spirits are lifted instantly.
As if he can feel it, and maybe he can, Harper glances over at me from his seat in the pit.
His expression is serious, as it usually is when he’s leading the other violin players.
The music is a bit stiff for my taste, but that’s how it goes in the orchestra here.
Everything is classical and it all needs to be perfect.
I much prefer when Harper’s messing around at home, randomly playing his own version of a song we just heard on the radio, or whatever.
That’s when he’s happiest.
His expression never lies.
While he’s here, he’s in charge of this sombre, strained version of what music is supposed to be.
It’s work and he takes it seriously. The enjoyment he gets out of it is in how well everyone performs under his leadership, so there’s pressure involved.
Most Omegas don’t do too well under emotional stress.
Harper is used to it.
He has pushy parents, the type who expected nothing but the best out of him.
Those idiots went too far when they tried to arrange for him to marry a female Alpha.
Harper was already mated to me, though they’d made it clear what they thought of Betas from the moment I was introduced to them, and they acted like I was nothing more than a friend of their son’s. He’d told me to expect that, but neither of us believed it when they brought the woman they’d picked for him to marry to their house so she could get to know her intended groom and his “closest friend”.
That’s the moment Harper realized his parents would truly never change.
It pushed him to make the hardest decision of his life.
He chose to walk away from his parents.
Being Harper, he told them the door was open if they ever decided to stop trying to dictate his future for him. In the past five years they haven’t tried to contact him. Not once.
It used to bother him, but he doesn’t talk about them anymore.
They’re not his family now.
