“What about your reflection makes you an omega?” Sirasked.
Was it a trick question? Gabriel glanced at Sir’s face to find his expression was affable, like he expected a genuineresponse.
“It’s… young.” Gabriel shifted his focus back to his reflection. “Younger than it should look, at least. Fine features. Round eyes. Full lips. Alpha and beta men don’t look likeIdo.”
“No, not all of them. But some of them do.” Sir didn’t show anger. His tone was conversational. “What else doyousee?”
“Soft, blond hair.” Gabriel frowned. “But it’s too muddy to be beautiful. If it was blonder, like Seth’s, or pale, like Lucian’s, then… then maybe it would be beautiful, butit’snot.”
“Sayswho?”
“Says…” Gabriel wanted to sayme,but that wasn’t the truth. The truth was that Garrison had never found it beautiful, but Garrison was gone. The hold he had over Gabriel was no more. Even if he returned from jail, Gabriel wouldn’t want him, so why was he letting Garrison’s opinion poison his thoughts? “… saysnoone.”
“What else?” Sir prompted, and Gabriel looked again. The posture collar gave him nochoice.
“Blue eyes.” Saliva pooled in Gabriel’s mouth, and he swallowed it down. Blue eyes were common, and he’d always yearned to have Adrian’s steely gray gaze. But the truth? The truth was that he’d wished that because Garrison had never noticed him in the way he wanted. The blue of Gabriel’s eyes was deep and startling, dark and distinct. “Pretty dark-blueeyes.”
“And your lips?” Sir’s voice was firmer now, but it was no lessfriendly.
Gabriel fed from his prompt seamlessly. “They’re full and pink. They’re… they’repretty,too.”
The posture collar forced him to look, and the longer he did, the more the man in the mirror changed. From too-skinny and plain to hauntingly beautiful, Sir tore down the lies Gabriel had worn as a mask for the past five years and exposed the stunning young manbeneath.
Tears prickled in the corner ofGabriel’seyes.
“And my nose,” he uttered. The words rattled, the tears not far off. “It’s graceful and cute. It’scute. And my cheekbones are high and dignified, and my jaw is… is sharp, but not too drastic or masculine,and—and…”
Gabriel ran the back of his hand acrosshiseyes.
“And it’s good. All of it is good. The young man I see?He’sgood.”
“Very good, Rabbit,” Sir praised. He leaned over to press a kiss to Gabriel’s temple. “Would you like to sit on the couch with me while I strokeyourhair?”
The tears fell liberally now, and no matter how often Gabriel ran his hand beneath his eyes, he couldn’t keepthemaway.
“Yes, please, Sir. I’d like thatverymuch.”
* * *
Fall days beganto give way to winter nights. The sun had long ago set, and the darkness on the other side of the windows made Sir’s house feel small and snug, like there was nothing outside their tiny slice of existence to worry about. With Sir there to protect him, Gabriel didn’t worry about anythinganymore.
The lights in the house were off when Gabriel headed down the hall to Sir’s bedroom. A window at the very end of the hall allowed moonlight to enter, but it was a cloudy night, and visibility was spotty at best. Gabriel’s fingers brushed the wall as he walked, guiding him forward. He felt each familiar doorway, and used them to mark the distance left beforeSir’sroom.
Before he arrived, a light flicked on, shining from beneath the door. Gabriel stopped to listen, but all he heard was movement. It sounded like Sir was up to something—but as long as he was up, that was all thatmattered.
Gabriel arrived in front of the door, touched the leather that kept his head upright, then took a breath in through his nose and lifted his fist to knock. The door swung open beneath the force of his knuckles, and he found himself looking across Sir’sbedroom.
It wasn’t the first time he’d seen it. Over the last few weeks, he’d stood at the door while Sir undid the straps to his collar one at a time, then slid the padded leather off his neck. He’d seen the luxurious hardwood and the cloudlike, king-sized bed on the other side, piled high with pillows that Gabriel would have sold his soul to be able to nestle into, and draped over with blankets both soft and warm. He was familiar with the heavy black curtains that Sir used to cover the windows, and sometimes, he saw something playing on the flat-screen television mounted onthewall.
What he wasn’t used to seeing was Sir standing by thebed,nude.
His back was partially to Gabriel, and he held a towel in his hands that he’d been using to dry his face and hair. The bottom of it hung down to block Gabriel’s view of his cock, but there was no hiding the magnificence that was the rest ofSir’sbody.
Sir was a workofart.
Gabriel stood frozen in time, soaking him in. The valley of Sir’s spine was pronounced, the muscles of his back developed and taut against his skin. A broad chest tapered to a narrow waist, giving way to a bubble butt that even Gabriel envied. His thighs were solid and muscular, but still showed signs that Sir had once been delicately slender. He had all the markings of an omega, but he’d grown into an alpha’s body—so beautiful and yet so strong that itwasn’tfair.
But the beauty of Sir’s body wasn’t only attributed to genetics and time spent at the gym. As Sir turned to face him, the towel held loosely down his body, Gabriel got to see what Sir had been hiding from him beneath his sweaters and long-sleeve shirts—tattoos. Sir’s right arm was consumed with color from his wrist all the way back to his shoulder blade. At a distance, Gabriel couldn’t make out exactly what imagery the sleeve was comprised of, but the blend of colors was seamless, and it complemented Sir’s skin tone as well as it did his personality. Sir’s chest was inkless, but his left leg—from his hip to his ankle—continued the motif, as if his body housed a canvas that had been torn in twodiagonally.
