“Good,” the asshole repeated. “Then carry on.”
He nodded once, clapped a hand on Jack’s shoulder like he was proud of him, then marched back out into the hall, closing the door behind him.
The sick silence in the room after he left was horrible, especially since Jack continued to just stand there, his head bowing more and his shoulders drooping.
“That was your dad?” I asked.
Jack nodded, sighed, and said, “Yeah,” still not looking at me.
I pushed my way around in the bed until I was sitting with my back against the headboard. “And he just barged in here to make sure you had actually fucked me.”
Jack swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing guiltily. “Yeah,” he said, sounding miserable. He moved to sit on the edge of the bed, then said, “Technically, he didn’t barge, he knocked.”
“That’s fucked up,” I said.
And then, before I was really aware of my movements, I did the last thing I should have done. I scrambled over to him and threw my arms around him from behind. I wedged my knees on either side of him, too, so I could hold him with my whole body.
The thudding, throbbing pain of slamming against what should have been inside me turned my stomach again, but I couldn’t pull away from Jack. Especially when he said, “My dad thinks I’m a terrible alpha.”
“Why? Are you supposed to be an interfering asshole like him?” I asked.
Jack sighed. I felt it with my whole body. “Probably, yes,” he said.
“That’s stupid.”
Jack shrugged. “My dad is…someone important.” I was furious over the way he felt like he had to protect the asshole’s identity. “My family is high society.”
That also made me feel sick. These days “high society” was code for old families with a shit-ton of money who thought that any and all advances made in the last century were a bad idea and that things should return to feudal days, when omegas were property.
“I’m an only child,” Jack went on. “There’s a lot resting on my shoulders, an entire legacy.”
“That sucks,” I said, then kissed his shoulder without thinking about it.
The warped, dizzy, horrible feeling swelled inside me again. I needed to let go of Jack. I needed to get as far away from him as fast as possible.
“It definitely sucks,” he said, sagging even more. “I’m never going to be good enough. I’m never going to be what my parents want.”
“So your dad makes you go to omega-fucking events because he thinks that will make you into the right kind of alpha?” I asked.
Jack twisted to look at me over his shoulder. The sadness in his eyes nearly broke my heart.
My own broken insides throbbed again. My inner omega was in agony, crippled and hurting and wanting so badly to just…connect with this alpha.
“I don’t want to be that kind of alpha,” Jack said, vulnerability blaring.
A second later, he huffed and pulled away from me, standing.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t dump all this on you,” he said, pacing away from me then back again. “I shouldn’t dump it on anyone. I should just go along, do what’s expected of me, and take moments wherever I can.”
“What kind of moments?” I was stupid enough to ask.
Jack shrugged. “I’m a lawyer. That’s my day job. I like helping people. I don’t always get to do it because Dad—” He stopped and cleared his throat. “I should seek out more cases where I can actually help people. Maybe then, someday, maybe once he’s dead….”
I had never hated anyone more than I hated Jack’s dad in that moment.
No, that wasn’t true. I hated Chester more.
But Jack’s dad was a very close second.
