Breathe (His Command Book 5) Page 13

  Looks like you have something else to live for, Daddy ;)

  “How is it possible that your crap weighs more now than it did when we brought it into my house?” Cedric hauled the last suitcase into the trunk while Oli stood by. He stroked his hand over his stomach absentmindedly—something he’d told himself he’d never, ever do. He blamed Gabriel for that one. It was hard to believe that there was a little life in there taking shape. He didn’t feel pregnant, but the pregnancy test he’d taken just a few days ago told him otherwise.

  “I don’t know. Maybe you’ve got so many pregnant omegas in your house, you’re starting to go soft,” Oli said sarcastically. “Next thing you know, you’ll start being turned down for jobs for no reason other than how you smell.”

  “Good thing I’m shipping one of those omegas off, then.” The trunk clanged shut. Cedric shot Oli a wry look. “All those pregnancy hormones are definitely getting to my head. But in all seriousness, are you sure this is something you’re comfortable with? I don’t mind if you want to stay here. I am in no way, shape, or form asking that you leave.”

  Oli nodded. “Yup.”

  “Yup what?”

  “Yes, this is something I’m comfortable with.” Oli met Cedric’s gaze so Cedric would know he wasn’t talking out of his ass. “It’s probably weird because you haven’t been able to see it unfold, but... I have to ask you to trust me. Marshall is a good man. Sterling told you that himself, remember?”

  “It just feels fast. That’s all. I’m not doubting his character so much as I’m worried that you two are moving things along way too fast.” Cedric folded his arms on the trunk and studied Oli, who was standing near the tire well on the passenger side. “I know you better than to say you’d rush into something, but... it’s been a hard few years for you. I don’t want you to make a mistake by jumping on the first good thing that comes your way.”

  Oli laughed dryly. “Do you really think Marshall is a good thing?”

  Cedric narrowed his eyes in suspicion, and Oli waved him off, embarrassed.

  “That came out a lot harsher than I meant it to. Marshall is a good thing. He’s a good man, and he’s got a good business, and he’s made a life for himself... but it’s not like it’s all sunshine and rainbows. He’s really sick, Cedric. Like, he’s-going-to-die-if-he-doesn’t-do-something-soon sick. And now he’s my boss. I don’t think that’s a good thing. It’s nuanced.”

  “I’m not going to fight you on it. I just don’t want you jumping into something you’re not ready for, even if Marshall is a nice guy... and even if he did knock you up.” Cedric abandoned the trunk to head for the driver side seat. “When a man has limited time left, sometimes he doesn’t act rationally. I don’t want you to be a hastily made decision.”

  “I promise, that’s the last thing I want.” Oli followed Cedric’s lead. He opened the door and settled onto the seat. “What we have goes deeper than what you can see. We were talking for months online before we met in person.”

  “Knowing someone online isn’t the same thing as knowing them in real life,” Cedric warned. “Look what happened to Gabriel.”

  “Okay. Full stop, Marshall is not Garrison Baylor.” Some of the joy slipped out of Oli’s tone. He loved Cedric, but goddamn, was he getting under his skin right now. “We’ve met in real life. There is no more stranger danger. You know where I’m going, you know people who know the man, and for god’s sake, I’m an adult. I know I’m an omega and I know you’re only trying to make sure I don’t get taken advantage of, but for as much as I bitch and whine about inequality and injustice, I’m actually capable of holding my own. Probably a lot more capable than you think.”

  Cedric didn’t slot the keys into the ignition. He sat silently next to Oli, and Oli wasn’t sure if he was summoning the courage to admit he was wrong, or if he was gearing up to defend himself.

  “Besides... you don’t get pregnant from sexting.” Oli shrugged. “Whatever big, bad things Marshall could have done to me, he’s pretty much already had the chance to do. I’m not dead. In fact, I gained an extra life. I’m like a video game character. No-longer-maybe-baby is my one-up.”

  “Not helping.”

  “Then what is going to help?” Oli reached across and squeezed Cedric’s hand. “Listen, I appreciate your concern, and I swear, I’m hearing everything you have to say. I promise that I am. But you know how once upon a time I was suspicious of Gabriel? How I told you he was weird and probably no good?”

  “Yes.” Cedric’s stern expression didn’t change.

  “Well, I’ve found my own Gabriel now, and you can grumble about him and call him weird and warn me off him, but he’s already put a bun in my oven, and now I’m going to go move in to be with him.” Oli let some of his joy wick away. “Besides, if things go wrong and he ends up declining more rapidly than we thought, or if the transplant surgery happens and his heart gives out... then I guess you don’t need to worry. There are these huge problems stacked around us like rows of dominoes, and all it’s going to take is one push to send them toppling in to crush us.”

  “Oliver,” Cedric said firmly. Oli’s gaze darted up to meet his. Cedric never used his full name. “I’m not saying I want him dead or that I want you unhappy. Not at all. I’m sorry if you felt that way.” He sighed. “I have a chip on my shoulder, I think, and I’m sorry I brought it up at all. You’re more than capable of carving your own path and making the right choice.”

  “I’m not even angry.” Oli smiled. “Promise. Like, you can still be the godfather. Is that still a thing? Godparents? Do people even do that anymore?”

  “I don’t know.” Cedric laughed. He let his head hit the headrest, then rubbed his eyes. “I guess I should look into that. Adrian has probably already staked his claim, anyway, but it’d be good to know. We prepared for this baby and I still feel like I’m running around in the dark. I don’t know how you’ll manage.”

  “Humor,” Oli said. “Like always.”

  “Is there any other way to live life?”

  “No.” Oli grinned. “I’ve decided that it’s all one big cosmic joke. But you know what? I think I’m finally okay with that.”

  The staggeringly tall high-rise that Marshall called home was located in downtown Aurora, not all that far from Synecta. As Cedric hoisted Oli’s suitcases from the trunk, Oli craned his neck to look up its sleek exterior. Windows glinted in the sunlight, blackened to the outside world so they looked like sheets of polished gunpowder metal. It wasn’t the first time Oli had marveled at a building downtown, but it was the first time he’d ever considered living in one. Real estate like that didn’t come cheap. He had champagne tastes, but he didn’t let it get in the way of his box wine budget.

  “Shit.” Oli glanced in Cedric’s direction. He was in the process of lifting the last suitcase. “I’m going to live here. Do you think they’ll even let me through the doors, dressed like I am?”

  The look the doorman was giving Oli made him think that he might not be Oracle Point Towers’ most welcomed tenant.

  “Do they know you’re coming?” Cedric asked. He set the last suitcase on the sidewalk. “Did Marshall clear it with the administration?”

  “Yes. That’s why it took two weeks.” Oli looked at the doorman, who had taken interest in anything and everything but Oli now that he was under scrutiny. Oli thought maybe one day they could be friends. Or maybe frenemies. That would be fun, too. “I’ve got my own key and everything. The elevator takes a keycard. Isn’t that wild? Apparently they get changed every week, too, and you have to get yours renewed. It’s a safety feature. There’s even one elevator, the one right in the very middle, that has a thumbprint scanner. Apparently it only services the man who lives in the penthouse unit. It’s like living in a hotel. I wonder if I can get room service?”

  “I doubt it.”

  “Stop being the voice of reason. My poor dreams are being decimated.” Oli held a hand to his forehead dramatically, then rolled his eyes and shook his
head. “There is a pool, though. And a free spa, apparently. And a tennis court? And a gym?”

  “Are you sure it isn’t a hotel?” Cedric looked up at the building skeptically.

  “Absolutely.” Oli nodded toward the door and took hold of one of the suitcases. “C’mon, let me show you. I’ll take you right up to my new condominium.”

  Cedric gave him a distressed look as he followed Oli toward the door. “Please don’t turn into one of those people who says condominium. Now all I can think about is you lounging on your tiger skin rug, wearing a silk robe and eating caviar while you drone on over the phone about how your Montessori preschool has really been enriching little Reginald’s grasp of arithmetic.”

  Oli bit down on his lip to keep in a laugh. “If I ever name my kid Reginald, you know that I’m too far gone to ever be saved. I won’t hold it against you if you break off our friendship at that point. I wouldn’t want you to get infected, too.” Oli pushed his lips to the side in contemplation. “But think of the romance. My highbrow, obviously playboy offspring and your Gabriel-fair wild child falling in love, getting married... we’d be family.”

  The doorman, vexed with them already, held the door open for them as they approached. Oli winked at him on his way past, only to be ignored.

  He was going to have fun here.

  “How long do you think it’ll be before they institute a ‘do not bother the doorman’ rule?” Oli asked as they headed across the spacious lobby to the elevators at the far side of the room. They navigated around the fountain in the middle, its crystal-clear waters dazzling.

  “Probably around the same time they issue a ‘do not spend all day in the elevator playing cards and asking tenants if they want to join you’ rule.”

  “Really, Cedric? Do you think I’m that immature?” Oli slotted his key card into the reader by the elevator and pulled his suitcase inside once the doors opened. “I’m appalled. I’d much rather turn the space into a surprise game show room, where every newcomer onto the elevator is my new contestant.”

  “Oh, right. Total lapse of judgment there. What was I thinking?” Cedric tugged the last two suitcases through the door. “I was definitely thinking about someone else.”

  “That’s okay. You can’t be right all of the time. That’s what I’m here for.” Oli winked, punched the button for Marshall’s floor, and leaned against the back wall as the doors slid shut. Then, a little more seriously, he asked, “You’ll be nice to Marshall, right?”

  “I’ll be on my best behavior,” Cedric promised.

  “And you’re not going to embarrass me?”

  “No promises.”

  “Hey!” Oli laughed. “Don’t be a giant dick. I didn’t tell Gabriel all of your embarrassing high school secrets, did I? Like the time we took a joyride at three in the morning that Saturday with all those cans of shaving cream and—”

  Cedric cut him off. “We agreed to never bring that up again.”

  “Yeah, but Gabriel’s kind of carrying your child. He should know there’s like a fifty-fifty shot that his little bundle of joy is going to grow into a hellion.” Gabriel’s expression brightened. “So since I didn’t inform the love of your life of your high school assholery, can you kindly keep the same information from mine?”

  There was a moment’s pause before Cedric spoke. “You love him?”

  “I...” Oli glanced down, cheeks hot.

  “You love him,” Cedric said, bewildered. The elevator doors slid open, and Oli took the opportunity to escape into the hall. He was certain that his whole face was red. “Oli!”

  “What?”

  “You forgot your suitcase. I only have two hands.” Cedric laughed. “Get back in here.”

  Oli turned on his heels, his embarrassment quickly overshadowed by the overwhelming joy expanding behind his rib cage. Of course he loved Marshall. He’d loved him before they’d even met. He darted back into the elevator and grabbed his suitcase, then flashed Cedric a winning smile. “Just wait until I tell you that I’m not only moving in, but I’m marrying him, too.”

  Cedric rolled his eyes. “Don’t even start.”

  But it was too late to stop. Oli’s heart had already decided. It was just a matter of when.

  22

  Oli

  One of the suitcases toppled from where it had been propped against the bedroom wall. Oli heard a crunch. He winced and promptly removed the incident from his memory. It wasn’t worth being caught up over. Right now, he needed to focus on the peacocking alphas standing in his new living room.

  “It was kind of you to escort Oliver here,” Marshall said. Oli heard the tension in his voice, poking at Cedric in an attempt to uncover whether he was a threat or not. “You mentioned at The Shepherd that you were friends?”

  “Right,” Cedric replied. He’d put on his work voice—smooth silk laced with Kevlar. “Since high school. We’ve been best friends almost half our lives.”

  “And he’s been staying with you?”

  “And his very heavily pregnant fiancé,” Oli said as he stepped into the room. He approached Marshall from behind, sliding a hand along his back, then around his hip. “And his fiancé? Very heavily pregnant. So pregnant that the next call Cedric gets might be news that he’s gone into labor. And Cedric is very monogamous, if that still doesn’t put your mind to rest.”

  Marshall’s shoulders lost some of their tension, but that didn’t stop Oli’s fingers from teasing his belt and the soft skin beneath it.

  “In fact, I’ll be one hundred percent transparent with you... Cedric and I did try to get together. Ten years ago. One time. And it was terrible. I’ve since discovered that I like a man who knows what he’s doing.” Oli stood a little taller and leaned toward Marshall, raking his teeth gently across the curve of Marshall’s ear. “… And I’m pretty sure that I’ve found him at last.”

  Marshall drew in a shaky, rattling breath, then coughed. Oli pulled back right away and laid a hand on his back.

  “Sorry.” Oli frowned. “I didn’t mean to be lethally hot.”

  “Stop trying to make me laugh, damn it,” Marshall said through moments of reprieve from his coughing. “You’re going to make it worse.”

  Cedric grinned. Oli was taken aback. “Eighty percent of the time something funny will come out of Oli’s mouth. The other twenty percent of the time, it’s an awkward attempt at humor that falls flat.”

  “Not true,” Oli shot back. “What I say is at least forty percent useless rambling.”

  “Depends on the day,” Cedric relented. “I’ll give you that.”

  “Both of you are terrible.” Marshall sank back on the couch. The cannula was in place, and his oxygen compressor was by his side. He rarely removed it these days. “Come back and continue this routine after I’ve got my new pair of lungs.”

  “How long is it going to be, anyway?” Cedric asked. “I’m sorry to hear about your health. Oli has mentioned it in passing, and it’s... concerning.”

  “Three to six months on average. We won’t know for sure. When a match has been found, there is a four- to six-hour window after harvesting the organ to transplant it before the lung begins to deteriorate. As soon as the call comes in, it’ll all happen very quickly.”

  Oli glanced between Cedric and Marshall, reading the energy between them. The hostility had diminished, thankfully. Both men seemed to have accepted each other.

  “If you need help, whatever it is, let me know. Oli has my phone number.” Cedric stepped forward and extended his hand to Marshall. Marshall shook it. “Whether it’s making sure you have transport, keeping him company during the surgery, or whatever else is helpful at the time, we’re there for you.”

  “I appreciate it.” The handshake broke. Marshall returned Cedric’s smile. “I’m glad Oliver has someone like you in his life. Thank you for taking care of him when everything went wrong.”

  “I wouldn’t ever leave him in a tight spot,” Cedric replied. “You don’t ever have to worry.”
br />   There was a somber undercurrent to the promise, but Oli let it go. He stood beside the couch so he could run his hand along Marshall’s shoulder. The sight of the cannula still disturbed him, but he knew its days were numbered. They were working toward a better future—toward Marshall getting better.

  He wouldn’t let it drag down his spirits.

  “I should get going,” Cedric said softly. “I’m sure Oli needs time to unpack, and I need to get back to Gabriel before he starts to worry. He’s starting to get antsy, now that his due date is approaching. I think pregnancy isn’t what he expected it to be, as sick as he is all the time.”

  Marshall made a move to stand, but Oli pressed him back onto the couch.

  “I’ve got this,” Oli said. “You sit, okay? Relax for a second. I’m going to need your help unpacking things, so you’re going to need those lungs back in top shape.”

  “You’ll be waiting a few months, then,” Marshall said, one corner of his mouth lifted in a baffling display of mischief. Oli’s eyelids narrowed an almost imperceptible amount. Was Marshall really learning to sass him back?

  He flicked Marshall’s shoulder. “You know what I mean.”

  Marshall made no further comment, but his smirk spoke for itself. Oli left him to gloat and saw Cedric to the door.

  “If you need me, I’m a phone call away,” Cedric told him in a low voice as they stood in the doorway. Oli got the distinct impression that his invitation served a different purpose than the one he’d offered Marshall. “If you can’t call, text.”

  “I promise, I’m okay.” Oli smiled as reassuringly as he could manage. “And I promise if I’m not, I’ll get in touch. Promise. Pinkie swear, the most sacred of oaths.”

  He held out his hand, pinkie out. Cedric wrapped his pinkie around Oli’s and they shook hands.