Amusing You - Claire Cullen Page 0,62
that radiated from the alpha. He avoided William’s eyes, afraid of what he’d see there. Was he scared he wouldn’t see what he wanted to see? Or that he’d see too much?
The low timbre of William’s voice tugged at him, loosening some of the tightness in his chest.
“Do you know the reason I said yes to sharing your heat?”
“Because I twisted your arm?”
“Because I wanted to be with you. Same with the cooking lessons and watching movies together. I love your company, love talking with you, love learning all those little things about you that you only learn when you’re intimate with someone. This wasn’t your fault, Harper. It was mine. You were just trying to be a good muse, to give me what I needed. Turns out, I was looking for more than a muse; I was looking for a safe place to stow my heart. And I found it in you.”
Harper shook his head, stubbornly refusing to let the alpha in. “You’re just saying that. Like I said, this isn’t a fairy tale. Clients don’t find happy-ever-afters with their muses.”
“Except we were never truly client and muse. From the moment I came to the cafe to talk to you, what’s between us has been more. I knew it, Beckett knew it, but it wasn’t until the agency told me that I finally accepted it.”
Harper paused, turning William’s words over in his mind. What had the agency told him?
Seeing that he’d finally got Harper’s attention, William kept going.
“I know it’s crazy, but we’re actually pretty good together. The circumstances aren’t perfect, but hell, are they ever? Look at Zac and Beckett. Where they started and where they are now.”
“We’re not them,” Harper argued. “I’m no perfect omega like—” Zac had always been the sweet, good-natured one. The one who deserved every ounce of love that came his way.
“You’re the perfect omega for me.”
The declaration shocked both of them to silence for one long moment.
“You can’t mean that,” Harper whispered.
“Every single word.”
He blinked back tears, still not ready to believe the alpha’s assertion.
“Is this about the baby? Are you trying to replace what you lost?” He wanted honesty, not to have his head, and his heart, filled with fantasies.
William’s fingers gripped his chin lightly, tilting his face up until their eyes met.
“This is about you and me. I’ve been an idiot, Harper. Too lost in my past to see the good thing that waltzed right into the middle of my life. This baby—our baby—is just another layer to the foundations we were already building.”
“But after my heat, before we knew, you’d pulled away from me. You were putting distance between us.”
That alone was enough to have Harper questioning William’s true feelings.
“I was an idiot. I heard people talking about the exploitation of muses. I realized how unfair I had been to you by letting things happen the way they did. But I missed you like hell every minute of those four weeks. If I’ve been slow to come around…”
The answer was somehow deeply satisfying, and so very like William.
“You’ve had reason,” Harper conceded. “If I’d been in a relationship like the one you had with Dante, I might have run a mile at the first sign of intimacy with someone new.”
For the first time, he felt a spark of hope, giving William a small smile.
The alpha returned the smile tentatively, the fingers cupping his chin stroking gently across his skin.
“Please, Harper. Give me—give us—a chance. I want more than to share a child with you. I want to share my life with you. If you’re not ready for that, I understand. It doesn’t change the fact that I’ll support you, whatever way you need me to.”
“My knight in shining armor.”
“You deserve someone who’ll fight for you.”
Harper’s chest ached at the words. That was what he’d been missing—someone who’d fight for his love, who wouldn’t give up or put him down or discard him like a chewed-up piece of string.
“And you deserve someone whose love is true, that doesn’t come with conditions attached.”
William’s smile was blinding this time. “When I’m with you, I don’t want to hide. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt like that. You make me a better person. And I hope, together, we’ll make good parents.”
Harper did lean into his touch then, as much to reassure himself that this was real and that he wasn’t dreaming.
“You’d make a good father. Though you need to learn to loosen up. Kids are chaos.”
William grinned. “Being with you is