Expensive - Amy Bellows Page 0,20

consequences of exploring that particular kink. I was so caught up in how good it felt to be with him, I didn’t take care of him the way I should have.

Andrew lifts his chin and looks his father in the eye. “This is what I want.”

Mitch laughs bitterly. “Do you honestly think the Monroes will let you keep your money if you continue on like this? My PI got a video of you having sex out in the open for everyone to see.”

It was probably the person who’d opened the door when we were on the roof. Andrew asked me to keep going, so I did. I even praised him for suggesting it because I found it exciting. He trusted me to keep him safe, and I’d put him at risk for my own selfish desires.

“You had a PI follow me?” Andrew asks with an edge in his voice.

“Yes, I did. And I can guarantee the Monroes have hired someone to follow you as well. All they need is the right ammunition, and they can declare me an insufficient guardian. Do you honestly want one of them to be your guardian instead? They could send you to an institution.”

I wish I could disagree with Mitch, but he’s right. If the courts have deemed Andrew in need of a legal guardian, he’s in a horribly vulnerable position, and I just made it worse.

“You have been so reckless. We could lose everything,” Mitch says in a steely voice. As he speaks, his right cheek shifts to a bright blue. In place of human skin, there are now scales. His breath puffs out like fog in front of his lips. I can feel the cold from here.

Andrew shivers.

A primal anger rises inside me. Andrew hasn’t deferred to me once in this conversation. This is his fight, and I shouldn’t be an alphahole and intervene unless it’s something he wants. But the way Mitch just prioritized money over his son’s happiness makes me want to throw something.

“You can’t expect him to be alone forever,” I say in almost a growl.

Mitch looks directly at me and smiles. Half his teeth are thin and pointed like a dragon’s.

Andrew plasters himself to my chest, wrapping his arms around me. “Dad, don’t!”

“This man is using you for your money,” Mitch says.

I open my mouth to argue with him, but Andrew whispers, “I know.”

“Andrew, no.” He may be paying me for sex, but things have become far more complicated than that.

Andrew spins around to face his father. “Everyone uses me for my money. Even you.”

My heart breaks at that. At what point did Andrew start believing that the only value anyone could see in him was his fortune?

“I can’t let you do this,” Mitch says. “If you want sexual partners, I will arrange them for you, and there will be rules. Your bond ache makes you vulnerable. I can’t leave you at the mercy of men like him who could ruin your life.”

“Dad, please. Can’t we just pay Timber? He’s the one I want. It doesn’t matter that he’s doing it for the money. As long as we draw up contracts to protect me, it will be fine.”

Mitch shakes his head. “You may finish out this vacation with him, then I will find you someone else. Someone more… discreet. For Ice’s sake. He’s a muzzled stud from the breeding pits. You couldn’t possibly choose anyone more embarrassing.” Mitch shoulders past me to the elevator. “You’re an heir, Andrew. A Blue Blood. Have a little more self-respect.”

It’s been a long time since someone made me feel inferior because of what happened to me in my past, but I guess Mitch is right. I’m not the kind of alpha an omega brings home to their parents. I’m not respectable.

That’s fine. I’d rather be “embarrassing” than treat my own son the way Mitch treats his.

The elevator door slides shut, leaving Andrew and I alone in the hallway.

“I’m sorry, Timber. He shouldn’t have said that.”

I shake my head. “It’s fine.”

But it’s not fine. Andrew called me Timber instead of Daddy. And he was right to. I’m not his Daddy, even if I wish I could be.

“I’ll talk to him. Get him to see reason,” Andrew promises. As if everything his father said was crazy. He doesn’t understand how precarious this all is. Maybe it’s because of his bond ache, or maybe it’s because of how good this weekend was. I don’t know.

I stare into his beautiful eyes, trying to memorize the way he’s