Androgynous Love

Let's play pretend.

She swung around, the light flush on her cheeks, the sheer joy in her expression making him feel like a jerk. But when she opened her mouth, he raised his palm to stop her.

"No unnecessary conversation, though. And no sneaking into my bed uninvited."

She nodded the gratitude in her eyes so transparent he wasn't quite able to tell her a cute jabber mouth had no business working for a man like him. A man whose bite was a heck of a lot worse than his bark.

Not your problem. She wants this job, she can have it. Then, when she runs screaming, Jonathan can pick up the pieces.

"I'm going to sleep," he said, his throat scratchy from all the unnecessary talking. "Don't wake me up. When I want to eat again, I'll let you know."

She bobbed her head, and the escaped tendrils bounced on her shoulders.

A new jolt of unwanted arousal pierced the exhaustion. And he wondered what the hell he was thinking, letting anyone invade his sanctuary. Especially a woman who made him ache.

But he refused to dwell on the decision as he trudged up the stairs, the anxiety that had tied his stomach into knots blissfully absent for the first time in over ten years.

***

Tatum watched his new boss make his way up the wide staircase, the nerves finally releasing their stranglehold on his ribs. His gaze roamed over Mr Pearce's muscular shoulders, drifted down past the crisscross of scars on his back and tattoos scrawled across his shoulders and arms.

How had he survived the trauma? And what could he do to make things better for him?

Because surely that was all this was—this deep well of compassion, which felt like so much more than a desire not to mess up his new job?

Even if this desire I have needs to be pushed down hard.

Tatum set out to clean the house, trying to avoid Mr Pearce as much as possible.

He made a delicious lunch of grilled cheese and chicken sandwiches, then snuck upstairs while Mr Pearce was in the gym.

He left the lunch on Mr Pearce's bedside table, then aired out the room and quickly changed his bedding.

He suddenly smelled a burst of Mr Pearce's pheromones in the air he whipped around to find intense eyes staring at him.

Oh!

Sweat glistened on Andrew's skin and his breath was ragged as he had pushed himself hard in the home gym.

He had been trying to exhaust himself physically, to dull his emotional and physical response to Tatum.

It didn't work.

Huffing he had come out of the gym to find her bent over his bed, with that perfect bottom stuck up in the air.

She was fixing his bed. All the effort he had just put in to get rid of his arousal and erection had been for nothing.

Finding her leaning over his bed with her bottom in the air was just too much, his manhood had thickened immediately.

His shorts tenting and his arousal palpable, on instinct he released his pheromones.

He was watching her so intently that he saw the moment she sensed his scent.

Is she not a beta? I am sure she sensed my scent, but betas can't do that only Alphas and Omegas can scent each other.

Hierarchy exists in humans, which are divided into dominant "alphas", neutral "betas", and submissive "omegas".