pretty please (with sugar on top) - larry stylinson

9

Louis was not doing okay.

When he offered to give Niall's friend a place to stay for a week, he did not imagine this.

Shooting out of the house like a bat out of hell, Louis tripped over the doorway and nearly brained himself on the hood of his car. He was breathing through his mouth to escape the snare of Harry's omega scent, beautiful and needy. One inhale through his nose was enough to make his mouth water. Any more than that and he would surely lose his mind, not to mention his previously impervious self-control.

He clenched the steering wheel tighter, already five minutes into his drive to work and having little to no recollection of actually starting the car and pulling out onto the road. His thoughts were infiltrated with the image of the warm, sleepy omega in his bed. His inner alpha wolf was begging him to turn the car around and drive right back.

Calm down, he told his wolf. Calm the fuck down. He wasn't sure exactly how he'd ended up in this situation, waking up to Harry sprawled out over the center of the mattress, taking up nearly the entire bed and sleeping soundly. Curls fanned out around his head like a pretty halo, having dried slightly fluffy from the humidity. Nose pink from the chilly morning air as he sniffled and rubbed his face against the sheets. He'd been drooling the tiniest bit, and snoring quietly on every few breaths. Louis could only stare at him as he got dressed in his work clothes, helpless to his own feelings and how adorable the sigh was.

Of course then he had to wake Harry up about the car. Not wanting the omega to feel like Louis was keeping him captive at the house, he made sure to leave the keys on the counter and even put Harry's name on the list of guests at the country club so he had somewhere to go, if he wanted. But waking Harry up meant witnessing his first moments of consciousness of the day, smiling softly and looking a lot less like the intimidating omega Louis had met the evening prior.

He hadwas less hard edges this morning, less don't mess with me and more please hold my hand and pet my hair, which was what Louis imagined him saying, even though those words obviously didn't leave his pretty pink mouth in any way, shape, or form. This softer version of himself was just as attractive as yesterday's put-together omega, or maybe moreso, though it made Louis uncomfortable to pit them against each other because Harry somehow managed to embody both of these personalities in one body, meshing effortlessly with one another, wrapped up in a neat bow.

Louis had never met anyone like him before. He was impossible to describe, beyond words, so fascinating. He was the kind of person your eyes were drawn to. He was the kind of person who could travel anywhere, speak to anyone, do anything. He was the kind of person who made phone calls without devising a script to follow beforehand. (Louis sometimes had to actually write down what he was going to say, and if the person on the other end of the line threw him off, he would fumble with his words and wince at himself and consider hanging up.)

He was intimidating. And intelligent. And really, really pretty.

Then there was him sitting up and opening his body invitingly, like he was perfectly okay with Louis crawling back into bed with him and smoothing out the crease in his brow with more than just a kiss.

Louis didn't even know him. They had spent one dinner together, and one night of sharing a bed, which included Louis closing himself off and facing the wall because he felt awkward about it. They had talked a lot all throughout the evening but it still wasn't enough—it was still only one day—and this was just more proof that one night stands were not for Louis.

Now he was on his way to work, forced to face the fact that he had cupped the back of Harry's head with his hand like he was his bondmate. It had been a momentary lapse in judgement, trying to say goodbye in the least offensive way without panicking and shrieking I can't have sex with you right now or I might lose my mind. The omega had looked at him, confused and bewildered, like he couldn't believe Louis just did that. Louis could relate.

Even with a willing omega in your bed? At least let me make you breakfast... Harry's words were swirling through his head, seared into his mind like he'd stared at a bright neon sign for too long.

It was too much to think about so early in the morning, on his way to work no less. He was about to sit through a bunch of slow, mind-numbing meetings where real tasks were rarely accomplished. He loved his job, but the legal aspects were what bored him to death, and meetings like this required he deviate from his usual comfy attire and actually wear a suit. He liked to dress up on occasion, but the soft, oversized clothes he had the pleasure of wearing to work most of the time were definitely better. Especially in the heavy Florida heat.

A lot of people Louis worked with were wealthy just like he was, seeing as he dealt with the elites of the music industry on a daily basis. The topic of Harry made him think that more of his coworkers engaged in sugar relationships than he knew, probably. Most of his business partners were alphas who cared too much about work and didn't have time to cultivate real relationships with people they cared about. It would make sense for them to take the easy way out and literally pay omegas for their services. Obviously they had the money.

Louis had never thought about it before, but now it was making him uncomfortable. The more he thought about it, the more he realized some of the cute, young omegas his associates brought to dinner parties and industry events were probably paid to be there. It was something Louis would never do—and the thought that he had a literal sugar baby waiting for him at home made his palms sweat.

So he suffered on his drive to work because he couldn't stop thinking about the awkward moment with Harry this morning and how obvious his own arousal had been. Gripping the wheel tighter was no help. He still wondered what had gone through the omega's mind in that moment, how he could be so easily relaxed in a stranger's bed, and why he had offered himself so readily...