“I don’t want to talk to you with this between us,” he pointed at the counter. “I feel like you’re miles away. It's frustrating. May I please come closer?” he begged.
Jamue shook his head.
He growled impatiently, the aggressive alpha in him rising. Jamue stared at his feet, ignoring the innate need to submit.
“Why not?” he rumbled.
“Do you see why I walked out of the interview? I knew I couldn’t negotiate with you. I knew you would do things your way. That you’d want to get close, “to do it again”” Jamue blushed as he threw his words back at him. “I’m not even your anything, I don’t belong to you, but you treat me like I do. You demand things from me, you invade my space… I can’t imagine how you'd be if you were my alpha.”
He flinched.
Jamue bit the inside of his mouth, sensing the turmoil inside him.
“I’ll treat you right,” he declared.
Jamue’s stomach knotted, robbing him of air.
Was he getting sick? He didn’t know.
They stared at each other, tension swirling and throbbing around them.
Hym reluctantly backed away, keeping the counter between them.
“Okay, let's negotiate,” he said.
Jamue stared at him, stunned.
Was he offering him the job?
“I’m assuming you have a problem with physical intimacy…May I ask why?”
“I don’t know,” Jamue said. Even though it was hard for him to say this, he had to say it. “I won’t be a good companion for you. There are things I won’t be able to do. You need an omega who doesn't have issues, one that'd help you with your trauma, not hinder your progress.”
“I want you,” he said.
“You’re not listening to me.”
“I am. What are your limits?”
“Everything. You can’t touch me.”
“But I touched you,” he said softly. “You were hard for me. You whimpered. I can still hear your cries.”
Jamue shivered.
He made him feel a thousand things at once. But that ever-present feeling of getting sick made him sweat.
He wished he didn’t feel like that - wished he could accept his touch like a normal omega.
“And I came home feeling sick to my stomach.”
“My touch disgusted you?”
“It's not you specifically. The touch of an alpha does that to me. I don’t know why. It's always been like that.”
Hym’s eyes landed on his neck.
Jamue internally hissed, growing tired of people looking at him there.