When JT didn’t arrive home after he’d picked at his lunch on his lonesome, Alec gave in and called him. Regretting his weakness, and contemplating whether to hang up as the dial tone buzzed, Alec was flooded with warmth at the sound of JT’s voice.

“You picked up,” he said.

“And you sound surprised,” JT replied dryly. After a pause on both their ends, he said, “Did you need me to grab milk on the way back?”

Alec ignored JT’s snarky tone, figuring he deserved it after being over-sensitive about Isolde. He focused on something more important. Wrapping his arms around his middle, staring out his bedroom French window, he asked, “Are you coming home now?”

“No.”

Alec closed his eyes, swallowing hard, pushing down the panicky queasiness burning up from his gut. He wanted to blubber an apology. He wanted JT to know he hadn’t meant it. He wanted him home. “Where are you?”

“Raccoon Creek State Park.”

Alec opened his eyes, confused. He turned from the scene outdoors. Another bright, cloudless day. The snow was melting even quicker, and Alec had wondered how he might have been spending his time now showing JT around his new home. His temporary home, yes. But still his home at the moment.

“Why are you there?” he asked.

Though JT had said there was nothing going on between him and Wren Forrester, Alec couldn’t help but picture the alpha out there, his big, heavily inked and darkly golden body wrapped around his beta lover. Wren had been handsome, too. If Alec wasn’t lanced by bilious jealousy, he would have drooled at the fantasy of being sandwiched between the two men.

But he didn’t think he could share JT. He balled his hand into a fist at the thought, scoring his nails into his soft palm, hoping the dully throbbing pain focused his mind. He needed answers, before he reacted.

JT took his time responding, too. “I wanted some fresh air.”

“You could have stayed closer.” Alec hadn’t visited the park, though he imagined it wasn’t near here. He stopped short of accusing JT of leaving him behind. He had wanted to say, “you could have taken me,” but it sounded needy. And he’d done fine without JT all these years. Even if he spent the last three thinking about him, dreaming of him—and now he had him, and he’d pushed him away.

They could have been having sex right this second.

That alone prompted Alec to react, and he blurted, “I’m coming.” Then he waited, on bated breath, for JT to tell him off.

“Drive safe then. Text me when you’re close.”

Alec pulled the phone from his ear, seeing that JT ended their call. But he had invited him to join him…sort of. Still, he hadn’t pushed Alec away. That was a good sign, wasn’t it? Having showered and changed out of his white tux a couple hours ago, Alec pulled a sweater over his long-sleeved v-neck and he grabbed his coat.

He decided to take his mother’s Mercedes, leaving his luxury sedan behind. A part of him wanted to approach JT unawares. Alec hated the lingering doubt fogging his mind, motivating him to be so…unlike himself. Jealousy wasn’t his shade.

The GPS wasn’t lying; the drive to the park was forty minutes at least. JT had to have reasons to travel this far to get “fresh air,” now if only he’d be honest. Alec’s face burned with a mixture of self-resentment for having potentially pushed his alpha lover into the arms of another, and dread at what he’d find once he reached his short journey’s end.

Alec tightened his grip on the steering wheel, hands at ten and two o’clock, when the GPS announced in her soothing, feminine voice, that he arrived at his destination. Alec signaled to shoulder off the blacktop, calling JT for his exact location in this wilderness.

“I’m at the top of this trail,” JT said, naming one of the park’s numerous trails. “Try not to get lost.”

Alec drove, finding the inclination up the trail and minding at least one morning cyclist. At the top, Alec found a parking lot. Empty at this hour of any other soul, except a lone dark blue motorcycle, Alec angled his mother’s sedan into the space beside the bike.

JT raised a hand from where he leaned on the cliff railing. Alec approached with trepidation, his gaze sweeping the area, his gut fearful to find a certain beta lurking about in the thick evergreen.

“Nice view,” Alec said on stepping beside JT, their arms brushing when he inched closer, suddenly wanting to wrap himself up in the alpha. Shyness and shame held him back. The apology was on the tip of his tongue. Putting their argument behind them would heal whatever felt broken right now.

Before he could get to it, though, JT interrupted by turning his back on the spectacular pastoral scene below them. There were a least a few farms and tons of fields down below. Alec gripped the railing, gawking at it, but then he forgot it when JT shifted around.

The alpha folded his arms over his chest, his gaze far off, but his tone direct. “You asked why I came out here. I needed to clear my head.”

“Of?” Alec asked, his voice soft, uncertain. He hated this icky guilt clinging to him. Still, he wanted to hear JT’s thoughts. If he wanted to be forthcoming about something, Alec felt he deserved the chance to air his grievances, particularly if they had anything to do with Alec’s behavior.

“Just stuff.” JT rolled his shoulders, pressing a fist to his mouth and coughing. He dropped his hand and grunted. “Nothing important.”

Alec wanted to push and prod, sensing there was more to this. But he wanted to give the alpha room to breathe. He hadn’t come out here to take away his peace of mind. Rather, help himself to some of that peace. After their squabble last night, Alec didn’t want to ruin things again, so soon.

“I’ve never been here before,” Alec said, changing topic. “I heard of it. I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, but this place wasn’t anywhere my mom would have taken me.”

“Why not?”

Feeling JT’s stare, Alec looked to his lover. He gave him a quick smile. “When the beaches of the Amalfi Coast could be explored, or a fine dining experience in a chalet in Aspen could be enjoyed?” He cut himself off with a snort. “Yeah, no. My mom had the hankering for the world. Pittsburgh had always been a pit stop to her—until now.”

Seeing JT’s confusion, Alec explained, “She used to be a supermodel. Traveling to her was like breathing, really. She started super young, in her mid-teens, and she only retired after meeting my father, the late, not entirely great, William John Edwards.”

“I wasn’t too close to my parents either,” JT said, following a lengthy pause. He shrugged. “And before you ask, I haven’t spoken to them in decades. I wouldn’t know where they were, or what they were up to.”

Alec thought he had family problems. In fact, he was quite embarrassed that JT had seen so much of his half-brothers and their spiteful personalities, but this…this felt almost as if they were connecting beyond the sex. Without warning, he reached out and embraced JT, taking him from the side and resting head on the alpha’s bicep.

After a moment, JT moved in his hold, loosening his crossed arms to haul Alec that much closer. He turned them around, Alec’s back to the view and JT blocking the parking lot as he crowded the omega to the railing.

“Nice view,” Alec murmured, his eyes glued to JT’s chest. He hadn’t taken off the tux, but he had unbuttoned his suit jacket and his tie was nowhere to be seen, the top three buttons of his dress shirt undone. “Aren’t you cold?” he asked now, worry for JT’s health and comfort clashing with his ferocious libido.

“I know a better way to enjoy this view…and have you warm me up, too.” JT then framed Alec’s face, his big, calloused palms, the roughness of his hands striking a chord in Alec, and unfurling the familiar heat in his lower belly.

“Oh?” Alec breathed, shuddering when JT touched his mouth softly, explored his lips with his own, and then coaxed his tongue out to play.

Pushing him back against the railing, JT deepened their kiss, thrusting and stamping his hard cock Alec’s stomach. Allowing Alec a moment of reprieve to breathe, JT latched his mouth to his throat and he hoisted him up, settling the omega on the top railing.

It was thrilling. Deliciously dangerous. One slip and Alec could tumble to his death. And yet, with JT’s arms snaking his middle, Alec couldn’t feel more safe. He twined his arms around his lover’s thick, tatted neck and he wrapped his legs around his center, ready to ride the biker alpha.