by Aiden Bates
“Bastard.”
“Yeah. Um… Look, I hate to ask this of you, but could you come over? Things went kind of south at the end there.” You’ve got a daughter to think of. “I don’t know that Lissa and I are safe.”
“I’ve got a better idea,” Rusty countered. “But…it might mean taking Lissa out of school for a few days.”
I cast a glance down the hall. That creepy princess doll Dad had given Lissa was laying face down out in the hallway outside her door. She must have moved it back out after I put her to bed.
“That might be a good idea,” I agreed. You’ve got a daughter to think of. What the hell was that supposed to mean? “For all of us.”
19
Rusty
Lissa wore her Jake and the Neverland Pirates pajamas and her grumpiest, sleepiest frown as Daniel carried her to her new bedroom in the KPS safe suite.
“She’s a cute little niña, isn’t she?” Ernesto said, nodding and looking proud. There was something about grumpy kids that always tugged at his heart strings. I guessed that was why he’d tolerated me and my brothers so well when we were little.
“Fell back asleep as soon as she hit the mattress.” Daniel came back out of the side bedroom, sans Lissa. “Are you two sure this place is safe?”
“Safest place in the state,” I assured him. “Everyone here has been vetted. Recently re-vetted too.” I didn’t mention the last time we’d put a treasured loved one up in the suite at KPS. After a rogue KPS employee had kidnapped Harper’s Omega Nick, we weren’t taking any more chances. “No one’s getting in or out of here without crossing two security check points.”
“You have my word, Daniel. It’s an honor to have you and your little girl here with us.” Ernesto held out his hand for a shake. When Daniel reached out for him, though, Ernesto turned Daniel’s hand over and pressed a kiss to Daniel’s knuckles instead. “Rest with ease. We’ll be watching over you downstairs all night.”
Ernesto left us alone in the suite, but the little parting wink he gave me was completely misplaced. Daniel was still white with shock. His hands hadn’t stopped shaking since he’d pulled into the KPS parking lot, though he’d tried to hide it by shoving them in his pockets now that Lissa wasn’t in his arms.
“He all but threatened her, Rusty.” He cast a worried glance to Lissa’s new temporary bedroom. “I shouldn’t have asked him about Bennet Godfrey outright. What the hell was I thinking?”
“You did the best you could, darlin’.” I moved to him, placing my hands on his shoulders and giving them a squeeze. “You didn’t expect the security sweep.”
“I should have.” He was scowling. “He waited until we’d already started dinner to bring them in. Lulling me into a false sense of security, I guess. Dad said it was standard procedure. They must have changed it since I was a kid.”
“It’s not standard procedure at all,” I was sorry to say.
“Oh.” Daniel’s face fell. “Then…he knew all along.”
“That we’d bugged your house? I doubt it.”
“That you and I are involved.”
“Probably,” I agreed. But I didn’t miss his word choice as I took him by the shoulder, guiding him to the couch. He’d been through a lot today. He could probably use a good sit-down. And given what he’d just said…“Involved, huh?”
Maybe this was a conversation best had seated.
Daniel only rolled his eyes, though. “You know what I mean.”
I blinked. “I don’t, actually. I mean…what are we?”
I knew it was a loaded question, but in the face of everything else that had happened that night, it was at least one that we could answer.
“I…I can’t spare the brain cells to make that determination right now, Rusty.”
“Oh.” Maybe not, then.
“Clearly, we’ve both made some mistakes. Believed lies. Reacted…immaturely in the past. Now that we’ve got a chance, even under these awful circumstances, to reconnect…”
“Reconnect. Yes. I…I’d like that a whole hell of a lot.”
“So would I.” A flicker of a smile. He always had liked it when I fell all over myself for him. “I’d be lying I didn’t want you in my life. But…it’s really complicated when you factor in Lissa.”
“How complicated could it be? She likes me. I’m learning about her. As long as I don’t try to feed her pancakes again…”
That smile I thought I’d seen earlier had washed away into a look of shame.
“I told her that her Alpha father had died, Rusty. That’s why she thinks he’s not around.”
“Oh.” I shifted back on the cushions. I’d taken kicks to the nuts that had hurt less than that.
“And if I tell her the truth…god, Rusty. She’ll hate me. I know she will. It’s been eating me up inside, though. Am I just doing the same thing that my father did to me? Lying because it’s an easier thing to bear than telling the truth?”
“I, uh…” Hell. I’d never been very good at working through my feelings, but this was tangling with something that even a psychologist would balk at. I refocused my brain on Daniel, though. He was hurting, too. And at least that was something I could fix. “You had to tell her something that made sense. This whole thing has been so twisty, Daniel…of course you told her something she’d be able to understand.”
“I never thought you’d be back in our lives. I…” Daniel’s voice cracked, but he held my gaze. “I know you’ve said you hadn’t, but I don’t believe you. I can’t. You must hate me, Rusty. How can you not?”
“I don’t hate you,” I said immediately. I could never hate this man—not after all he’d been through. Not after this second shot at my life he’d given me, after he’d given me our little girl. But then, with a sigh, I closed my eyes and allowed myself to feel it out for a moment. Just one. There was something hard and sharp in my chest when I let myself touch the way my past with Daniel had hurt me—but it all softened into nothing when I realized how much it had hurt us all. “None of this is your fault.”
“I just wish I knew how to handle this.” His voice was defeated, faint. “I’ve fucked up so much for us, Rusty.”
“Aw, come on, darlin’. Stop that, now.” By the shoulders, I gave him a gentle shake, then reached up to smooth his hair away from his brow. “I don’t know how we’ll handle it either. If it ever even came to that. But you’re not a fuck-up. And whatever the circumstances are, I’d really like to make our family into…into what it’s meant to be. Whatever that takes, I’m willing to go through it if you are.”
“Really?” A light glimmered in Daniel’s eyes. Something akin to fresh hope. “Even after…after everything?”
“Of course, idiot. You did the best you could. If anything, this is my fault.”
Daniel raised an eyebrow. “How the hell have you decided that this is your fault?”
“Coulda tried harder.”
“I told you not to contact me!”
“Still. I shouldn’t have given up so easy. It’s not how I do things. Never has been.” I jutted my chin out, a little proud. The urge was to put my arm around him, play the strong man. Show him how much better I could be for him now. But even as I considered it, I spotted a glint of fear in Daniel’s eyes.
“Rusty…if you hadn’t given up, you might not be here right now.” He shook his head, reaching across my lap to squeeze my knee. “You don’t know what my father might’ve done to you.”
“I know I would’ve fought him to the death if it meant being with you again at the end of it,” I said, and I meant it, too. Whatever Brent Rasner wanted to do to me—should’ve let him. Would’ve liked to see him try. With that little burst of indigence, I forced myself back up off the couch. I could feel Daniel’s anxieties unfurling around me, and for once, I didn’t think I was helping by sticking around telling him how much I’d like to fight his father. “It doesn’t matter now, darlin’. I don’t want you regretting the past or worrying about the future. When all this is over
, when all the dust settles… I’ll come find you again. We’ll work all of this out.”
Daniel leapt up as I moved away from him and glanced at the door over my shoulder nervously. “Rusty, wait. You’re leaving?”
I shrugged. “I figure you probably want to rest. It’s been a long day for you. Long night, too.”
He bit his lower lip. “What if…I asked you to stay?”
I didn’t mean to, but I laughed.
Goddamn if that wasn’t the sexiest thing he’d ever said.
“Then let’s get you to bed, darlin’.” I put an arm around him and lead him toward the bedroom of the other room in the suite.
“And you’ll come with me?” His voice was half-challenge, half-begging.
Fuck. My cock was growing stiff in my jeans already. As if I could ever resist him when he asked like that.
In an instant, I had him scooped up into my arms. A little yelp escaped his lips as I shifted his weight, holding him against me nice and tight.
“I’ll stay with you, darlin’. Of course I will.” It wasn’t just Daniel’s hands that were trembling. Now, his lips were too. I kissed them, hard and firm, until the shaking subsided. “I’ll stay with you for as long as you like.”
20
Daniel
It wasn’t a big room to begin with. The bed, a queen, took up most of the space. The decor was sparse, no pictures on the walls or vases of flowers on the dresser. Not exactly my usual standards for living quarters, especially considering the luxury I’d been raised in. But as Rusty led me inside, his hand in mine, none of that mattered.
With Rusty’s fingers curled around mine, this place might as well have been a royal penthouse suite.
I pulled the door shut behind us, then tugged at his hand to pull him toward me. His kiss left me pinned against the door, his body grinding against mine with eagerness. Need. Rusty’s hands were tentative as they roamed up and down my body, stroking along my sides and clutching at my ass. But the first moan that left my lips was all the encouragement he needed. Then, his touch was rougher. More possessive. More addictive than he ever could have known.
“Please,” I begged against his lips. “Suck me, Rusty.”
He growled in response, then dropped to his knees without a moment more of hesitation. His lips fell on my hips, kissing through my shirt while he undid my belt.
“We’ll have to be quiet again,” he reminded me, pulling away to lock his eyes on mine. “Lissa’s just in the next room, and these walls aren’t exactly thick…”
“I’ll manage.” I nodded in agreement, but even then, I wasn’t sure that was entirely true. In the wake of all this madness, Rusty’s lips, his hands, his hard, firm body—they were the only things that made me feel safe. As he dipped his mouth down to kiss the hard bulge that was straining against my slacks, all I wanted to do was let loose with him. Howl like a wolf at a full moon, play the whore, moan his name and lose myself in how good I knew he could make me feel.
But if I had to be quiet…
As Rusty pulled my cock out of my boxers, I raised the knuckle of my index finger to my lips and bit down on it.
I’d do my best.
“Christ, you’ve got a gorgeous cock.” His voice was low, but with the way he made my entire body shiver with his words, he might as well have been shouting at me. Rusty wrapped his fingers around the base of my shaft and pumped it twice, licking his lips and leaning in. “You were made to be worshiped, darlin’. Fuckin’ made to be adored.”
“Mm.” Another shudder shook me to my core. His breath was hot as it washed over my tip, making the bead of precum that was forming there tremble along with the rest of me. “Please, Rusty…”
A wolfish grin appeared on his lips.
“Could never say no to you.”
Rusty’s mouth descended on my cock, hungry and half-unhinged. He took my tip first, flicking his tongue up along the underside of it and smearing my precum across his taste buds. Immediately, a pulse of heat shot through me. My hips bucked up, wanton, needy, full of greed—but then, he pulled away.
“Fuck. You taste too fucking good, darlin’.” Another hungry grin, almost devious as a starved glint sparkled in his eyes. “Gonna take such good care of you.”
His hands curled around my hips as he dove back down. Not half-unhinged any longer—now, he was ravenous, sliding his lips down my shaft and taking me all the way to the back of his throat. His head jerked upward, tilted back, coming up hard and fast only to descend on me once more, even deeper this time. I might as well have wrapped my hands around a live wire with how hard that made me spasm. My cock, my balls, every inch of me was so eager to give myself over to him—and Rusty had no problem taking me. He sucked me to the back of his throat over and over again, then, with a gargantuan gasp, he took me even deeper still. I felt him gag for just a moment, a testament to the fact that he wasn’t the only one in this tryst with a big, thick cock that had to be managed. But then another little growl escaped his throat, vibrating against my swollen, sensitive tip all the way up my shaft. His eyes locked on mine, dangerous and full of determination.
I might’ve been big, but as far as Rusty King was concerned, managing me was just another challenge. One that he was more than capable of rising to.
As Rusty pumped my cock with his lips, his saliva coating me while he lapped at my underside with his tongue, I had to brace myself against the door just to keep my knees from going out from under me. Fuck. He was too damn good at this. Always had been. Probably always would be. Some Alphas wouldn’t suck cock at all—not manly enough for them, or so they claimed—but Rusty didn’t give a damn about that. He sucked cock like he was born to do it. Like his entire world began at my tip and ended with my balls pressed tight against his chin. Even the throbbing of his throat as it clenched down around me was measured, perfectly calculated to produce nothing short of pure fucking ecstasy.
And all the while, he kept his eyes locked on mine.
He said I needed to be worshiped—and there on his knees before me, he treated me like I was his savior, his holy spirit, his god.
When he finally pulled off me to take in another massive breath, my knees finally did give out. The heat of his lips, the way his tongue slid against my shaft, the way he swallowed my tip—it was all too much, so much more than I’d bargained for. But I was quickly learning that when I stumbled, Rusty would be there to catch me, and he caught me then, too. He wound an arm around my waist, holding me up even as I leaned forward, bracing myself against his shoulders and panting like I’d just run a marathon.
“Oh, no, darlin’.” He clucked at me, eyes full of fire as he shook his head. “Not yet. I’m not done with you yet.”
He rose suddenly, his arm moving up my back as he hooked his other arm beneath my knees. In an instant, I was—quite literally—swept off my feet. I opened my mouth to protest, but before the words left my mouth, I realized I didn’t need to.
Rusty was strong, stronger than any other man I’d ever known. His body had been trained to lift up men twice my weight and throw them to the ground without breaking a sweat. He lifted me effortlessly. I might as well have been made of cotton candy and cloud. Once upon a time, I might have fought him as he carried me—but not now. Not after what I’d been through.
Not tonight.
Tonight, I gave myself up to him. I wound my arms around his neck instead, let him carry me to the bed like I was some kind of fairytale prince and he was my knight in shining armor, saving me from the big evil dragon and whisking me away in the safety of his embrace. The cold, hard tension that had been building in my chest all day warmed and released as I relaxed in his arms. The kiss he laid on my lips, victorious, triumphant, told me that everything would be okay.
He had me. He’d protect me. And for the first time in my life, I was actually starting to believe it, too.
Rusty laid me down on the bed with a gentleness that only spoke further of his strength. He didn’t have to toss me down. His muscle
s gave him the luxury of taking his time, making sure that he supported my whole weight until the mattress took over and I could rest my head on the pillows with ease. I moved to kick my slacks and shoes away, desperate to be free of my clothes so I could keep feeling that same safety and comfort with nothing between us but skin and night—but Rusty stopped me before I could.
“No,” he said. “Let me.”
He curled his fingers beneath my pants and boxers, pulling them down to my ankles then removing my shoes. His touch was magic. Like he’d bewitched my clothes to want to be on the floor. Rusty’s hands stroked up my thighs, just grazing my cock before he moved to undo the buttons of my shirt. Another kiss came, this one on my neck. It moved to my jawline, his tongue flicking against the angle of it before he moved up toward my ear.
Holy. He kissed me like I was holy, and all it made me want to do was worship him in the exact same way.
“Now you,” I whispered, taking the hem of his t-shirt in my hands. “Let me undress you.”
He smirked, then grabbed my wrist and pulled my hand away. “No. Some other night, maybe, darlin’. But tonight…tonight, you’re mine, and you’re gonna do this my way.”
My lips didn’t even move to protest this time as he backed away. His words, somehow sacred now, echoed all around me: You’re mine. You’re mine. You’re mine.
In that moment, I would have given him the fucking stars from the sky if I could have reached them. If he wanted to do this his way, then that was fine by me.
Rusty straightened, staring at me for a moment before he moved his fingers to his belt. His gaze was a cocky one, so cocky that it suddenly struck me that he knew exactly what he was doing.
He knew how fucking good he looked. He knew how I must have felt in his arms, how comfortable and safe he made me feel just by being close to me.
He knew that he had me, and now, he wanted me to watch while he unwrapped himself for me like a present on Christmas morning.
