Red Handed: True Colors #3 Read online

  “Not a very good reason to skip sleep. Aside from my name I’m not much of a mystery- not to you anyways.”

  “But you are. Why do you help omegas run away? Scot was far from your circumstances, rich, comfortable, few cares. The others though, were they in dire straits like you that they needed a whole new life?”

  “Not at all. I warned them against a life like mine- without telling them everything of course. I helped because I wanted them to find the one thing I had turned my back on. Love.”

  I knew that was a mistake as soon as I said it. But there was something about both being in bed… pillow talk I guess, where it seemed like nothing could hurt me anymore. I never should have agreed to be alone with him tonight. Or tomorrow.

  Eli was watching me carefully. “You turned your back on it five years ago. Anything more recent?”

  “Of course not- I still haven’t got over the fear of--” Damn this darkness, and the moonlight dancing silvery across Eli’s face and chest. I’d be the worst spy- all it would take for me to spill my guts is a dark bedroom and Eli.

  “What are you afraid of, Tom?”

  The dark, you...me. I couldn’t tell him, hiding my fear came naturally now. I couldn’t even imagine what would happen if I was honest with Eli right now. If I told him Caden Cameron had attacked me one night, and that I knew what he was capable of as much or more than Eli and his whole pack.

  I stayed away from the wedding I planned, for Seth because Caden was there. I avoided Slate and his new alpha because Caden was part of that pack. If he knew what else Caden had tried with me...

  Eli wouldn’t stop until he found Caden and taught him a lesson. Or Caden taught him one. Caden was not going to fight fair, not now that we were after him. And besides, Scot was the important thing, not Caden. I was on my side looking at him just a few feet away, still on his knees.

  I felt better knowing this Eli was the same Eli I had known. He hadn’t changed into someone different, he was, is, and always would be the same Eli. Determined, ruthless, then loving and gentle. He would always be protective of me.

  “It was Caden Cameron, wasn’t it?” His voice was dark and determined, and ruthless. The coldness made me shiver. “He did something to you. Made you afraid.”

  If he could read my mind this was really not fair. He looked into my eyes and knew everything. “No.”

  “Don’t lie to me. You’re bad at it and I’m very good at spotting lies. Bad luck for you.”

  That made me laugh, “All right, it was. But Scot is the focus, not Caden. Don’t do anything foolish.”

  “I wouldn’t have survived this long if I acted foolish every time I heard something that makes my blood boil. “I use the anger in a more healthy way.”

  He stood up and placed a knee on my mattress, I rolled away, onto my back. He leaned over me, his silvery moonlit body supported on his powerful arms, just above mine. Eli captured my mouth, and settled his weigh down on me, while stroking my hips and thighs then moving up to my chest , brushing his fingers over my nipples until they hardened and became sensitive.

  He made my body scorch with heat. “I—I want you,” I whispered.

  One night. One glorious night to remember for the next five years. Or longer.

  “For Five years, Tom, I’ve dreamed of doing this to you.”

  Eli’s hands tugged my pants down, and I focused on his face in the moonlight. His eyes carried a surprising vulnerability, despite the years, the new scars, and the old ones on his face, he looked just like that nineteen year old boy five years ago. Reverent, speechless, like he needed to remember this moment for ever.

  He bent and kissed my bare stomach, and the tenderness and heat in his lips shocked and delighted my nerves and jolted my hips. Then his lips trailed lower, and his mouth nuzzled against my short, curly hairs.

  I had imagined exactly this moment countless times over the last few years. Whenever I couldn’t sleep, imagining Eli would help me wear myself out and empty my head to fall asleep.

  But this was so much better.

  His wet, rough tongue was never something I could imagine so well.

  A deep, intense moan escaped my lips as his hot mouth swallowed my cock.

  I watched him stop and pause to grin at me. “I can’t believe the most fearless omega I know is afraid of a little pleasure.”

  “I’m full of fear right now.” I was too, all the usual things like Scot, Caden, not man-scaping recently enough… but there was a big, shapeless void of fear too.

  “I know. So am I.”

  Eli wasn’t afraid of anything was he? He filled his mouth again with my cock, taking me all the way down his throat, then pulling off again, as if to speak, but deep-throating me again. It was wonderful, but it was torture too. I wanted to scream in frustration.

  “I’m afraid I won’t please you, and afraid you don’t want me, afraid that all my dreaming of this moment is going to make me screw it all up. Afraid you don’t see how we were made for each other, and are perfect together. The missing piece, the other half. Mates.”

  “You’re doing amazingly well. Oh god.” Fuck that was the sexiest thing I ever heard. My cock was hard in his mouth, and he was sucking and teasing for me to come, then he says those words that make me want to melt.

  He focused on my cock, hollowing his cheeks and stroking with a twist my shaft and balls. “Oh I’m going to, Eli, I’m--” Coming! Was the word my mind couldn’t grasp, thank god he knew what I meant, stroking faster and sucking until the blinding white light, my soul being squeezed through the tiny hole in my cock, sending waves of ecstasy through me. He held my ass and hips firmly as I squirted into his throat and when I was spent, he stood up, kneeling over me, stroking that fat cock at me then throwing his back and coming on my stomach in hot spurts. I bit my lip and closed my eyes as I fell back to earth and my mattress.

  Damn he was good. Like he knew what I felt, knew exactly what I wanted and needed before even I knew it.

  Eli moved over me, kissed me with his hot, luscious, lips. I tasted salt, copper, and realized it was me I tasted. He stretched his long, muscular, lean body next to mine.

  God how I wanted him, even now.

  I gasped, lurching against him, wanting to return the favor, make his toes curl, but what I really wanted was him inside me. But he pushed me away, I could see in his eyes he was tempted. Somehow, I managed to put a little space between us again.

  “Eli?” I asked, biting my lip and suddenly feeling unsure of myself. “Don’t you want me to..”

  “Yes,” he growled said, running his thumb over the lip I'd just had between my, wishing it were Eli's tongue instead. “But I want to do it right, Tom.”

  I sucked his thumb into my mouth, looking up at him in those eyes that I could get lost in.

  “When I have you, I want all of you, not just your body. I don’t ever want you to feel like you had to compromise your own heart, your freedom, to be with me.” He moved even further away from me. “I can wait.”

  “Oh, God. I don’t think I can, Eli,” I admitted to him, blushing. I was staring at his cock, which was as hard as a rock now. All too eager to be inside me. “I can’t help it,” I whispered. “I want… I want you to fuck me so bad. Eli, God, I’ve been dreaming about it. Every night.”

  “Tell me,” he said.

  6

  I still had the taste of my mate in my mouth, and my wolf was pushing me to finish claiming him—now.

  I was impatient, too, but even though Tom was my mate and I knew he wouldn’t deny me, I didn’t want to take him, claim him, when he may have still had reservations. I didn't want even the thought of vanishing, running away from me, in his head this time. Because I wouldn't be able to do anything about them, he had to clear them away for us to have a chance.

  There was more than just fate between us. I loved him, and I needed to show him my wolf, that I wanted him to bear my child.

  Once that happened, the subtle awareness we both had of each other wou
ld grow into a full bond.

  The thought made my cock start to swell, and when I saw his eyes dart down to my lap I groaned. I wanted to be inside him. I wanted to bury my cock in the tight little ass I’d had my hands on a few minutes before.

  “I know you want me, Eli,” he panted. “I need you. Why won’t you fuck me? Please, just do it already.”

  “Tom, stop, ah, fuck… yes.” His hands were on my erection, and I had to wriggle away from him. “I want to do more than just fuck you. You’re my fated mate, my other half, my… my everything. I want a family with you. I want you forever.”

  “So that means you can't take me right now?” His eyes were mischievous, playful. “But I can still suck your cock right?”

  There was only so much I could take, the feel and taste and utter perfection of him were too much. Those words were so damn hot coming out of my mates mouth.

  The moment his lips coasted along my bare thigh, I almost exploded. I'm glad I had some control left because his mouth was soft as silk, sweetly hot. I watched him, all I could do was lie there and enjoy.

  Never had my cock been harder, or hotter. This was all Tom's doing. I had always known, in my heart, he was the only one for me. My perfect mate, my perfect love. I no longer resented the five years we were apart. We both got better, stronger, more interesting and more desirable.

  Oh god, Tom pressed his lips to the shaft of my cock, that wicked, sweet mouth sliding up and down flesh, until he reached the head. I thought I might burst, precum bubbled out of the tip, and Tom ran his tongue over it, tasting me as he sucked hard enough to draw in his cheeks. He stroked the shaft with nimble fingers until, every muscle clenched as pleasure shot through me.

  “Yes,” I growled. “Fuck, yes.”

  Tom's hot, sweet mouth worked all over my cock, until I was weak limbed and unable to do much more than groan. I dragged Tom up my body and threw my arm around him, my mate was happy, and it was intoxicating. His happiness made me happy, and I grinned down at him as I pulled him into my arms, where he belonged

  I watched my beautiful mate sleep, I still wanted to claim him, now. But I couldn’t yet, not when I finally got the chance to be close to him, physically and emotionally. A chance to talk to him and find out why he left all those years ago and try to dispel that fear or whatever it was that drove him away.

  I wanted to show him just how beautiful and special he was to me now and just like he had been in our past and how I needed to in our future.

  I pulled my delicious-smelling mate into my arms, and felt him sink into my body and pressed his ass into my crotch that throbbed with hunger. I didn’t need sleep anyways, who goes to sleep when they’re already in their best dream?

  “Why did you do it, Tom? Why did you vanish on me?” It was raining and gray and grim as we drove upstate on Scot and Mason’s trail, and I didn’t want either us thinking too much on the morbid, worst-case-scenario of what we might find out today. Filling an awkward silence with more awkward silence wasn’t usually a good idea for a long road trip. But I deserved an explanation. We both did. I couldn’t find any anger or hurt in me from it, I was just happy to have Tom back in my life but I also wanted to start fresh. If there was any hidden hurt in me I wanted it gone. Now. And if there was any guilt or urges to vanish in Tom- I wanted them gone too.

  “Fear.” He said.

  “Fear? Of me?”

  “No. Never you. Except when you appeared in my doorway. And then when you appeared in my bed. Please try to make less dramatic entrances in the future or else I’ll have to get you a bell to wear around your neck.” He laughed and if they made a bell that sounded like that I would gladly wear it. “But back then, no. I trusted you completely. I was afraid you couldn’t possibly be as wonderful as how I saw you. I told myself at the time I did it for freedom. That I needed you too much and I wouldn’t ever learn how not to. And I have freedom now. Few omegas get to do what I’m doing. Own a business, have security.”

  “I could have given you this. I would have done it gladly.” I insisted.

  “Do you remember my omega dad?” he asked curiously.

  I had to think. There were no family dinners or birthday parties on the east side. “I don’t think we got that far- meeting each other’s families.”

  “We were both sort of refugees from our families. I discovered that after I left. Everyone else had a certain time that they had to go home, their parents would yell dinner or something and they would leave. But not us, we always ended up alone, together. I never noticed it until I left, that’s all. But my Dad. My dad kept losing his alpha. Some ran off, some died, some I don’t know if he ever knew what happened to them. He was either grieving or in a relationship. He needed an alpha, he worshiped the good ones and the bad ones too, and both kept vanishing on him. That was my fear. The treadmill he was on his whole life. In tears or in love, unhappy in both. No security, no freedom.” Rowan cleared his throat, “I have my business, I support myself and will as long as I can. I won’t need someone to take care of me. To give me anything. That’s what I wanted.”

  “And you got it.” I was immensely proud of him, but the loss of five years still felt like bitterness in my throat.

  “It’s not as big as I thought it would be. I always thought my dad’s life was so small, his alpha was his world. And then finding a new one was his world. And I wanted so badly for him to want something else, to look up and see there were other things in this world.”

  “Like you?”

  “Maybe,” he smiled, “But he never did look up.”

  I was amazed and devastated he could smile at all this pain. I was a fool for not knowing any of this. These are the details that an investigator finds to build a picture. And I was blinded by my loss and answer when he left.

  “If I had known..”

  “You couldn’t have done anything. You would have tried, I know, but it took time. A lot of time.”

  “Do you still have that red jacket?” I asked and saw the smile return. “I’ve never forgotten that night,” I said softly.

  “Neither have I.”

  “For five years,” I went on, “I’ve considered us mated.”

  “I wish you had moved on. It’s so much harder to forgive myself knowing that you didn’t.”

  “There’s nothing to forgive. I’m not sure we would be here now if you hadn’t disappeared. It was the right thing to do- even without knowing your reasons, it was the right thing. Knowing them, I’m sure of it.”

  When we pulled into the hotel that Tom had suggested to Scot and Mason, it was nearly dark and Tom had been lulled to sleep by the road.

  I talked to the people at the desk while Tom slept. When I returned he was awake.

  “They were here two days ago.” I told him.

  He relaxed immediately. I could tell how he felt. He wanted to believe he had rescued Scot Cameron. He wanted to believe he helped write Scot and Mason a happy ending, one his father never got.

  “Where did they go?” he rasped in his sleep roughened voice.

  “We don’t know. We will, but dinner first, and sleep. You look like you need it, you can have the bed and I promise not to wake you up- no dramatic entrances.”

  7

  Eli’s long, large body was snuggled beside me, his arm resting on my hip in quiet possession.

  After we ate I went to the room alone and fell asleep while he was out talking to more people on the off chance another guest or maid or employee had noticed Scot and Mason. I felt him climb into bed and nuzzle up to me and I didn’t protest. It felt good to have him against me, it felt good to have his hand on my hip.

  It felt good, but it was too easy, too natural.

  Eli breathed deeply, sleeping soundly. I sneaked out of the room- not to run away or vanish on him. I wasn’t going to do that again. That much I knew, but the rest of it I wasn’t sure about. If I don’t run, what do we do then? We had the chance to turn back the clock and pick up where we left off. But that required me to chang
e, my life to change. It required me opening my heart to him, to risk losing everything I’d fought so hard for these past five years.

  I called Slate. Eli had updated Gavin, so they were on their way up here to help out. Slate was my cheerleader, so positive and so happy for me, and so understanding my freaking out.

  “You can’t back out of this Rowan- or can I call you Tom too? Tom suits you. This is your happy ending Rowan. Rowan needed one so bad I was going to write one for you. And here, Tom had one all the time. Freaking out, letting that little voice in your head talk you out of things, I was going through the same things… like yesterday. Two days ago? It feels like forever ago. You need to jump in the water. Staying on shore might feel like the easiest choice, the safest one, the best one. But its the wrong one. You know it too.”

  “How did you get so wise in the last week?”

  “I think I woke up with it this morning. I need to get used to it.”

  “You wear it well.”

  “You two are soul mates. It will work out. See you soon.”

  “Thanks.”

  I slipped in the bedroom door and heard Eli still sleeping. I watched him, he slept on his side, still leaning towards my empty spot. The sheets were half-draped over his arm, and his chest and back were exposed. I pulled the covers up over him, and inhaled.

  He smelled like Mine. I thought. Still mine. Always mine.

  It reminded me of that last day, the red jacket. Such a perfect day. I sat there nervous, playing poker, losing my chips steadily. When I couldn’t stand it anymore, I bolted. Eli threw all his chips in the middle to distract the crowd, after he passed the cash to me, and I headed to the bathroom.

  The underground poker room was crowded, as it always was in the afternoon, and in a minute I was strolling into the big, square bathroom, repeating slowly to myself and taking deep breaths to keep me steady:

  I’m a college omega, on break and just in town to meet my dad. He’ll be mad I’m late and lost all my money to you guys … again. But that was only if someone asked me where I was going. Hopefully nobody would notice, and I could sneak out.