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“You’re clear. Go.” He urged. So I went without looking back. For now.
I forced myself to keep to an even pace once again, trusting Pala to give an alert if I needed to run. When I hit the treeline, I disappeared into the shadows and hustled the half mile back to my bike.
I found it, with one wrong turn in the dark and only a few muttered curses.
My bike wasn’t alone, though.
twenty-four
Someonehadproppedanotherbike next to mine, this one electric. It wasn’t a bike I’d seen before. Any type of electric vehicle was rare in these parts. The only ones I’d seen around here before were on our farm.
I stood in the shadows, trying to decide whether to retreat or show myself when I felt the heat of a solid presence warm my back. I really needed to work on my peripheral senses.
“Lex,” Dave whispered, his voice dark and raspy. “Do you know how many years you just took off my life?”
I felt him grab my hips from behind, roughly, as if he was trying not to touch me but also couldn’t go another minute without it. It felt like he was at war with himself as his hands squeezed my sides, anchoring me in place.
His hold reminded me of our secret kiss in the darkness of a different tree, and I briefly wondered why Dave only dared to touch me in the shadows.Was it guilt? Denial? Or maybe just the allure of the forbidden?
He tugged me back against his tense body, before he relaxed slightly at the contact, and slowly slid his arms around my waist to hug me from behind. He rested his head on my shoulder and breathed out heavily.
I had so many questions right now.How did he find me? What did I mean to him? Why did he smell so freaking good?Dave had started to smell like both Sam and Dio, as if their scents clung to him, but with his own musky undertone.
I tentatively reached up and wrapped my arms over his around my waist. His touch felt strangely familiar. It was as if he’d been touching me my whole life rather than the strict hands off policy we usually observed: like it was some kind of secret agreement that we’d never voiced.
I leaned into him and rested my head back onto his shoulder while looking up into the darkened branches above us, silently offering him the comfort he so clearly needed. Sparks usually flew between us, hot and intense, whenever we were near each other. Yet, this moment felt peaceful.
We stayed that way for a few minutes, listening to the sounds of the forest slowly coming back to life around us, now that we were no longer trampling around and disturbing the inhabitants. An owl hooted overhead, making me jump slightly, and Dave chuckled, his breath ghosting over my neck.
My skin instantly heated and I let out the smallest moan as I finally noticed his hard body pressed behind me. He tensed up again, as if only just now realizing how many places we were touching, too. He eased back up and away from me, and I felt the loss of his touch keenly.
I swallowed, hard, as I forced my desire for him back down into the box I kept it in. I stepped away too, but kept my face averted as I partially turned. How could a man destroy me without me even laying eyes on him? It was torture.
“Lex…,” he whispered with a groan. He left the one word hanging as if there was more he wanted to say, but knew now was not the time.
“Pala will be back soon, with the woman from my safe house. I assume that’s why you’re here?” I said, an edge of frustration in my voice that I couldn’t mask, no matter how hard I tried to swallow it down.
“Pala? How does he know about your safe house and why is he going instead of you? Did you run into trouble?”
I could feel Dave’s eyes running all over me in the darkness, looking for signs of injury or distress. I glanced at him and he had one hand reached out as if he wanted to grab me again and pull me closer. He clenched his hand into a fist and dropped it as I watched.
This dance we were still doing felt like it belonged to another time. I needed his solid presence to anchor me in the maelstrom of emotions my life had become since my omega had burst free. I didn’t know how to tell him that, though. We’d been keeping each other at a distance for so long, it had become a habit I didn’t know how to break.
I sighed and brought him up to speed with everything that had just happened, wrapping my arms around myself to cover the suddenly empty feeling stealing over me. It had been a long, intense day, and I needed comfort in a way I’d never felt before. I wanted to rub myself all over something soft and familiar.
I’d always been so self sufficient, but it no longer felt like enough. My omega needed touch, and I realized denying touch from the people around me had been one way of denying my omega all these years.
Yet Dio wasn’t here right now, and Dave seemed unwilling. The thought made me feel unbearably sad. Dave watched me closely, seeing way too much as always, before he stepped into me and hooked a finger under my chin as he forced me to look up at him.
“What do you need, Lex?”
I tried to shake my head, but he swept his thumb up along my jaw in a way that made me shiver, before he used it to grip my chin firmly. I wouldn’t accept a hold like that from any other man, but Dave owned me in a way I didn’t yet understand.
“You and I need to talk, Lex. There are things that need to be said, but now is not the time.”
His pale blue eyes bored into me, flecked silver in the moonlight, and they kept me trapped even more than his grip.
“That doesn’t mean you can’t lean on me. Whatever you need that is in my power to give, I will give you,” he said, like he was the rock the world would break upon if I needed it.
