Twenty Two
“ P errie,” Rhodes’ voice was the first thing I heard when I finally woke up again with every inch of my body feeling stiff and sore as gentle hands lifted me from the messy bed that had been my home for the past day… or had it been two days?
I knew an omega’s heat could take days to work through, but I’d never known that alpha ruts were similar.
After the first few hours of lovemaking, Edison eventually let me sleep only to awaken me later by sliding inside of me from behind, his body pressing mine into the bed as he continued to leave a trail of bruises over every inch of my body that his lips could reach.
“What time is it?” I mumbled, only half-awake as I flopped my head into a chest that smelled of warm chocolate.
“Just after two in the afternoon, kid,” Rhodes said and my brain finally registered that he was in the room with us and was carrying me completely naked.
I jerked upright, surprising both of us as the alpha struggled to keep a grip on me as my eyes flew open to stare into his dark ones. “What’s happening? Where’s Edison?”
“Shh,” Rhodes hushed, scooting the hand that was cradling my back up to cover my mouth. “He’s asleep and unless you want to accidentally restart his rut you need to let him stay asleep.”
My mouth slammed shut as I glanced over at Edison who was snoring softly face down on the bed.
“Why did you wake me up then?” I whispered as Rhodes strode through a pair of double doors that I hadn’t noticed when we came in before, nudging them shut behind us. The doors led us through the fanciest walk in closet I’d ever seen and into a cavernous bathroom.
“Because I figured a bath and some food is in order before Edison grinds you into a pile of kinky dust,” Rhodes said and I gaped at the joking tone of his voice.
Rhodes never joked. About anything.
In fact, the last time I’d spoken to him he’d been mid-scold about my ‘seriously immature choices’ before Edison came in and carried me out of my room.
“Who are you and what have you done with the normal Rhodes McCreary?” I asked suspiciously as he put me down on a little stool that was sitting next to the massive pedestal with an inlaid tub.
Rhodes shrugged, his eyes remaining locked on my face rather than my very nude body. “I’ve had some time to think over the past few days.”
“ Few days ?” I gasped, gawking open-mouthed at the alpha. “How did the house function without Edison? What about my classes?”
“Everything is fine,” Rhodes assured me as he turned on the taps for the tub and tested the temperature of the water. “The house won’t burn down if Edi is out of commission for a few days, and as for classes… I—ahem—think you’re probably not going to want to go for a little while looking like that.”
I frowned at him. “What do you mean? I can’t just skip classes since we’re going to be heading into midterms in a couple of weeks.”
“Look down, kid.” Rhodes didn’t look at me and I watched as a flush had crawled up the side of his neck.
I glanced down at my body and gasped at what I saw.
Little purple bruises were littered all over my body, down my neck, breasts, stomach, legs, hell somehow Edison had even managed to get a couple on my ankles and the top of my feet.
I only hazily remembered him doing it and how good it had felt at the time… but I never realized that they would leave bruises!
“I’m going to go and strangle him in his sleep,” I muttered darkly, getting ready to do just that before Rhodes held up a hand to stop me.
“Bath and food first, I’m sure you don’t want to be arrested when you’ve got Edison’s cum caked all over you. You wouldn’t want to leave all that evidence behind would you?”
I stared at him, a little bit appalled at his words and the fact that he was still joking around.
“I am not caked in his…” My face flamed at the word being used outside of the heat of sex, “ Cum .”
“Are you sure about that? That you’re not even a little bit crusty?”
I was up on my feet and sinking into the tub before Rhodes could say anything else. It was pure bliss on my sore limbs and the depth of the tub brought the water right underneath my chin as I fought to not let out a little moan of relief.
“Okay, you’ve gotten me into the tub, you can go now,” I said, embarrassment really starting to settle in and I didn’t want Rhodes to continue to stare at my love-bitten body any more than he needed to. Especially if he was going to refuse to do any of the biting himself.
As that last stray thought flitted through my mind, I finally looked the alpha square in the face for the first time since he’d woken me up. He looked tired, there were deep purple smudges under his eyes and his beard needed a serious trim.
Three days ago when he’d swept into the party like an avenging angel to find me he hadn’t looked so… exhausted .
Rhodes was the first to look away, reaching behind him for a silver platter with a plethora of meats, cheeses, and fruits. My stomach growled as I realized that in the three days since Edison had gone nearly feral I’d barely eaten a thing. “I’m not going anywhere until you eat.”
I glanced at the platter and then back up at Rhodes as a sneaky idea formed in my head.
“I can’t, my hands are wet.”
One of Rhodes’ eyebrows lifted. “Are you telling me you can’t eat because the food will get a little soggy when you touch it?”
“You should have told me before I got into this tub,” I sniffed pertly, trying to look every inch the spoiled omega I was supposed to be.
Truth be told, I didn’t care about soggy food. I just wanted to see how far I could push the alpha before he retreated away from me again.
Because he always did. I spent more time together with Rhodes than anyone else and yet I still felt like I couldn’t pin the man down at all.
Sometimes he would do things that would make my stomach flutter—big things like coming and scooping me off the ground at the party, or even small gestures like how he would pull my chair out or carry the heavy bags of film for me down three flights of stairs to the library basement to be developed.
And then on the flip side Rhodes would act as cold as ice, like he didn’t care for me past me being his boss’s wife.
Edison had told me the shortened version of their conversation the day after we first had sex and it seemed like the two had decided to go back to the way they used to be: just a boss and his second-in-command.
I didn’t like that one bit. I’d only ever known Edison and Rhodes when they seemed to pine after one another even though neither would ever admit it. At least not unless I made them admit it.
Rhodes let out an exasperated sigh, like what I was asking him to do was the hardest thing in the world, but still he lifted a strawberry up from the platter and held it out to me.
I tried not to smirk at his chosen piece of fruit and instead leaned forward to take probably the slowest bite known to man.
Chewing slowly, the slightly tart berry was a shock to my taste buds. I watched Rhodes’ Adam’s apple bob up and down as he swallowed heavily, a slow smile forming on my face. “Can I try the blueberries next?”
I’d come to two conclusions the night that Rhodes rescued me from the party.
One was that I wanted Rhodes McCreary—either on his own or with Edison it didn’t seem to matter much when it came to me or my instincts. I’d been pushing the feeling away over the past couple of weeks, telling myself not to go after someone who didn’t want to be chased. But that had changed when he put his hands on my face, checking for any injury while his eyes were wild with fear.
The second thing I’d concluded was that if something didn’t happen to shake up the status quo between the three of us, then nothing ever would.
Kailey’s dragging me to a party, as ill-advised of a choice as it had been, now seemed to actually be working in my favor as I watched Rhodes frown at the blueberries before choosing the biggest one and holding it out to me pinched in between his pointer finger and his thumb.
I took the berry, making sure that my lips lingered on his fingers for far longer than was appropriate before I leaned back against the edge of the tub to chew and watch his reaction.
While I was sure I’d never be the sultry temptress that I’d read about in my romance novels or watched with Oona on her soap operas, I knew I at least had an effect on two alphas because Rhodes looked absolutely flabbergasted.
“What are you doing, Perrie?” he asked, his lips coming together in a thin line as he looked down into the water at me.
“Nothing,” I murmured, offering him a sweet smile as I shrugged. “Just eating.”
Rhodes let out a huff and it took me a second to realize that it was a laugh. “All right then, you can finish your food once you’re done bathing.”
There it was. His usual retreat when things moved too far away from the comfort zone he created for himself.
Rhodes turned to leave and my heart leapt into my throat as I pushed myself across the tub and reached a soaked hand out to snag the sleeve of his jacket. “Rhodes?”
The alpha paused, glancing over his shoulder at me.
Sucking in a deep drag of his chocolate scent and using it to bolster me on, I got onto my knees and came up out of the water just enough that he could see my top half. “Do you remember that day in the pool?”
“What day?” Rhodes asked, his voice suddenly gravelly as his dark eyes finally trailed down from my face to my breasts which, despite being a little bit sore and bruised, still seemed to draw the alpha’s warm gaze.
“When you thought I was drowning and you jumped in the pool. I asked you why you cared to save me and do you remember what you said?” My hand slid down from his sleeve and into his and he let me thread our fingers together.
Rhodes swallowed again before settling back down on the top step of the pedestal that led into the tub. “I said why wouldn’t I care because you were going to be Edison’s wife.”
It had hurt my feelings at the time to be reduced down to just Edison’s future wife, like that was my only reason for still being here after I’d fought so hard to stay alive.
“That’s right. Now I want to ask you why you came to save me at the party.”
“Perrie…” Rhodes let out a sigh and started to pull his hand from mine.
“No, I want to know,” I insisted.
“It’s really complicated and—” I was done listening to him waffle around the point. Reaching up with my free hand, I gripped him by the front of his dark blue shirt and pulled him into the bath with me, ignoring the overflow of water as he sputtered with surprise.
“Perrie!” This time my name came out in an irritated bark. “Seriously?”
Rhodes put his hands on either side of my hips as he tried to keep his head from dunking under the warm water.
“Answer the question, Rhodes,” I said, my fingers still tangled in his shirt. Our faces were close together now, as close as they were the night of the party when he’d cradled my face in his hands. “Why did you come to save me at the party? Is it just because I’m Edison’s wife?”
Rhodes’ dark eyes met mine and I watched as droplets of water dripped from his curly hair and down the bridge of his long nose.
We stared at each other, seemingly both willing the other to do or say something first.
“Because I don’t want anything bad to happen to you and that night I thought I’d lost you.” Rhodes practically whispered the words, like if he said it too loud some unseen force would strike him down.
But for me, it was all I needed to hear. I pulled him into me and our mouths met. The same tingling feeling I got when Edison kissed me filled my body as Rhodes melted against me.
His hands gripped my face and instead of pushing me away, he tilted my head back into the water and deepened the kiss, his tongue moving against mine as his facial hair tickled my chin and cheeks.
This was what I’d been missing on the night where my dreams had taken a spicier edge. It was never just Edison who showed up in them anymore, but even still Rhodes had been a hazy unknown because he never so much as touched me in a way that was more than perfunctory.
He was touching me now, though, and his hands sliding down the column of my throat and down to my breasts. I wasn’t even sure he realized he was doing it.
My fingers slid around the back of his neck, urging him on as he finally cupped them and gave them a squeeze. A tingling warmth started to gather in the pit of my stomach as Rhodes growled against my mouth, seeming to forget all of his previous trepidations about touching me.
I wasn’t sure how long we stayed there, but it was Edison’s voice that finally broke through our heated kiss.
“As much as I am enjoying the show, I do think I should tell you that one of the maids is in the next room changing the sheets on the bed and I don’t think she would appreciate the sounds of moans while she tries to do her work.”
Rhodes jerked away from me, sliding back across the tub with wide eyes as we both looked over to where Edison was leaning against the doorframe that led back into his closet.
He’d pulled on a pair of black silk pajama bottoms and they were slung low on his hips, revealing the trail of bruises that I apparently had also left at some point during what amounted to a marathon of sex over the past couple of days.
While I could still remember most of what we’d done… I didn’t remember leaving quite so many hickeys on the alpha.
“Edison—” Rhodes began, clearly panicked about having been caught kissing me.
But Edison lifted up a hand to stop him as he came to join us by the tub, taking up the spot that I’d just pulled Rhodes from as he leaned down to give me a kiss. “Are you enjoying your bath, pet?”
I leaned into his mouth, relishing the taste of him after my last kiss had been so abruptly interrupted.
Once he was done, Edison gently tilted my head so that he could press his mouth into my ear. “I should have had you on the case from the beginning, darling, because I think you would have had Rhodes straightened out long before this.”
We grinned at each other before turning to the alpha who was clearly still going through it if the horrified expression on his face said anything about his current mental state.
“Well,” Edison said decisively as he reached for the black silk robe that was hanging from a nearby peg. “I think it’s far past the time for the three of us to sit down and talk. Rhodes, why don’t you go change first so that we can all chat comfortably.”
“Edison, I didn’t…” Rhodes trailed off, looking at me with wide eyes because we both knew that he did, in fact, mean it.
With a sigh Rhodes stood, his waterlogged clothes hanging heavily off of his frame as he stepped out of the tub and headed for the closet, leaving a large trail of water in his wake.
“Can I borrow some of your clothes?” he called over his shoulder, but I could already see him rummaging through one of the drawers.
“You know where everything is,” Edison replied before turning his attention back to me.
“You know,” he said, his fingers dancing along my wet collar bone before sliding up to the fresh bond mark on my neck. “The pleasure you were feeling was what woke me up out of a dead sleep. I nearly lost my mind thinking you were cheating on me until I saw that it was Rhodes kissing you.”
I quirked a brow at him, catching his hand with my own and pressing it harder to the bond mark. The contact made both of us shudder as our bond seemed to sing at the contact. “Where would I find someone to cheat with in this house, Edison?”
“My men, as good as they are, still have eyeballs, Perrie,” Edison rumbled, leaning down to press another hungry kiss to my lips. “Though I’m not opposed to ripping them out if you continue to grow any more beautiful than you are now.”
The compliment to me was so soft that I nearly missed the threat that he’d woven into it. “Rhodes looks at me and he’s one of your men, so why is it any different?”
I knew why it was, I just wanted him to verbalize it out loud.
“Because, pet,” Edison said as he reached into the tub to grip my waist, pulling me out of the water and into his lap. “In my mind, Rhodes has always been the third member of our pack. He just hasn’t realized it yet.”
“And do you think he’s realized it now?” I asked, nodding to where Rhodes was currently shucking off his sopping wet clothing.
Edison’s arms wrapped around me and he rested his chin on my shoulder. “Hmm, I’m not sure yet, though I am sure that he wants to kiss you again and if the stiffness in his boxers tells me anything, he definitely wants to do more than that.”
The hunger in Edison’s voice made me shudder a little bit and I turned to catch his mouth with mine again.
I just hoped that he was right and that, by pushing Rhodes, I hadn’t ruined everything forever.