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.
