Page 39 of Rest In Knotty Pieces

I hesitate and then let him go. We all have needed time and space to deal with the horror of whatever trauma that omega has gone through.

Instead, I turn and hunt down Aaron. It takes a while, but I find him standing beside the pool, staring into the water.

“Aaron?”

He shudders.

I approach slowly, completely focused on him. I slip my arms around him and rest my chin on his shoulder, ignoring the way he stiffens.

“Do you remember the wedding?”

“The part where it went wrong or the part where it went worse?” he says bitterly.

“The part where I fucked you like you were mine.”

He’s quiet. “That part. Yeah, I remember that part.”

“Yeah. Before our parents caught us and told us we were forbidden from being together, and my dad tried to make me kill you while your mum tried to get you to arrest me. Good times.”

“Like we care what they think,” Aaron scoffs.

“Mm, so why have you been fighting this so hard?” I brush my lips against his nape, watching him shudder. “You want me, I see you watching me. I can smell how much you want me, Alpha.”

“We are fundamentally different people,” he murmurs. “You kill people. I save them.”

“You say that like it’s bad. Opposites attract. We could be perfect together.”

He chokes out a harsh laugh. I edge closer until I’m pressed to his back. It’s not often I find Aaron this vulnerable. He normally would have thrown me off him already.

“It is a bad thing. I’m a cop. I put people like you in jail.”

“Like me isn’t me. I’m special.”

“Oh, you’re special all right,” Aaron scoffs.

I slide my hands up his chest, working my way in between his buttons until I’m touching skin. He’s letting me touch him so much more than he has in years.

“I am special. And yours,” I say honestly. “If you wanted me.”

“And Blaze?”

“Yes, we both belong to Blaze now.”

“I don’t know him.”

“Not yet, but you will.” I lip his earlobe, loving the sharp gasp that drives a jolt straight down my dick and into my balls.

“Talk to me about the omegas. What’s going on with Daega?” I murmur.

He stiffens and pulls my hands off him, the force field that keeps Aaron Roseland separate from everyone else in the world returning.

“Daega is…” his gaze rises and pins me to the spot. “He’s not suitable.”

“Suitable for whom?”

“For me, my life. He’s…”

So much pain. What is driving this refusal to accept anyone in his life?