Page 6 of Slick

“He’s joking,” I tell Dex as he steps up between my knees. “No one is going to hurt you.”

My alpha’s grunt isn’t very encouraging, but his eyes are warm as I squirm to the edge of the table. It’s hard not to preen when he watches me like that, and I return his regard, taking in his broad frame and wild mane of hair. It hangs lankly from being shoved under the hood, but I know it will be thick and lush when we wash it out. There are scars on his bronze skin, and his nose is a little crooked, but these imperfections just make him more ruggedly handsome in my eyes. As much as I love Dex’s healing hands, there’s something about my alpha’s brutal strength that sends a delicious shiver down my spine.

I thought I’d been squeezed dry on the table, but it’s impossible not to get wet as I hold my alpha’s stare. Dex has my jumpsuit in his hands, and as he tucks my feet through the legholes, he doesn’t say anything about the precious slick running down my thighs, or the puddle forming around my ruined suit. He’s always been so meticulous with his aftercare, and as he pats my messy bun back into place, my fingers twitch to brush the frown from between his eyes. Instead, I lean in and nuzzle the skin next to his ear. “Thank you for being here with me, Dex. You don’t know how happy I am right now.”

He shivers, his eyes dropping to my lips as I pull away with a smile. There’s so much more I want to tell him, but my alpha makes an impatient sound, and I lean quietly against Dex as he zips up my jumpsuit. My paper slippers are full of glass shards, so Dex scoops me into his arms as my alpha leads us to the door. He’s through it in a flash, striding confidently down the hallway despite his naked state. My eyes are glued to the slabs of muscle in his thighs and butt, so I miss the first neck he snaps, a guard going down like a puppet with its strings cut. My alpha strides on and I gaze up at Dex with an awed smile. “He’s so strong.”

“That’s one word for it,” he mutters, stepping around the guard’s body with a frown. “I doubt he can stop bullets, though.”

I cringe at the thought, but my alpha shoots a sneer at him over his shoulder. “You think I came in here without an exit plan?” He bends down and plucks a plastic keycard from the sole of his foot. It looks like it was glued there, which is confusing, but I like the dark look of satisfaction in his eyes as he runs it over the door scanner and the light turns green.

I’m impressed, but Dex is still frowning at my alpha. “How long have you been walking around on that for?”

“When the guards dragged me in here, I was given a thorough strip but a half-assed search.” My alpha’s voice is dripping with contempt. “Not that any of those fuckers thought I had the brains to pull this off.”

I don’t know what any of that means, but I feel offended on my alpha’s behalf. I have complete faith in his abilities,especially when two more guards rush him from the next corner. A bark brings them down, and he snaps their necks for good measure. When he scoops up one of their guns, I can feel the tension in Dex’s muscles. “You could just… knock them out, you know,” he says with a flash of angry eyes. “Do you have to kill them like that?”

My alpha stops so abruptly we almost walk straight into his back. When he turns, his glare makes my nipples as hard as pebbles, but it also drains the last color from Dex’s face. “You’re lucky I don’t chain the doors shut and burn this whole place down.” My alpha prods Dex in the chest with the barrel of his gun. “Choose a side, Beta, or I’ll do a lot worse than knock you out.”

“Hers,” Dex scowls, but when my alpha takes a menacing step towards him, he curls me protectively against his chest. “Fuck. Yours too, okay? Now can we get the hell out of here?”

My alpha grunts, but he must be satisfied with Dex’s answer because he turns and swipes us through another door. The alarm is still blaring overhead, but it’s muffled in this next room, and I look around curiously. There’s none of the cold plastic or white walls I’m used to, and I stop to stare at the floor under Dex’s boots. I squirm, intrigued. “Can you put me down, please?”

He places me carefully on my feet, but as soon as I make contact with the floor, I drop to my knees.

“What is it, Omega?” When I gaze up at my alpha, he looks like a fierce, primal god with his wild hair and hard eyes, but his voice is gentle beneath its deep rasp. “Did you cut yourself on the glass?”

“It’s so soft! Is it…?” As I run my hands over the floor covering, I struggle to find the right word. It’s thicker than any of my blankets, and almost as soft as the skin on Dex’s wrists. “Is itcarpet?”

My alpha’s mouth turns down. “That’s a big deal to you?”

I shrink a little, but Dex crouches down and wraps a reassuring arm around my shoulder. “Are you really surprised she’s surprised? There isn’t any carpet in the facility. Is this the Director’s floor?”

“Not anymore,” my alpha mutters, striding past chairs wrapped in darkleather, and tables made of glass andchrome. The words come back to me slowly, and I think I must have seen them before. Not in books, but in the real world, out where my alpha lives.

As I watch him march towards another door, I scramble back to my feet. Is he taking me to some place like this, with carpet andchandeliers, or is his house more simply furnished? I don’t care if it’s a cave, as long as there’s a nest we can curl up in, and the walls are drenched with his scent.

“Where are we going?” Dex asks as my alpha strides into the next room. We hurry to follow, and I find it’s even more extravagant than the last, with gold-framedportraitson the wall and afireplacethat gleams like polished bone. There’s a big desk made from dark wood, and chairs scattered about, hard leather with metal studs. The air smells like sour meat and sweet smoke, and I wrap my arms around myself. Dex must notice, because he cuddles me close and shoots my alpha an impatient look. “Why are we here?”

“Just grabbing a couple of things.”

I watch curiously as my alpha approaches the desk and starts opening drawers. He drops a set of keys beside a letter opener, then takes something out of a small wooden box. A flame flares, throwing a warm glow on his face, and sweet smoke fills the air around his head.

“You're fucking kidding me,” Dex huffs. “We came all this way for acigar?”

I don’t know what that is, but my alpha gives a happy rumble as he puffs a smoke ring out of his mouth. I giggle and he shootsme a wink, then grabs a long leather coat from a rack behind the desk. Moisture floods my mouth as he pulls it on, the fabric straining over his muscles. He puffs again and looks me over slowly, from my parted lips to my curling toes. When he waves the cigar at me, I leap forward, almost squealing with delight when he hooks an arm around my back. His tangy-sweet scent is now spicy from the smoke leaking from his nostrils, and when he smiles, I think I might have died and floated straight up to heaven.

“You like this, Omega?”

Bythis, does he mean every inch of him? I nod and brush my hands down the smooth leather, my fingertips inching along the open seams. I’m desperate to curl my hands inside, to cup the heartbeat buried in all that muscle, but alphas aren’t to be touched without invitation. “I love it.”

“I’ve got a whole closet full of leather at home, and a nice big Fat Boy to go with it.” He squints at me through a veil of smoke, and the heat in that sliver of eye makes my thighs clench. “You ever take a raw ride on a V-twin Softail under a full moon, Omega?”

His words are too exotic for my poor brain to sort into images, so I shake my head. “I’d remember something as magical as that.”

“Yeah, I’m getting the sense your memories aren’t what they should be.” The look he shoots over my head is as unforgiving as the surface of a collection bed. “Guess we’ll have to make some new ones, won’t we?”

I think he’s talking to Dex, but I hope he means he’s going to take me for a raw ride on his Softail, whatever that is. “I’d like that. I haven’t seen the moon in… I’m not sure. We don’t go outside very often, in case the unfiltered air affects our slick quality.”

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