Page 36 of Wicked Truths

My hands meet his strong chest as I push myself up.

“Ohmigod, I forgot you have a wife,” I hiss, trying my damndest to climb out of his lap. “And I have a boyfriend.”

“Jesus Christ,” Hawk growls, swatting my ass. “I swear to God, I’m going to fuck Sullivan up for that one of these days.”

“For ratting you out?” I snap, slapping his hand away from my shoulder.

“For making it seem like something it’s not,” he snarls, smacking my ass again. “And Marcus told me you’d likely be upset and need a cuddle.”

I push against his pecs, trying to wiggle over into the next seat.

“Stop fucking fighting me,” Hawk says. “You’re about to set off my impulses and then I’ll have trapped your ass to the couch before either of us can stop it.”

“What?” I squint up at him, trying to figure out why I’m setting off his instincts so hard.

“I did have a wife. We got married right out of high school. My family, friends, superior officers—you name it. They all tried to warn me. I was too stubborn to see she was using me to get out of our small town. She left me while I was deployed, and that wasyearsago, Oakley.”

I frown, studying his face for any hint of dishonesty. “Why didn’t you tell me that?”

My hands rest against his T-shirt, but they bounce as he shrugs a giant shoulder.

“It’s not exactly at the top of the list of shit I enjoy talking about. It’s embarrassing. I spent the final weeks right before we left finishing up all the legal shit to dissolve the marriage. It took longer than I hoped because I had no fucking idea how to find her initially. The whole process took months. I barely got everything finalized right before we left.”

“Oh, wow. That’s actually a really shitty story.”

“Yeah. It was a clusterfuck, but I needed to handle that because it felt wrong leaving it hanging.”

“And rather than just telling me the details, which sound way less terrible now that you’ve explained them, you thought, why not just leave me to wonder what I’d done wrong? Because that’s totally fair, right?” I scoff, shaking my head.

I’m done with his and Sullivan’s bullshit. It took Marcus actually treating me decently to realize it wasn’t me or anything I did. It’s them.

“I handled the situation poorly because it’s one of my biggest failures.” Hawk sighs. “I’m truly remorseful that I kept it from you. I regret the distance that I caused more than you know.”

“Okay.” I glance away from his intense stare, swallowing thickly.

“But you still can’t forgive me?”

“Seriously?” I blink in complete shock. “I found out this information three seconds ago. I appreciate you explaining…” I don’t even know what to say. I’m not sure I have a right to be upset. I thought we were growing closer, maybe drifting into friend territory from employer and employee, but even then, I don’t think he owed me all the details of his life. “But I don’t know.”

“That’s understandable. I fucked up. I’m not afraid of putting in the work to earn back your trust.”

“I’m with Marcus.”

“You’re also an omega.”

I go rigid at his words. I don’t know why. He’d have to have been majorly ignoring the signs to have missed it, but it still feels like that layer of protection has been ripped away. I just whined in front of him. I can’t be shocked he’s no longer ignoring the elephant in the room.

“I know your suppressants haven’t worked right since that day with Love.” He sighs. “I’m totally out of line right now, but I’m just saying I’m here for you too.”

“You…” I don’t know how to finish that sentence. He doesn’t like Marcus. I didn’t think he was even truly interested in me.

“Oakley,” Liam says, shoving his head in the door. He does a double take when he spots me on Hawk’s lap. “Come on, they’re grilling Marcus pretty hard. I think he could use you.”

I carefully detangle myself from Hawk and aim for the door.

“Thanks for the talk,” I say, waving awkwardly as I literally run from the conversation we were having.

Hawk shoves himself off the couch and follows us. Liam looks like sex personified as he walks backward down the hall, wiggling his eyebrows at me. He’s wearing combat boots and a tank top with the sides ripped all the way down to his dark jeans.

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