Elite Metal-ARE-epub (77 page)

With so many horrible things happening, she couldn’t make sense of any of it. “Why did you say it the way you did? The Boy? As if you’re putting capital letters on it?”

“It’s a thing I do.”

“You.” Kent’s voice caught her attention and she whirled around to see him. He pointed at Elijah. “I used to see you on the street. Sometimes. You look like me. I told Maw Maw. I told her and she laughed. You’re my father.”

Her ex nodded. “I am actually.”

Oh hell
.

Chapter Five

Now

Platinum expected anger, rage, and accusations. Dreaded telling his son the truth, who he was, and why he’d been absent from his life. Walking in the door detonated an emotional IED inside.

He met his son’s wide eyes. Eyes he recognized, because he saw them in the mirror every day.

“Look, Kent. I understand. No one understands how shitty a bad father can be better than I. And some day you and I will talk about how we got here. The only thing I can tell you is I would have handled it differently if I could have. My priority is your safety. You and Rose. Okay?” He said the next sentence as much for Rose as for Kent. “The rest we’ll figure out as we go.”

He clenched his jaw so tightly, his ears hurt. In a kinder world, he’d have been able to see Rose again under far different circumstances, to hold her in his arms, to explain to her his disappearance had nothing to do with her at all.

In a better existence he wouldn’t be a stranger to his son.

Plat dealt in facts. Not fiction. Truth, he’d chosen to join Elite Metal, albeit having been kidnapped to have the option to do so. Truth, his conscious decision to do so cost him the only two people he loved in the world.

The whys would have to wait.

“We have a very sloppy would-be sniper after you. I’m going to have to ask the two of you to be patient while I get control of all the factors involved here. I only came in because I don’t want you panicky if you hear gunfire. I have no idea if sloppy shooter out there has a silencer on the gun he or she is using.”

He glanced from Kent to Rose. Her eyes were huge. She didn’t seem to be looking at him, not really—shock. Still, she spoke to him through trembling lips. “How do you propose to deal with the sniper out there? What are you going to be able to do about it? Shouldn’t you call someone and how do you know about this anyway?”

Plat held up his hand to silence her and she stopped talking. He’d missed the sound of her voice so much. The pleasure and soothing he took from the lyrical quality of her tones were too much of a distraction. A temptation.

“I learned about the present circumstances because I hired a private detective to keep an eye on Kent. When Kent went missing I started trying to find out what happened. I don’t know how long it’s been since Kent went to school. Was he missing before you went on the run?”

The timeline bothered him. Rose hadn’t been missing very long. Why had Tony lost Kent if they’d only been in the cabin for what seemed a very short time? The sniper only missed shooting them the day before.

“He missed a little school. His grandmother wasn’t feeling well. Why? It’s not relevant.” She put her hands on her hips. Rose wouldn’t have yelled before he’d left. If he’d stayed quiet, she would have done as he asked.

Of course, he’d lost the right to her submissive behavior. His heart panged with the disappointment. Saving her life came first. Seeing if there was any possibility of fixing things could come afterwards.

And Tony clearly did not earn his retainer. He lost the boy because Kent’s grandmother got sick. Utter incompetence.

“Eli?” Rose’s voice held enormous frustration. He’d gone off into his own head again. Too long passed since he’d last worked on his communication skills. His team had a verbal shorthand. They didn’t need a hell of a lot of words.

“That’s not actually my name. It’s fine if you want to call me Elijah. Only it was never real.” She deserved to know.

Her eyes went suspiciously moist. No way could he deal with her crying. On his best day women’s tears befuddled him. Right then didn’t count as his best anything.

“To answer your question, darling, I’m going to do what I do. I’m a sniper. I used to do it for Uncle Sam. These days, things are a little less clear. I am going to shoot whoever it is who is out there in the head.”

Her mouth fell open. He supposed he really bumbled the exchange. Either he’d blown it or there was no really good way to manage it at all.
How did you tell the woman you loved yet abandoned you were really a sniper and not the med student you tried to be the whole time she knew you?
The simplest answer was the one he’d relied on before someone tried to kill his son.
You don’t.

“Keep your head down. Stay flat on the floor, you and Kent. Whatever crap we have to deal with, we’ll sort it out. Everyone stays alive.”

“Wait.”

He paused. Being so close to Rose again and actually speaking to Kent played havoc on his nerves.

“Yeah?” She hadn’t aged a day. The wariness in her eyes was new. While he was sure the lousy sniper who tried to shoot her played a large role in her hooded gaze, he’d bet money his presence was the reason for her guarded eyes.

“What should I call you? Since Elijah is not your name.”

“These days it’s Platinum.”

“As in the metal or your hair?” She coughed and he watched a shiver wreck through her body. They’d have been okay in here when the fire blazed, except the chill had won. The longer Rose and Kent stayed, the worse it would be for them.

“Both. One led to the other.”

He wanted to leave, tried to again, time nearly stopping when Kent called out. “Please be careful. No one is bullet proof.”

Plat nodded at his son. He knew better than most. Likely, the person would miss. Then he’d be able to track their direction easily. The bullet didn’t come and he wasn’t surprised. Oh well, he’d have to track the old fashioned way.

Of course he might also take one in the head.

The nip of the night struck his cheeks. He processed the temperature as he did the direction of the breeze, and the air speed velocity. Digging into himself, he sought the stillness vital to his job. The Silence. When he’d first been coming up in the Marines, his commanding officer described what it took to excel at his job.

Plat’s ability to hit a target accurately notwithstanding, his skills with a rifle hadn’t been why he kept getting promoted and they’d not constituted the reason why Marine special forces wanted him along.

He blended, disappeared into his surroundings in a way, which simply couldn’t be taught. If he really wanted to psychoanalyze the damn thing—and fuck he did not—he could take it back to the days he’d needed to vanish because his abandoned and divorced mother entertained her male friends in the apartment he’d been too young to flee.

Better to simply disappear. If they didn’t notice him, he could pretend the whole thing wasn’t happening.

He needed to perform his inner checklist. More than his life was at stake. He wouldn’t lose the two souls he’d left behind in the cabin.
Ever
. .

He was good at his job. Plat sharpened his focus. He’d find the fool and with a single pop the whole mess would be over.

* * * * *

Two years earlier

He never thought about the night everything went sideways and got completely fucked. Elijah couldn’t let thoughts of Operation Phoenix cross his mind. He hadn’t been there, none of Steele’s team had been. Would it have made a difference if he had been?

Of course the memories visited him when he slept.

Vulnerability didn’t work for him. Not even a little bit. Which was how he found himself lying in the dark next to a sleeping Rose with his arm flung over his eyes as if he could block out his dark thoughts as easily as he could the light from the street.

Operation fucking Phoenix
.

Rose murmured in her sleep and he let his arm fall down so he could stare at her in the darkness. Her eyes were closed and he could see small movements beneath her closed lids indicated she’d reached a dream state.

He should leave her alone. They’d engaged in quite a workout and she needed rest. His cock twitched at the memory of how they both came hours earlier.

Naked and trembling, only not with fear…

His Rose liked to hold onto the headboard. She’d come beautifully around his cock. His balls throbbed as blood pooled back into his dick leaving him immediately erect again.

Would she want to be tied
?

He’d not expected to reach such a place with her, not yet. The chance to find out made him put the silk ties into his bag, along with the condoms.

Plat was always in control. Except he wasn’t. He needed Rose and though vulnerability should have scared the shit out of him, it didn’t.

He wasn’t a sniper anymore. Circumstances left him living a civilian life. Medical students got to fall in love. They didn’t have to worry the fucking world was going to end the next day if the Iranians got plutonium from Russia.

Plat eased closer to Rose. With a swift move, he tugged her tighter against him until her mouth was close to his. Her eyes fluttered open and he kissed her before she could speak.

This was how he wanted to wake her, with kisses for the rest of her life.

She moaned against him, her body squirming with impatience. He loved her small movements and he loved how he was going to help her to control them. She’d come harder when he did.

He reached over the bed and pulled his bag closer.

“What are you doing?” She whispered even though they were alone, and no one could overhear. Yet, he liked how it made the moment feel private, belonging only to them.

“Trust me.” He pulled the silk ties out of the innermost pocket of his backpack. Holding them up, he let her study them for a moment. She’d learned the color codes earlier. They’d stick with them. “Color?”

“I liked everything we did earlier.” She patted at his face. “Don’t smirk.”

He hadn’t realized he’d done so. “What can I say? A man likes to hear his woman was satisfied.”

She pointed at the ties. “Will they hurt?”

“They’re silk.” He placed one in her fingers so she could feel how smooth they were. “Shouldn’t hurt much. And if they do, you can call red.”

“They feel okay, I think I could enjoy the silk.”

He did too and planned to dress her entirely in silk to be spread out beneath him as she was…draped and secured for his pleasure and hers.

She raised an eyebrow. “What are you thinking about?”

“Reading me?” An unusual development or merely another sign he’d adjusted to civilian life? Or maybe because he’d fallen over a cliff for Rose.

“Only when you’re so obviously contemplating something other than the ties you put in my hand.” She wiggled them in his face.

“I think I might have another kink. Don’t worry. We’ll figure it out later.” He grinned because he couldn’t help it. She made him happy. He nodded toward the red silk. “Color?”

“Green.”

Awesome.
He pushed her hands up against the headboard. He took the ties from her and carefully, not wanting to hurt her only restrain her, he knotted them and secured her to the headboard.

She gasped and he needed to learn if it was a good sound or not. . “Color?” He’d repeat the question as many times as necessary until he learned her well enough he could have a PH.D in the subject of Rose.

“Green.” She tugged at her restraints and they didn’t hurt.“I guess you mean business.”

“Always.”

There had never been a time in his life where he hadn’t been entirely serious about what he was doing. His focus amounted to making Rose come. Hard.

He scooted down until he positioned his mouth on her pussy and he licked his lips in anticipation. Getting women off while they were tied up made him hard as hell. With Rose, it was even more so. He didn’t want the satisfaction of knowing he made her come, any fool holding a dildo could do so. No, Rose needed to understand her immense pleasure had been provided by him and always would be.

She moaned as he licked her clit. This was the closest he would ever be to any kind of heaven. Platinum closed his eyes and lost himself in the moment. Making Rose squirm, making her moan got him harder and harder. His pleasure didn’t matter. Not yet anyway.

When she was panting he pulled back and pressed two fingers deeper inside of her than his tongue could manage. She was so wet and his balls hardened tighter. Any more hardening and they might actually fall off.

“Eli.”

He loved her breathy moan. If he could, he’d keep her doing it every hour of every day.

“Here’s how tonight is going to work, sweet Rose, you aren’t going to come until I tell you to.”

She nodded.
Good
. His little submissive who didn’t realize what she was yet. Still, she gave herself to him beautifully as if she’d been born to do so.

Eli loved the way she tasted. He’d never been with a woman who reminded him so much of honey. He breathed it in before he bit gently on her clit.

Her legs shook, only she didn’t come and her obedience made him smile. “You listen so well, beautiful.”

She groaned. “And you’re tormenting me.”

“In the best possible way.” He looked up at her wrists. She gripped the restraints tightly. “Color?”

“Green but getting frustrated.” She cocked an eyebrow at him and he laughed.

“Fair enough.” He pressed on her small bundle of nerves again and she gasped. “You can come around my cock. When you’re ready and I’m inside you.”

He moved until he was close enough to press into her. First he grabbed the condom wrapper he’d left earlier on her bedside table. He’d always take care of her in whatever way he could and it didn’t frighten him he wanted to.

Eli sheathed himself and then pressed deep into her trembling body. She sighed his name and he bit down on her shoulder. He might never stop having the need to taste her, to lick her, to have the essence that was Rose on his tongue, in his body.