The Deputy and His Enforcer (Kincaid Pack #3) - Kiki Clark Page 0,82
chin, but he still wasn’t looking at Robson. “Thank you for your concern, but I’ve been taking care of myself my whole life. I’ve had to. I was always a… a… freak or whatever. With too-red hair, too skinny of a body, and skin that blushed too easily.”
There was that word again. Biting back a growl, Robson took a deep breath to calm the anger stirring in his gut at the pieces of shit who raised his sweet Marcus. Leaning over, he clasped the sides of Marcus’s face, but he still kept his eyes averted. “Hey.”
Nothing.
“Cariño.”
Marcus’s eyes squeezed shut, a single tear slipping free.
Beginning to panic, Robson’s voice took on a harder edge. “Look at me, Marcus.”
When his lashes fluttered open and his sad, despair-filled eyes met Robson’s, Robson couldn’t help himself. Shoving the table back a little, he crawled into Marcus’s lap, straddling him, then gripped the sides of his neck as he pressed their foreheads together.
“Mi amor, I don’t know who told you such lies, but you are beautiful.” He pressed soft kisses to Marcus’s wet lashes, the tiny whimpers he released like daggers to Robson’s heart. “I love how strong your body is and these adorable freckles on your nose and the fact that you blush when someone flirts or says something suggestive.” He peppered kisses across his cheekbones, then rubbed his five-o’clock shadow against Marcus’s thicker beard and shuddered. “I fucking love this beard you’re growing.”
“I’m growing it out for you,” Marcus whispered.
Robson didn’t know how Marcus had figured out Robson liked it so much, but he was still touched. Sliding his mouth over, he laid a quick, soft kiss on Marcus’s mouth. “So sweet. And I absolutely adore your hair. It’s so soft and shiny, and when the sun hits it just right… it’s like the whole world can see the fire in you. Plus, it’s just long enough for me to hold on to if I need to.” He threw Marcus a wink and bit back a groan at the pink stain on his pale cheeks. “Fuck. It’s so hot that someone as smart, and powerful, and strong as you are blushes at a wink. Can you smell how much I want you?”
Marcus whimpered and wrapped his arms around Robson, burying his face into his neck and nodding. “You don’t regret what we did this morning?” he mumbled into the thin skin of Robson’s throat, making him shiver and groan as his cock twitched.
He wanted to scoff at the very idea of regretting anything that could ever happen between them, but he didn’t think that would make Marcus feel better in his vulnerable state. Wrapping one arm around Marcus’s shoulders, he used his other hand to thread through the hair on the back of his head and lightly scratch at his scalp. “No, I absolutely do not regret what happened this morning.” He paused for a moment, letting Marcus take in how steady his heart was and how truthful or whatever his scent stayed, and then he asked, “Do you?”
Marcus’s arms tightened around him. “Of course not.”
“I’m glad,” he murmured, scratching a little more at Marcus’s head, then just slowly carding his fingers through his hair for a few minutes and letting Marcus take all the comfort he needed from him. When Marcus’s hold loosened a little, he continued the conversation. “But you were hurt by me not knowing you’d want to move in together.”
He stated it like a fact but wasn’t surprised when Marcus stiffened in his hold, then slowly nodded into his neck. “I realized…”
When he didn’t continue, Robson pressed him a little. “What, cariño?”
A slight tremble shook Marcus’s body, but Robson wasn’t sure if it was because of what he was about to say or because he liked the endearment. It took a minute, but Marcus finally said, “I realized that I’d done what everyone had warned me not to do.”
Robson frowned at the plant sitting by the window across the room but kept running his fingers through Marcus’s hair. “I don’t understand. What did you do?”
“Tried to rush you,” Marcus said so softly Robson almost couldn’t hear him. “Everyone warned me that you’d need more time, and I thought I understood that, but I still did it.”
Oh.
Chapter Twenty-One
As Marcus leaned his trembling body into his mate’s strong chest, he realized it had been over a decade since he’d allowed anyone to see him so vulnerable. Longer, really, since it had been years before he left his parents’ pack that he’d