“It’s not going to happen,” Malachi growled. There was no way he was leaving Megan to babysit some horny kid that got caught with his pants down.
“I understand,” the director said out loud, but his eyes spoke volumes about how he really felt about Malachi’s decision to not help protect his son. “I appreciate your time. I won’t bother you any longer.” He stood up and started shuffling his folders around. A picture of Justice tumbled out and landed on the table almost right in front of Malachi. The kid wasn’t really a kid. He was a twenty-one year old young man that was almost as pretty as Jasper but Malachi knew immediately he would detest the spoiled brat. Jasper had innocence; Justice had arrogance. His alpha did not mix well with arrogance at all.
It was more than that, though. He didn’t want to leave Megan. They had only had a little less than a year together and their relationship was still in the development stages. He didn’t want to do anything that would rock that boat. Hell, that boat was already rocking itself without any outside interferences. Adding another problem to the mix certainly wouldn’t help. Megan was his life, his soul mate and true love. If he didn’t have her, life wouldn’t be worth living anymore. Fucking up and losing her was not an option for him.
There it was again, a damned flicker of disappointment in Dante’s eyes. His friend was hitting below the belt today.
“How long?” He spat out in disgust. “How long would I have to babysit the bastard?”
Director Conners frowned at Malachi but then quickly reined it in. Shit, but the man must really be desperate.
“The trial is in one month. Once he testifies, Marcus shouldn’t be able to touch him. There’s one other possible witness. A young man survived the shooting, but it is still questionable on whether he will live or not. He suffered a head injury and at this point the doctors aren’t sure he will even remember anything about what happened. We aren’t relying on his testimony to help us put Marcus away.
“Why do you feel like you need to do this? Do you have another leak in your department, Director?” Malachi asked in an unfriendly growl. At least he could make the bastard suffer. He was good at making people suffer; it was something he enjoyed.
“No. I don’t believe there is another leak in my department,” he answered with a frown. “My son is…well, he’s…” He paused, searching for the right words. “He gets into some trouble now and again. I just need to know that he is safe and I do know there is a huge possibility that Marcus’ father will try to remove any possible witnesses to his son’s crimes. No one knows about the other man, but the media managed to learn about Justice. I want him with somebody I feel is capable of protecting him if the need arises. He’s my son and I’m not willing to take any chances with his safety. None.”
Malachi hated the look of hope in the Director’s eyes and the look of pride etched all over Dante’s face. Hell, he hated just about everything right this minute. “I need to talk to you alone, Dante.” He turned to the director. “Get out.”
“Of course.” The man left without another word, leaving the picture of the pretty kid lying innocently on the table, mocking Malachi’s obvious weakness of suddenly giving a shit about what others thought about him. He’d been warned that falling in love would turn you into a pussy, but he’d damned well hoped it wouldn’t happen to him. Guess he’d been fucking wrong.
“You don’t have to do this, Malachi. I won’t be angry or disappointed in you,” Dante said as soon as the director had high-tailed it out of the room. “I can read you so easy, brother. You think I’m going to be upset with you or think less of you if you don’t do this. You are wrong…as usual. I’ve told you a million times, there isn’t anything you can do to change how I feel about you. You are my brother, Malachi.”
Malachi rolled his eyes and had to picture Chloe, Jasper’s dog, being cooked alive to keep from crying after Dante’s declaration. He still couldn’t believe how his small group could actually love him the way they did. They all knew where he came from, who he came from, but loved him, nonetheless. Oh, fuck. He had to be PMSing. He’d heard that a man got on a woman’s cycle when they spent time together. Fucking perfect. He didn’t even have a damn tampon in his pocket.
“I’m not just being a cold bastard, Dante,” he argued. “It just makes me sick to think about leaving Megan right now. We need…let’s just say we need to be together right now.” He plopped down in his chair and allowed his head to smack against the table with a resounding thud. “Things aren’t going so well.”
Dante sighed. Everybody in the castle knew about the problems Malachi and Megan were currently having. Hell, everybody in the castle except for Malachi and Megan had known, early in the relationship that there would be problems between them because they were both dominant sexual lovers. Malachi had spent his entire adult life with a submissive lover bending to his will, accepting his whip and sexual darkness, but no one had ever meant anything to him. They are all simply a means of sexual gratification, nothing more. Then, out of nowhere, during Jasper’s rescue, Megan had sauntered into the picture and wrapped the alpha Dom around her tiny pinky with only one look from her pretty blue eyes. Malachi had fallen in love instantly and he had fallen hard. Megan had been victim to the same love bite and there should have been a ‘happily ever after’ in their lives…but it looked more like two alphas grappling for control and neither of them were willing to hand the reins over. Megan was, unfortunately, just as dominant in the bedroom as Malachi. The idiots had thought they could just live a nice vanilla lifestyle where they fucked missionary style every night and whispered ‘I love you’ every morning. The ‘I love you’ worked out just fine. Vanilla, not so much.
So, what happens when you have two sexually dominant people in a relationship and neither of them have an itsy bitsy ounce of submission in them? Fucking hell on earth, that’s what happens. It was hell on earth for everyone within a ten mile radius, which included every person residing at the castle. To sum it up, fucking hell on earth for all of them…with no end in sight.
Malachi might not think he and Megan needed a break, but everybody else sure as hell needed one! Something needed to distract one of them from their ongoing, never-ending, around-the-clock grapple for power and dominance.
“Wait, what do you mean by ‘leaving Megan’? The director said he wanted Justice here, where it was safe, with you acting as his bodyguard twenty-four, seven.”
Malachi started shaking his head immediately. “No way is that going to happen. I’m not doing anything that might bring danger back to our door. If I babysit this kid, I’m taking him somewhere far away from you guys. I refuse to put any of you at risk because the prick couldn’t keep it in his pants and hired a prostitute on the worst possible day.”
Dante was actually terrified to say what he was about to say, but somebody had to toss it out there. “You know, Malachi, time apart might be good for you and Megan right now. You both need some time to reevaluate things and see where your relationship is headed.”
“Don’t you dare say that, Dante Jericho,” Malachi hissed in a deadly voice that he used on a daily basis, but never with Dante or Megan. “I love Megan and she loves me. Don’t ever doubt it.”
Malachi noted that Dante had the saddest look that he’d ever seen on his friend’s face. When Jasper had been taken, Malachi had seen Dante look furious, frustrated, angry, hopeful, and terrified but never this…sad. It was like he thought all hope was lost. He was wrong though. The love he and Megan had for one another could withstand anything. It had to.
“Sometimes love isn’t enough, Malachi. You are both dominant in the bedroom. I know that you want to be able to forget about your love and desire to be sexually dominant just so you don’t go head to head with Megan, but you can’t live that way…not for very long. Sex is a huge part of a relationship. If you both aren’t finding gratification, it won’t last very long.”
“You’re wrong, Dante. Megan and I will work this out. I can be the man she wants me to be; the man she needs me to be,” he vowed. “I’ll do this job for you and for the director but when I get back home, there won’t be anything in the world that I’ll let come between me and the woman I love.”
“I hope so, friend. I hope so,” Dante answered softly. It was painfully clear to Malachi that Dante didn’t believe there was a snowball’s chance in Hell of it working out between him and Megan but that damn well wasn’t going to be the case; not this time. Growing up with Nicholas as his father had led to him living a miserably lonely existence in the love department…until Megan. He would not fuck this up.