Alfie chuckled. “I kind of figured that from the whole owning your own…” Alfie’s head tilted to the side and he bit his lips, his brow crinkling thoughtfully. Chi couldn’t help it. He used his thumb to soothe Alfie’s lips where he was biting them.
Alfie swayed towards him, his eyes fixed on Malachi.
“What were we talking about again?” Alfie didn't blink, but he did lick his lips and the tip of his tongue touched Chi’s thumb, whose cock reacted immediately. Images of Alfie’s tongue on his sensitive tip came to mind.
“Uh,” Malachi blinked and shook his head, “Whitfell, we were talking about Whitfell.”
“Right,” Alfie nodded, “You have your own village, and a bloody clinic, and your house looks like it could be on Leigh Road in Worsley. So I figured, you know… yeah, you were doing okay.”
Talking about money wasn’t something Brits did, unlike Americans, so he could understand Alfie’s discomfort, but whatever he owned was now Alfie’s and he wanted to make that clear to his mate.
“We’re doing okay. I know this is, like, our first date weekend thing…” Malachi rolled his eyes at himself,fucking smooth Chi.
Alfie’s face broke into a smile.
“I like that, but I think we had a first date—dinner at Axel’s.” Alfie shrugged shyly, “I think it counts as a date.”
Malachi and his wolf were overjoyed to hear that piece of news.
“It was my best date ever.” Malachi had no qualms admitting that.
“Me too.” Alfie smiled at him, then glanced away before looking up at him from under his lashes.
“So could you pick out a few more things, and then we’ll nip into River Island. I think I saw they had an H&M too.” Malachi looked around trying to remember the layout of the shopping centre. “If we don’t find much here, when we get home you can do some online shopping, or we could even go up to Manchester—Trafford Centre or City Centre. This place is much smaller than I expected. At least Manchester has a Selfridges.” Chi frowned at how much smaller the centre was. He really wanted to get Alfie’s closet going.
“Babe, chill. We don’t have to do it all in one go, and I definitely don’t need a Selfridges.” Alfie pulled him towards the till and Chi let him.
He was still looking around trying to see what he could grab when the cashier told them the total. Alfie reached for his pocket and that snapped him out of his grumblings. His mate deserved a better shopping spree than Houndshill offered, and it looked like he would have to order things for Alfie until his mate got comfortable spending their money.
He pulled Alfie into him and whispered in his ear, “Don’t even think about it.”
Alfie chuckled. “I do have a little left in my account. I can afford this.”
“Nope, not on my watch, love.” He handed his debit card to the guy manning the till and looked down to his mate at his side, smiling.
“You guys are just the cutest. I am sototallyjelly,” the cashier—a young man probably around Alfie’s age—said.
Alfie grinned up at him, “Yeah, I think I’m the lucky one.”
Chi’s wolf purred hearing those words from his mate, but the truth was, he was the lucky one.
Twenty-Five
Alfie
Alfie couldn’t remember the last time he’d smiledsooofreakin’ hard. Between Malachi slipping things into his basket at each store, they’d walked hand in hand and chatted all the way through.
He couldn’t remember ever strolling around holding Rupert’s hand.
It was so comfortable and easy, and he’d had the best time since forever. Being with someone who focused on you made it easy for Alfie to see just how crappy a boyfriend Rupert had been. Even using that boyfriend word felt all wrong. Whatever he and Malachi were growing towards—mates… boyfriends, maybe even husbands—Alfie couldn’t believe he was even thinking about it. He hadn’t with Rupert… but he could see it so clearly with Malachi. He really could.
They’d stopped for food at the cutest little Bistro called Hive, which served freshly made sandwiches, pastries, and pasties he’d loved. It had the whole vibe. It wasn’t one of those chain coffee shop places. He’d shared with Chi how much he would love to own something like it. He hadn’t ever even said that out loud before.
But Chi hadn’t laughed at him.
Now they were back at the hotel after one of the best date weekend things he’d ever had—he was stealing Malachi’s description, which seemed to fit.
They stood side by side in the lift, the tension between them like a physical thing. Between all the flirting and touching, Alfie was all worked up.
