Dex
He’d tried to call me several times. I’d finally blocked his number to make it easier to ignore him, to give him a chance to move on with his life instead of ruining it by association with me but he still didn’t give up. Instead, he’d taken the initiative to break into my property and through the barriers around my heart.
My bear’s memory of his smaller body rubbing against me, marking me as he chuffed in pleasure rose. Heat flooded my body at the thought of the startled squeal when I surrendered to temptation and entered his tight body, of the enthusiastic way he responded to my intense rutting.
It had been..everything.
And then I gave him the brush off and sent him home, tried to shut him out of my life again. For his own good, of course. I groaned out loud. Apparently, I really am a dick and, obviously, I needed to talk to him.
To apologize.
To make sure he knew that even if he didn’t want me, I wasn’t going to leave him to bear the brunt of his boyfriend’s temper after what we’d done the night before.
To find out if Leia was right, if Dex and I reallydidhave a fated bond.
But first I had to find him.
I wasn’t surprised when my phone call went straight to voicemail. Or when my text never switched from pending to delivered. Stalkerish or not, the next choice was showing up on his doorstep again. It wasn’t any harder to follow a neighbor in than before, but Dex wasn’t home. As a last-ditch effort, I made my way across toBean There, Drank That,the coffee shophe’d worked at since high school and looked through the front window as I walked past.
Bingo!
Not wanting another public altercation, I decided to wait and see if I could catch Dex when he left at the end of his shift. Wandering around to the back of the building, I settled in against the brick half-wall enclosing the small employee break area and closed my eyes to soak in the sun while I waited. I must have dozed off because the next thing I knew I was hearing small sobs from the other side of the wall.
I drew in a deep breath and my bear bristled at the scent of a distressed Omega, ofmydistressed Omega.
“Dex?” I clambered to my feet and found Dex staring at me in shock, tears staining his face. “Baby, what’s wrong?”
“What..” Dex shook his head. “What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to see you.” I reached for him, hesitating when he recoiled and bumped the wall behind him. “We need to talk.”
Dex was shaking his head before I even finished. “I can’t. I’m working.”
“You’re not working, you’re crying,” I countered. “What’s wrong?”
Dex sighed. “I’m just tired.” He glanced past me toward the door. “I need to go back.”
“Okay, I didn’t mean to interrupt your work, I just want to talk to you. Can we meet after you’re done?”
Dex’s head drooped. “Yeah, I guess. Where?” His head jerked back up. “Not my place.”
Um, okay.
“That’s fine,” I assured him. “Do you want to come to the house?”
“I guess.” Dex looked past me again. “Can I go now?”
“Yeah, of course you can.” I stepped aside but reached out to gently pat his shoulder as he walked by. “I’ll see you later?”
He nodded and scurried toward the door. “Yeah. I guess.”
Well, it wasn’t exactly a declaration of love, but it was a start, right?
ChapterEight
Dex
This was a bad idea. A really,reallybad idea. A terrible one, honestly.
