Heat flooded my cheeks. I was suddenly hyperaware of everything. The way I was sitting, how my hair looked, whether I had wine on my teeth. My heart was doing an embarrassing thing in my chest, beating too fast and too loud.
Get it together, I told myself. He’s just a guy. A weird, intense, unreasonably attractive guy. No big deal.
Behind Caelan, Thessa waved enthusiastically. “Hi! We found the book club!”
“How?” I managed. My voice came out slightly strangled.
“Social media. You posted the location.”
Right. I did. Because I was an idiot who assumed strangers would never actually show up to a romance book club in the middle of Lysmont without at least texting me first.
“We brought wine,” Caelan said. His voice was deep, and warmth spread through my body. I shifted in my seat. What was wrong with me? “And I have questions about your book.”
“You have...” My voice cracked. I cleared my throat. “Questions?”
He held up a copy of “The Alpha’s Reluctant Heart.” My book. Except this copy looked like it had been through a war. The pages bristled with colored sticky notes, every color of the rainbow, and I could see handwritten annotations on nearly every visible page. The spine was cracked from use. There were tabs sticking out of the top.
“I have many observations,” he clarified.
Behind me, the book club had gone dead silent. I could feel Sloane’s stare boring into the back of my head.
Jade leaned toward Margo and whispered, loudly, “Oh my god, it’s the Australian. He’s here.”
“I can see that,” Margo whispered back, not quietly at all.
“There are so many sticky notes,” Jade continued. “That’s either romantic or deeply concerning.”
“Could be both,” Margo said.
Caelan’s attention hadn’t left me. He was looking at me with that same intensity from the bookstore, as if I was the only thing in the room worth seeing. Under his gaze, I felt exposed. Seen in a way that made my breath catch.
“You annotated my entire book,” I said slowly.
“Extensively.”
“Why?”
His brow furrowed slightly, as if the answer should be obvious. “Because I wanted to understand it. The emotional arc of the protagonist is compelling. Though I have questions about certain... mechanics.”
I didn’t want to know what mechanics he meant. I absolutely did not want to know.
“The theme tonight is ‘morally gray love interests,’” Sloane cut in, her voice protective. “We’re reading a different book. Not Riley’s.”
Disappointment flickered across Caelan’s face, quickly masked. “I see. I had hoped to discuss Riley’s work specifically.”
“You can come back another time,” Sloane said. “When we’re reading her book.”
“Or,” Thessa interjected brightly, “we could stay for this book and just participate? We love morally gray love interests. Ky especially. He’s very into the murder-for-love trope.”
“Are you now,” Margo said, eyebrow raised.
“It’s compelling,” Caelan said, completely serious. “The willingness to transgress moral boundaries for love is a fascinating narrative device.”
Everyone stared at him.
“He reads a lot,” Thessa explained. “It’s basically his only personality trait. That and brooding.”
“I don’t brood.”
