I lose the battle and look up, noting the way he’s staring at me.
Intently.
I feel hot again and take a long sip of my water.
“You’re perfuming, darling.”
I look at her, unable to process her words.
“I’m just… it’s the heat. You know how it goes, I?—”
“Heat is more than just a nuisance, Emily,” she says, popping a fry into her mouth as the attendant makes the second basket.
“It is an indicator. A radar of sorts. Our heatknowswhen we’ve found a mate. A potential one, anyway.” She looks back at Luke, Simon, and Charlie, who look relaxed by the stone wall near the clock tower, waiting patiently.
Luke swallows harshly, his hands in his pockets.
His khaki chinos draw attention to his hips, or rather his groin, as they seem to be tight in all the right places. His long sleeves also draw attention to his large arms, and I can’t help but let out a faint whimper.
“Luke is not my mate,” I say, but even I hear the crack in my voice. “He is just a host, nothing more. My mother sent me here.”
Sarah chuckles.
“Meddling mothers are the worst,” she says. “Almost as bad as grumpy alphas.”
At her words, I realize Luke is walking towards us, Charlie and Simon on his tail.
His gaze holds mine as he casually strides over to us just as Sarah passes off the basket of chips to me.
“Where’s mine?” Simon asks as he motions to grab a fry from his sister’s basket. Sarah smacks him in the chest.
“Get your own!”
Charlie pulls out his wallet with a sigh as he gets in line.
“Patience is a virtue, Simon,” he says snarkily.
I don’t miss the way Simon’s eyebrows raise, or the way his shoulders loosen as he turns to look at Simon who is smirking at him.
I glance back at Luke, who is standing closer than he was a moment ago, but he isn’t looking at my fries. He’s staring straight at me like he can see through my soul.
“Excuse me,” he says, his voice cracking only slightly.
Sarah looks up from her fries as Simon and Charlie chat in line.
Luke takes two steps, and I can’t resist following him. He’s been quiet this whole trip, barely spoken three words to me aside from that movie trivia he dropped and his literary preferences. Which felt almost like an attack of sorts, even though I know it wasn’t.
I’m not sure if he’s being weird because of what happened earlier in the hallway, or if there’s something else going on.
But either way, I need to know.
“Hey!” I call out.
He stops as I catch up to him, just outside the shadowed arch that leads underneath the clock tower itself.
“Emily, what?—”
“Are you okay?” I ask, catching my breath from running across the street with my basket of chips and a water sloshing over the side.
