For a stranger, he pulls a lot of responses from me, both emotionally and physically, but they don’t freak me out in the least. I guess you never know the pull of your fated Alpha until you stumble across them.
“I’m sorry to ask,” I say as I hold up a testing kit.
“You never have to apologise for asking me to take a test,” he replies before standing with his mouth open. I can feel his eyes locked on my face as I use the swab to rub inside his cheek. Twisting around, I finish off the test, and I put it on the counter to wait for the results. Within a few seconds I’ll have the confirmation I don’t need but still want. He is clear of ADV.
“Expecting trouble, rohi?” He grins.
“What happened to pretty girl?” I tease as I shuffle into the bar area and slide behind him. His scent rushes out and wraps around me, filling me with a sense of peace and rightness.
I go to step past him but he stops me, and it feels like I have always held his hand in mine. He does the smokin’ hottest thing ever, rendering me completely star-struck when he slowly drags his nose from my hand up my arm until he is whispering in my ear.
“Oh, you are still my pretty girl, don’t worry about that. And rohi suits because it is the truth too.”
He stops talking, looking suddenly as thunderstruck as I feel, his green eyes sparkling like green stars in his dazzlement. He keeps staring until he returns to whisper in my ear. “I want to kiss you so fucking bad.”
His confession brings a rush of heat over every part of me before the both of us nearly choke on the unmistakable perfume I make. I come on so strong you’d think we were in the middle of an apple harvest.
Dipping, he drops his nose to the spot where my scent leaks. I expect a chaste kiss to match the spicy sweetness I’ve seen so far from him, but instead, he sinks his teeth so hard against the gland I half think he’s going to claim me right here and now.
His nip is physical confirmation of his intention, his thick maple scent is another. Instead of releasing me, he bites down harder, and I feel it in my core. He’s being so obvious in reinforcing that insta-connection we shared earlier. I dig my fingers into his waist, and he groans against my throat in response before he gets ripped away from me by my bodyguard.
But as fast as Ayden is, he is too. In one movement, he has himself free from Ayden’s clutches, and positions me behind him. Without making a scene or even raising a voice, he drags Ayden so close I can see the thrum of Ayden’s pulse jumping wildly on his temple.
“I know you’re not a stupid man,” he says calmly, but under his volume there’s an undeniable vicious edge to him, “but read the scene.”
The barman flicks his hand back but it comes with enough force to have Ayden’s shoes slip backwards. It offers more space between the two of them and it gives me the chance to see for the first time how imposing my Alpha is.
My Alpha? I ask myself. And the mushy Omega side of my brain agrees without pause.
Of course, Ayden doesn’t let the challenge go through. It’s not in his nature but he’s also paid to protect me. “Move the fuck away from her! Heidi…” he barks. And once upon a time I would have done anything to hear him say my name, in any way.
I don’t move, instead I’m caught up watching the barman shuffle again and block me from Ayden more, of course Ayden retaliates trying to grab me from around him.
“Don’t do that.” He shoves at Ayden.
“For god’s sake, Heidi, can you be any more stupid?” Ayden spews out a volley of venomous words at me.
The way he speaks to me actually feels like a slap across the face, and his attitude cuts deep and hits hard. I slump, and I take a second to breathe through the shitty way he’s speaking and treating me, still surprised he could be so unnecessarily nasty. It might be because my senses are blitzed out by another Alpha, but when I reopen my eyes and look at Ayden again, there’s a finality to us that was never there before.
Ayden keeps staring at me coldly like he’s waiting for a messy tantrum or the tears to start but sometimes when you finish with a person, completely and utterly, there’s a sense of quietness that flows. And that’s all I feel. Along with a small, tender squeeze on my hand from the Alpha still standing protectively in front of me.
And while he might be the conduit for Ayden’s and my latest clash, he is not the reason I stare Ayden down. I am. I’m done even trying to be civil with him.
“You need to step down or ask for a transfer, Ayden. This,” I wave my hand between him and me, “is at the point where you are overstepping boundaries, and that’s where I draw a line. I’ll be at the back door waiting for Bradley because I do know I need a team with me, as well as knowing you are not on my team anymore. From this point on what I do is not your business,” I say evenly, before I lean over and make a pointed, but unnecessary gesture looking at the negative ADV test. Because even scent-drunk, I still know how to protect myself.
And then I shift my attention to my date. “Any chance you can get off early?”
“Sure can,” he says with a megawatt smile that somehow makes the green of his eyes intensify. He leads me away with his hand on my lower back.
ChapterTwelve
KAIRO
She’s trembling under my hand as I lead her away. Her beautiful apple scent doesn’t sour though. If anything, it becomes more pronounced and even more fucking tasty with each step we take. Ramses was spot on at how she robs you of your senses, and it’s going to be hard not to lose focus around her.
I feel like such a dick for telling her I wanted to kiss her. But at the time it seemed more important than telling her my name.
My father would be slapping the back of my head in his disappointment. He raised us to be better men than that. He always made a point of spoiling mom, with his affection and words and ensuring we saw how to treat a woman. An apology stirs in my head, and I swear it nearly reaches my lips but then before I know what is going on, she has me crowding in on her, her arms wrapped around my neck. And then the only thing on my lips is her.
