I smirk. “No,” I say. “You’ve got my attention because I can’t stop thinking about you.”
She stumbles again, just slightly.
“Maybe you should carry me home,” she teases, not even trying to hide the heat in her voice this time.
I stop walking. Turn fully. She’s smiling, but there’s a challenge in her eyes. A dare.
“No, I’m only joking,” she adds quickly, like maybe she’s worried I’ll take her up on it.
She should be worried.
I let the silence stretch a beat longer than it needs to. Watching her. Letting her feel the weight of my attention.
Then I take a slow step closer.
“You really think I’d say no to that?” My voice drops, heat curling around the words. “There’s something about you I haven’t found in anyone else. Something that makes me want to know everything. Every thought. Every secret.”
Her breath catches, and I close the distance between us. Not touching her. Not yet. Just letting the tension rise like smoke between us.
“And your scent…” I drag in a breath, tasting it. “It’s faint. Too faint. And it’s driving me out of my fucking mind trying to figure out why. Because what I can smell? It’s fucking perfect and calling to me.”
She swallows, eyes flicking down to my mouth for half a second too long. “Yeah. Strange, isn’t it?”
Strange. That’s one word for it. But there’s something in her voice that’s off. Guarded. Like she’s deflecting. Hiding something.
I clock it. Store it away. I’ll dig it out later. For now, I’m too busy watching the way she walks beside me again, as if she doesn’t realize every little move she makes is rewiring my self-control.
We reach her apartment building, and I guide her under the blue awning with a hand on her lower back. The contact burns hotter than it should.
She fishes for her keys, slipping her hand into the top of her dress, and my gaze follows instinctively. I’m close enough that she backs up against the door.
She looks up, keys clenched in her hand. I lean in, planting my palm on the door beside her head. Not trapping her. Just… claiming the moment and her attention.
She doesn’t move.
Good. Because I’m not sure I’d let her.
The streetlights cast a warm golden haze over the snow, and for a second, she doesn’t look real. Too pretty. Too close. Too fucking tempting.
“You always stare at people like that?” I ask, voice low, rougher than I intended.
“How’s that?” she murmurs, head tilting, breath fogging the air between us.
“Like you’re making me decide if I should do something I shouldn’t.”
She smiles, sharp and sweet. “Maybe I haven’t decided yet.”
My chest tightens. God, she’s dangerous.
I take a step closer, just enough to watch her breath hitch.
“You really want to play this game with an Alpha who’s been thinking about tasting you since first meeting you?”
She gasps, and I adore her reaction.
“Maybe I’ve been thinking about it too,” she says, chin tilted like she’s not the least bit intimidated. But I hear the way her voice trembles.
I lean in, close enough to brush a snowflake off her cheek with my knuckles. Close enough to taste the tension between us.
