Page 25 of Knot A Chance

I laughed, jogged to his truck, and pulled the hoodie on over my sweater. “Oh fuck,” I groaned wrapping my arms around myself and bringing the cuffs to my nose. “This smells perfect. I want to live in this.”

Bennett chuckled. “Eat the donut, Felix.”

I rolled my eyes and grabbed the paper bag and shut his truck door before heading back to him. “Did you get yourself anything?”

“No, I ate earlier at the shop.”

“Do you want some of this?” I held the donut out for him.

“I want to watch you eat every single bite.”

I made a show of taking a large bite and moaning for him. “What is it with alphas needing to feed their partners? I mean, Ryder never did that. I’m pretty sure his alpha instincts were fucked up from the drugs. But my sister’s mate is constantly feeding her, and my dad used to do it to my mom too. It is a thing, right?”

Bennett shrugged, looking pleased as I took another bite. “I’ve been told that it is. I’ve never wanted to feed anyone before this morning.” He looked up, like he was thinking. “I take that back. There was one day, two weeks ago, when I could tell you were hungry at the bar and I very much wanted to feed you, but I suspected you’d give me shit for it. I asked Milo to make an extra burger and tell you that he made the wrong order, so you’d eat it. Which you did. It was very satisfying.”

I burst out laughing and shoved his chest playfully. “You are seriously going to be a pain in my ass.”

Bennett grinned, stepping closer and wrapping his arms around my waist. “I hope so, because that means you’ll let me stick around.”

I popped the last of the donut in my mouth and smiled at him, our noses practically touching. “Happy, alpha?”

He groaned and dropped his forehead to mine. “So happy. Now stop distracting me with your sexy eating noises and let me find out what’s wrong with your car.”

He stepped back and gave me back my coffee. I wrapped my arms around myself for warmth as I inhaled his sweatshirt again. “Is this the kind of service all of your customers receive?”

“Only the ones I want to fuck,” he said matter-of-factly, leaning over the hood of the car again. I leaned against the back of his truck and watched him intently as he poked around, his brow furrowed in concentration as he tugged on various wires and components of the car. His eyes narrowed and I felt the energy around him change. He was concerned.

How can I know that?

That’s never happened before, not even with Ryder.

He turned toward me, his face scrunched up with worry. “You have a loose battery connection.”

“Is that bad?” I asked. “Your face makes it seem bad.”

“It’s not something that happens on its own very often. Have you had any work done on the car recently where someone might have accidentally caused this?”

“No,” I said. “It’s been running fine until this morning. How expensive is the fix?”

“A hundred dollars for customers who I don’t want to fuck. Free for you.”

I frowned at him and he closed the hood. “I’m going to sleep with you without the free service.”

“I know, but I’m not going to charge my future boyfriend to fix something that costs almost nothing in parts. Normal cost is mostly for labor.”

“Boyfriend, huh?” I said as he walked over to me. “This sure is escalating quickly.”

He smiled at me and circled his arms around my waist again. “You can set whatever pace you’re comfortable with, but yeah, I want to date you, fuck you, be your boyfriend, finish falling for you and claim you as mine one day.”

“You really have a way with words, Bennett Winchester,” I said, teasing him to avoid the fear rising in me at the thought that he wanted to claim me one day. One, that might never be possible. Two, even if it was, I wasn’t positive I was going to want to be bonded to someone else ever again.

“I do, but I’m more than a little concerned about the fact that you have a loose connection.” He looked back at the car with confusion. “Have you had any other issues with the car at all? Any battery issues?”

“You have a lot of unreasonable faith in me if you think I would know what a battery issue presents like.”

He chuckled. “Trouble starting the car? Have you left the doors open or done anything to drain the battery that required you to have it jumped?”

“No,” I said. “Nothing at all.”