Page 30 of The Bookseller and the Alpha
Me: Of course you do.
Annoying Alpha: Do you like the couch?
Me: ….
“Of course I like the couch,” I muttered out loud. My heart was thumping in my chest. I wasn’t going to tell him thatthough. I didn’t know what to say. Had he seen the picture of the couch on my phone and chosen it? Surely not. It had to be coincidence. Right? If it wasn’t coincidence, then he’d looked at more than my contact list in my phone when I’d been asleep last night. It should feel creepy. It was a deep invasion of my privacy, but… hello… couch of my dreams.
Annoying Alpha: Caly? Do you like the couch?
Me: Yes, but I’ll pay for it.Somehow. Maybe I could donate a kidney.
Annoying Alpha: It was a gift. Keep it.
Muttering to myself under my breath, I started to type my reply. It was too much. I couldn’t accept it. A small sound from Akira, who was still standing in the kitchen, had me lifting my gaze.
Very slightly, she shook her head.
I looked down at my phone and my draft reply. I looked back at Akira. She looked tense and uncomfortable. Something was going on here. Something that I was missing. “Yes?” I mouthed to Akira. She nodded, her eyes locked onto mine. It seemed important. She wanted me to accept the couch. Accept the gift.
Oh.
No, surely not. Butterflies took off in my stomach.
Akira was a Shifter. Luc was a Shifter. I carefully deleted the words I’d started to type. I had to be wrong, but if I wasn’t, I did not want to fuck this up. For some reason, Luc was giving me a gift. And I knew enough about Shifter culture to know that receiving a gift from a single Shifter male was significant. At least, if you were a Shifter. Which I wasn’t. So although it couldn’t be serious or permanent, it obviously still meant something. It meant that he was pursuing me.
The idea was mad, but my heart was racing. He was bossy and rude; he had no concept of privacy and he’d walkedout the door this morning as though what had happened between us had been a mistake. At least, that’s how I’d read him at the time. I chewed my lip. Had I misunderstood his tense shoulders? His refusal to meet my gaze?
Hehadsaid he was sorry for leaving. Perhaps he had some weird hero complex going on and he would snap out of it in a few days. But based on Akira’s reaction, even though I wasn’t a Shifter, it would be a very big deal if I turned down the gift. I’d be saying that I wasn’t interested in him. And despite my better judgment, I couldn’t deny that I was very interested in him. Foolish, foolish Caly. He would likely steal my heart and shred it to bloody pulp when he moved on to his Shifter mate. Seriously, what was I doing? He was way out of my league.
“Okay, thank you,” I said as I typed into my phone. Akira wore an expression of intense relief. I hit send before I could change my mind.
The reply was short.
Annoying Alpha: Good girl.
Good grief.I wasn’t a girl anymore and the words should not have given me an image of him growling as he ate my pussy. They should definitely not have made me soak my panties and clench my thighs together.
But they had.
I was so screwed.
I needed a distraction. It was time to go to the shop.
Chapter 33
Calypso
Leylani whistled as she took in the destruction in my store; the books that had been tossed around my space, pictures askew on the walls. Even my little kitchen at the back hadn’t escaped the destruction. Powdered coffee and spilt milk decorated the floor. I wrinkled my nose at the pungent smell of sour milk.
“Someone was very angry,” she said. “The resonance is still in the air.”
“I figured that’s why they went for me in my apartment,” I said. “They think I can tell them where to find the book they want.”
“Can you?” That strange gaze turned my way.
I shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant, but I had no doubt she could tell my heart was pounding with fresh anxiety. “I have no idea what they want.”
Leylani’s eyes slipped from mine as she turned to survey the shop again, and I almost shuddered with relief. The woman was freaky. “Daylight’s wasting. Let’s get this done.”
