Page 39 of His Temporary Alpha Mate
Maybe it wasn’t all one sided after all. Dalton wasn’t completely over Axel, I knew that. He was dedicated in all things, meaning he crushed harder and longer than most. Was it possible he’d made room in his heart for me?
Lark: How long is longer?
Dimples: 2hrs instead of one. Make it count.
Lark: You got it. I’ll bring lunch.
Dimples:kiss emoji
Well, that was something, wasn’t it? Did that mean he was looking forward to it as much as I was?
Passing my time in Roan’s house was child’s play. There was always something needing cleaned or a baby needing held. I left showering until the last possible second to avoid being covered in something sticky or smelly. I’d learned that lesson. Do not hug babies goodbye no matter how cute they are, especially if you had an important meeting.
All the organizing for the date I’d done over the phone. I’d called Winter and asked him if he could make something special for us. Winter wasn’t one who wanted romance for himself, but was happy to play Cupid for others. He roped Melody in to help.
I pretended this was a proper date, and I was picking Dalton up to whisk him away. He was at his desk, frowning at something he saw on the screen.
“May I escort you to our date?” I asked with a little bow and a flourish of the flower I’d picked from the gardens.
Dalton’s head snapped up. Clearly, he hadn’t heard mearrive.
“Oh! Five minutes, please.” He clicked on a few things, read a couple of lines of text, and then noted something down on a notepad.
His smile was warm, something like affection in his eyes when I got his full attention. Damn, those dimples really did a number on me!
“Ready! Are you going to tell me what we’re doing?”
“What we are doing is acting as if we are free to leave the compound and are visiting a restaurant. It’s all set up for us.” I brandished the almost forgotten flower I’d picked from outside.
“This is for you.”
“Thank you, that’s so sweet!” Dalton looked torn over what to do with the rose. I’d risked my fingers by plucking it and removing the thorns.
While we shifters had faster healing, I didn’t want to get blood on my clothes, or worse, Dalton’s. He dressed to impress in the office. He wore perfectly tailored blazers on the cooler days, sharp waistcoats over a pressed shirt in the summer. His tie always matched.
His outfit for our date was a pale gray silk waistcoat over a pale pink shirt with a gray tie. His trousers were a matching gray and tightly fitted around his thighs and ass. There wasn’t a spare inch of fat on his body since the sickness. I kind of missed the slightly softerbody he had before. Just as long as he was happy, though.
“Here.” Chase saved the moment with a glass of water. “Put the flower in here. You can keep it on your desk.”
“Thanks.” Dalton’s cheeks were pink, a pleased gleam in his eyes.
“Don’t worry about being back within the two hours Axel gave you. You’re always covering our asses. Let us cover yours,” Chase ended his speech with a wink.
“Ignore Chase!” Axel yelled from his office.
“Ignore Axel!” Chase called back for his twin’s benefit.
Dalton rose from his seat, taking my offered hand. “I’m going to take exactly as long as I please,” he said with a sassy grin. “You’ll just have to manage without me.”
I didn’t make any comment on it, too pleased to just be with Dalton to risk him getting offended, then cutting our date short. Reminding him about work and deadlines was sure to have the same response.
The library was an under-used room. Most of the alphas, and even a lot of the betas, were too busy with training to spend a lot of time in there. Handy for me, since it was the location for our date.
Melody had set the scene. The drapes were drawn, the lighting set low, and a tablet set with a crisp, whitetablecloth. There was even a freaking centerpiece of wildflowers artfully arranged in what looked like a goldfish bowl with tiny fairy lights.
“Oh! This is… it’s so nice!”
Dalton gave me a soft smile as I helped him into his seat.
