Page 76 of Perfectly Naïve
“I remember how competitive you were the first time we came.” He kisses me before grabbing his driver and setting up. I watch him take his turn, sipping on my lemonade and enjoying the show.
That is, until a woman appears. Her scent is faint, but her eyes are on Sawyer like she knows his body and wants to taste it. She’s everything my mother wishes I would be. Her nails are done. Her makeup is perfect and covers every blemish. Her hair is glossy. Lips plump with filler. She’s the ideal woman.
My hackles rise.
She gives me a judgy once-over but bypasses me and goesdirectly to my alpha. My eye twitches as her hand finds his shoulder.
“Liv,” Sawyer says with a laugh, turning around and immediately stepping back. “What the fuck?”
“Oh, hun, don’t be like that,” the woman purrs, arching her spine so her boobs thrust out. “I thought maybe you and I could hang out again. I’ve been so...lonely.”
Anger boils my blood, and somehow I’m out of my seat, closing the distance between me and them. As Sawyer’s gaze finds me and widens, he skirts past the woman and catches me around the waist. My forward momentum makes my feet swing forward as he hauls me back.
“Easy, baby.”
“She touched you,” I practically snarl.
“Who is this feral bitch?” the woman asks.
Dead. She’s dead. First she touched my alpha, and now she’s calling me a bitch? I’ve never been a particularly violent person, but I know a dozen ways to dissect a body, and she will feel the wrath of my scalpel.
“You need to leave,” Sawyer says, voice cold and hard.
Her perfectly manicured eyebrows lift. “Are you serious?” She looks at me, confused. I’m nothing like her. I didn’t even straighten my hair or go to a lot of trouble with my makeup for this date. I’m so plain in comparison.
My scent sours even more at the thought.
“Leave. Now,” Sawyer demands.
Her spine snaps straight and she growls. “I was willing to learn how to take a knot for you!” she screeches.
The guys next to us burst out laughing, and one calls, “You can take my knot!”
She screams as Sawyer’s alpha bark forces her body to move, ranting about how he’s missing out and how she regrets sleeping with him. Every word she says slams into me. Maybe achainsaw is better than a scalpel? It would certainly be more efficient.
Sawyer’s arms are tight bands around my waist, and his mouth finds the shell of my ear. “How mad are you?”
“Do you know how many ways there are to dissect a body?”
I swear the alpha laughs.
Narrowing my eyes, I spin in his arms and glare up at him. “Is this funny to you?”
He sobers, but there’s a sparkle in his gaze. “Her pissing you off, no. You getting stabby over someone trying to claim your alpha, hell yes.”
“She touched you,” I growl.
He hums and buries his head in the crook of my neck, breathing in my scent, which is coated with anger. “Fuck, Liv. You have to know I’m yours.” He kisses up the column of my neck. “There’s no one else I want. You’re the only omega I’ve courted.” He trails his lips back down my throat. “And you’re the only one I’ve ever wanted to mark.” His teeth nip my pulse point, and I gasp, anger dissolving as he soothes away the ache with a swipe of his tongue.
“I can’t be upset when you do that,” I complain.
“Are you upset?”
“Only jealous,” I admit. “I’d be upset if you humored her.”
He lifts his head. “I’d never disrespect you like that.”
My chest warms and my scent sweetens. “I know, alpha.”
