Page 37 of In Doubt
The chatter of dinner has died away. The conversations are quieter, several people drifting away from the table, small groups gather together under the boughs of the spindly trees.
A lantern floats above our heads, casting us both in flickering light.
“I probably wouldn’t have had the guts to ask her,” I admit.
“I thought it best to grab her now, when she’d had a few drinks and was likely to be in a good mood.”
His gaze has fallen to my mouth and my heart seems to leap around sporadically in my chest. I curl a lock of my hair behind my ear, my hand shaking ever so slightly. His scent grows stronger, more delicious, in my mouth.
“Good thinking,” I croak.
A spoon clangs against a glass behind us and the noise rings out through the night like a muted bell.
“You know you’re not that bad, when you aren’t being an arsehole,” I whisper, noticing how soft his lips look.
“Yeah, neither are you.”
Our bodies are a foot apart, yet I can feel that electricity crackling in the air. Tingling against my skin.
The rich taste of his coffee scent races across my tongue.
“Hmmm,” he says, drifting towards me, my body seeming to do the same, a warmness spreading through my belly.
The candle stutters above us, and his image flashes in and out of darkness.
I part my lips.
I close my eyes.
He’s so close now. So warm. So intoxicating.
“Giorgie?”
I jump straight out of my skin. My eyelids leap open.
“Huh?” I ask, in a daze.
Jake stands right in front of me, appearing just as dazed, his arm caught in midair as if he was about to reach for me.
The candle extinguishes with a hiss, plunging him into darkness.
What the–
“Giorgie, there you are,” Carl says, hooking his arm through mine and pulling me away. “Sia and I were looking for you. Where did you go?”
“To talk to Professor Weaver about tomorrow,” I tell my friend.
Carl hooks his arm around my neck, leaning into me as we walk away. “I thought you needed rescuing.”
I glance over my shoulder at the alpha lurking in the shadow as Carl leads me away.
Was I just about to kiss Jake Grantham?
10
Jake
Iwatch her go, standing there like an idiot. Dazed and probably half-deranged.
