Page 43 of Rock Hard
Chapter Seventeen
Over the course ofhis life, Rex had experienced more WTF moments than he could count, but nothing hadevercome close to shutting him down completely.
Nothing, except kissing Alice.
A fuckingkiss!The moment his lips had touched hers, he had been lost. Music had poured into his heart and his soul, a screaming concert that spiked his adrenaline and made his heart pound and his dick hard. His lion had surged to the surface suddenly and without warning, overwhelmed with the furious need to rut, to mark,to claim. Roaring that Alice was his, only his, and he was one glorious fuck away from making her his forever.
Thatwas some scary shit.
He had stormed down the stairs, needing to put some distance between them until he could figure things out. It didn’t help that his lion wouldn’t shut the fuck up, each step accompanied by a repeating chant of that single word.Mate, mate, mate...
No! It wasn’t possible. His beast’s visceral declaration couldn’t possibly be right. Alice wasn’t his mate. Shecouldn’tbe his mate. He was a prime alpha male. It wasn’t in his animal’s nature to be monogamous.
So what if he couldn’t stand the thought of being balls deep inside anyone but Alice? Or get off without closing his eyes and pretending those weren’t his fingers, but Alice’s lips wrapped around his cock? Or that he couldn’t manage a fucking hour without thinking of her when he was awake, dreaming of her when he was asleep? Of imagining not only the pleasures of her flesh, but of seeing her smile. Hearing her laugh. Having her by his side.
Being a family.
Now, several hours later, he sat in a hole-in-the-wall, little dive of a bar, far off the beaten path. Time and booze had calmed him down enough that his lion was no longer actively clawing at his insides and some of the panic had subsided. He could think relatively clearly, and the more he thought about the whole situation, the more he realized the idea of a mate wasn’t quite so farfetched.
It was rare, but it did happen. He just never thought it could happen tohim.
He had been drawn to Alice from the very first time they had met. Even then, he had recognized that there was something different about her. Something special. Over the years, that had never changed. He told himself it was because she was the only woman who hadn’t given in to her desires, but what if it had been because his beast had recognized something in her that his human half had not?
Of course he hadn’t known she was a lioness then. Even if he had been of a mind to believe their connection had been something more than forbidden fruit, he would have disregarded it instantly. Lion shifters didn’t form permanent, unbreakable bonds with humans. Fuck them, sure, but that was physical, fleeting. Now that he knew she wasn’t human, well, that changed things.
Then there was the music. When Alice was around, the music was there, too, filling his head and his heart and his soul. When she wasn’t—silence. His creativity these last few months had been shit. Hell, who was he kidding?Everythinghad been shit, and it had all started when Alice decided to walk away.
The most compelling evidence, however, had been that kiss. The moment their lips had touched, it was as if the universe snapped into alignment and everything was right with his world.
Mate.
Rex sighed heavily, finished the last of his fifth, maybe sixth bourbon, and ordered another. The bartender eyed him warily; no doubt the guy wasn’t used to seeing someone put down that many drinks in a row and remain unaffected. Hell, Rex wished he could get shitfaced as easily as humans did, but his shifter metabolism made that impossible. As it was, he would have to make do with the mild, pleasant buzz taking the edge off before that burned away, too.
The hundred-dollar bill he placed on the bar in front of the man was apparently convincing enough to buy him another round.
“Women troubles?” the bartender asked. He was an older guy, definitely human, with the haggard features of someone who had lived a hard life. His eyes, however, were alert and assessing.
“Why do you say that?”
“Son, I’ve owned this place for more than forty years. The only things that can make a man drink so much in the middle of the day are a woman or losing his job, and if you’re willing to flash that kind of cash around, I’m betting it’s not the job.”
Rex grunted. “Yeah, it’s a woman. The most infuriating, frustrating, beautiful woman I ever met.”
The guy laughed and poured him another bourbon. “Is there any other kind worth drinking over? Do yourself a favor. Go home and fix whatever it was you fucked up.”
“Who saysIfucked up?”
“You wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t.”
Rex chewed on that for a while. None of this was his fault, was it? He wasn’t the one who had kept his true nature a secret. He wasn’t the one who kept saying “no.” And he sure as hell wasn’t the one who had walked out and leftherhanging in the breeze. Well, not before today anyway.
Although, now that he thought about it, maybe he could shoulder some small sliver of responsibility. Hadn’t he deliberately taunted Alice, using other females to elicit a response? Hadn’t he dug his heels in where Carly was concerned, knowing full well that Alice would challenge him? Sometimes he craved the way those two teamed up against him, joining forces and focusing all their attention on him for a change. Not the tour. Not school.Him. Was that a crime?
They were so much alike, Alice and Carly. Both strong-willed. Both intelligent. And both willing to walk away for something they believed in. How ironic was it that the two females he cared most about were the ones determined to cause him the most grief?
When his private cell vibrated in his pocket, he pulled it out, expecting it to be another shouty text from Chuck for taking off and refusing to give up his location while he worked through things. Instead, Styxx’s name popped up.
“In Rochester. Meet up at nine?”
