Page 10 of Ruthless Alpha Beast
I turned my head to check whether he was still looking, sipping my drink as I did so, but I saw he was gone.
My stomach sank.
Then I felt a wave of nerves. Maybe Lacey was right, maybe Ishouldn’tunder any circumstances be here alone.
Just as I was about to get up, I felt a presence behind me. Then he was at the bar beside me, his moonstone eyes staring into my soul.
God, was all I could think of,he’s even more beautiful up close. Mid-sip, I choked on the remnants of trickling wine that found its way down the wrong side of my throat.
Whooping cough after cough expelled itself uncontrollably from my chest; somehow, the music sounded quieter, and somehow, my fumbling, tragic humanity got that much louder.
My throat felt raw and dry.
Oh my, this is so embarrassing.
“A glass of water,” he commanded the bartender, not taking his eyes off of me.
“You don’t have to do that,” I said. “I appreciate it, but I’m fine.”
He smiled, the sides of his face creasing as his eyes dazzled in such a way that made me feel like the only person in the bar. The only person in the world.
My chest fluttered.
“You don’t seem fine.”
The bartender came back with the water and I downed it quickly. Almost too quick. I had to remind myself to slow the hell down, but this shifter was making me more nervous than usual.
I don’t want him to ever stop looking at me like that.
“Yes,” I said. “It’s just you came up on me quickly, I wasn’t expecting it, so you combine that with drinking a sip of wine, and you know, coughing disaster, so.”
Words felt like jelly, awkwardly wobbling around my mouth more than they ever had before.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you, but moving quickly is par for the course around here. You do realize where you are, don’t you?”
“I do,” I whispered. “Everyone in here is so beautiful.”
Maybe the alcohol was getting to my head, but for some reason, I felt uninhibited enough to speak my exact thoughts. Something that usually didn’t happen, especially not with strangers and especially not with otherworldly attractive strangers like him.
He was silent for a beat. Then he spoke.
“Beautiful, maybe, but boring. Unlike you.”
I swallowed a knot forming in the back of my throat, and my body started to feel as though it had been set on fire.
“You don’t know me,” I said.
“No,” he responded, keeping a respectful distance from me, which I wished he’d close. “No, I don’t, but I’d like to.”
This has to be a trick I told myself; he has to be playing me. I should leave or text Lacey, but I couldn’t. I didn’t want to.
I shrugged, a burst of flirtatious confidence coming from somewhere. “I’m just a human,” I sighed. “Just a boring old human who likes books, arts and crafts, works a minimum wage job, and has no family and very few friends. Now you know me.”
He paused, studying something on my face so intently that at first, I thought there might be a stain on there. Some food, or wine perhaps.
“I like you,” he confessed, casually.
I took a gulp of my wine,carefullythis time, put it down, and then looked him daringly in the eye. “Why?” I questioned, “Because I’m not like one of you, I’m not perfect or special, and that’s what novel? Mildly entertaining?”
