Page 3 of Titus (Big Hot Alphas 2)

Well, either way, it’s not like I can completely ignore him. Heissitting at one of my booths.

When I see that he’s finished up his meal, I grab a pair of tongs and take a cinnamon roll out from beneath the glass cloche on the counter. As I carry the dessert over to him on a plate, his smile elicits a little burst inside my chest.

“On the house,” I say, setting down the plate. “For helping Joe.”

“Not necessary,” he says. “But thanks.”

He waits until I’ve grabbed his empty dinner plate to speak again.

“Hey,” he says. “I think I might’ve come off the wrong way before. I’m, uh…I’m out of practice, you could say.”

I look at him, waiting for him to go on.

“What I should have said was…would you like to take a walk with me when your shift’s over, Madison?”

My pulse flutters. Tingles burst over my skin.

“I don’t get off for another couple hours,” I warn him.

He shrugs and smiles.

Oh, God, that smile kills me.

“Got nowhere else to be,” he says.

Chapter Two

Titus

Madison might not know it yet, but her fate was sealed the moment I laid my eyes on her.

Those intoxicating curves of hers are destined to be mine.

Okay. Fine. Maybe I let my desire get the best of me when I first came in. I know I shouldn’t have demanded that she go out with me like that. But she’s so damn beautiful that it was like those were the only words I was able to form with my tongue.

When the old man dropped his stuff, I didn’t help him out just to impress her. It was an automatic reaction, getting up to help the poor guy. But I sure as hell am happy that it warmed her up to me.

Because if I had to walk out of here tonight without her, I would regret it for the rest of my life.

Thing is, tonight is all I’ve got. I’m only in town for the night. Come morning, I have to get back into the driver’s seat of my rig and start heading north again.

The road has been my home for the last couple years. Back when I first started long-haul trucking, I maintained a home base, but it didn’t take long for me to realize that it didn’t make sense to keep paying rent for an apartment I barely spent any time at. So I got rid of what I didn’t need, put the rest in storage, got a PO box, and moved my life to the road.

This kind of life isn’t for everyone. That’s for certain. But I consider myself damn lucky to have this job. I’ll be eternally grateful that I’ve gotten to see parts of this beautiful country that I never would have been able to see otherwise.

The plains. The mountains. The big cities, the small towns. The countless sunrises I’ve watched from behind the wheel. This morning’s sunrise, in fact, was one of the most beautiful ones I’ve seen in my time on the road.

Now, though? Now that I’ve met Madison, my open-ended plans to keep doing what I’m doing no longer feel like the right thing. An urge has been awoken in me.

An urge to settle down.

Here.

With Madison.

For two hours,I hang out at the café, taking the occasional bite of cinnamon roll but mostly just drinking coffee from the cup I end up ordering—which, truth be told, I order to keep Madison coming by my table.

Can you blame me?

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