Page 62 of Alpha Ruined
“Do you want to tell me?”
She swallows. “Not really, no.”
“Alright.”
He just accepts her answer without argument, and she’s grateful for it. He doesn’t push her like he did the other night. He just lets her exist without judgement as he watches her.
His attention, albeit intense and at times overbearing, is starting to grow on her.
“I’m not leaving until next week,” she continues, unable to look at him as she says it. She kicks her booted feet anxiously, digging at the grass underneath her. “My interview was moved, and I extended my stay at the cabin.”
“Lucky me.”
She chuckles and shakes her head. “If you say so.”
“I do say so. You know, I’m sure theElmwood Presscould use an overzealous, rule breaking journalist.”
She quirks her lip. “Sure. Are you going to buy the cabin, too? Or am I going to live in my car while I do that?”
“The deed to the cabin is already in your name, but if you want to go somewhere else, I’m sure we could do that.”
She snorts. Maybe they shouldn’t be telling so many jokes at a cemetery. She’s never smiled this much in front of gravestones.
“I am sorry, though. About the other night,” she adds.
Cole shakes his head. “Like I said, I pushed you. I wanted you to see what was between us before you were ready.”
Alarms blare in her head, louder than the ones in the prison. She stiffens slightly and frowns, wondering if her original intuition about him was right.
Her inner Omega preens, remembering what Darlene said about soulmates.
But rational, realistic Bree knows better.
“You have to stop saying things like that,” she murmurs.
“Why?” He tilts his head curiously, as if he doesn’t realize the impact of his words.
“Because it’s not fair. It’s notright.You can’t mess with someone’s emotions that way.” She turns on the bench to face him fully, her thighs almost touching his. “Cole, saying those things and not meaning them, or exaggerating them…”
For the first time, he looks bewildered. “You think I’mexaggerating? That I don’t mean what I’m saying?” His scent deepens, the citrus turning peppery and spicy, as he shakes his head in disbelief. “You really have no idea, do you?”
Her mouth turns dry. “I?—”
But he grabs her wrist gently and pulls her hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to her fingers. “You really don’t,” he murmurs, his eyes darkening. “I wonder what I need to do to prove it to you.”
Her sleeve falls, and she snatches her hand away and yanks the fabric up to her knuckles, covering her skin.
Cole notices. Of course, he notices as she clenches her hand into a fist and keeps it in her lap.
Her face flames and nausea churns in her gut.
Did he see?
“Breana.”
She bites her lip, shame coursing through her as she waits for his reaction.
She can’t look at him. Instead, she focuses her gaze on the headstones in the distance, wondering how close she was to joining them at one time.