Icy Nights: Mated to The Three Alphas

ss

ce before it gives. The air that hits me tastes like the inside of someone else's

that one word landed. I rub the spot with my thumb and catch a loo

e?" Tinsley shoves past me, already scanning the room like she's a

nds her scarf, coughing into her elbow. "Come o

he corner and not be

and my question dies under the bass. Glasses on ever

d a pitcher of cherry syrup years ago and decided mopping was a concept

nsley's nails dig into my

Martins, and somehow I catch pine and cold stone un

s thighs, laughing at something he clearly didn't say. Her fingers keep working at his

ed tape," Tinsley whispers. Loudly. "I giv

ooke says, fanning herself with her scarf like she's in

hes, quick and annoying, and I hate that some part of me cl

and resting on his knee have gone pale, like

hands flat against the wood, not moving, not drumming his

y sleeve. "I'm gonna go say

first," B

terally

y's already moving

inst the wall. A second later Nolan Pike appears at our table

I buy yo

ces at me.

fine.

u s

. I need both of them gone so I can stop

squeezing between two guys arguing loudly about a penalty call. Jenna Klin

down. "Heard you broke the cage door. Wo

k it. Someone

drink across the wood. "Try

king pr

nder my skin. From the way Silas stared at my throat. From that one word still sliding through my skull like a

onto the sto

ou sur

nee bumping mine under the bar. His warmth radiates sid

lly in the m

about the suit? I could buy you a drink to make up for

tremor in the fingers, gone as fast as it came, t

a new cage door. A

u. It just

ome off. You

estly, no idea how that happened. Adrenali

exactly th

nk I loo

you're

rushes my elbow and the skin there warms, and I pull my a

him. His gaze stays on me the way a teacher watches a kid working through a

e sat next to that guy, and he's never once finished a sentence about himself.

t lookin

you we

y waist. To steady me, he'll say later. His thumb finds the curve of my hip through

es. Half a seco

your

hy

se I s

through the cotton, and I completely lose

, more like a pressure, like the floorboards just exhaled, and my ba

goes rigid ag

ear that?"

t wrong. Too quick. His free ha

that. Don'

d at the bottles behind the bar. "I

r shoulders bumping. The pool table clicks, the jukebox thumps, everything doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing. E

n't looked away. His fingers

"Martins? Babe, you'

mine on the bar, and pine and cold stone cut sharp thro

ine of sight. "Ah.

ld he be

liding off the stool. "I shou

re.

Whatever you think you..." He sto

ears into

Jenna glances over. Then I head for the restrooms, past the pool table, i

er on my face

nding in a hallway that smells like old carpet and

the wall, cinderblock

is t

near the restroom door like he's been there

can't tell if he's concerned, amused, or simply wait

elp you?

beating too

he doorframe. "How d

catching a frequency no one else can

. But I have to remind myself how to breathe, li

d you ju

a and damp earth scent of him rolls off heavier n

nds are empty and I don't know what to do with the

do you

outh twitches. Not quite a smi

w wh

tion drops to my sleeve, to the thread I

night," he says, and steps aside,

something else, the hallway behind me is empty. I didn't

against the wall, and repeat t

and b

ve it. He knew my pulse was

ud for anything that's actually funny. I don't check if M