Page 19 of Possessive Alpha

“… about you?”

I lift my eyes from his chest and stare into his expectant face.

He has a black booted foot resting on one side of the spade he’s dug into the ground as he waits for me to answer a question I was busy not paying any attention to.

Shrugging, I say vaguely, “Um, sometimes. But mostly yes.”

Now he’s the one staring at me.

What was the question? Because he’s looking at me like I royally fucked up my answer.

“You also fall down wells and have nightmares about the experience?” His voice is dry.

My eyes widen. “What?”

“You asked why I looked tired at breakfast. I was telling you. I sometimes have trouble sleeping because of the accident. Apparently, the same kind of accident you also had. Who knew such a thing was so common?” His brow lifts, and I detect a hint of amusement in his tone.

He knows I wasn’t listening and is having fun letting me know it.

“Um…”

He glances down at his bare chest, which has been my sole focus since he took his shirt off and tossed it aside. “Or were you driven to distraction by something else?”

My eyes narrow. “I was not driven to distraction by anything. I was thinking.”

See? Lies. Every time I open my mouth around this guy.

He cocks his head. “About?”

I scramble to think up a response he will buy. “Breakfast the other day. I thought you would punch Shawn.”

“For sitting beside you and calling you beautiful?”

“Uh, well, yeah.” He seems the type to lay his claim on a woman, pin her to a tree, and?—

I wrench my mind away from thoughts I like a little too much. So does my wolf, who wants to know why the fuck I spend more time running away from our mate.

“He’s new around here. I wasn’t going to attack him for noticing you.” His eyes harden. “Now if he’d put his hands on you…”

I’m not sure what compels me to ask. “You’d have done what?”

He stares at me for a beat, then tosses his spade aside as he stalks over to me. Still shirtless. Still flashing me an obscene amount of tanned, muscled chest. And still far, far too sexy to be my mate.

Like the utter fool I am, instead of running for it, I stand there, watching him approach with a determined expression stamped across his face.

Maybe he’s going to kiss me.

And I just wait for it to happen because clearly, a shirtless Ty is all it takes to break my brain.

When he’s a foot away, my malfunctioning brain kicks back into gear, and I back up until a tree stops me.

Then he’s standing over me, one hand resting on the tree over my head. “I’d have killed him. Probably.”

His eyes are on my lips.

“Probably?” I echo.

He nods once. “And then I’d have had to take you outside.”

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