Page 17 of Alpha's Forbidden Bond

“Don’t look at me,” Diana said. “He’s the one who started all of this.”

“That is categorically untrue. I simply came here to apologize?—”

She laughed. “You’re lying. You didn’t come here to apologize. You came here to make sure that I was telling you the truth about the book deliveries yesterday. Hell, I doubt you even had any errands to run in town. If you ask me, I bet you drove all the way into town just to come into this bookstore and see whether or not I was working here. Isn’t that right? Tell me the truth.”

I wasn’t sure what made me more frustrated, the fact that Diana was looking at me with such a smug expression or the fact that she was right. At least partially.

“This is absurd. I don’t know why I even tried to make amends. I could tell from our brief interaction yesterday that you were immature and should’ve therefore known you wouldn’t see reason.” I turned to the other woman. “Sorry about the yelling. I am not usually the type to get into arguments in public like this.”

“Yeah, right,” Diana said under her breath.

I pointed at her. “See? Immaturity. Right there.”

“Coming from the guy pointing his finger at me like a schoolyard bully.”

“Would you two stop!” shouted the woman, who I had now gleaned was most likely the shop owner. “You’re both acting like children.”

“I second that.”

I turned around on my heel and saw Sarafina standing in the open doorway with a loaf of bread under her arm and a very amused look on her face. “There wasn’t a line at the bakery, so I was in and out. I thought I would see if you found the book you were looking for.”

I was so embarrassed I didn’t even know what to say.

“We didn’t actually have the book he was looking for in stock,” Diana said after a few seconds of awkward silence. “He wanted the hardcover edition of Only Small Men Make Big Noise — A Guide to Controlling the Male Ego, but unfortunately we just sold our last copy to a frat boy. But if you want to give us your number, we can call you the second we get more copies.”

Sarafina laughed softly, which was like salt in the wound. I glared at Diana. “Very funny. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have somewhere I have to be.” I headed for the door and tried to ignore the whispering the two women were doing behind my back. Sarafina followed me out and down the street towards my car.

“I’m sorry for laughing at you,” she said. “I just—well, you have to admit, it was a pretty funny joke. Do you think that’s a real book, or did she just come up with that title on the spot? If she made it up, then she must be pretty clever, no?”

“I’m sure she thinks she is.” At the driver’s side door, I finally stopped and looked back at her. “I’m sorry you had to see me like that. I don’t know what came over me, and I can’t even imagine what must be going through your head right now. You must think I’m so childish.”

“Not really,” she said. “Er—at least not more than anyone else when they are in the kind of situation you’ve found yourself.”

I frowned at her. “What do you mean? What sort of situation?”

“With this woman. She’s the one who stumbled onto the compound yesterday, is she not?” I nodded. “And clearly, she’s really gotten under your skin. You were very worried about making sure she didn’t come back when we spoke yesterday, and now it seems you are tracking her down at her place of work to make sure she doesn’t pose any threat. So either this girl has really got you scared, or… there’s another reason you wanted to see her again.”

“I have no idea what you’re insinuating.”

She shrugged playfully. “Nothing… Although you have to admit, she is very pretty, with that beautiful dark hair.”

“What?” I couldn’t even believe what I was hearing. Are you suggesting that I have a crush on Diana or something?”

“Diana!” She pressed her hand to her chest and smiled. “That name really suits her, don’t you think?”

“You’re the one who sounds like she has a crush!”

“Maybe I do,” she said. “But that doesn’t scare me as much as it seems to scare you.” She cocked her head to the side. “You do understand that the two of us are allowed to have crushes, right? Because I don’t recall signing up for a marriage where we can’t even crush on other people, especially considering the circumstances through which the two of us are coming together.”

This was all too much for me to process at once. The accusation of me being attracted to Diana was frustrating enough. Still, now Sarafina was more or less informing me that she would openly crush on other people even after we were married. Sure, this wasn’t a union of love, but still… That didn’t mean we could be running around giving our affections out to other people.

Did it?

I rubbed my hands over my face a few times and then opened the car door. “Look, we can talk about this more later, but right now, I have to go. I want to get your dad a new bed as soon as possible.”

“Why do I get the feeling that I’ve upset you?” she asked as I slid into the seat. “Did I say something wrong?”

“No. You didn’t. This is as new for me as it is for you, and we’re both just going to have to stumble along together.”

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