Page 4 of Alpha Theo

I whip my head sideways to see him thrusting the bag of pretzels in my direction.

“What?” I blink. “No.”

I turn back to my monitor, go back to typing.

He keeps shoving pretzels into his mouth, crunching loudly. “You sure?”

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

I heave a sigh, pushing back in my chair.

“Do you mind?” I ask, tone laced with irritation. “I’m trying to work, here.”

His eyes go wide, brows shoot up. As if I’m the one being unreasonable.

“Sheesh, why so hostile?”

“Just trying to do my job,” I mutter, not risking another glance. It’s bad enough that he’s going to be working with the IT unit for the next few months, but the last thing I need is him zeroing in on me, distracting me from my work.

“Doesn’t your job include sharing information with the liaison?”

He’s got me there.

“Fine,” I sigh. “You want my report?” I push back in my chair again, swiveling it toward him, sliding my black framed glasses up the bridge of my nose and folding my arms across my chest indignantly. “I’m still putting the finishing touches on my new integrated tracing program. I’m hoping to have the source code finished by the end of the week, and I’ll spend next week debugging.”

Theo’s looking at me with his jaw slack, like I just spoke the words in Chinese.

Then he starts raking his eyes over my body. There’s not much to look at- I’m dressed for comfort in a pair of leggings, an oversizedRolling Stonest-shirt, and a pair of chuck taylor sneakers. Still, his lingering stare makes me profoundly uncomfortable.

“What are you doing later?” he asks, the hint of a smirk on his lips.

Now it’s my turn to look at him like he’s speaking a foreign language.

“Huh?” I blink.

“I was thinking about going to the bar in Goldenleaf,” he says casually, wadding up the empty pretzel bag. “Wanna come?” He waggles his eyebrows.

“What?”Is he frickin’ serious?I wrinkle my nose in disgust. “Are youasking me out?”

Theo shrugs, tossing the wadded-up pretzel bag toward the trash can by the wall. It bounces off the rim, landing on the floor. “Seems like you could use a break. And all that nerd-speak was kinda sexy.”

Unbelievable.

“No thanks,” I reply curtly, spinning back to face my monitor and placing my hands on the keyboard.

He lingers, assessing me, like it’s the first time he’s ever heard the word ‘no’.

“And here I thought you were the nice twin.”

I whip back around to look at him incredulously. He’s getting on my last nerve.

“So youdoknow who I am!” I pronounce, exasperated.

His face splits into a shit-eating grin, two rows of perfectly white, straight teeth. Those devilish good looks and that charming smile probably allow him to get away with murder, but they won’t work on me.

“You’re definitely more tightly wound than your sister,” he sighs, lacing his fingers together and bringing his hands behind his neck, reclining back on them. “You need to loosen up a little. I could help you with that.” He winks.

I wrinkle my nose, scowling at his innuendo. Does he really think I’mthatkind of girl? Or is he just trying to get under my skin?

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