Page 23 of Alpha Jax

“So what, have you given up the search?” Reid asks, an amused smile on his lips.

If only he knew.

“Yeah, guess so,” I sigh. I take another long sip of my beer, willing this conversation to end.

“Aw c’mon, you can’t give up!” Theo nudges me. “You said this one was special.”

My eyes flicker back to Quinn, and she’s still wearing that smug little smirk. “What was so special about her?” she asks teasingly, and it’d be really nice if a sinkhole opened in the floor of this bar right now and just swallowed me whole.

“More importantly, why give up the chase?” Reid interjects.Why is he so damn interested all of the sudden?He didn’t show nearly this level of interest when I was asking for his help in finding the girl.

Reid side-eyes her beside him, grinning, and that’s when it hits me.Quinn. It’s not the search for my mystery girl he’s interested in, it’sher.

I guess I can’t blame him- she’s incredible. But if anyone’s going to have her, it’sme, damnit. I give a little shake of my head, finishing my beer. “Just gotta keep moving forward,” I say, setting the empty bottle on the table in front of me. “It probably wouldn’t have worked out, anyways.”

Vienna walks up to our table, swaying a little bit on her high heels. “I’m gonna need all three of you girls to get on the dance floor with me, stat!” she giggles, clearly buzzed off of whatever she’s been drinking. She points around the table at Fallon, Brooke, and Quinn. “Whaddya say?”

“I’m in,” Fallon replies immediately, hopping off of Gray’s lap.

Quinn scoots forward on her stool, rising to stand. “Me too.” She looks around the table at the rest of us. “Don’t any of you boys dance, or are you too cool?”

“Something like that,” Brock chuckles, taking a swig of his beer.

“You coming, Brookie?” Fallon asks, glancing over her shoulder at her sister.

It doesn’t look like Brooke really wants to, but she begrudgingly slides off of Theo’s lap, planting a kiss on his lips before she heads to join her sister and her friends.

The four of them walk away, and while I should be relieved that Quinn’s no longer here to witness my embarrassment, I immediately feel the loss of her presence. Even though I shouldn’t, I can’t help but want to be near her.

“Damn, Theo,” Reid chuckles, watching the girls out on the dance floor. “Your sister…”

Theo shakes his head. “Don’t even think about it.”

I stay silent, picking at the label on my beer bottle and slyly watching Quinn dance out of the corner of my eye. She’s swaying to the music the way she was that night in Stillwater- looking so wild and free and uninhibited.My sexy siren.

Maybe the fact that she’s off limits makes me want her more. Because make no mistake, I want her- and I’m terrified that before long, what little hold I have on the tether of my control is bound to snap.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Quinn

“Hey, there she is,” Brooke calls as she looks up to see me standing in the doorway of the IT hub on Monday afternoon. She smiles warmly, striding over to the door to greet me. “I was beginning to wonder if you were standing us up!”

“Had to take a quick shower,” I say apologetically, smoothing my damp hair over a shoulder. “Training was a doozy this morning.”

“No worries,” she chirps, taking my hand and tugging me further into the hub. “C’mon, I want you to meet everyone!”

Brooke spends the next ten minutes taking me around and introducing me to the rest of the IT staff. There are thirteen of them in total- apparently there were nine originally, and I’m one of five newbies. Theo’s hanging around, too, even though the girl he was replacing just returned from her maternity leave. Everyone I meet seems really nice, with the exception of some lanky girl named Carly who appears to have beef with me for no reason. I get the feeling that she likes being one of only a few women on the IT unit and that my presence irritates her.

The desks in the room seem a little bit crammed together, but Brooke explains that they started with ten and had to fit four more in to accommodate us newcomers. Her desk is all the way in the back left of the room, and mine’s directly across from hers on the right. I’m pretty stoked to have a space of my own in IT unit and I’m eager to get started.

“So bring me up to speed,” I say as I sit down at my desk, setting my hand on the mouse and moving it across the computer screen to hover over the various applications installed. “Which one’s your program?”

Brooke rests her butt on the edge of my desk, glancing over her shoulder at my monitor. “That one,” she says, pointing with a finger.

I click into it, waiting a moment for it to load, then start clicking around inside the program. It turned out different than I imagined, but it’s surprisingly easy to navigate. Brooke starts talking me through the functions of the program and showing me how to pull reports.

I’m glad I have this distraction today, because ever since Saturday night, my mind keeps wandering back to Jaxon. Up until his friends called him out on Saturday, I was under the impression that our hookup didn’t mean jack shit to him since he basically said that he regretted it ever happening. Turns out that wasn’t the truth, though- after we spent the night together,Jax was looking for me. He was my ‘sexy stranger’, I was his ‘mystery girl’.We were looking for each other.

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