Page 9 of Eight Steps to Alpha

Chapter 3

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

Elliot jumped away from the sink, causing his towel to almost drop from his hips. “What the?” He tucked the edge of the terrycloth more securely at his side and turned toward the door. “What do you want? Don’t tell me you have to pee again?”

“You’ve been in there forever,” Fe responded. “Are we going to do this thing or what?”

His brows pinched together, and he glanced down to cellphone that lay on the bathroom counter. Ten minutes. It had been exactly ten minutes he’d been in the bathroom. He almost told her so, but immediately decided against it. “Do what?” he asked tentatively.

“The plan. Make you alpha. We need to get started.”

He yanked another towel from the wall, threw it over his still dripping head, and opened the door. “Today?” But he barely got the word out before she practically fell through the opening.

She gripped the wood molding on either side of the door catching herself. “I thought we were on a deadline? I thought Mary Poppins was coming back in four weeks?”

His lip curled in an amused grin. “Mary Poppins?”

“Yes.” She huffed out a breath. “Are you getting ready or what?”

“For what exactly?” he asked, trying to remember what they’d discussed the night before.

“Shopping.” She closed her eyes and let out a breath. “Look, Elli, do you want my help or not? Because yesterday, I thought you did, but if that’s not the case, let’s just end it right here.” She turned on her heels and walked away.

What?

His towel dropped to his shoulders and he went after her, grabbing her arm right before she disappeared into her room.

She jumped. A good foot into the air like she’d seen the boogie man.

“Woah, tiger,” he said, throwing his hands in the air and taking a step backward. “I just wanted to say I’ll be ready in five.”

Her expression changed from anger, to embarrassment, to something he couldn’t quite make out. But what baffled him most was that she seemed to be confused by her own actions, maybe even more than he was. She took a deep breath, tucked a long strand of hair behind her ear, and nodded. “That’s fine.” But before she walked into her room, she stopped, as though something important had suddenly struck her mind. She took a deep breath, her shoulders rising and falling before she turned around. “It looks good,” she said softly.

He picked up the corner of his towel, using its edge to scrub his inky locks, but his chest constricted. “What does?” he asked in a low voice. Because something about this moment called for it. Maybe because of how timid she was acting, or the fact he didn’t want to scare her away.

She lifted her chin a fraction of an inch. “Your face.”

His lips lifted in a small smile, and he rubbed over his five o’clock shadow with the backs of his fingers. It had only been a day, but like he said the night before, he was a man. “Ya like it?”

She lifted one shoulder as though indicating inference. “It’s nice. Makes you look older.”

He raised both of his brows but couldn’t quite suppress his grin. “Thanks.”

She laughed, as though the topic made her somewhat uncomfortable. She stepped into her room, then leaned her head against the doorway before slowly pulling the door shut behind her. “Go get dressed, Elliot.”

He bit his lip, still slightly shocked by her compliment. “Okay.”

She closed the door, and he waited until he heard it click before scrubbing over his hair again . Maybe this plan would work after all . Maybe.

* * *

An hour later,standing in the dressing room of Nordstrom’s rack, Elliot dodged handfuls of clothes as they came flying over the door. “What the—” he said, ducking down to pick of the clothes as another item narrowly missed his skull.

Fe was on a rampage—more than a rampage—throwing clothes at him left and right for the last twenty minutes. “Try those on,” she yelled at him.

He raised his brows, glancing around the small room to clothes that didn’t impress him. “Jeans?” He laughed. “I have twenty pair of jeans at home.”

“You have shit jeans, Elliot. My dad wears the same jeans as you.”

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