Page 57 of Eight Steps to Alpha

Chapter 18

“What doyou mean we’re going to a club?” Elliot asked, following Fe to the bathroom where she grabbed a brush and started yanking it through her hair.

“I don’t see what’s so difficult to understand?” she began. “This is step number seven. If you’re going to fight, we need to find someone for you to do it with.”

Elliot stood behind her; his hair and clothes still damp from his ride back from work. “What kind of club is this?”

“A dance club—or a night club—I’m not sure. You just need to trust me.” She opened the medicine cabinet, grabbed the makeup that barely saw the light of day, and headed back to her room. “We’ll find out when we get there, okay?”

He followed behind her, his eyes narrowed. “You mean you don’t even know where we’re going?”

She shook her head, then turned to face him, and took a deep breath. “Colton is taking us.”

He scoffed. “Uh no. I’m not going to a night club with Colton. You go. I’m staying here.” He turned to leave, but she ducked under his arm blocking his way.

“I thought you wanted my help?”

“I do! I did! I want you, Fe.” He took a breath. “Not Colton.”

Her breath left for an instant, not because of what he said, but how he said it. With that slight pause, that said so much, but meant so little. She knew it was nothing, that it meant nothing, but that pause still made her heart skip. She did a good job of covering it, not looking down to her feet, or fidgeting with her hair like she wanted to. She looked him dead in the eye, her shoulders square, and immediately recovered.

Things had been better since the vibrator incident. Better than they’d been in weeks. She found herself laughing with him again, feeling comfortable in his presence, even though she still wondered about his fantasies. There was something about clearing the air, letting go of her fears, her insecurities, and all of her daunting thoughts that lifted a hundred-pound weight from her shoulders.

It was liberating. Because she no longer felt betrayed by her own thoughts. Elliot knew about them, and thought they were normal. He didn’t judge her one bit. Which should have been a given after knowing him for so long. But it was times like this, when they were alone, and he was looking at her like that, which made her heart scream with hopes and fears at the same time. That made her grab hold of her bearing and not lose all control and kiss him again. “Do you trust me, Elliot?” She flexed her jaw. Because she was asking him the same question his brother had asked of her the night before.

He blew out a breath and threw his head back to his shoulders. “You know I do.”

“Then meet me in the living room in an hour.

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