Page 35 of The Alpha Under My Bed

No teasing comment. No sidelong glance. No smirk curling at the corner of his lips, that knowing look in his eyes.

He just kept driving.

By the time we pulled up in front of the apartment, my heart was racing so wildly I thought it might burst, my skin flushedand feverish, and the taste of humiliation thick and choking in my throat.

Mal’s head tilted slightly. His dark eyes dragged over me—slow, unreadable.

Still, he said nothing.

Not about my perfume. Not about the way I had squirmed in my seat the whole ride home. Not about any of it.

I didn’t go inside. Not yet.

I needed a second.

Just one second to breathe.

Mal stepped out behind me.

I went rigid.

He didn’t say anything. Just locked the car, his movements slow, casual. Then he walked toward the building entrance, pausing at the door.

Waiting for me.

I forced my legs to move.

The elevator ride up was silent.

When the doors opened, Mal stepped out first, turning toward his apartment. I turned toward mine, my hands still shaking as I fumbled for my keys.

His footsteps didn’t stop.

I exhaled, relief curling through me.

Then—

“Night, sweetheart. Lock your door behind you.”

I barely managed a nod.

I turned just as his door clicked shut.

Leaving me standing in the hall.

Completely ruined.

Eleven

ELEANOR

I woke up slow.

Not the peaceful kind of slow where the morning stretches lazily into focus, but the heavy, suffocating kind—like dragging myself up from the bottom of a dark lake, my body too sluggish, my thoughts too thick to make sense of anything right away.

My nest was warm—too warm—the weight of my blankets pressing in on me, the scent of my own comfort thick in the air. I shifted, trying to push some of the warmth away, but the movement sent a sharp, unrelenting pulse of sensation through my core.

I inhaled sharply.

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