Page 32 of Pack Favero

Pulling my head back, I peer up at the mountain of a man and explain, “Hunter Gary Johnson the third. Or second. I can’t remember. He appeared last week, and I’ve suffered several visits from him over the week. Today he asked me to lunch, andI’d rather dive headfirst into a pool of sharks than spend more time with him than necessary. The guy gives me seriously bad vibes.”

“Same here, little lady,” Alek agrees, nodding as he looks in the direction Hunter disappeared to before peering back down at me with a serious expression, the jealousy lingering for a moment as he says, “But I’ve got you, so you don’t need to worry.”

“My savior,” I sigh, a relieved smile pulling at my lips.

Alek smiles back before tugging me gently into a long hug that soothes my frayed nerves and rids my body of the lingering stress Hunter inflicted with his presence alone. As my body relaxes against him, a steady purr bubble from his chest, vibrating against my cheek, and the remaining edgy emotions I’ve been left with disappear into the ether.

“There she is. Sweet and sugary, just like I like you,” Alek rumbles, his voice deeper with my head pressed against his beefy chest. “Feel better?”

“Much. Thank you for coming so quickly,” I huff a laugh, reluctantly pulling away and stepping back from the tree of an alpha.

“No need to thank me. I’m just glad I was at the office today and not on site, or else it would have taken longer to get to you,” he teases, at ease now that I am.

Flashing him a smile, I mutter, “Well, I appreciate it all the same. I’m sorry for pulling you away from work, though. You don’t have to stay and actually have lunch with me.”

“And miss spending one-on-one time with my omega? Now what kind of alpha would that make me?” he jokes, winking and drawing out a loud laugh from me. Damn, that feels good. It’s like the nervousness and uncomfortable awkwardness washes away with every word he speaks, and I can’t help but tease him back. “Then how about you treat me to a croissantfrom Gabby’s? I expect my alpha to keep his omega happy with all the carbs I can eat.”

Flashing me a promising grin, Alek reaches for my hand and links our fingers together as he says, “What the little lady wants, the little lady gets. Let’s go feed you and you can tell me all about McCreeperson and why you needed me to come save you.”

“I’m good with that,” I agree, squeezing my hand around his and allowing him to lead me to the diner feeling much lighter than I left the library feeling.

Chapter 11

Zira

Lunch with Alek washes away all negative emotions as effectively as if I’d just stepped through the gates to Disneyworld, the remainder of the hour spent laughing and flirting and ribbing at one another. After I explained the Hunter situation, Alek texted Barnes and asked if there were any updates or info that he might have found on the new professor before distracting me the entire hour until Hunter was nothing more than a blip in my otherwise good day.

Walking hand in hand with the big, burly man as we leave the diner, somehow finding it completely natural to link my fingers with his, I tell him, “Thank you again. For coming to my rescue and for the carbs.”

“I’d do it again, little lady,” he assures, winking down at me with a beautiful grin on his spectacularly gorgeous face, only covered in a light layer of blond stubble that I want to scratch my nails through.

“Let’s hope another rescue isn’t on the cards,” I counter, shaking my head at that disaster. “But, if you want to have lunch again at some point, I’d be okay with that.”

“Oh yeah? You’d beokaywith it?” he teases, and we stop just before we reach the green on campus, Alek tugging my hand until I lose my balance and almost collide into him for a second time today. When I look up questioningly at the man, he’s wearing a lethal smile that does a number of things to my body, and it only grows the instant I start perfuming and clenching my thighs together, regret for wearing a skirt today piercing the happy bubble Alek has put me in. If I wasn’t wearing a skirt, I’m sure it would be less noticeable how much that smile is affectingme, and I wouldn’t be blushing furiously at the realization that Alek can probably smell the arousal on me. “I think you’d be more than okay with it. In fact, I’d risk it all to say you’d enjoy my company for another lunch date.”

“Date, huh?” I counter, raising my eyebrow with a flirty challenge. I have no idea who this new Zira is, but I’m having a great time finding out.

“Little lady, you can’t be going around calling me ‘baby’ without considering going to lunch with me as anything but a date,” he declares, slowly sliding his hands up my back, over the white, sleeveless chiffon shirt I chose to wear today, and stopping until he cups my face. His thumbs brush over my jaw as he peers down at me with a look that makes me shiver in the best way possible, and he lowers his voice as he asks, “Are you calling anyone else ‘baby’ that I need to know of? I’m not above beating the shit out of someone to earn that term of endearment for myself and myself only.”

My grin is as instant as my blush, and I shake my head between his hands.

“Then I call dibs,” he declares, right before he leans in slowly, as though giving me the option to pull away.

I don’t, and I catch the briefest hint of a smile before Alek presses his lips to mine, kissing me right there in the open without a single care in the world. Hell, it seems I don’t have any either, because the moment his soft lips press against mine, framed with a trimmed beard that tickles, I’m pressing my hands against his shirt, clutching at the material, as I kiss him back harder.

Groaning against my mouth, it takes a split second before Alek takes control of the kiss. His tongue sweeps against my lower lip, seeking entrance, and I allow it all too willingly. His flavor bursts over my tongue instantly, neroli and basil flooding my senses, and I moan softly against his mouth as hedevours me as though he’s been wanting to do just that for days.

By the time he pulls back, and then kisses me again, and pulls back a little more reluctantly, I’m breathlessly panting against his lips as my eyelids slowly flutter open. I’m pressed snugly against Alek’s body, his hands still framing my face, and I swallow hard before whispering, “That was bold.”

Alek flashes that sexy grin before whispering back, “Nah. I just know what I want.”

Smirking while I try to calm my freshly awoken libido, I push, “You want an omega you’ve only known a few short weeks?”

Alek snickers before stealing another kiss from my lips, pulling back only to confess, “I’ve wanted you since before I ever met you, Zira. Months I’ve been smelling your addictive scent on Barnes, and months I’ve been begging him to tell me who the hell it came from. So, yeah, I want you. I want you even more now that I’ve finally put the scent to the beautiful woman I carried to my home in nothing but a towel. I want you more now that I know who you are. Now, you should probably get back to work or else you’ll be late.”

Damn it my insides aren’t turning to liquid, my heart fluttering along with the butterflies that erupt in my belly at his words. It doesn’t even matter that I’m on the brink of being late, because I can’t very well hear Alek quietly confess that he wants me without doing something about it.

My hand is wrapped around his neck a moment later, and I’m yanking him into a harder kiss than the first we shared, and I trap the rumbling groan he releases between his lips as I kiss him with an explosion of need.

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