Page 47 of Game Over

I felt it everywhere, like a stroke of his fingers directly along my center, making me fuckingache.

“—was in such a rush, we didn’t get to.”

I offered him a shy smile, trying to quiet the riot of butterflies threatening to come from my stomach and out my mouth in the most insane spill of word vomit maybe ever.

“I’ve never been good at slow or patient, alpha,” I teased, nudging his shoulder.

Charlie’s hand caught mine as I moved to pull it away, dragging it to rest in his lap as he drove.

“Two heats in and we haven’t even done the awkward first date thing yet… I’d believe it, Tara.”

“But you want to, right?” I asked.

His hand was so warm in mine, thumb brushing along my knuckles as his buttery blueberry scent came off his skin in waves, almost successful in pulling me across the center console to bury my nose in his throat.

Charlie laughed, turning into a small parking lot to stop the car on the side of a building painted with a mural of flowers in bright pinks and golds.

“Tara, I’m a Stanford educated man, I’m not stupid. Obviously I want to spend time with you. I’ve been looking forward to this all week.”

That little bit of reassurance was all I needed, squeezing the alpha’s fingers before I slid out of the car and onto the gravel of the lot. Charlie came around the car to take my hand, leading me onto the paved walkway and to the front of the building.

“I never come into this part of town,” I said as Charlie got the door, whisking us inside the bright, cheerily lit cafe and shop.

“Me either, but I found it online when I was looking for ideas of stuff to do.”

“Huh,” I said noncommittally.

For some reason, I’d half expected Jesse to plan the date for him. But Charlie was a surprise more often than he was what I expected.

Like his car. I’d imagined that Jesse’s insanely rich tech friend would be the sort of dickhead who at least drove a Lexus or a BMW—but the sensible Toyota Corolla Charlie had picked me up in was actually pretty nice, and it didn't cost more than a house.

The cafe’s large picture windows offered plenty of natural sunlight to bounce off the white rabbit eared chairs, and light wood tables. Along the far side of the room was the till, a largeglass case of pastries and ready-made Japanese drinks available in cute bottles and cans that would’ve looked perfectly at home in my room. There was a little window and a swinging door beside the counter that hinted to a larger kitchen, likely to serve the menu hanging overhead adorned with pictures.

My eyes went wide.

“I know I said I didn’t care about eating on a date…” I started, eyeing the photos of the large, square French toast-like dessert that held the biggest place on the menu, drenched in what I hoped was blueberry syrup.

“But you really want to try it?” Charlie laughed. “I’ll order for us, do you want a drink too?”

“Maybe a coffee?” I suggested, thinking of how sweet the bread cube was likely to be. “Vanilla latte, please.”

Charlie nodded towards the other side of the counter, I’d been so distracted I’d almost entirely missed the tables and shelves of phone cases, charms, and other decorations.

This wasn’t just acute cafe, it was a cutedecodencafe!

Excitement filtered from me into Charlie, making him smile.

“Why don’t you start picking stuff out?”

The squeal of excitement that left me was entirely real as I leaned up to kiss his cheek, dropping his hand to go and look through the options.

There were so many choices it was overwhelming, but I knew one thing—at the very least, there was going to be a whole lot of purple.

It didn’t take Charlie long to order our snacks, coming to meet me as I carefully picked through a bowl of glittering star charms.

“I have no idea how you knew, but I’ve always wanted to try this,” I said excitedly, showing him the phone case I’d picked along with some of the charms.

“Kind of made me think of your room,” he said, collecting a tray for himself to begin making choices. “I thought it would be cool to like, match? Have something to make you think of me?”

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