Page 56 of The Alpha Dire Wolf
I stared, trying to figure out what the heck I was going to do. What Iwantedto do.
Do I really want to go on a date already? So soon after Caidyn, a situation I’m still dealing with? It’s only been a few days.
Comparing Lincoln to Caidyn felt rude. Improper. The two were so completely and totally different. It didn’t matter what had happened before.
No. This is crazy. You need time. You need to process.
“Tacos. And it’s just dinner,” I said, crossing my arms to make the point clear. “And I have questions for you. Starting with what happened last night and why didn’t you come back?”
Lincoln grinned toothily. “I’ll see you at dinner then. For a not-date.”
He winked at me and walked out before I could get another word in, leaving me frustrated, flustered, definitely confused, and maddeningly enough, more than a little aroused.
This is a big mistake.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Lincoln
“Hmmm.” I rifled through another cupboard, listening carefully for the reaction to my rather nondescript mutterings.
The slow draw of air through her nose was all I needed to confirm that Sylvie was all but grinding her teeth in mild irritation. I didn’t say anything more. Instead, I just waited to hear her response.
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
Somehow she refrained from adding the word “else” to her question. That showed some serious willpower because I had been testing her, seeing if I could provoke her. Doing so could be extremely dangerous to my well-being, but if it revealed that she was just acting, keeping up a façade until it broke, it would be worth it.
But she didn’t crack. Didn’t even give a whiff of being anything but who she claimed to be. And with every further poke and probe, my wolf became more convinced that it had to have her. ThatIhad to have her.
And I was losing reasons to deny it.
“You have no candles,” I told her, opening yet another cupboard.
“Why would we need candles for dinner?”
I turned and looked over my shoulder at her, watching the way her perfect face scrunched up, bringing the dimples in her chin to the fore. I enjoyed it when they were visible. Something feminine about it just struck me.
“No,” she said, shaking her head as she clued in at last, without a word from me. “Nuh-uh. This is not a date. Remember?”
I stared, letting my eyes linger on her lips and trying not to focus too hard on what they would taste like.
“It’s not a date,”Sylvie said with a bit more force.
“It kind of is,” I said, turning my back on her to continue looking through the cupboard, well aware it would irk her. “We’re two people, spending time together, to get to know one another, with heavy undertones of physical—”
“Will you stop rifling through my grandmother’s stuff!” she yelped before I could finish my sentence.
Not that I needed to. She knew what I was getting at. I knew that she knew. And around and around it went. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw it all play out on her face too. I had said the quiet part out loud. The closest we’d come yet, to acknowledging … whatever lay between us. I had broken that barrier. Confessed to being interested in her. Wanting her.
She had no idea just how badly.
A sly look came over her face just then. “Youwantthis to be a date.” She was nodding as she spoke, her head moving faster as the words came out. “You aren’t just teasing me.”
“Did you think I was lying?” I asked, curious where she was going, and what the look represented.
“Maybe I didn’t believe it,” she said with a shrug. “But now I do.”
“And what does that change?”
