Page 15 of Just a Friend for the Lion

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“Damn it,” I mutter, popping the trunk on a brand-new Escalade and pretending I give a shit about the luggage compartments.

I don’t.

Not right now.

I’m trying not to think about the way her curls bounced when she laughed.

Trying real hard not to think about the way her smile wrapped around me like a silk noose.

Or the way she saidmy pleasurelike she meant it in every possible way.

Focus, Carter.

I should be going over schedules. Finalizing the website. Checking on the damn permit status with the DMV.

Instead, I’m pacing the garage like a caged animal. The last fucking thing in the world I want to be.

Buzz.

I stop dead. My hand’s already in my pocket before my brain catches up.

Phone. Notification alert. Date to Mate.

Uzzi’s stupid app.

The one I swore I wouldn’t take seriously. The one I only downloaded to prove a point.

To prove I wasn’t scared.

To prove I wasn’t looking.

I unlock the screen with a swipe.

No matches.

Just the soft pulsing logo. A little heart beating in time with mine.

Fuck.

I’m not supposed to be waiting. That wasn’t the deal.

I was supposed to eat pizza, humor the old Witch, and go about my merry single Lion life.

But now I’m checking the damn app like it owes me something.

Like she owes me something.

And I don’t even know her last name.

All I know is that my instincts are screaming at me to turn around.

Go back. Buy another pie. Ask her out. Drag her into my world and see if she fits.

Except that’s not how this is supposed to go.

I’m not the mate-and-marriage type. I’ve never been.

And fated mates?

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