Page 14 of Claimed By the Bookstore Alpha
"Everyone has secrets."
He turned his hand over so our palms were touching and his fingers threaded through mine. His touch sent warmth shooting up my arm and my skin tingled.
"You're trouble." He grinned.
"The best kind, I hope."
He responded with a smile. "Definitely the best."
We stayed with our hands linked and talked about books and writing and the small details of our lives. He told me about inheriting the bookstore from a family member and how in the early days he'd nearly run it into the ground before figuring out what he was doing. I spoke of my published books and the rejection letters I'd kept in a shoebox as motivation.
When he finally walked me to the door, we lingered on the threshold. I didn’t want the evening to end. But if I knew anything about this man, it was that pushing him too fast and too soon, would have him retreating.
"Thank you." He still held my hand. "For today."
"Thank you for letting me see your world.”
He nodded, and for a moment I thought he would kiss me. Instead, he straightened the collar of his sweater that I was still wearing.
"Keep it. It looks better on you anyway."
After putting on my Peter Pan boots, I walked home through the quiet streets. When I looked back at the apartment above Turning Pages, he was silhouetted in the window, watching me. I gave a half wave which was kinda awkward, and strode toward home.
SEVEN
FLYNN
I watched Clark disappear around the corner but I couldn't bring myself to move away from the window. My apartment was too quiet and empty after hours of his presence filling every corner with warmth and laughter. And my hand still tingled where he'd touched it. I showered twice a day and washed my hands before touching food and after going to the bathroom. But now I was actually considering how I could not wash his scent off me.
I tried to focus on my evening routine where I could retreat into myself because none of the tasks required brain power. I washed the coffee mugs, straightened the books Clark had moved and checked that the store was locked up. But every few minutes I found myself pausing, remembering the way he had looked in my clothes and the careful way he'd held my poetry book. I placed my hand on my cheek remembering how our fingers had intertwined on the couch.
“You're trouble,” I'd told him. But the truth was, I wanted that trouble more than I'd wanted anything in years.
My wolf was restless, pacing beneath my skin with an energy that had nothing to do with the approaching full moon and everything to do with Clark's lingering scent in my apartment. Icould smell traces of him everywhere—on the couch where we'd sat, in the air—and it was so sweet with that underlying note that made my pulse quicken.
I was in the middle of brushing my teeth when the knock came. Who was that? I couldn’t recall the last time someone came to my place in the evening?
The tapping was so soft I might not have picked it up but my wolf had better hearing than I did. I was giddy, thinking it might be who I wanted it to be more than anything.
And as I walked toward the door, I caught his scent. He came back. I tamped down my excitement, telling myself he was returning my clothes. But when I opened the door, Clark stood in my hallway, still wearing my sweater. His cheeks were flushed from the night air, but he was bouncing on the balls of his feet and clenching and unclenching his fists.
"I forgot..." he started and shook his head as if he wanted to take back the words. "No, that's not true. I didn't forget anything."
"Clark."
"I got halfway home but I didn’t want to be there. There was someplace else that was calling to me.” He paused and gulped a mouthful of air. “I kept thinking of what you said about connection and risk and whether it's worth what you might gain."
His words tumbled out as if he was afraid he'd lose his nerve if he slowed down. "And I think... I think it is. Worth it, I mean."
I stared at him, my heart doing something complicated in my chest. "What are you saying?" He had to be clear because I wasn’t great at deciphering coded language.
"I'm saying I don't want to go home tonight. I think about you all the time, and seeing you today, being in your space..." He stepped closer. “I want to find out what this is between us."
My wolf was running around in circles inside me, making him and me dizzy and my mind was listing the reasons why this was a terrible idea.
He didn't know what I was. As a human, he didn’t have a clue that shifters existed. I had a wolf nestled inside me and there were so many complications that came with getting involved with a shifter. If we did this, there’d be no going back.
"You don't know what you're asking for.” I couldn’t say more though he deserved to hear it.
