Page 2 of Take Me (Alphas Forever 1)

I nod. I don’t know how to interpret the new expression on his face. He kind of looks disappointed and kind of looks surprised.

“Right,” he says gruffly. “Come on in.”

I follow him into the shop and he locks the door behind us. He must catch something in my face, because he says, “Shop’s not open for another hour.”

I nod and wait for him to start showing me around. Now that I’m inside, I can see why Sweet Cream is so popular. It has a really cool vibe. It’s mostly black and wood, with splashes of color. Vintage lights hang from the ceiling, and a neon sign that says JUST SWEET ENOUGH is installed on one wall.

I’m standing there, taking in my new surroundings, when Shane says, “What happened to your knee?”

I break out of my trance and look down, as if I don’t know what he’s talking about.

“Someone ran into me. A rollerblader. Out on the sidewalk.”

Shane grunts. “What an asshole.”

“No, it was my fault,” I say. “I didn’t move out of the way.”

“Rollerbladers shouldn’t even be on the sidewalk,” Shane says. His hand clenches and then slowly relaxes. He turns and starts heading to the back of the shop. “Come on. You can’t walk around like that all day.”

I follow him into the back, to the bathroom, which is just as trendy-looking as the main part of the shop. All the hardware is brass, and the sink is black. Shane digs through the cabinet below the sink and pulls out a first aid kit. As I stand there, frozen still, he quickly cleans my scraped-up knee and puts a bandaid over the cut that’s still bleeding. His big hands are surprisingly delicate as they patch me up.

“Thank you,” I say. I’m touched by his actions. He didn’t have to take care of me like that.

He shrugs his broad shoulders. “Can’t have you bleeding all over the place.”

He tosses the first aid kit back under the sink and motions for us to return to the main part of the shop. As we head out, our arms accidentally brush, and I feel a shiver of desire run up my spine. I do everything in my power to ignore it, though.

This summer is definitely going to be hell if I don’t.

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