Page 4 of Take Me (Alphas Forever 1)

Then one of the guys with them says, in a half-exasperated, half-snarky voice, “Why don’t you just ask that chick what she thinks? She looks like she’s tried them all.”

By that chick, he means Blair.

I step around the counter and approach the group. “Leave. Now.”

The girls look at me, flabbergasted. The jackass kid snorts. “We didn’t do anything. You can’t kick us out.”

“I sure can, bud,” I say. I take another step closer to him. That puts the fear in him. His eyes widen and he takes half a step back.

“Jesus, okay,” he says. “We’re going.”

The group leaves, talking quietly amongst themselves as they head out the door. I’m pretty sure I hear the words psycho and sucks anyway come out of their mouths, but I ignore them and go back around the counter to check on Blair.

“You okay?” I ask.

She nods but doesn’t look at me.

“Blair?”

“I’m fine,” she says.

Another customer steps up to the counter and asks for a double scoop of mint chocolate chip. Silently, Blair digs her scooper into the ice cream. Soon afterward, as I’m ringing up the customer at the register, I am vaguely aware of Blair stepping away from the counter and heading into the back room.

There’s a lull in customers after that, so I take the opportunity to go into the back to make sure Blair is truly okay. I head toward the bathroom, but when I reach it, the door is open and the small room is empty. So I keep walking down the hall and discover Blair in the storage area.

Crying.

Fuck.

I can’t help it—I wrap my arms around her. I have to comfort her.

“That guy was an asshole,” I say.

“I know,” she says, sniffling. She wipes her eyes dry and pulls out of my grasp. “I’m sorry, Shane. But I don’t think I’m a good fit for this job. I can’t even scoop the ice cream right.”

“It takes practice.”

“I know, but…” She doesn’t say anything else. Her hazel eyes look up to meet mine.

That’s it. There’s no more restraining the desire I feel for her. I take her face into my hands and bend down and plant a kiss on her lips. I can feel her surprise when our mouths come in contact, but it quickly melts away. She parts her lips and I slip my tongue into her mouth. I kiss her deeply as I pull her toward me again. I’m already hard by then, of course, and it doesn’t help that she’s pressing her body against me. I’m tortured by the lust I feel for her. And I’m tortured that I can’t do anything more about it right now.

I tear apart from her and flood my head with math equations to ease down my rock-hard cock. “I’ve gotta go back out there,” I huff. “But take as long of a break as you need, Blair.”

She nods, looking at me with a stunned expression.

I lean in once more to give her another quick kiss.

“You’re perfect, you know that?” I tell her. “And just so you know, I want you to be mine.”

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