When He's An Alpha (The Olympus Pride #2) - Suzanne Wright Page 0,27
might have tried to kill me several times when we were kids, but you didn’t actually do it. Remember the night when I was twelve and you shoved a sock in my mouth and then tried to suffocate me with your pillow? It nearly worked, but then you stopped. You let me live. That’s love.”
Tate frowned. “I stopped because you let out a moist-sounding fart that stunk like rotten eggs and almost knocked me sick.”
Luke’s brow furrowed as his gaze turned inward. “Oh yeah, I forgot about that.”
“And I wouldn’t have tried to kill you that night if you hadn’t tossed my birthday cake out the window like it was a goddamn frisbee.”
“That was an accident.”
Vinnie exhaled heavily and raised his hands. “Let’s cut our trip down memory lane short, shall we, boys?”
Tate grunted and rolled back his shoulders. “Yeah, lets,” he said, pulling out his phone. He had a lot of calls to make and, to his frustration, very little optimism that those calls would gain him the answers he needed.
CHAPTER FIVE
A few hours later, Tate jabbed the “up” button on the elevator. He threw his brother a sideways scowl. “Stop smirking.”
“It’s hard not to when I can see how much you’re struggling to keep your distance from Havana,” said Luke.
“I’m not struggling.”
“Then why are we at her building?”
“I need to give her an update.”
“And it had to be done in person?”
Well no, but … “It’s a good excuse to subtly check on her. I’m not just worried about her physical safety. It has to be a mind fuck to know that someone intended to sell you at a goddamn auction like you’re an antique dresser.”
“True. She seemed okay earlier, though.”
“That could have been a simple case of shock. Now that she’s had time for everything to sink in, she might be freaking the hell out.” Havana generally wasn’t the type to freak out, but Tate wanted to be utterly sure she was fine.
A ping proceeded the opening of the elevator doors. After he and his brother stepped inside, Tate pressed the button for her floor. And, that quickly, his body began to hum with anticipation—it was an automatic physiological reflex after months of coming here to see her. As if his system had come to associate the short upward journey to her floor with a dark carnal pleasure that he just couldn’t imagine ever experiencing with someone else.
It was like she’d made some sort of mark on him. One he couldn’t see but could feel. One that kept pulling him back to her again and again.
The elevator soon came to a smooth stop. As he and Luke walked along the corridor, Tate noticed Havana stood in the doorway of her apartment up ahead, chatting with one of the other tenants.
The older woman gave him a deferential nod before sighing. “Oh, this business with the auction is just horrible, isn’t it?”
“It is,” replied Tate. “But it’ll be dealt with. In the meantime, be careful.”
“Oh, I will. Trust me.” She gave Havana a pointed look. “You take care now.”
“You, too,” said Havana.
With a little wave, the woman walked away.
Havana’s eyes met his, and Tate felt the electric snap of attraction in his blood. Those bluish-gray eyes flared, telling him she’d felt it too, but she blanked her expression fast.
To his consternation, the drive to brand her hadn’t yet dimmed. It was still like a live wire inside him, and he had no idea how to shut it off. He just knew he had no intention of answering that drive. He wouldn’t force a mark on her just to make some kind of point, no matter how much his system pushed at him to do so.
“I’m hoping you came because you have amazing news to deliver,” she said, stepping back to allow him to enter. “Like that one of your contacts knows where Gideon is.”
Tate took three steps into the apartment before he admitted, “Unfortunately, I don’t yet have that info. Most of them believe he’s dead, but not all. They’re still looking into the situation with the auctions and—” He cut off as a mamba launched its entire body at the adorable bearcat sitting on the rug. The bearcat let out a yowl, and then the two were wrestling and rolling around on the living room floor. Lounging on the sofa, Camden only sighed.
Havana crossed to the animals. “For God’s sake,” she snapped. “Are you really not bored of this at all?”