Betrayal of the Dove - By Capri Montgomery Page 0,51
to go now?” She wasn’t ready to go, but she knew they had to.
“Sure,” she said, grabbing her purse and putting her notepad back inside. “Would you like to have dinner with me tonight at my place?”
“I can’t,” he said. Was she misreading him? She thought he was still interested, but maybe he wasn’t. Maybe he was looking for an easy way to let her down. “Leo’s coming in tonight so I’m going to pick him up from the airport. He hasn’t found a car worth renting yet,” he shook his head and laughed.
“I thought he wasn’t due in for another week or so.”
He shrugged. “I had a voicemail on my phone from him. He’s getting in tonight. I could kick his butt for making me have to turn down a perfectly good invitation for dinner with a beautiful woman.”
She smiled. “There will be other dinners,” she said. “Bring him by the store in the morning. I’d love to meet him.”
He nodded. “Just so long as we have one thing clear before then.”
“What’s that?”
“You’re mine.” Alyssa looked at him, totally floored by that proclamation of ownership. “At least I want you to be. And Leo, well he’s like a Hawaiian-Japanese god or something and I don’t want you to fall for him.”
She understood now where his head was. He wanted a serious relationship with her and he was afraid she would take one look at Leo and fall for him. She wouldn’t do that. After what they shared last night she couldn’t imagine being with anybody else. It wasn’t just the orgasm he gave her, it was the conversation, the way he freely opened up to her as much as he could. There was vulnerability in him last night that she found alluring and sexy, and it made her connect to him in a way she didn’t think she would allow herself to connect to anybody else. Her heart had already latched on to this man and there was no turning back.
“I wouldn’t ditch you for your friend, Shane. I…” she tried to think of the right words. Saying she loved him would be too quick, or at least she thought he might feel that way, but what she felt, what she thought she felt, was stronger than like and lust—it was love. “I really care about you. I wouldn’t hurt you.”
He smiled. “Well, if you and Leo hit it off then I’d step aside.” He stopped abruptly. “What the heck am I talking about?” He asked astonished at himself. “I’d kick his behind back to Hawaii. I would definitely fight for my woman, even if he can kill me without breaking a sweat.”
She laughed. “Now, now…no fighting. You already have me. Trust me; I’m yours. And I hope that you’re mine too. I’d like for us to belong to each other.”
He approached her in a smooth even gait and pulled her into his arms. “We do,” he assured her before squeezing her closer to him. She loved the feel of him, of his body pressed against hers, of his arms wrapped around her. She didn’t want to move from that spot, but she knew they had to. She had to get home and get ready for work. Oh, but come Sunday, raining or not, she was going to spend the day in bed with that man. His friend would just have to take in the Arizona charm on his own that day because she and Shane had some unfinished business to see to, and she planned to spend the entire day getting to know every curve, every hardened muscle and every scar on his body. Inside and out, she wanted to know the infinite depth of Shane Maxwell.
They pulled into Shane’s parking space and they both got out of the truck. He wasn’t thrilled that she hadn’t waited for him to open the door. “I can get my own door,” she had said. “I’m getting out and I don’t have to wait for you to open what I can open.” She had noticed his very chivalrous demeanor. He had opened the door for her getting in, and that was sweet and definitely scored points in her book, but getting out wasn’t an activity that she expected him to help her with. He didn’t need to jog around to the other side of the truck just to open a door she could open herself. They were almost to her door when Shane stiffened and stopped her from walking. “What’s wrong?”
“Shh,”