Fated An Alpha Male Romance - K. Alex Walker Page 0,67

into our legs to push towards the finish line. Roderick caught on at the last minute and tried to catch up, but Eli and I were already through the banner before he had a chance to catch his breath.

I ignored the loud cheering and chattering over the megaphone. Instead, I searched the sea of people for Alexandra’s face. If she ran to me, then I could forget everything else. I could chalk it all up to being a coincidence and an unsubstantiated belief in folklore. What I had with her, I wouldn’t know with anyone else. Somehow, I was certain of that. It wasn’t fatalism; it was something that I could literally feel.

I saw her navigating through the sea of people towards me. She had a face towel and water bottle, ready to cool her man off. The smile on her face lifted me from the ground. She was it for me. I wanted no one else.

An eerie hush suddenly fell around us, stopping her in her tracks. We turned off to the side and Roderick was standing in the middle of the venue, lights and cameras flashing all around him. I didn’t like the look on his face and something told me that I wasn’t going to like what happened next.

“Alexandra,” he called, waving her over. “Come over here, sweetheart.”

She glanced at me and I shook my head although I knew it was futile. She wouldn’t embarrass him on camera, and especially not on national news.

Reluctantly, she walked over and a pit began to burn in my stomach.

“Everyone, you all know Alexandra, my beautiful girlfriend and the woman who made this all possible,” Roderick announced. “Fellas, if you find a woman like this, a love like this, never let it go. There’s a modern misconception that women no longer bend over backwards for their men. Alexandra is a testament to how false that is. This woman will do virtually anything to keep me happy, and I want to prove to her here tonight that I’m willing to do the same.”

He bent to his knee and my jaw tightened hard enough to crack walnuts.

“Alexandra Jacqueline Miller,” he began. Then, he fished out the same velvety box that he’d waved around my office. When he opened it, I was almost certain that the glare from the jewel inside blinded several of the people in attendance.

“Will you do me the honor of being my wife?”

I released my jaw and held my breath. It was as though I could feel Alexandra’s heartbeat thudding against her ribcage. She looked around at all of the lights and cameras focused on them, capturing the proposal live. Then, her eyes went to the crowd that had formed around them. Finally, her gaze found me.

I knew that I was failing miserably at hiding how fast my chest was rising and falling. My fists were clenched at my sides and my eyes were pleading. As discreetly as I could, I shook my head, but dread was already beginning to wash over me. She couldn’t do it. She wouldn’t say no to him in front of all these people.

“…Yes.”

The minute the answer left her lips, something inside of me died. All of the light left my body and took the air from my lungs with it. I was completely numb.

I turned and made my way into the center, needing a moment not to be around what everyone else was mistaking for happy news. Nothing about this was happy. There was no coming back from this. Any fight that I’d had left inside of me was now defeated. I couldn’t and wouldn’t do this anymore.

I was done.

-----

Alexandra

“Why would you do this?” I asked Roderick in between teeth that I’d stretched into yet another fake grin.

“Do what, my love?”

“In front of all these people, Rick. Why would you do this?”

He looked down. “What, you don’t want to marry me? You thought that you and the good doctor would end up riding off into the sunset like some fairy tale?”

I wanted to pull away from his grasp, but there were still dozens of lenses pointed in our direction.

“You knew?” I asked.

“I know everything, Alexandra.” He touched a kiss to the top of my head. “I don’t know what made you think that you were just going to cheat on me and then let it be.”

I looked around for Ethan but couldn’t find him anywhere.

“Isn’t that what you are, Alexandra?” Roderick asked, leaning down as though whispering something romantic in my ear. “You’re a