Shaw (Alpha Geek #6) - Milly Taiden Page 0,12

out.

He shook his head and tried to regain some of his composure. He placed his hands on the small of Poppy’s back and led her to the counter, where a bored-looking barista was eying them. His fingers sparked at the point of contact. It was a rush that made his blood sing for Poppy.

“What’s your order, love?” he asked her.

“I’d like a venti mocha cookie crumble frappuccino. Oh, and one a slice of cake.” She craned a long, elegant neck to see into the display chest. “The double chocolate fudge one.”

“Aren’t you afraid of cavities?” he teased.

Poppy blushed a bit, making her tanned cheeks go a cute shade of pink.

“Uh-huh. Shifter thing. I’ve got great teeth. Besides, I am starved. The sugar won’t even touch my teeth.”

Shaw smiled at her and shrugged. “Make that two of each. I’ll have what she’s having.”

Poppy giggled. “Are you sure you can put that away?” She winked at him and blushed deeper.

It took Shaw a few seconds to realize she wasn’t making a jab at his more than lean, quasi broom-like physique. She was flirting. With him. It made him chuckle and feel about ten feet tall.

“Do not let this body fool you, love,” he said with a crooked grin. “When I am locked in hours of coding, I will gulp down gallons of soda and subsist on bags of Doritos and pizza.”

She shook her head. “I’ll believe that what I see.”

Shaw wiggled his eyebrows at her. “Then prepare to watch a magic trick.”

Once their order was ready, they took the furthest booth from the door. It was a cozy little corner with two low, overstuffed leather armchairs and a small coffee table. Shaw took a sip from his frappuccino, and his eyes went comically huge.

“That is sweet. Like, sweeter than sweet.” He drew the straw into his mouth and pulled more of the icy cold sugar into his mouth. “But so good. I am definitely going to crave one of these the next time I’m coding through the night.”

“Told you.” Poppy gave him a big, bright smile. “Mind if I ask you how you got into coding?”

“Well, sure. It’s not that interesting of a story. In middle school, we had to create our own webpage using code. It was the late nineties, so it was basically the only way to create a webpage. There weren’t any of those platforms that do all the work for you yet. I loved it. I mean, I couldn’t stop myself. I just kept on going. The teacher wasn’t pleased when I kept asking questions, which he didn’t know the answers to. He had to refer me to the high school computer teacher. I was doing all sorts of cool things with codes after school. It didn’t do much for my reputation as a geek, that I was taking high-school-level computer classes after hours. I didn’t care. The more I learned, the more I wanted to know.”

Poppy was smiling at him, her cake and drink forgotten. “You light up when you talk about it. It’s cute.”

Shaw felt his cheeks heat. Poppy wasn’t just flirting with him, she thought he was cute? Him? What had he done to deserve such praise from such a lovely woman? There was a brief press of guilt against his consciousness. He knew what he had done and how they had come to be in each other’s lives.

He had committed a couple of crimes, and he had also joined Nick’s company under false pretenses. Poppy deserved better than the likes of him, and for once, he didn’t have to blame his physique for his lack of confidence. It was his own behavior that was causing him to feel undeserving of a wonderful coffee date.

Shaw cleared his throat, clearing his thoughts as he did so. He could keep on being sad and second-guessing himself, or he could enjoy himself. Surely a shifter male would be all confident and uncaring in his position. He tried to emulate what a confident shifter would do at the moment.

He would flirt shamelessly right back.

If only he knew just how to do that.

“Coding is the one thing I completely understand in this life. It just flows for me.”

“I sort of get it. I get that way about my work, too. I get these moments of clarity where I am just so in tune with my patients’ needs. Sometimes even before they know something is amiss. That always feels really great. Like I’m doing exactly what I’m meant to be doing.”

“Oh?”