Page 49 of Come A Little Closer

Excitement flashed in her eyes. “Seriously? You had a date with the boss at a fancy party?”

“I guess I did,” I said. “It was really nice.”

“Nice?” She scoffed. “You’re going to have to do better than that, girlfriend. What did he think of the dress?”

“He loved it.” I smiled and pumped my eyebrows at her. “I, uh, I ended up telling him the truth too and you were right. He wasn’t mad at me when he found out I’d kept it from him.”

“Good.” She reached out and squeezed my forearm. “I know you haven’t had much reason to trust people, but there are good ones out there and Niall is one of them. How did he take it?”

“As well as I suppose I could’ve hoped,” I admitted. “He got so tense, I thought he was going to start vibrating, but he wasn’t obnoxious about it.”

“Of course not,” she said, arching an eyebrow at me as she leaned closer. “Did he go all primal and possessive on you after?”

I scoffed. “I don’t even know what that means.”

“It means that I want to know if he took you to bed and screwed your brains out,” she explained with laughter in her eyes. “I love it when they do that.”

My cheeks flushed. “Is that really a thing with men?”

“In my experience?” She widened her eyes at me as she nodded. “Yes, it is a thing with them. Whenever they learn their woman has been wronged and they don’t know how to make it right, it seems they resort to orgasms. Which is why I love it. They take all that righteous frustration and turn it into sex goddery.”

“Sex goddery?” I snorted, trying to hold back more laughter, but then I found myself nodding. “I actually think I know what you mean now.”

“So he did do it,” she said triumphantly. “I knew he was that type. The alphas always are. I don’t even think they realize they’re doing it, but it’s like their instincts just drive them to claim you so they can feel better about not being able to protect you before.”

I snorted again. “I’m not sure that’s what it was, but okay.”

Sayra’s green eyes rolled. “That’s exactly what it was. Was it good, at least?”

“I don’t think we should talk about those details,” I said, hesitating when I remembered that he was her boss too. “We work for him. I’m just not sure it’s appropriate.”

She mimed zipping her lips. “I won’t say anything to anyone, I promise. You can trust me, Tallulah, but if you’re not comfortable talking about him, we also don’t have to.”

Eventually, I decided on a compromise. The truth was that I wanted to open up to someone about my feelings for him, but I also didn’t want to stomp all over his privacy by sharing personal details. “Can we talk about it without discussing the intimate stuff?”

She nodded. “Whatever you want. I was just curious, is all. Plus, I needed to get you talking about him and that seems to have worked.”

I laughed. “You’re definitely not wrong about that.”

She peered at me over the rim of her glass. “Okay, so talk to me. Last weekend, you said you wanted it to be a date and that’s what it turned into. Do you have, like, real feelings for him now?”

After pausing a beat, I nodded and groaned, my teeth sinking into my lips. “I do. My feelings for him are so real that they scare me.”

“They’re the good kind, then,” she commented lightly, smiling and supportive.

We kept talking about my developing relationship with him. Eventually, she told me more about her own life as well as her boyfriend, and when it started raining softly, we took our wine inside. Soon after, though, we heard thunder in the distance and Sayra immediately stood up.

“Shit, that’s a storm rolling in. I better get home before it hits.”

“Are you sure?” I asked, getting up to walk her out. “You’re welcome to stay.”

She glanced at the window and shook her head. “Thanks, but I have plans with Andrew later. My uniform and stuff are also at home, and I’m going to need it in the morning, so it’s just easier to sleep there.”

I nodded, saying goodbye as she took her leave. As I strode back inside, I thought back to the last big storm I’d ridden out in this house and smiled when that turned into thoughts about Niall. I wonder what he’s up to tonight.

When I tried calling him though, it went straight to voicemail. I sighed, deciding I’d run a bath and read a book to distract myself from how much I missed him. But I did miss him. All I could do was hope that he’d call me back later on and that maybe, if I was lucky, he might even agree to come by again tonight.

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