Page 79 of Full Body Hit, Part 1

Jimmy leaned forward, the beer in his hand tipping precariously. “Damn, Chase, that guy not your type? He was a knockout.”

“You go flirt with him then,” Chase retorted, making the guys chortle.

“I mean, not quite my type either. What kind of Alpha do you go for?”

Chase wrinkled his nose. “I dunno. Just. Someone who makes me feel safe, I guess.”

There was a moment of silence. “Damn, okay, I was gonna chirp you, but that’s pretty legit.”

Chase rolled his eyes and then dared a peek at Auston, sitting right across the table from him.

The Alpha was looking at him, dark eyes like they had been melted out of shadows, gaze hot to the touch. There was a dip at the side of his mouth that meant he was serious but not annoyed—Chase had seen that face on TV enough to be able to categorise a lot of Auston’s expressions.

Chase snapped his attention away, fumbling to his feet to get another drink instead.

It was only when he was approaching the bar that he remembered he’d told the Alpha he’d been talking to that he was going home. The guy was still there, and Chase froze on the spot, too embarrassed to get caught out and questioned.

He didn’t get a chance to dwell on it, though, a body suddenly pushing him from the back and crowding him into the wooden edge of the bar.

“Hey!” he protested, turning around to see it was none other than Auston doing the manhandling.

“You get lost? Or did you just want to stand there so people trip over you?” Auston drawled.

God, he was so fucking annoying. “You didn’t have to push me.”

And there went Auston again, lifting a sarcastic eyebrow. Chase wanted to rip both of them off his dumb, handsome face.

“Get off me, will you?” Chase complained, heart still making a racket in his chest, leaving him all jittery and shivery.

Auston stepped away, but barely, the heat of him still swallowing Chase up. “Sorry I interrupted you drooling over that guy.”

Chase took a second to catch up, bristling when he did. “Drooling?”

Auston shrugged. “No?”

Chase was going to grind his molars into dust if his jaw got any tenser. “And what if I was? Not your business, is it?”

Auston snorted. “Guess not. Not like you’re gonna get into trouble, anyway,” he said, and somehow, he made it sound like an insult.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. Just that you don’t get around much, do you?”

Chase gaped. Was there such a thing as anti-slut-shaming? Virgin shaming? Rizzless shaming?

Was Auston saying that he didn’t have to worry about Chase getting into trouble because no one wanted to fuck him anyway?

“I’ll have you know,” Chase grit out, swaying forward, way more tipsy than he’d felt a few minutes ago, “that plenty of people want to fuck me.”

The surprise on Auston’s face was like a little treat just for Chase.

“I’m a great fuck,” Chase insisted.

Auston waved a hand in front of Chase’s face like he wanted to cover his mouth. “Jesus, keep it down.”

“No, I will not keep it down. I’m, like, extremely fuckable. Really cool people want to fuck me, so…take that.”

“Okay, Christ, whatever you say.”