Page 49 of Hate It with You

A book slips out of my hand when I look up and spot Alex standing in the doorway. The sunset behind him surrounds his sturdy frame in orange and pink hues. It plays against his light-blue eyes, which are glued to me.

As he takes me in, I do the same to him. The jeans and T-shirt with his gym logo hug his toned muscles in all the right places. The silver rings, meticulously placed on his fingers, glint in the light above the front door as he taps his bicep. His arms crossed, he leans with his shoulder pressed against the doorframe.

He looks as menacing as ever, and every inch of my body heats at the sight of him, rendering me speechless.

I say nothing as I watch him close the door behind him, locking it securely before flipping my Open sign to Closed. When he shuts the blinds, the natural light fades from the store, causing the small lamps spread throughout to glow brighter in their effort to light the room.

Alex slowly approaches me as his husky voice warms my ears. “You look as good as ever.” It takes all my willpower not to kiss him right then and there.

Irritated by my uncontrollable attraction to this man, I ask, “Is there a reason you’re here? I didn’t think we had a training session until tomorrow.”

Alex bends down in front of me, picking up the book that fell out of my hands earlier. He looks up at me, maintaining eye contact as he slowly rises to his full height. My neck strains as my eyes don’t leave his. I’ve never met a man who enjoys eye contact as much as this one.

“We don’t. But I thought I’d stop by to uphold my end of the bargain.” He shakes the book in his hand. “Would you recommend this one?”

I let out a breath. Right, he’s here for the books. That was the agreement after all.

I take the book from his hand, placing it back down on the table. “I’m not sure this would be a good one for you. Given it’s one of the darker romances, I’d hate to throw you in the deep end right off the bat.” I turn to walk toward one of my shelves that has my stock of lighthearted, romantic comedies displayed.

“You’d be surprised. I’ve read darker.”

My back is turned to him when I stop, a few feet away. I turn to him slowly, sure that I’ve misheard what he’s told me.

“Come again?”

He smiles. “I’d be happy to.”

Rolling my eyes, I kick myself for setting him up for that one. “You know what I meant. You read?”

He scoffs. “Yes, Beth, I read.” His tone matches my sarcasm before he takes a step closer to me. “You know, for a reader, you’re really bad at judging a book by its cover.”

I open my mouth to say something, but when no words come out, I close it. He’s not entirely wrong. I can agree with him, but he doesn’t need to know that.

Given recent events, I have the small, nagging feeling I may have misjudged Alex at first. Though my misjudgment of him doesn’t mean I trust him yet.

He smirks, knowing he’s caught me before he moves to one of the darker shelves. The way I’ve set up my stock, the books progressively become darker in content as you move along the store. In the far-end corner, I have the darkest romances I could find. Of course, that’s where Alex chooses to go first.

“I want a good mix. What would you recommend?” he asks, motioning a hand toward the bookshelf in front of him, waiting for me to join him at his side.

I know we had an agreement, but the dynamics of how I got this sale do nothing to water down my excitement. I approach him with a suppressed giddiness, ecstatic to close my biggest sale since opening weekend.

Carefully sliding a book from the shelf, I hold it out to him. “This one is a good one about a mafia couple and the good girl next door, who end up in a throuple. The spice scenes are out of this world and don’t get me started on the drama.”

Alex shrugs next to me, not taking the book from my hand. “Not my thing. Let’s stay away from the throuple ones. I don’t tend to enjoy those.”

His comment catches me off guard as I put the book back on the shelf. A bite laces my tone as I say, “Why? Do you have something against it? Because I think I’ve made it pretty clear where I stand on the whole ‘sleeping with men and women’ front. Maybe this was a—” Alex cuts me off by wrapping his hand around my hip, gripping hard as he pulls me into his side.

His tone is low as he stares down at me, a heat in his gaze that matches my own at our proximity. “I’m not one for sharing. That’s all.”

Understanding washes over me as my face begins to flush with embarrassment, quick to make an assumption about him that turned out not to be true. In an effort to save face, I return his sentiment. “Oh… Good, because I’m not either… Unless it’s in books that is.”

He smiles, and the sight of him perfectly framed by the dark romance books behind him is a picture I wish I could frame and hang on my wall.

Focus, Beth.

With a slight shake of my head, I move out of his grasp, attempting to make the sale before we inevitably get lost in each other’s company as history has proven we tend to do.

Alex watches me in comfortable silence as I pick a few books off the shelves. His presence calms my movements.