Stone-Hearted Alpha by Eve Bale

Chapter Fourteen

Iwake early enough the next morning that most of the street below me is empty, and the sky is still a hazy gray as the sun crawls into the sky.

No matter how hard I try, I can’t stop thinking about last night.

I slept with Jeremy, and I don’t know what that means for me, for us, for everything.

I wasn’t expecting him to still be sleeping, but I guess taking care of me took it out of him. So, for several seconds, I lay wrapped in his arms, fighting the urge to kiss him. A fight I would’ve lost if my stomach hadn’t started rumbling.

After slipping into one of his t-shirts, I helped myself to a cookie and banana the hotel staff left in a welcome basket for us before venturing out to watch the sunrise.

With my arms crossed over the balcony edge, I rest my chin on my forearms and sigh as I think about how much of an idiot I’ve been.

I know it’s only luck that sex didn’t strengthen our mate bond enough for me to be reading any emotions from Jeremy, nor him with me.

I hope.

When arms slip around my front and I feel hot naked skin curve around my back, I’m not surprised.

“You sound like you’re thinking too hard,” Jeremy murmurs against my hair.

“Probably,” I agree.

We fall into a not uncomfortable silence as the sun brightens the sky.

Then it’s Jeremy’s turn to sigh. “I thought I lost you.”

At the soft note in his voice, I swallow as tears fill my eyes. “I’m just a girl you met in a bar. We’re a dime a dozen. Easily replaceable,” I say, working to keep my tone light.

“You don’t believe that any more than I do.”

No. No, I don’t. This… whatever Jeremy and I have, is something else.

“Your feet must be getting cold,” he says when I don’t respond.

They kind of are since I’ve been out here for maybe thirty minutes, and in little more than Jeremy’s shirt, it’s not just my feet that are cold.

“Yeah,” I whisper, my eyes fixed on the world waking up all around us. “But I’m not ready to go inside. Not yet.”

I feel him nod. “You want me to—”

Already I’m shaking my head as I grab onto his arm to stop him from going anywhere. “No. Just… stay for a while.”

Jeremy’s only response is a kiss on the top of my head.

“But if your package is in danger of falling off, don’t be afraid of telling me. I’m kind of getting attached to the thing.”

“Not as attached as I am, sweet,” he murmurs, with a smile in his voice.

We stay out on the balcony for nearly an hour until I tell Jeremy I’m ready to go back inside.

He sweeps me into his arms and carries me right back to bed. And thankfully, his package didn’t freeze and fall off, which I’m pleased to find out when he slips back inside me. I’d have been devastated if it had.

* * *

A soft thump hitting the pillow beside my head wakes me, and I blink bleary eyes at Jeremy standing over me in a pair of briefs. “What?”

“The hotel staff returned your phone since I, uh, might have left your purse in the restaurant when I came after you.”

I grab it before rolling onto my back. Although I could snap at him for it, I figure after everything he’s done for me, it would be pretty pissy of me to bitch at him for forgetting my phone.

“Well, I hope you weren’t aiming for my face,” I grumble.

Jeremy’s phone vibrates, and he wanders over to the dining table to get it. “Nope. Not this time. If I was, I’d have been standing further away from your claws.”

“Nice,” I say, surprised to see it has a full battery. “I thought it’d be dead.”

“I charged it while you were sleeping.”

“God, that sounds like a modern-day rom-com. Instead of Sandra Bullock, it’s Jennifer Lawrence as a trendy young tech exec in Silicon Valley instead of… where was that movie set again?” I ask, not expecting Jeremy to know the answer since, well, he’s a guy, and it’s an older movie.

I scroll through messages from Regan, Talis, and Jenna. It’s nothing interesting. Mostly it’s them checking up on me and finding out if I still want to come down for a BBQ over the weekend. So, I shoot them a quick reply, telling them I don’t know yet, but I’ll get back to them.

“Chicago,” Jeremy murmurs, sounding distracted as he taps out a message.

I stop what I’m doing to sit up and stare at him. “You’re right.”

As if he feels my eyes on him, he glances up from his phone. “What?”

“The movie was set in Chicago.”

“Yes,” he says slowly. “I know, I just told you.”

“But you’re not supposed to know that.”

“Because I’m a guy?”

I flop back on the bed and go back to scanning through my messages. “Yes, because you’re a—”

Paulo’s text message silences me. Start packing gorgeous. Guess who’s going to Paris? XOXO PS. It’s u with a capital U.

He did it.

Paulo legit did it. He landed me the dream Paris job.

Why am I so surprised? And shouldn’t I already be on my feet packing as I manically dance around screaming ‘I’m free!’?

“Savannah?”

I stare at my phone. “Hmmm?”

“You okay?”

Jeremy. Shit.

I have to tell Jeremy I’m moving to Paris. Probably in as little as a week. I have to tell him hours after he saved my life, and held me on the balcony, and told me he thought he’d lost me with a catch in his voice.

“Savannah?”

At the sound of him coming closer, I drop my phone on the pillow before I sit up and start looking for my shirt. “Yep.”

“You okay?”

I don’t find my shirt, but I find one of his.

It’s the same one I wore hours earlier on the balcony. After a quick sniff convinces me it’ll do, I tug it on. “I’m good.”

By the time I’m on my feet, Jeremy is standing a few feet away, gazing into my face in a way that tells me he doesn’t believe me.

Distraction might be in order.

I slip my arms around his waist and peer into his face. “Feed me,” I whine.

Although I catch him glance back at the bed, he doesn’t push me for details. “What do you feel like?”

I rest my head against his chest, since the less eye contact, the better. “Anything. Jeremy?”

He strokes his hand down the length of my hair. “Yes, sweet?”

“You’re not likely to kill Dayne on sight, are you?”

There’s a brief pause, as if he’s weighing it up. “I don’t know. I might. Why?”

Operation distraction is a go.

“Talis and some of the others in the pack want me—and I’m guessing you as well—to go back to Hardin for the weekend for a BBQ. I know alphas can’t be around—”

“We’ll go. And no. I won’t kill Dayne if he does nothing to deserve it.”

When I peel my head from his chest so I can glare at him, I find Jeremy grinning down at me. “What do you mean, if he doesn’t deserve it?”

“As I said, sweet. Now. You ready for a shower before we get you fed?”

“I guess.”

As Jeremy puts his phone down, I wonder at his message. “Was it important?” I ask as he leads us to the bathroom.

He shrugs. “Not sure yet.”

His answer is so vague, it makes me itch to ask what he’s talking about. But since I’m not ready to go poking around for answers to questions for fear that it’ll lead to Jeremy asking some of his own, I keep my mouth shut.

I know it’s only a matter of time before the Paris conversation happens. Until it does, I have time to figure out how to tell Jeremy I’m leaving him, and why it isn’t filling me with the excitement I was expecting.