Page 54 of My Grumpy Alpha

He tosses his own napkin and leans forward, he’s always too close to me but not in a way that intimidates me, it’s almost like he wants to—smell me, which is weird, but I’ve seen a shit ton of weird tonight so I shouldn’t be too surprised.

"Of course you can.” His eyes widen a bit, like he’s intrigued by what I’m about to ask.

The burning in my mouth is back, almost like my tongue memorized the lines of Eli’s fangs and misses them.

“Do you believe in like the paranormal?”

He barks out a laugh.

“Oh, you’re dead serious, okay, well, I do think it’s possible I mean the government did just toss us in the deep end with this whole alien thing, so if we can have aliens why can’t we have a wolf that chases vampire down? Or…” He grabs his slice of pizza and points it at me.

“A vampire hunting down a werewolf. That’s my requirement.”

He nods, clearly agreeing with himself.

“Imagine how powerful they would be if they stopped fighting, you know, end the whole immortal fight. World peace. There’s a reason we have stories, Ava. there’s a reason editors and most authors love their lives being immersed in them, it’s a constant escape from reality, so yeah it’s possible but why don’t you just focus on the moment? And what you feel right now?”

I nod and reach for my beer; he lifts his and clinks it with mine.

“That was a good answer, by the way.” I take a long sip, loving how it’s already calming me down from the weird interaction in the elevator.

"Why do you ask?” He folds his arms across his chest and leans back, the miracle is the chair doesn’t collapse on itself into a bundle of firewood, what is with all these large men around here?

I shove more food in my face and smile through it.

“Just morbid curiosity.” When did I become so good at lying?

He licks his full lips and stares down at the table.

“Well, there was this myth, but that’s all it is.”

"Myths can be based on reality sometimes. Most tragically were.”

"Humans are the dumb ones, I’ll be the first in line to admit it, but I think the hard part is that if things like that were real, how would you know? Would you ask them to show you their application for both DC and Marvel? Good with swords might be a fun thing to add to my resume.”

I laugh.

“But do you?” I paused.

“Do well with swords?”

“Accidentally killed someone once, but it was because I was trying to protect my favorite dog, grabbed a sword and beat him over the head with it; granted, the sword was foam.” His wink is gorgeous.

“I’d say I’m a good family man, wouldn’t you?”

He literally looks like he just walked off the cover of GQ and the way he looks at me makes me feel like I’m the only woman in existence, the stars fade away and all I see is this hypnotic trance in his eyes.

“What was my question again?” I suddenly forget.

He stands.

“You wanted to know how much I loved bacon because you’re cooking for me next weekend.”

"Oh.” Deflated, I just nodded way too many times in one minute.

“Wait, did I just agree to a date?”

“Do you want it to be a date? I mean, I know my answer, but I’m no mind reader, you know? Actually”—he chuckles—“you’d be surprised what you can learn from body language.”