Baiting Him (How to Catch an Alpha #2)(26)

“We need to talk,” he tells me, and anger fills the pit of my stomach.

“Go away.”

“Honey,” he pleads, and I break right there while sitting in my car, with my father I haven’t seen in a year and his new wife watching.

Every ugly emotion I have been tucking away boils to the surface in an instant, and I scream at the top of my lungs, “Just go away! Just leave me alone! I never want to see you again!”

“Chrissie.” I hear pain in his voice, but I don’t care. He should have called me; he should have talked to me, but he didn’t. He’s been hiding like a coward for months.

Our staring match is disrupted by a loud roar of pipes that surprises me even inside my car. I turn my head just in time to watch a motorcycle pull up so close to where my father and his wife are standing that they are forced to step back or be run over. My heart pounds as a man dismounts from the black, shining beast between his legs and then rips off the helmet he’s wearing. I stare in stunned disbelief at Gaston, and my body instantly begins to relax at the sight of him. I can’t make out what he’s saying to my father, but my dad glances at me before he nods and takes the woman’s hand to lead her away. Gaston stands with his arms crossed over his chest until they get into a car, and he stays like that as they reverse out of their spot. While they’re pulling out of the lot, he turns to face me, and his angry expression softens with concern as he comes to my door.

I hit the button for the lock as his hand captures the handle, and a sob rips from my chest as he leans across me to unlatch my belt. He pulls me from my car and into his arms, and I close my eyes as he picks me up.

“Shh, I’ve got you. You’re okay,” he tells me, holding me firmly against his warm chest as he walks around the back of my car and places me in the passenger seat to buckle me in.

“You’re supposed to be at work.” I sniffle, trying to calm myself down.

“Baby, I’m supposed to be here with you.” He kisses my forehead, then pulls back to look into my eyes; his fingers touch my cheek, wiping away a few tears. “I need to move my bike, and then I’ll get you home.”

“Wait. You can’t leave your bike here,” I say, latching on to him.

“I can, and it won’t be here long. I’ll have someone pick it up.” He removes my hands gently from his shirt, then shuts my door before I can try to convince him I’ll be okay to drive home on my own. He parks his bike, and when he’s done, he gets in behind the wheel and adjusts the seat to accommodate his long legs.

“Gaston . . .”

“Baby, just relax. We’ll talk after I get you home.”

“Okay,” I agree quietly. Only I don’t have a chance to talk to him when I get home, because I fall asleep as soon as he starts driving. I sleep so deeply I don’t even wake when he carries me up to his place to put me in his bed.





Suggestion 8

RIDE IN ON YOUR HARLEY AND RESCUE YOUR GIRL

GASTON

I stare at Chrissie’s beautiful face for a long time as she sleeps before I finally force myself to move. I might be the boss and am able to come and go as I please, but with three businesses to run and over one hundred employees, I need to check in. I also need to call Luke to let him know I won’t be around tonight.

I grab my cell off the bedside table, then head toward the kitchen, with LeFou bouncing at my feet. Luke has been my best friend since childhood, and three years ago, he was the only person I could think of to help me manage things when I decided to expand my business and buy two more bars.

At that time, he was living in New Jersey and working at a warehouse, because even with a master’s degree in business management, it was the only job he could find that paid him enough to take care of his wife and daughter. I expected him to have to think about my offer, but he agreed to take the job immediately and packed up his family and moved here within a month. Now I don’t know how I would survive without him.

While the cell phone rings, I grab LeFou’s food from the pantry and scoop out a cup of his seriously expensive kibble into his bowl.

“Yo,” he says. “Everything okay with your girl?”

I called him as soon as Chrissie’s phone cut off while she was at the store. I told him what was going down and that I needed him to cover for me. I couldn’t be in two places at once, and Chrissie was my priority. As soon as he agreed, I got on my bike and drove like a man on a mission. I wasn’t sure what was happening, but whatever it was, it didn’t sound good.

I was proven correct when I pulled up next to her car, where a man and woman were standing at her window. When I saw she was crying, a protective instinct I didn’t even know I had in me slipped into place. My only concern was making sure she was okay. It took me half a second to figure out the man was her father and the woman was his wife, and when I realized that, I got angry.

I didn’t care that her dad was visibly upset or that his wife was too. All I knew was Chrissie was crying, and they were the reason for her tears. When I told them to leave, I expected her father to put up a fight, but he didn’t. The only thing that caused me to believe he cared for his daughter even a little bit was the sadness in his eyes as he looked at her before he reached for his wife and guided her to their car.

“Did I lose you?”

At Luke’s question, I shake the thoughts from my head. “I’m here,” I mutter.