Midnight Moonrising (Moonrising #2)(86)

I nodded, shyly. "Yes, please."

"I ran to the grocery store earlier. Would you like breakfast?"

I smiled. "I'm starving."

"Scrambled eggs and bacon okay with you or would you prefer fruit and cereal?"

"I'll have eggs and bacon. It smells great. Thanks."

He turned to leave, but stopped and just stood there with his back to me. I could tell he was about to say something, possibly about what we'd done last night, but instead he only took a deep breath and walked away.

About half a minute later, Alex walked back into the room with something navy and white in his hands. I smiled as he handed me the cotton and sighed when the soft fabric touched my hand. I could already tell they would be comfortable whether they were too big for me or not.

"Thank you—"

"I didn't hurt you last night, did I?" he said in a rush, like he'd finally got up the courage to ask the question. I wished he would have still been too chicken to talk about it, because I still was. "You would tell me if I did, right?"

I pressed my lips together for a second then shook my head. "No, you didn't, and yes, I would."

He let a big gust of air expel from his nose as he stared at me. "I had a great night, Mena. I don't want to ruin anything. You just seem… I don't know… different now, like you're trying to distance yourself from me. I can read people pretty well. I just thought maybe the handcuffs—"

I so didn't need a recap of the night before from him. I was having enough trouble forgetting about it as it was. "Alex… I'm okay. I'm just not a morning person. I enjoyed last night," I lied. "Coffee would probably help a lot," I suggested, then gave him a small smile.

He blew out a breath in relief. "I made coffee."

"I'll be back to my old self in no time then."

He grinned then walked out of the room, pulling the door shut behind him.

I blew out a heavy breath of my own. "I don't know where you are, but I'm not an actress, wolf. He's going to know I'm not interested in him. I can't believe I'm saying this, but you need to take back over if you don't want him dumping me by noon. I can't flirt with him. He's not my type."

"Sorry. I slept in," she said, and then actually yawned. "Anything interesting happen?"

"Just our chemistries clashing, that's all."

"I'm up." She sniffed. "Bacon! Yummy!"





Alex





What the hell had he been thinking last night? It had been too soon for sex. He'd known better. She was going to bolt!

Two arms wrapped around his waist from behind him. "Good morning," Mena said, and then placed a kiss in between his shoulder blades that sent a shiver all over his body.

Turning around in her embrace, he pulled her to him and kissed the top of her head, grateful that it was possible he'd been worrying over nothing. He'd expected her to come into the kitchen and tell him she wanted to go back to Phoenix's house or that she hadn't meant to let things go so far last night, but definitely not this.

"I thought we could eat breakfast then go to your house and pick up some of your clothes."

"I have a suitcase packed at Phoenix's. Maybe—"

The doorbell rang, but Alex wasn't about to let her get away from him, especially not after she'd just mentioned Phoenix.

After grabbing the handgun from the counter drawer beside him, he took her hand in his and pulled her to the door with him.

"Who is it?"

"Lexi," a female voice said, and Alex's brow drew down in thought. He didn't know anyone by that name that he could recall. "I was sent here to give something to Mena. I haven't had much sleep, so if you could open the door and let us in, that would be great."

Us? He looked at Mena. "Do you know her?"

She shook her head.

"She doesn't know you. Leave whatever you brought on the doormat."

Alex heard another pair of footsteps on the concrete outside his door then Lexi talking to the person. "He won't let us in."

"He'll let us in," a familiar voice said, and then someone was beating fist to door again.

"It's Roel," Mena said, and grabbed for the doorknob, but Alex placed a hand over the knob first and pushed her behind him with the other.

After looking through the peephole and confirming that it was indeed Roel and a familiar-looking redhead, Alex twisted the knob and opened the door about six inches. The girl blinked at him, giving him an annoyed expression as she noisily chewed her gum, clothes hangers gripped in her hand and the clothes on them slung over her shoulder and spilling down her back.


"Thanks, cop. Phoenix would have been pissed if I'd left these on the doormat to get dirty," Lexi said, and then pushed her way into the apartment and past him. That's when he recognized her as the waitress from Hellhound.

Roel came in behind her grinning from ear-to-ear, carrying a suitcase and another small bag full of what might have been clothes. He handed the bag to Mena. "Phoenix told me to tell you that this is socks and non-sexy underwear, but that the 'other things' would stay at his place as long as you stayed here with Rhodes."