Cover Reveal – Laurel Ulen Curtis Secret Alpha with Giveaway

Once again, Allison had no answer, but that didn’t get Haley down at all.

I could feel my feet start to walk in their direction, straight down the bar and stopping right in front of them, as though I was having an out of body experience.

“As far as loosening up, I meant alcohol…..Shot time!”

Perfect. Cue me.

She looked away from her mom right at that moment, honing in like a laser beam on my exact location.

And then, looked right through me.

Burn.

“Two shots of fireball, please,” Haley requested sweetly, but I could tell she didn’t notice me at all.

If anything, that made her even cuter. She was completely there, in that moment, with her mom. Clearly, they had a strong, close, vibrant relationship, and a respect that I hardly ever saw between people anymore.

Living in such a technologically driven era, people rarely interacted with one another without an outside distraction like a cell phone going at the same time.

Don’t worry, I’m not anti-technology, but I am pro-personal connection. The kind of camaraderie that’s strong enough to hold a person’s entire interest. It’s probably a lifetime lacking in close connections that drives my philosophical approach to conversational engagement, but I couldn’t tell you for sure because I’m not a psychologist.

“You got it, sweetheart,” I said, and then began thoroughly kicking my own ass for adding on a term of endearment. I seriously didn’t know what the fuck was wrong with me. I didn’t know what is was about this girl that had me tied in knots, and I didn’t know why in the fuck I kept letting myself forget I was in the middle of a very serious, extremely dangerous investigation.

There was probably a price on my head at that exact moment, for fuck’s sake.

I pulled my lips back over my teeth immediately, putting away the dimples and effectively putting the kabash on my smile. But it didn’t even matter because she still hadn’t even really looked at me. In fact, another man, someone I wasn’t familiar with, had just approached her and started flirting.

He was a cocksucking dork, I could tell, but she flirted back. The really disgusting part is that I felt an immediate flare of fire in my belly, the edges of my flaming jealousy licking the lining of my stomach and burning me alive.

Placing the shots on the bar in front of them, I redirected my mind and energy and moved to the other end of the bar, keen to do any other work I could come up with.

But as I left, I allowed myself one last look, startling noticeably when Allison’s keen blue eyes found mine and a knowing smile crept sweetly onto her face.

Fuck. Me.