7 Degrees of Alpha (a collection of seven new BWWM, Alpha Male Romances) (28 page)

Andrew had to calm down; otherwise, he was going to lose control and rip his entire office to shreds. Lori was being a bitch, he knew, and he also knew it was because of him being an asshole. But, the way she spoke about his wife hit a nerve. Sometimes just talking about his wife or thinking of her took him over the edge.

He closed his eyes trying to relax, trying to get himself together, but he kept hearing her words repeated over and over in his mind. “
You want a family? You want kids? Get real with yourself. You aren’t capable of that shit.”

Hell, maybe he wasn’t, and that thought alone was keeping him in his rage-filled state. There were times where he thought he lost his wife because he didn’t deserve her. He didn’t deserve the promise of the life he was going to have with her. The reality that she was taken away from him ate at him every day.

Andrew moved to his desk and placed his hands on the cold wood. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on something, anything, to calm him. He couldn’t think of shit. Then suddenly it happened. Just before he was about to give into his rage, his mind shifted to
her
. He took a deep breath as a now familiar feeling took over. Fuck, he wanted to see her. He could sense her presence, which he thought was impossible, but his body reacted as if she was right outside his door. His breathing picked up with anticipation. Her familiar scent consumed him, tempted him.

What was she doing to him?

His chest swelled as the uncontrolled need to dominate came over him. Andrew quickly grabbed his desk phone. He had to see her. Maybe that’s what his body was telling him; he needed her.

Just as he began to dial, he heard a knock on his office door just before it opened.

“You just don’t listen, do you?” he seethed, turning toward the door waiting to see Lori’s face appear.

It wasn’t her.

Nyla jumped slightly from the sound of his voice and explained quickly, “I’m sorry. The door was partly open. Um, if you’re busy I-I can come back.”

Andrew didn’t reply. Instead, he took her in as his heartbeat settled, as the pulse in his neck subsided, and as his breathing finally came under some type of control. He wasn’t completely in control. It’s just something that he’d grown accustomed to feeling when it came to her. What he had noticed, however, was how the predator in him silenced.

Nyla asked hesitantly, as she slowly moved toward him. “Are you okay?”

Andrew rested his behind on his desk and continued tightly gripping the edges of the wooden furniture.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, voice edged with tension, not bothering with answering her initial concern.

She paused and watched him for a moment.  “I ….uh ….was in the neighborhood and thought I’d stop by,” she sighed. “You haven’t been to the diner in a few mornings, and I… well, I wanted to check up on you.” She pointed to the door behind her and added. “I saw your girlfriend leave. She seemed upset. Did you two have a fight?”

Andrew started to call her reasoning for coming bullshit. He could sense she was holding back but something else she said registered louder and he frowned. “My what?”

“Your girlfriend. You know the blonde that’s always with you at the diner? I don’t know her name…”

“Lori,” he offered as he watched her nervously watching him. She looked as if she was holding her breath waiting for his reply, which she was.

Nyla smiled, rubbing her clammy hands against her jeans. “Yes, that’s her. I mean, I’m assuming she’s your girlfriend.” She giggled as her eyes darted everywhere around the room, avoiding his heated, steady gaze. “Why wouldn’t she be, right? I mean, you seem like a man that has good taste. And she’s pretty, right? A little too rigid and cold in my opinion, but maybe you like that kind of thing…”

She was babbling. It didn’t matter how much her brain was telling her mouth to shut up, her lips just kept moving. They couldn’t stop.

Andrew’s eyebrows rose in amusement as he fought the grin that was beginning to take form. Nyla went on and on, anxiety covering her, as she talked about his taste in women, how Lori seemed like a lovely girl in all so she saw how he would want to be with her.

It was all bullshit, but he didn’t want to tell her just yet. He enjoyed hearing her fumble around, trying to hide what he undoubtedly knew. She wanted him just as much as he wanted her. He knew that he made her nervous; he noticed it every time she stood next to him to take his order at the diner. He enjoyed watching the nerves fall off her in waves. She was a complete and utter turn on.

He openly raked his eyes over the tan jacket that stopped at her waist, the white form fitted V-neck style t-shirt and dark skinny jeans, all which hugged her generous breasts, hips, and thighs nicely. She dressed up her feet with black high-heeled shoes, adding the sex appeal that was Nyla. Her eyes and lips were dressed too; nothing too overt, but were subtle and warm, with light color above her eyes and shimmery light gloss on her lips.

Now
this
was the distraction that he needed.

He cleared his throat and brought his eyes back to her bright ones. “Lori isn’t my girlfriend,” he admitted finally.

Nyla paused in mid-babble and stared at him. “W-what? She isn’t?” her voice queried softly.

“No, she isn’t.”

“Oh, I thought because she was always with you…”

Andrew ran his hand through his hair and rested it against the back of his neck. “Yes, well, I can see why you would think that, but no, she isn’t my girlfriend. In fact, I don’t have a girlfriend.”

“You don’t?”

He shook his head. “No, I don’t.”

“Oh,” she answered softly as her mind started going double time to match the rhythm of her heart.

Nyla couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Was it possible that her dreams were actually coming true?

“What about you?” he asked.

“Me?” she blundered, bringing her right hand first to her throat to massage the muscles there, then to her chest, covering her out of control heart.

Andrew grinned slyly and lifted himself from the desk. “Yes, you. Are you single or do you have someone special in your life?”

Watching him stalk toward her naturally made her step back slightly from his pursuit. “No, I-I don’t have anyone special.”

He stopped in front of her and tilted his head to the side. “Why is that?”

She blew out a sigh and shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I haven’t found the right person, or I’m a repellent for good guys. Who knows?” She looked at him questioningly. “Why do you ask? I mean, why do you want to know if I have anyone special in my life?”

“I was just wondering, that’s all. Just making sure…”

Andrew abated his eyes from hers again so that he could drink her in from head to toe, letting his desires for this woman show all over him.

“Oh
?
Y-you were wondering about what may I ask?” she asked him softly.

“Who I had to get rid of so I can have you to myself.”

Nyla’s breath hitched softly, but Andrew caught it. When he met her eyes again, they were wide as saucers.  He smiled at her. “Did you think I went to that diner just for the omelets?”

Nyla bit her bottom lip and shook her head. “Well, I ….um…”

He tilted his head to the side again. “Please, Nyla, I can make an omelet ten times better than that cook of yours. That wasn’t the reason why I went there every morning, or why I sat in your area so you would be the one to wait on me.”

Nyla was at a loss. She couldn’t move her lips to formulate any words and her brain was trying desperately to control her heart from bursting out of her chest, to keep her lungs working, and her legs from giving out.

Andrew, seeing his goal unfold before him, moved closer to her. This time, she didn’t move. She looked up into his eyes and watched helplessly as he invaded her personal space.

“Why did you come here?” he asked her again, closing his eyes and inhaling her scent.

Just what I thought,
he said to himself.
She does smell like fucking chocolate.

Nyla closed her eyes as a shaky breath released from her parted lips. Goodness, his closeness was doing a number on her. She clinched her thighs together as she tried to gather herself.

Before she could think, she said softly, “I needed to see you.”

His eyes shot open and his eyebrows rose in surprise. So did hers, for that matter, and she back peddled quickly. “Y-You know,” she stuttered, “T-To talk to you. I needed to see you to talk to you.”

What is he doing to me?

So close; God, he was so close that she could feel his heart beating against his chest. His breath tickled her neck, encouraging her desires, her urges, her commands to let go. The need to give herself to him was taking over.

Andrew, not able to hold back any longer, bent slowly until his lips were inches from her neck. He inhaled again.
Yes!

“Nyla,” he whispered against her neck right before he lightly brushed his lips against her smooth skin.

Fuck, he was straining to keep himself under control.

Just for a little while longer,
he coached himself.

“Yes?” she replied, closing her eyes and trying her best not to lose it.

“Why are you really here?” he probed breathlessly against her neck before he leaned back slightly to look at her.

“Um… I…” She risked looking in his eyes and knew instantly, by the hungry heated look saturated in them that she was in deep trouble. She bit her bottom lip, preventing the hitching of her breath from being unleashed.

Andrew couldn’t resist her any longer. He brought his right hand up slowly, and the moment he touched her chin, he exhaled coarsely, as if he’d been holding his breath this whole time, anticipating touching her.

“What is it about you that has me losing control; that has me thinking of nothing else but you?”

She shook her head slowly, her voice lost in her closed throat.

Andrew continued to slide his fingers along her jawline, around her neck, until they found their way just under the base of her skull.

“Do you know what I haven’t been unable to stop thinking about?” he asked her, hearing the ache in his voice no matter how much he tried to remain in control.

Nyla, oblivious to what was happening to him, shook her head. “No,” she said finally. “Tell me.”

He let out an exacerbated and lust-filled sigh just as he snaked his arm around her waist, bringing her body flush up against his.

Nyla gasped lightly, her lips parting slightly, as she finally felt
exactly
what she was doing to him.

“How good you would taste,” he confessed in a discreet whisper right before he descended closer to her. The grip on the back of her head tightened and shifted until his fingers were in her short hair.

Nyla closed her eyes, anticipating the touch of his lips, hoping it would be everything she imagined it would.

Oh, please let it be,
she prayed.

The moment Andrew’s lips latched onto hers, every inch of control they both were desperately trying to hold on to was now gone.

Nyla sighed, opening to him the second he gripped her hair so tight that it was on the verge of pain. She gripped his biceps, frantically trying to keep herself upright. The strength in her legs gave way with every stroke of his tongue against hers.

She moaned deeply into his mouth and felt his grip on her tighten.

Andrew pulled back suddenly and wildly looked into her lustful eyes.

“Fuck, Nyla, you taste as amazing as I knew you would,” he breathed, voice husky and low.

The power this woman had over him still astounded him. He always remained in control, keeping his shit together at all times no matter what. But this woman, this beautiful being was taking control of him. His need to have her, his yearning for her was clouding all rational thought.

Kissing her, tasting her, didn’t do anything but make his appetite for her drive him out of his damned mind.

“More,” he declared as he slowly removed her jacket from her arms.

As the jacket fell to the floor, Nyla moved her arms around his neck and threaded her fingers through his silky hair, creating a tight grip of her own. The four-inch heels she wore didn’t bring her where she needed to be so she moved to the tips of her toes and brought his lips to her. She kissed him deep, trying urgently to brand her body to his. She felt his hands roam her body, rubbing her back, arms, face, and gripping her ass.

Andrew, needing to feel her, yanked her shirt from out of her jeans. His heated touch against her body caused her to moan again; damn, she couldn’t help it. She’d longed for him to touch her, for him to kiss her for so long that her senses were in overdrive.

She should’ve stopped him. Hell, she should’ve slowed him down, but as his hands shifted up her back to unclasp her bra, there was no way in hell she was stopping him now.

Andrew took one of his hands out from under her shirt and gripped her ass tight. He lifted her so she could wrap her legs around his waist.