Fated: An Alpha Male Romance by K. Alex Walker Page A

thought; it was a feeling. It was as though she was supposed to be there with me. She was supposed to be mine, but I couldn’t definitively say that I knew what to do with that. What was supposed to happen next?
    We sat until the sun was partially obscured behind the horizon before making our way back down to the car. When we got back to the hotel, we parted ways with Gia and Eli. I jumped in the shower with Alexandra, but unlike our antics from the night before, this time it was to actually help her take a shower since she couldn’t extend her arms over her head.
    We ordered sandwiches and soup from room service for dinner, and crawled into bed afterwards where it took her several minutes to position herself against my side.
    “The soreness will be gone in a few days,” I reassured, lazily stroking her arm. “It’ll get worse first, though.”
    She groaned. “We should’ve left them in Louisiana. Crazy ass couple.”
    “No, I’m glad they came,” I said, laughing. “This was nice. With my two closest friends no longer close by, it was good to hang out with your sister and her husband, even if I’m convinced that he doesn’t have normal human anatomy.”
    She laughed but then grabbed her abs in pain as they contracted. I lifted the tank top she was wearing, the only thing she’d been able to pull on from the bottom up, and caressed her stomach. She’d pitifully tried to struggle into a pair of shorts but I’d rescued her from her torture and told her to leave them off. It was easier to grab her ass this way anyhow.
    My hands shifted lower as I remembered.
    “Ethan, as much as I —”
    “I know,” I cut her off, kissing her nose. “I wasn’t even thinking about it.”
    “Really?”
    “Well yeah, but I wasn’t going to act on it.”
    She laughed and grimaced in pain, so I continued my gentle stroking along her stomach.
    “I like this,” she said. “Falling asleep in your arms. I’ve wanted to do this for a very long time now.”
    “Oh?”
    “Yes.” She looked up. “Do you like having me here?”
    I smiled and touched a kiss to her lips to give her a direct answer to the question, but caught a slight hint of disappointment on her face before it quickly disappeared.
    “Tell me about your mother,” she said, clearing her throat. “Where is she now? Do you see her?”
    The abrupt redirection of the conversation caught me off-guard. “No,” I answered. “She’s incarcerated.”
    If her arms hadn’t been so tired, I knew that she would have pushed herself up on the bed at that exact moment. Instead, I felt her muscles try to tighten against me.
    “What for?”
    “If it’s okay, I don’t want to talk about it, Alle.”
    It was an honest reply. It was easier now than it was years ago to say that my mother was locked up, but the “for murder,” part had never actually left my mouth. To anyone. It wasn’t information that I felt like anyone needed to know and I didn’t need anyone’s sympathy. She’d done what she thought was a good idea at the time, never thinking about the fact that she’d be leaving behind a little boy, so I didn’t waste any time thinking about her. She’d made her choice, and I hadn’t been it.
    “Okay.” Her voice went flat. “I’m sorry. Are you upset?”
    I kissed her eyelids and waited for them to flip open so that I could look into her eyes. It was like someone had squeezed a teaspoon of honey each into them to create the amazing, glowing irises.
    “I’m not upset,” I replied. Then, for some reason, one of the questions that had been vacationing in the back of my skull decided to come forth at that precise moment. “Alle, if it weren’t for Roderick, do you think that your family could accept me?”
    “Because you’re white?” she asked, with a teasing grin. “If you haven’t noticed, Roderick pretty much is too, but he pulls out the one-sixteenth Cuban when he’s vying for the ‘Hispanic’ vote.”
    I trailed a path down over her nose