Baiting Him (How to Catch an Alpha 2)

I study her beautiful face filled with happiness, not surprised I feel the way I do about her in such a short amount of time. This woman has given me something I wasn’t exactly looking for, and there is no denying I’m crazy in love with her.

“I just can’t wait for you to meet Chris and Sam, and for them to meet you.”

At her quiet statement, I wrap my hand around her hip and bring her a step closer to me. “You’re not nervous.” It’s a statement, not a question, and she sags against me.

“No, Chris and Sam already know all about you, so I don’t have anything to be nervous about.”

I know this is true, since her brother calls her often in the evenings when I’m around, and she’s never been anything but honest with him about our relationship. The situation with her father is a completely different story. She hasn’t told anyone but Leah and me that she even ran into him, and she’s dealt with the whole situation by not dealing with it at all—something that, in the long run, is going to fester into an ugly wound. My hope is that while her brother is here, she’ll tell him about seeing their father, and they can go speak to him together.

“Have you thought any more about what I said this morning? About talking to your brother about your dad?”

“Yeah.”

“And?”

“I’m going to talk to him,” she says with pain lacing her words as she drops her forehead to the center of my chest, with LeFou wiggling between us. I slide my fingers through the hair at the back of her skull, then bend forward and kiss the top of her head, lifting my eyes when a car pulls up.

Seeing it’s a taxi, I tell her quietly, “They’re here.”

“Finally.” She lifts her forehead off my chest, quickly standing up on her tiptoes to kiss me. Once she falls back to her flat feet, she grabs my hand and orders, “Come on,” dragging me with her toward the taxi as the back doors open.

As soon as her brother—who looks just like her, except a little taller, with a beard covering the lower half of his face—gets out, she lets me go so she can run toward him at full speed, still holding on to LeFou. I stop as they embrace, then laugh as LeFou starts to yelp in excitement and wiggles to join in on their reunion with doggie kisses.

Chrissie’s laughter fills the air as her brother lets her go so he can take hold of the wild pup trying to climb up his chest. He states to LeFou, “You’re even cuter in person,” holding him up and away to study him.

“And he’s hotter,” I hear muttered.

I turn to find a man, who I know is Sam from the photos I’ve seen around Chrissie’s place, smiling at her while he pays the cabdriver. Where Chris is short and bulky, Sam is tall and slim, with blond, almost white, hair and blue eyes. Chrissie laughs at Sam’s observation, then runs to him, throwing her arms around his neck, and he picks her up to swing her around.

“Hey, kid, I see you didn’t mess around when finding a hot guy,” he says when he drops her to her feet, and she grins at him before she turns and forces herself under his arm.

“Ignore him. I promise he’s harmless,” Chris says, setting LeFou on the ground, then stepping toward me. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“You too.” I give his hand a shake as Chrissie pulls Sam toward us.

“Gus, this is Sam,” she tells me, and I grin at her, then look at Sam.

“Nice to meet you, man.”

“You too.” He reaches out to give my arm a squeeze, and then he looks at Chrissie, saying, “Seriously, nice job,” and she giggles.

“This is what I have to deal with anytime these two get together,” Chris tells me, and then he narrows his eyes on his guy and his sister. “Can you two work at not making Gus uncomfortable?”

“Gus doesn’t get uncomfortable. He doesn’t even understand the effect he has on people, especially women,” Chrissie says, and Sam chuckles.

“This is why I live hundreds of miles away,” Chris tells me, and then he looks at his sister. “Can we get our bags and go inside?”

“Of course.” She laughs, and Chris rolls his eyes before he goes to grab his bag, and Sam does the same. I reach out for Chrissie’s hand and head into the building and to the elevator.

“How long before we’re meeting Mom for dinner?” Chris asks when we get upstairs to Chrissie’s place, and she pulls her cell phone out of her pocket to look at it.

“Just about three hours,” she says while leading both men pulling their suitcases toward her bedroom, where they’ll be staying while they’re here in town. Before Dorothy decided to go away for New Year’s, the plan was for them to stay with her. But with her leaving, I thought it would be better if they were close to Chrissie, so I convinced her to stay with me and give them her place. At first she wasn’t sure, not with my mom staying with me. But after some convincing and explaining, I got her to agree, even if she’s not a hundred percent on board.