Of course he did. He even knew she liked a cup of sauce on the side to dunk her roll in. Why he remembered stuff like that was crazy, but he’d thought about her a lot over the years.
Except in those thoughts, he’d imagined Lexi had already settled down with a man and had kids. Her being single made no sense to him. Then again, it was for the best considering she was a Shifter. He also noticed nothing had changed in regards to how men’s eyes were all over her. Lexi had always possessed a natural beauty and he didn’t think the Shifter allure was behind every roving eye.
When Lexi rose from the table and bent over to mess around with him, Austin’s eyes skated to the left and caught a guy checking out her ass. That’s when a possessive feeling took hold, but it didn’t make him want to pound the guy’s face in like he might have ten years ago. Austin wanted to grab her ass and claim her as his woman, just to rub it in.
Funny how being around her made him feel young and stupid again.
He even let her talk for five minutes with a piece of coleslaw stuck to her cheek because he thought she was too damn cute to spoil the mood by embarrassing her. He was afraid she’d eventually discover it and scold him for not telling her, so he’d cleverly pinched her cheeks in the middle of a conversation about how Wes used to call her chubby cheeks when she was a toddler. The topic was a diversion that allowed him to brush the coleslaw away without her knowing.
Austin wouldn’t allow their night to be tainted with bad memories. He remembered all too well an incident when she was a young teenager that left her crying on the curb outside The Pit. Some of Wes’s friends were real dicks and teased Lexi a lot, but what she didn’t know was that they did it because they liked her. They just didn’t want Wes to find out.
Austin twirled his keys around his finger as he walked out of The Pit. He thought about how amazing Lexi’s slim legs looked in those Capri pants and liked that casualness about her. Not once during their talks did he think about Wes, and wasn’t that a strange thing?
When Bonnie had come up to their table and hadn’t mentioned Wes, it had become the elephant in the room. He knew damn well she remembered who Wes was because she dated him for about a month. It must have stung Lexi to hear that. Everyone knew those two were best friends. When he saw her gazing somberly out the window, he reached out and took her hand. Maybe she didn’t understand why, but he wanted to console her. It felt instinctive.
When Austin walked outside after their meal, he closed a chapter of his life. It was time he found a new joint to create memories. Maybe the Dairy Queen where he first saw Lexi the day after he arrived in town, or the bar where Denver worked. It was time for change.
He lifted his chin and scoped the parking lot, jingling the coins in his pocket. Something felt off. An icy chill skated across his skin and the metallic tang of adrenaline settled on his tongue. Instead of walking directly to his car, he dodged around the back end of the building and approached it from behind.
That’s when he saw Beckett standing by his Dodge Challenger, holding a wooden baseball bat in his hand.
***
“Wake up, Nashoba.”
I wrinkled my nose at an unfamiliar scent, rubbing my eyes and peering through my lashes. Animal fur covered me and I looked around to find myself in a stranger’s bed. Lorenzo was standing beside me with his brown arms folded. Directly over the bed, a large mirror captured my stunned reaction.
I scrambled beneath the covers, fearing I had shifted and was lying naked beneath his silk sheets. Thankfully, my Capris and stretchy tank top were still accounted for.
A smile curved up one cheek and he lifted his brows. “You growl a little in your sleep.”
I sat up, looking at my surroundings. “Where am I?”
“My home.”
“And why am I in your bed?”
Then his face tightened so that his cheekbones appeared to be carved out of wood and his lips pressed into an angry line. “Because that alpha you were with left you alone—intoxicated and passed out in a parking lot. If you were in my pack, Alexia, I would never leave you unprotected. I make sure my women are properly looked after.”
I ripped the blankets away and rubbed my eyes.
Wow. Lorenzo was loaded. The canopy bed had four posts with detailed designs carved into the wood. Native American artifacts and paintings decorated the spacious room. The ceilings stretched higher than fifteen feet, the floors were polished wood, and the window view made it seem like we were in the treetops.