She shook her head. “I’ll catch up later.”
He did nothing but dip his chin and resume his attention on the TV.
She ate. She sipped her wine. She couldn’t eat but half of the portion he gave her even if it was exceptional, the chicken so tender and flavorful, she wanted to know how he managed it.
She didn’t ask.
She let him watch his program, and when she’d finished what she could, seeing he’d finished his plate, she’d unfolded out of the couch and got up.
He looked up at her.
“Keep watching, Branch. I’ll deal with this.” She took his plate. “Do you want more?”
“Nope,” he said.
“Another beer?”
“That’d be good.”
She nodded, tagged his empty bottle and walked out of the room.
Now she was perplexed.
She was more perplexed when she came back, gave him his fresh bottle of beer to a mumbled “Thanks,” and resumed her place and her wine sipping.
He was still on the edge of his seat like he was about to get up and sprint out.
But he was sitting there, not giving her any vibes he wanted her to get the lead out, start a scene, take him to where he needed to be to feel safe.
Still, the awkwardness had settled back in. He didn’t want to be there and he wasn’t making it obvious but it was a feeling so entrenched in him, he couldn’t hide it.
She didn’t get it and she didn’t know what to do about it mostly because he also actually looked like he was into the episode.
However, when the credits rolled, he picked up the remote, stilled them and turned directly to her.
She opened her mouth, ready to slip right into it, get him where he needed to be.
But he beat her to it.
“We got a few things to chat about.”
She shut her mouth.
She opened it to say, “Okay.”
“Right,” he stated and stopped.
She waited.
It hurt to watch but it looked like it actually took effort for him to straighten and sit back in his seat and she didn’t think that effort was about the fact the striping she’d delivered that morning was surely still burning the flesh of his backside.
He twisted his torso to her.
“This morning, when I told you to get me your key…”
Oh boy.
He’d demanded her key himself.
It was way, way too early in what they had for a demand like that, be it in play but especially in life.
Even so, she’d been beside herself with glee he’d made it.
Now he was freaked about it.
“… you skipped down the stairs,” he finished.
Her head shook slightly in confusion.
That wasn’t what she expected to hear.
“Sorry?”
Finally, he rested back against the couch, laying his arm along the back, and for a moment, she was bedazzled simply because he was so very easy to look at, especially on her couch in a casual position she hadn’t ordered, turned to her.
“Evangeline, that upstairs room is an add-on to this house.”
Now she was more confused.
Why was he telling her this?
“Yes. I know.”
“And those stairs weren’t meant to be there. They were put in a space inadequate for them so the risers are too high and the steps are narrow.”
This was very true. When she’d bought the house, it took a long time to get used to those stairs.
“Yes,” she said slowly.
“And you skipped down them this morning.”
“I did?”
“You did.”
She probably did. She’d been so high on thinking she’d made huge strides with Branch that was something she’d do.
Idiot!
“Well, I—”
“Don’t do that again.”
She closed her mouth.
“It’s dangerous,” he declared. “You could fall and break your neck.”
Her heart thumped in a way it was a wonder it didn’t leap out of her chest, springing back, just like in a cartoon.
“I’ve been negotiating those stairs for three years, Branch,” she told him quietly.
“Don’t do it again, Evangeline.”
Still Evangeline.
Not Angie.
And right then, him clearly having thoughts all day of her falling down her steps, and worried about it enough to boss her around, she didn’t care.
Maybe she had made great strides with Branch in their short time together.
“Okay,” she agreed. “I won’t do it again. Or I’ll try to remember not to do it again.”
“Just don’t do it again.”
She fought a huge smile and said softly, “I won’t do it again, Branch.”
A mixture of things passed through his expression that were elusive, there and gone so quickly, she couldn’t say for certain she’d seen them.
But it looked like shock, disbelief, even puzzlement, like he thought she’d bear down and start an argument about something that might seem ridiculous, but in the end it was him looking out for her and it meant something to him, but it didn’t to her, so there was no reason to argue.
He got over it but did it making it clear the discussion wasn’t over.
“And you need to engage your alarm when you’re not in your house but mostly when you are. And lock the doors when you’re here. You didn’t lock it when you came in which is cool, because I’m here, but it is not cool if I’m not.”
“Well, I—”
“Just engage the alarm and lock the doors like I said, Evangeline.”
She was finally getting it.
And she needed to allay his concerns.
“What happened to me that you guessed this morning happened at the club. It didn’t—”
He interrupted her. “We’ll talk about that in a second.”
She shut her mouth again.
“Use your alarm,” he demanded. “And lock yourself in. Even if I’m here, it’s smart. Get in the habit. And you need motion sensor lights outside.”
At that, she shook her head.
“I don’t like them, Branch. They switch on when anything passes, even the critters or the wind—”
“They’re a deterrent to assholes who’re intent to do asshole things. Those assholes are gonna do those things no matter what. It sucks they might pick a neighbor to do them to if they get spooked by your lights or see you got an alarm. But at least it won’t be you who has to deal with assholes.”
“I still don’t like motion sens—”
“You don’t buy them, Evangeline, I will and I’ll install them. This isn’t a request.”
She blinked.
Right, there was something she hadn’t yet quite understood about Branch that had been staring her in the face, heck, slapping her across the face since the first second she’d laid eyes on him.
He was a submissive.
But he was an alpha-submissive.
Which might not be mutually exclusive to the kind of submissive he was and the kind of man he was, though she couldn’t know because she’d never paid attention to that kind of thing.
But Branch bossed her around even when she was working him and she hadn’t even noticed it, likely because it was such an integral part of him.
And he was bossing her around out of a scene, in her family room, just in life. Not to mention, that spilling out all over the place in her bed that morning.
So he was just a straight-up, somewhat-in-your-face alpha.
She’d never had one of those. She’d only seen alphas at work as Doms.
And realizing it, experiencing it, she felt the area between her legs get tingly.
“Okay, handsome. I’ll go shopping.”
“Good,” he bit off and instantly adjusted, wincing very slightly, but she felt that wince tingle between her legs too.
That feeling was gone when he looked away only to look right back.
The determined expression on his handsome face had disappeared.
Now it was closed off.
“I got something to share and I’ll preface it by saying, I share it, you want me gone, I’ll just go. I’ll get it and it’ll suck because this is good. I’d like for it to last awhile. But you gotta know who you’re fucking.”