Read Alpha Me Not for Free Online

lips when she opened her mouth and shook his head.
    “No strings attached. One human being to another. I may not seem it, but I make a damned good living and I own a cabin not far from here. Worse comes to worse, we can always stay there. You good with all that?”
    Too choked up to force a word from her scratchy throat, she nodded.
    “One more thing. No matter how much he insists, we are not taking the bunch of bananas Azzo’s certain to offer us.”
    Susie grinned at his pinched brows and the over-the-shoulder glare he shot at Mama Maria’s open doorway.
    Macho men. Cute in an overbearing-protective kind of way. Joe anyway.
    Azzo hadn’t earned that growly, boyish sexiness. Too young and way too pretty.
    Unable to resist, she stroked his arm. “Thanks, Joe.”
    Azzo greeted them when they reached the restaurant’s hostess station. “I heard. I’m so sorry, Susie.” He captured both her hands and kissed her fingertips. “You are most welcome to stay with me until—”
    Joe snaked an arm around her waist and hauled her close to his side. “Not necessary right now, pup. Susie and I have some planning to do, and from the looks of it, you’re going to be drowning in customers within the next ten minutes. The cops told me they’re going to be evacuating everyone within a two-mile perimeter.”
    Azzo’s bronzed complexion reddened, he spit a slew of Italian Susie couldn’t decipher, his beautiful molasses eyes narrowed, and before he whirled around, he muttered, “’Scusi.”
    She stared at Azzo’s retreating form and sighed when his tight butt, narrow waist, and broad shoulders disappeared between the swing doors leading to the restaurant’s bowels.
    “Stop drooling.” Joe pulled out a chair and nudged her into sitting.
    “I wasn’t drooling.” She dug in her purse, found a scrunchie, and then set her purse on the far side of the table. “What was that all about?”
    “His two cousins who are supposed to be on tonight called in sick. Azzo believes they’re faking it, and he isn’t a happy camper. Want me to hang up your coat?”
    “When did you find out about that?” She worked her hair into a ponytail, the smoky scent of her loose locks too intense to bear.
    “That’s what Azzo just said in Italian. The coat?”
    “Thanks.”
    She squirmed out of the short denim jacket and followed Joe’s rear end as he walked to the coat stand by the door. Tiny flutters low in her belly flickered to life.
    Azzo had the classical handsomeness and sexy form of Enrique Iglesias, pure Latin hunk and oozing sensual appeal. Yet he did nothing for her, while Joe…Joe had her forgetting the fire, the loss of everything she owned, and the dire doom hanging over her head for the few entrancing moments those taut ass cheeks bunched and flexed as he stalked away from her.
    What an idiot!
    To be distracted by lust when she had just lost the roof over her head.
    “What’s got you riled?” Joe slumped into the adjacent seat.
    Warmth threaded up her throat and face. “Nothing. I’m more worried than pissed, although I am pissed too. Opie sure as hell thinks I’m to blame for the fire.”
    He frowned. “Opie?”
    “The red-haired cop.” She automatically picked up her knife and checked the gleaming blade’s cleanliness. Not a single water spot.
    “Ah, Detective Sands. Very astute of you. Who’s Detective Johnson? Mathew McConaughey?” Joe shot her that devil-boy, dimpled grin, and her toes curled.
    For a second his question didn’t register, so distracted was she by his transformation from bad-ass mercenary to an alpha male emitting the kind of mischievous charm known to fell grandmothers, tots, and every grumpy female on the planet. “Surfer Dude. Didn’t get far filling the role, but McConaughey’s a good choice. Why’d he look at you as if you were some sort of superhero?”
    “I helped his sister out of a bad situation a while back. Now, what time did you say your test was?”
    Suppressing a grin at his