Chapter 267: Just friends

What am I even saying? I felt so damn uncomfortable standing near him, and that was precisely why I was blabbering nonsense—just to fill the suffocating silence.

"And if I propose, will you agree to marry me?"

A frightening note of genuine interest laced his voice—completely inappropriate for the situation, yet delivered so unexpectedly that my mind went blank for a second, my heart leaping into my throat.

"No, of course not. What a ridiculous thought," I said, shaking my head violently as I took a few hesitant steps closer to him.

Extending my trembling hands, I passed him the container with my mother’s pie and the thermos. Damian took them silently. Arching an eyebrow, his piercing gaze swept over me from head to toe, looking down as if trying to peer straight into my soul.

"I brought you something to eat," I mumbled, feeling a traitorous heat flush across my cheeks. I quickly looked away again, fixing my eyes on the dark asphalt beneath our feet. "Eat it and leave. There’s no reason for you to keep standing outside my house."

"You’re feeding me?" A faint, crooked smirk played on his lips. "Does this mean you’ve stopped being angry with me? Can we call a truce... and go on a date?"

That single sentence stole the breath right out of my lungs.

"What kind of date?!" I gasped, nearly choking on my indignation. Crossing my arms over my chest, I tried to construct some kind of shield between us. "Why on earth would we go on a date? As if!"

"Because I like you."

With a casual shrug of his broad shoulders, the alpha popped open the thermos lid and took a few long gulps of hot tea.

I stood rooted to the spot as if turned to stone. My entire body went rigid. Did he just... confess his feelings to me? Just like that, standing in the middle of the night by his car?

"Stop joking around. It’s not funny," I said, my voice cracking beneath the weight of my confusion. "We can talk, maybe even be friends, but I don’t think there could ever be anything more between us. We don’t even know each other. And me working as your maid doesn’t exactly count as normal human interaction."

"So... once we get to know each other better, we can start dating?" he asked, pouncing on my words with the terrifying precision of a hungry predator.

"What if we get to know each other better and you realize you don’t like me anymore? Or I don’t like you?"

I looked at him, my insides twisting with deep anxiety. Considering the dark, dangerous rumors floating around campus about him—and how many gorgeous women were hopelessly in love with this male—a relationship with him wouldn’t just be complicated. It would be pure chaos. No, worse: it would mean massive trouble for me.

Dating one of the university’s legendary werewolves felt like a downright life-threatening idea. Besides, what could possibly attract him to me so intensely?

If I went by what he claimed earlier—that we knew each other as children—I was just a foolish, clueless kid back then. How could he have fallen for me then? And after so many years, any childhood attachment should have burned out long ago, reduced to ash. What was wrong with him?

Lost deep in my spiraling thoughts, I completely missed the moment Damian stepped in close. He moved so silently that I only realized how near he was when his rich, tart scent hit my nose, causing me to flinch violently.

My body, which had been coiled tight like an over-tensioned spring, painfully stiff until now, instantly went limp. A rush filled my head so intensely it felt as though I hadn’t been breathing at all, only now taking a full chestful of air and intoxicating myself with oxygen.

My starved brain ravenously drank in his pheromones alongside every cell of my trembling body—like a desperate creature breaking a long, agonizing fast. Utterly incapable of reining in my primal instincts, I began drawing in the crisp night air beside him in greedy, shuddering gasps.

A dark, all-consuming flame instantly ignited within the Alpha’s obsidian eyes.

He leaned down slightly toward me, coming so close that the radiating heat of his broad frame seemed to fuse directly into mine. I froze, rooted to the spot, stunned by the unspoken, terrifying bond unfolding between us on a level of pure, primal biology. My heart thrashed like a trapped bird within the tight cage of my ribs.

"Then let’s go to the movies tomorrow. Just as friends," he purred in a low, vibrating whisper.

With his free hand, he gently wrapped his fingers around my delicate wrist. Softly, almost weightlessly, his thumb brushed along the protruding curve of my wrist bone. That single, simple touch sent surges of electricity crackling over my skin.

"Only... if it’s strictly as friends," I breathed out slowly, still unable to tear my gaze away from the deep abyss of his eyes.

"I’ll pick you up at five. Be ready."

Uncurling his long fingers from my wrist, Damian took a slow, reluctant step back. Carrying the container and my thermos, he quietly slid behind the wheel of his car. I stepped back in a daze.

Spinning around on my heel, I sprinted toward the building entrance. My heart was pounding wildly in my chest as I took the stairs two at a time, flying up to my floor and darting back inside my apartment.

Slamming the front door shut, I leaned heavily against it, gasping for breath. What on earth am I doing? Why did I go out to him? Why in the world did I just agree to go to the movies with him? And oh my god... I fed him...

Sliding down the cool wooden surface of the door, I sank onto the floor and dug my hands into my hair in sheer despair. I had gone out of my way, entirely on my own initiative, to bring him food. Nobody had asked me to.

God... I just personally fed an alpha heir, deliberately inviting his dangerous attention. How mortifying... What an unbearable humiliation!