Not Another Alpha Male

Pru

“It’s positive.”

I flew off my chair and gave my friend Alexis the tightest squeeze. I always knew deep down that she wasn’t the reason she and her ex-husband hadn’t had a baby. And I was right.

She had just found out she and her new husband were going to have a baby at our monthly United She-Woman Single Ladies with Our Vibrators So We Never Have Another Bad Date or Experience Romance Again Because Men Suck Club dinner.

We weren’t an official club or anything. We were just a group of friends who had sworn off men—or rather, had tried to. Tessa and Alexis were married, Bree was getting married next month, and Paisley lived with her boyfriend. The only ones left were Elizabeth, Isabelle, and me, and for a while there, Isabelle had been dating someone too. Our club wasn’t so much a club anymore but an inside joke.

Except I knew that I was going to be one of the women who stayed single. Maybe twenty years from now, I’d change my mind, but I liked my freedom. I sure missed dick though. Unfortunately, that beautiful piece of pleasure was always attached to a man.

Tessa grinned at Alexis. “You’d better call Trevor.”

She grinned back, her face lit up with awe. “I think I’m going to wait until I get home.”

I took a sip of my wine, thinking this was the best monthly dinner we’d had in a long time as a group when Bree had to ruin it.

She bolted upright from her chair and shouted the one name I hadn’t wanted to hear.

“Sebastian.”

She waved her arm back and forth while I tried to make myself as small as possible.

I liked to think of myself as a strong, independent woman. But I was also a woman who didn’t need any drama, and staying away from Sebastian Creed was how I had planned to accomplish that.

“Hey, coz,” Bree said, giving him a hug when he reached us. “What are you doing here?”

“Getting some dinner with a couple of guys from work.” Sebastian looked around, his eyes lingering on me for an extra beat before moving on. “Good evening, ladies.”

Everyone smiled and said hello, except me. I understood where they were coming from. He was Bree’s cousin, and he was tall, dark, and handsome. But even as sexy as he was, I wasn’t going to be pulled into his allure. I gave a single wave and looked away, hoping he’d get the hint and go away.

“You’re with colleagues. Are you here on business or pleasure?” Bree asked.

“A little bit of both. I’m the new guy at work, so my captain nominated me to plan the annual charity event.” He smiled a fake smile. “Aren’t I a lucky guy?”

“Oh my God,” Bree said, and I shook my head back and forth for what it was worth. She wasn’t looking at me. “Pru is an event planner. I bet she’d give you the friends and family discount.”

I jumped off my chair. “No, I will not.”

Sebastian eyed me and smirked. “Sounds like a plan.”

“Did you hear me? I already said no.”

“Come on, Pru. It’s a charity event,” Bree whined.

“Yeah, Pru,” Paisley agreed.

They weren’t going to let this go easily. I needed to come up with an excuse. “I don’t even know what the event is.”

“It’s the Annual Golden Prairie Firefighters Charity Event. This year, we’re giving the proceeds away to …” He winced. “I’ll have to get back to you on that one.”

I rolled my eyes. He didn’t even know the charity of the event that he was supposed to plan. Figures.

“I’ve been to this event, Pru,” Alexis said. “They always pick excellent charities.”

I frowned. Thanks a lot, Alexis.

My friends didn’t seem to understand that I didn’t want to be around Sebastian, and to find out what he did for a living made it so much worse.

I put my hands on my hips. “Are you saying you’re a firefighter?”

Sebastian held out his arms. “Guilty.”

There was nothing guilty in that smile. He liked flaunting his profession.

“I don’t believe you,” I said just to piss him off.

He laughed in disbelief. “Bree?”

She frowned questioningly at me. “He’s always been a fireman.”

It was like everyone at this table was conspiring against me.

I sat down and crossed my arms and legs. Hopefully, my body language matched the next words coming out of my mouth. “I’m not doing it.”

“Yes, she is,” Bree told Sebastian. “I’ll make sure she gets your contact info.”

Unbelievable.

After Sebastian left to join his coworkers, Bree looked at me. “Why won’t you do this? I bet this thing would be a walk in the park for you.”

“Because I don’t want to, okay?”

I didn’t understand why Bree was asking. She knew I wasn’t her cousin’s biggest fan.

Bree put her hands up. “Fine. Don’t do it then. Don’t help my cousin and a charity.”

I sighed. She was guilt-tripping me, and it was going to work.

“Okay, I’ll do it. But I’m not charging him the friends and family discount because he is neither friend nor family. And there is no foe discount.”

Isabelle started laughing as if I’d told the best joke in the world, and I couldn’t help but smile.

“Foe?” Paisley asked. “Did I miss something?”

“Pru’s still mad that Sebastian threw a frog at her when we were five years old,” Bree said with a laugh.

“Thanks, Bree. Way to make me sound like I hold a grudge,” I said.

“You do hold a grudge,” she retorted.

I looked around at the rest of our friends. “The frog thing didn’t help, but no, I am not still mad about that. Back when Bree went to her cousin Tina’s wedding, I drove her wedding outfit up to her because she’d forgotten it.”

“I helped too,” Tessa quickly added.

“I was talking to Bree, thinking we were alone. I asked how things were going with her family and her fake date when Sebastian snuck behind me and listened in. He scared the shit out of me, and I accidentally elbowed him in the gut. That’s how close he was to me.” I made sure our friends understood. “And then he called me annoying and mean.”

“Oh, please. He was joking. He just wanted to get a rise out of you.”

“Well, I guess it worked.”

I thought my friends would understand now that I had explained my side, but most of them were stupidly in love and didn’t understand.

“It sounds like he was mad that you’d elbowed him, so he wanted to make you mad back,” Isabelle said, as if two wrongs made a right.

“Because he had come up so closely behind me,” I protested.

“I bet he didn’t mean to scare you,” Bree said, “because he knew that I knew he was coming. I think you’re making it a bigger deal than it needs to be.”

“You’re just saying that because you’re related to him.”

“Oh, come on, Pru. I’ve talked with Sebastian before. He’s a nice guy,” Paisley said.

“That’s what every neighbor says after they find out the guy they’ve been living next door to is a serial killer.”

“Since Sebastian and I are the only two in Bree and Zack’s bridal party, I’ve spent some time with him,” Tessa said. “He really is a nice guy.”

I picked up my purse from the floor and put it over my shoulder. “I can’t with any of you.”

“Pru?” Elizabeth said.

She was the only one who had not said anything in Sebastian’s defense so far.

I raised my eyebrows. “What?”

“I believe everything you said, and I think you have every right to not like him.”

I smiled. “Thank you, Elizabeth.”

“But it’s not like you have to marry the man, like Alexis did. I still think you should plan the party because he’s Bree’s family.”

I smashed my hands down on the table and stood. “I’m leaving before I end up wishing you all choke on your dinners.”

“Pru, Pru. Come back, Pru,” was all I heard as I walked away.

I wasn’t really that upset, but I’d already had a long day at work, and listening to them drone on and on about how great Sebastian was had just been too much for me.

So they’d know I still loved them, I spun on my heel, blew them a kiss, and turned back around. I went in the direction Sebastian had headed until I found him.

He was sitting with two other guys who were as muscular as he was. I knew that fighting fires for a living wasn’t easy and took strength, but I was tired of musclemen who thought they were God’s gift to women just because they had great bodies.

When it came to sex, half of them lay there and waited for their partners to do all the work because they thought they could make women come by their looks alone. No one was that hot, but try telling them that.

The three men stopped talking when they saw me approaching.

I threw my card on the table and pushed it over to Sebastian with my forefinger.

“Just know, I’m doing this for Bree, and if you so much as flake on me even once, you’re on your own. Come by my office tomorrow at nine in the morning.”