Romancing the Alpha: An Action-Adventure Romance Boxed Set by Anna Hackett, Anna Lowe, Leigh James, Ember Casey, Zoe York, Ruby Lionsdrake, Zara Keane, Sadie Haller, Lyn Brittan, Lydia Rowan Read Free Book Online

game?”
    “You and your hoops, woman.” He grinned. “Just relax. Watch the sexy guy toss fire in the air. We’re in paradise…let everything else go.”
    “I want you, too,” she said quietly. She wanted him to know she wasn’t playing games.
    “I know. But you’re holding yourself back for a reason.” His gaze rolled over her face. “We don’t need to rush anything, right?”
    Blood rushed through her head, loud and fast. “Do you have a plan? I kind of need you to have a plan.”
    He nodded. “I do.”
    “And it involves me taking down my walls?”
    “Yep.”
    “That’s…a big ask.”
    He smiled again and squeezed her shoulder. “Let’s just watch the show.”

— FIVE —
    Early the next morning, Cade woke up to a face full of fluffy down pillow.
What the hell?
    Beside him, his phone was quietly vibrating his alarm. He went to grab it, but his hand was tangled up in slim, brown fingers. He blinked again. Pretty pink nails.
    He was holding hands with Mel. With a pillow squashed between them, like they were high school virgins.
    He grinned. Score one for the sweatpants. Handholding was perfectly acceptable nocturnal behavior. Kind of sweet, actually. Squeezing her fingers, he yawned and disentangled himself from the pile of bedding.
    “Rise and shine, beautiful.”
    Without saying a word, Mel pushed herself up and out of bed. Yawning, she stumbled into the bathroom. He went to the single-serve coffee brewer and made first one cup, then another. When she came out, he handed one to her, and she started drinking it black.
    Still no conversation or eye contact. Just sitting, quietly drinking her coffee. It was entirely possible she was still asleep.
    She was definitely still cute.
    He grabbed his hiking clothes and got changed. When he came out of the bathroom, she gave him a more Mel-like smile. “Morning.”
    “Need your coffee in the morning?”
    “Coffee, tea, whatever. I’m not picky. I just need some time to process being awake before I start functioning.”
    “Good to know.”
    She lifted her trail shoes. “Now I’m ready to hit the road. Or the mud. Whatever.”
    “Definitely the latter.”
    They packed their bags with food for their lunch, water, electrolytes in three different forms, first-aid kits, and their phones. They left the mini tents at the hotel. No reason to carry the extra bulk for a practice go.
    They were trying to replicate race day one as closely as possible, and the race would kick off after a light, catered breakfast, so they went to the restaurant who’d be providing the meals and ordered eggs and toast. Cade tried not to mock the fact that the race was
catered
. He failed pretty miserably.
    “It’s just a logistics thing. Hard to carry camp stoves through obstacle courses,” Mel said earnestly.
    “I don’t have any problem doing that,” he deadpanned.
    “You carry a
stove?
” She gave him an incredulous look.
    “A little brew kit, yeah. Gotta make coffee somehow.”
    “And you didn’t bring it?”
    “Nope. Because this is
catered
.” He winked, and she tossed a sugar packet at him.
    “Don’t say it like that.”
    “Make me stop.”
    She kicked at him under the table, and he snatched her delicate ankle in his hand, tugging it up onto his side of the booth. She was so short that she started to slide forward on her seat, so he let her go. She was grinning as she scrambled back into a sitting position. “I’ll get you later.”
    He couldn’t wait. This anticipation game? It was more fun than he expected.
    They headed into the Manoa Valley. On the way, Mel explained what she knew about the race from online message boards. It was a distance event—ten miles in total, over two days, which was nothing in terms of what Cade was used to. But there were six obstacle components along the route, and the racers needed to successfully complete each challenge before being able to continue on.
    “That’s why it’s a team event—so we can help each other.”