Chapter 9
Raeleen
Ihadn’t lied to my friends. The plan was to give Pyre a chance if that was what he wanted.
Now here he was standing in front of me.
I’d gone about my week under the assumption that he wasn’t as interested as everyone thought.
Each day that went by and I didn’t hear from him just solidified that opinion.
Shuffling my feet, I gave the men tentative smiles as I greeted them.
I’d come to the conclusion that Pyre and I would go our separate ways, no harm, no foul.
But here he was, standing in front of me.
People were already looking our way. The men of the MC always got a lot of attention wherever they went.
“Need some help with that?” Jury asked.
“Oh no, I’ve-”
He was already taking the box out of my hands before I could get the words out. He flipped open the flaps. “Whatcha got in here?” Then he frowned at the contents.
“What is it?” Rotor asked. “Better not be a fucking snake. Hate those bastards.” He moved over to peer down into the box. “Why the fuck do you have a bunch of bugs in there?” He looked up at me. “Who the fuck walks around with cockroaches in a box?”
It wasn’t just cockroaches. There were other bugs, over-ripe fruit that I’d picked up from the grocery store, vegetables, eggs, and a few other odds and ends. “They’re for my pet,” I explained.
Penny had a varied diet and I tried to meet all her nutritional needs. It was important to me that she stayed as healthy as possible. She ate better than most people, minus the bugs of course.
“Not any weirder than what he has in the box in his room,” Jury said, nodding at Pyre with his chin.
I glanced over at Pyre with raised eyebrows. He had a resigned look on his face. “You have a…box?”
“Ignore them,” he told me. He stared down at me with those gorgeous blue eyes and I realized how easy it would be to get lost in them. “Do you-”
“What kind of pet?” Rotor asked, interrupting whatever Pyre had been about to ask me.
I blinked over at Rotor, frowning as I tried to pull myself out of the daze Pyre had me in and figure out what his question had been. Right. Penny. “Oh. She’s an opossum.”
Now they were all staring at me in surprise, even Pyre.
“You have an opossum as a pet?” Jury asked.
“I would’ve guessed a crow,” Rotor muttered. “Or a snake. Oof!”
Pyre had reached out and punched him in the gut. Not hard, just enough to knock the wind out of him.
I nodded at Jury’s question, ignoring Rotor as my eyes drifted back to Pyre.
He didn’t look disgusted. That was a good sign.
Penny was a sweet girl, but some people had an objection to opossums. A lot of people assumed they had rabies, or other diseases.
It was extremely rare because of their low body temperature compared to other mammals.
Opossums were a part of nature’s cleanup crew.
They ate just about everything and helped keep things clean and sanitary.
Which was why I provided her with so many different things to eat on a daily basis.
And since they naturally designated a “latrine” spot, they could be litter box trained.
If anything he looked ready to fight his friends. Not that they were bothering me, but seeing that intensity in his eyes…whew. Pyre scowled over at the other men. “Go away.”
Jury chuckled then handed the box to Pyre, grabbed Rotor by the cut, and started walking away. “Let’s go. We’re cramping lover boy’s style.”
“I sort of want to see this opossum, though,” Rotor said as he was being dragged away.
“Not this time.”
Pyre heaved a heavy sigh, then turned back to me. “I’m here because I want you to go on a date with me.” He said it fast, as though he wanted to get the words out before anything else interrupted us.
Searching his eyes, I tried to determine his motives.
All I found was honesty and interest. I’d gotten good at spotting the kind of men who wanted to date me for not so pure intentions.
The kind who thought it would be funny to ask out the oddball.
Oh she dresses differently, I bet she’s freaky in bed.
A girl gets tired of those assumptions. “I’d like that,” I said after a brief pause.
If I wanted to get to know this man, I needed to actually be around him.
That was a problem for my introverted shyness.
There was no way to hide away inside my house and accomplish that task, unfortunately.
Besides, the idea of spending a night talking with him was going to keep me smiling for the rest of the day.
Not to mention keep my friends from hounding me about my promise to them.
My heart was fluttering around in my chest, though I kept my face neutral. I didn’t want him to know how excited I was since he was so calm and collected. It was best to act as though I’d been asked out before, even if it hadn’t happened in quite a while.
“Tomorrow night?”
I nodded and tucked a strand of my hair that was tickling my cheek behind my ear. “Okay.”
“Where’s your car? I’ll carry this.” He searched the street.
“Oh, I walked over from the grocery store,” I told him. “You don’t have to-” He was already walking away with my bugs, dead mice, and fruits. I hurried to catch up to him.
He adjusted his speed to account for my shorter legs and we settled into a comfortable pace, for me at least.
We were quiet for a part of the walk, but finally I worked up the courage to ask him what I’d been thinking. “Why are you asking me out?”
He looked over at me with his eyebrows raised. “You’re interesting.”
Well that was…an answer.
“And gorgeous.”
Our gazes clashed and a blush worked its way over my cheeks.
He thought I was gorgeous? He was the one who had women stopping in the streets to stare at him.
Seriously, there was one on the sidewalk across the street right now, gawking at him as she and her friend walked around with ice cream cones.
Sentinel drew enough tourism during the summer months to keep a fresh flow of new faces in town.
So there were plenty who’d never had the privilege of seeing these men in cuts prowling down the streets.
And they did prowl, like ripped predators looking for something to fight, or devour.
Harlow and I often got our own ice cream cones, her eating Rum Raisin and me Rainbow Sherbet, and just people watched.
It was one of my most favorite summertime activities.
Come to think of it, the holidays drew a lot of people here, too.
If we wanted to brave the cold, we could sit out with hot chocolate and do the same.
It always amused us to see the way the female population responded to both the men of The Berserker’s Rage and the deputies in our town.
Owen had himself his own little fan club.
And now that he was the sheriff that was only going to grow.
Next thing we knew, women were going to be committing petty crimes just to be handcuffed by him. I smiled at the idea.
“Maybe I just want to see more of that.”
I looked over at Pyre and realized my thoughts had gone on a tangent and I’d never responded to his compliment. “More of what?”
“Your smile,” he said, eyes leaving mine and scanning the street around us.
I didn’t need to ask to know he was looking for potential threats.
It made me wonder what kind of life he’d lived to always be searching for enemies that might attack out of nowhere.
It also reminded me that I needed to work on my own observational awareness.
I was terrible about it. Someone could run up on me and be halfway down the block with my purse before I would realize what happened. “Thank you,” I told him softly.
He glanced over at me and nodded.
“This is me,” I said, even though he’d already stopped by my car.
I opened the back door, then stepped out of the way as he moved forward to put the box on the back seat.
Briefly, I wondered what he’d do if I didn’t move out of the way.
But he was doing me a favor by carrying my things.
Besides, I wasn’t ready to find out everything he thought about me. Not yet.
I had a feeling that he would tell me if I asked. He seemed like a very honest man. That was just a guess because I really didn’t know him, but so far I hadn’t seen, or heard, anything that told me otherwise. “Thank you for walking me to my car, Pyre,” I told him.
“No problem. I’ll pick you up tomorrow at eight,” he said.
“Okay, my address is-”
“I know where you live,” he replied, interrupting me.
Why did that make my stomach do a slow roll as he stared down at me with a smirk? I told myself it was because Sentinel wasn’t a very big place. He probably knew where most people lived. Then again, I didn’t know where his house was.
Before I could respond to his statement he reached out and tucked that annoying strand of hair that wouldn’t stay in place behind my ear. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Rae.”
I watched as he walked away, heart hammering against my ribs, skin tingling where he’d brushed it. Was I really so desperate for love that a single touch wound me up like this? Yes. And because it was him. I’d felt nothing but disgust and annoyance when the cowboy had touched me.
Getting into the car, I gripped the steering wheel and sighed.
At least I hadn’t had to work up the courage to go find Pyre.
Because that would be what my friends suggested next if he hadn’t come to me.
The idea of chasing him if he wasn’t interested made me want to throw up.
He wouldn’t have asked me out if he wasn’t interested in me. Right?
I really didn’t know. Men were essentially a mystery to me. I’d mostly found out what they didn’t like about women, and had kept to myself after that.
Then again, he’d called me gorgeous and told me he wanted to see my smile again.
Already he’d put in more effort to woo me than the jerks who just wanted a quick lay.
Smiling as I remembered the compliments, I put the car into gear and headed home.
I’d needed to stop by and pick up more supplies for Penny and now I was glad that I hadn’t waited to run that particular errand.
It was going to be hard to get through work tomorrow when all I wanted to do was go on my date.
Turning on the radio, I sang along for the short ride home.
I was going to be daydreaming until tomorrow night.
Not that I was picturing white gowns and hearing wedding bells—yet anyway—because I’d learned pretty quickly that men didn’t appreciate the direct approach.
In today’s world, meeting men on those awful apps was really the only feasible way.
It was terrible. And if you met them and told them the truth when they asked what you wanted out of a relationship, they tended to bolt.
Back when I had still been trying to date, one had excused himself from dinner and never came back.
That was when I realized when they asked those questions they didn’t want honesty.
Or not my brand of honesty anyway. I still hadn’t quite figured out what it was they wanted to hear.
All I knew was that I could only give honest answers.
“I’m home,” I called out as I carried my box of Penny’s goodies into the house. The sound of tiny little claws on the hardwood floor made me smile. “I got you all the things you like.” I unpacked the box as she danced around at my feet.
Pausing, I rested my elbow on the counter and leaned down to speak to her. “And guess what?” She blinked up at me with her dark eyes. “Pyre asked me out on a date. Can you believe it?”
The tip tap of little feet was my only answer.
“Okay, but just one,” I told her. Opening the lid, I grabbed a pair of tweezers off the counter and plucked a roach out of the plastic cup and squatted down. She rested her front paws on my knee as she took the treat off the tweezers.
I wasn’t the biggest fan of roaches. Any of the other bugs, and even worms, I could handle, but those gave me the shivers, so I never touched them. “Come on, let’s go put your things away,” I told her, closing up the container.
Humming as I worked, I tried to keep my daydreams from going completely wild.
It was one date. The man might not even end up liking me.
I could end up not liking him. I’d just have to wait to find out.
And if the worst happened, then life would go on.
I hoped. Pyre seemed like the kind of man who could alter things without even trying to.