Chapter Nine #3
“No more ghosting me,” she murmured, clinging to his T-shirt with closed fists. “I hate it. It makes me feel empty and unimportant.”
He nodded. “I understand. I won’t do it again now that I know it hurts you. If I have a moment where I need some space, I’ll text you that I’m having a moment. Deal? Be patient with me though, okay? You have taken me completely by surprise.”
A smile consumed her lips, and her cheeks heated with a blush. “I have been surprised by you too.”
“Well, okay. This is guaranteed to be messy, and I can’t promise you that you won’t want to leave here to go back to Alabama in the morning. The day is young and I’m real good at pissing you off. I want you to stay another day.”
“One more day?”
“Sure. We can use that as our motto. One more day.”
Kit liked that.
“Only problem with that is it’s going to get too expensive to live like that for me.
I made three hundred dollars last night, but this place has to be what?
Two hundred bucks a night? It’s really nice here.
There’s free breakfast and it’s the buffet kind.
I think I need to switch to somewhere a little less fancy. ”
“This hotel is safe. It’s in a good neighborhood.”
“I understand that, but I have other bills to pay, and I need to get food, and gas, and my McIver Pack fees are due.”
“How much are those?”
“A thousand a month.”
“Well, you’re not going to pay those this month. You’re Rogue until further notice.”
“Wait…you don’t have to pay Pack fees?”
“Nope.”
Her mind was blown right now. “But then how does your Pack function.”
“Technically we aren’t allowed to register as a Pack. Plus, where do you think Pack fees go?”
“I don’t know. To Repairs on Pack property?
” She frowned, trying to remember a single time the Pack had helped her with anything in her last apartment.
“Or paying for Pack meetings?” But that also didn’t make sense because in the McIver Pack, everyone was responsible for buying their own food for Pack meetings.
And drinks. Everyone except for the Alpha and Second, who, now that she was thinking about it, didn’t have jobs.
“I can tell from the look on your face that you’re figuring out your Pack fees go to directly lining the upper ranks’ pockets.
“And the twelve hundred dollars in taxes each month,” she murmured.
“Oh yeah, they preach that you are taxed for being a werewolf and using government land and territory. Currently you are Rogue, so you don’t have to pay any of that bullshit.”
“Okay, but the rent for housing?”
“Every payment we make is toward any loan we took out. I don’t live on government land.
The loan for the property was taken out by my Alpha’s mate, Nory, and is already paid in full because we pooled our money.
All we pay is the property taxes each year now, and that’s a group effort, but the other fees? Nope.”
“So, you just keep your money?”
Bridger nodded, and his smile was stretching just the very corners of his lips. “Yep.”
“You just keep the extra twenty-two hundred dollars a month and just…”
“Keep it and spend it however we like.”
A little part of her felt like she’d won the lottery. But…
“I have to go back to the McIver Pack at some point. I mean once me and you run our course.”
“Already planning on breaking up with me and I haven’t even taken you on a date yet,” Bridger teased.
“Boy, look at you. You’re the hottest man in existence who already had the love of his life.
We’re both clear that I’m not her, or even close.
I’m a bartender from Alabama who never went to college and is scraping together tips for a one-bedroom apartment.
You had to give me gas money just to leave you in peace.
My ducks are not in a row. You’re here for the poontang.
We both know there is an expiration date to this thing between us. We just don’t know when it is.”
“The poontang?” he repeated.
“You know it’s true.”
“Okay,” he said, opening her door for her. He nodded and looked tired. “Whatever you say.”
“Sending me off?” she asked, feeling spicy.
“Sending you to my house. You still have the address, right?”
“I’m not staying with you, Bridger. I told you I will be fine in a cheaper hotel.”
“Oh, I’ve already paid for another week here. I did that this morning before I met the notary here.”
“W-what?”
“I didn’t want you to go. I already knew I was going to ask you to stay, so I paid for another week.”
“A week at a fancy place like this? Bridger! That’s a lot of money.”
“Okay.”
“Wait, are you rich or something?”
“No.” He grinned, as if he knew he hadn’t even tried to hide the lie in his voice.
“No, no, no, Pretend Bridger said you work at a travel agency.”
“Well Pretend Bridger doesn’t actually know what I do for a living. Vic has been trying to get me to tell him for two years. It’s a game hiding it from him at this point. Get in.”
“But…” She looked from him back to the hotel and back again. “I can’t take this kind of money from you.”
“I understand. I’m also the one asking you to stay to spend time with me. If I hadn’t done that, would you be on your way back to Alabama right now?”
“Well, yes.”
“Cool. If a man asks you out to dinner, and he plans an expensive steak experience, picks you up, takes you there, tells you to order whatever you want, and then the bill comes, do you feel like the man should be responsible for the bill?”
“Well…” She frowned, thinking about it. “If he planned it and asked, then yes.”
“I’m planning this, and I asked. It’s my responsibility to make it as easy as possible for you. This week should be fun, not draining. I do realize you are independent, and I respect it, but you are doing me a favor by staying here. I’m the one who is not ready for you to go.”
She had to make sure this wasn’t a trick, or a manipulation. “You aren’t one of those men who use money as a way to manipulate or control, are you?”
“Never,” he said, and the truth rang out so clearly in his tone, the tension eased immediately in her shoulders.
“In that case, I would like to take you out somewhere. I want to pay.”
“Oh yeah? Where are you wanting to take me?”
“I was thinking a steak house that serves creamed spinach and roasted broccoli—”
“Okay, okay. Wherever you want. I will do my best not to yack whenever you are devouring your rabbit food.”
“Oh, I’ll be eating a steak too. I just like a well-balanced diet because I’m an adult. Give me a few more shifts at The Mark, and I’ll take you to the nicest place around as a thank you for paying for the hotel.”
“Deal. Wednesday it is. Are we allowed to hang out before then?”
“Depends.”
“On?”
“How nicely you ask me.”
A smile took his lips as he stepped toward her and brushed his fingertips down the sides of her arms. He kissed her on the forehead, and the tip of the nose, and then gently on the lips.
When he pulled away, he asked her, “Will you come to my house and let me make you food? I already went shopping for all the ingredients.”
“Wait, you had this planned?”
He nodded.
“But you left me on read and ended our pairing.”
“Yeah, and it was really hard to do. If I talked to you all last night, and came over, and slept with you again, do you think we would’ve gotten that fraudulent pairing annulled?”
“Well, probably not.”
“I was on a mission. Didn’t mean that I didn’t have it in my head how I wanted this to go.”
She was holding onto his t-shirt again, right over his chest, searching his soft brown eyes. “And how did you plan on this going?”
“I knew you would be upset and hurt, and I didn’t like that part, so I wanted to get my apology out of the way fast. You deserved it. And then I wanted to ask you to stay.”
“Which you did.”
“Mmm hmm. And then I wanted to ask if you are working tonight.”
“I am, but not until six.”
“Mmm. And then I wanted to ask you to come over to my den and spend the day with me until you have to go to work.”
“And then?”
“And then I’m going to get my work hours done while you are bartending, and then I want to take you up on that late night dinner you asked me about.
Now you’ve set rules that I can’t pay for anything else, and I get money being tight, but I want to hang out with you and ask you about a hundred questions.
I want to get to know you and figure out why it is that my wolf can’t stop obsessing about you. ”
“You’re obsessed with me?”
He nodded and then leaned forward. With his lips right against her ear, he whispered, “And it’s not just about the poontang.”
She belted out a laugh. Okay, so he could joke back. Okay. She would take the bait.
“Last night I took a walk after work, just clearing my head, and I came upon a food truck park just a half a mile away from The Mark.”
“I know the one.”
“Maybe you could meet me there. I mean if you don’t panic after spending time with me and ghost me again.”
“You’re not going to let me live that down, are you?” he asked.
“Not until I trust you.”
Bridger nodded. “That’s fair.”
She liked that when she set little boundaries, he respected them and didn’t make her feel like too much. He was logical, and also emotionally intelligent in ways that surprised her.
Kit released his shirt from her grip and stepped back. “Then fine. I will go to your house and eat your food.”
Bridger opened her car door wider and gestured for her to get in.
And he patted her butt as she turned. A smile lit up her face.
Her cheeks were still on fire, but not from embarrassment.
It was from pleasure. Oh, she liked this man.
He was complicated, but he was holding her attention like no other man ever had.
He felt special. Important.
Oh, she knew she was in danger of falling too hard too fast for him, and this was probably going to hurt very badly at the bottom of this fall, but she couldn’t help herself. She was on a grand adventure right now, and sink or swim, she was going to enjoy it while it lasted.