Chapter Eight
Delta couldn’t get it out of her head—the way Nate had looked when Nory had told him not to come out with the Pack tonight.
She and Nory had arrived at the bar first and were joined within half an hour by everyone but Nate. Yeah, she knew this was the easiest way to do things for her, but for the twentieth time, she looked at the text he’d sent her earlier.
I should’ve kissed you.
She’d unblocked him in a moment of weakness after she’d seen the hurt on his face when Nory had told him to stay away, and he’d texted within ten minutes.
I should’ve kissed you.
How did she even respond to that? She’d fantasized about him kissing her.
She had hoped for it day after day. Any time he passed too close to her in the hallway, she’d wished he would pin her against the wall.
Any time he had come to see her at her garden, she’d wished he would lay her down right there.
Nate just hadn’t felt that way about her.
He hadn’t been attracted to her physically or emotionally. That much was painfully clear, so why now? Why would he text this?
She’d had a margarita, just trying to numb her racing thoughts down, and now she was tipsy and feeling waves of anger, and annoying hope.
Stupid boy. All they did was play with girls’ minds, just like Decker had done.
“You’re being boring,” Tabian said over the sound of the music.
The others were playing darts and seemed to be in the best moods, and she got it.
They were all newly back together with the promise of forming a Rogue Pack, and everyone was figuring out what housing they wanted, and she was in limbo with how the rest of her life would go. She was kind of dragging the mood down.
“I just have a lot on my mind.”
Tabian leaned his elbows onto the table and narrowed his eyes at her. “Why don’t you just invite him out here?”
“That would solve exactly nothing,” she muttered, but already, she was opening up the text thread to read Nate’s message again.
I should’ve kissed you.
What the hell was this man’s game?
She wished she could be one of those tough girls who blocked a man and never thought of him again, but here she sat, imagining how different everything could’ve been if he would’ve seen her that way.
“It’s best if we get some space so I can just move on,” she told Tabian.
Tabian glanced at the door and grinned. “That’s a good plan. I bet it’ll totally work.” He stood up and did a little salute to her, and nodded at someone behind her, then made his way over to the Rogue Pack.
Delta twisted around in her seat just in time to see one of the spotlights from the dance floor illuminate Nate as he strode in.
Time slowed. He made his way through the crowd with long, confident strides, and reached up, moved the bill of his baseball cap to the back of his head, slowly blinked and then leveled her with those glowing gold eyes.
She’d never seen this kind of smile on his lips before. It wasn’t polite, or empty. It was wicked. That smile was of a predator with his prey in his sights.
Behind her, she could hear the Pack calling out greetings, and he nodded his chin at them, but didn’t take his gaze from her.
Holy hell, her stomach felt like it had dropped to the floor.
This was like a movie.
Nate was the hottest man on the planet. Nate was also her ex.
He gripped the arms of her chair and yanked her around to face him, then locked his arms on either side of her and stared her down. He didn’t say a word.
“Um, I told you I needed space.”
“Yeah, I thought about it, and no.”
“No?”
His dark eyebrows arched up. “No. We’re going to be friends, you and I.”
“Friends,” she repeated dumbly, feeling light-headed at how close he was. His lips were no more than one foot away from hers.
“Yep. Do you want to have the talk here, or somewhere more private?” he asked, sitting down in the chair in front or her.
Being alone with him felt dangerous to her heart right now. “Here is fine,” she said, lifting her chin higher into the air. Stupid boy felt like he had all this power to ignore her request and show up here unannounced. As if she would—
Nate yanked her chair closer, and her knees settled right between his legs, and all coherent thought left her brain.
“I considered it, Delta. I was going to eat this fucked up feeling inside of my chest and give you all the space to teach yourself to hate me, but that’s the me I pretended to be.”
“You were pretending?”
“Yep,” he said without hesitation. “I fed you so much bullshit on the type of person I am. I pretended to be patient and understanding and logical, and I’m not any of those things.”
“Why…why are you telling me this?”
“Because I don’t think we can be friends if you don’t see me for what I am. And clearly I misunderstood who you are,” he said, gesturing up and down her body. “Nice tits.”
Delta gasped and crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re being gross.”
“No, I’m being me. I have kept myself so fucking quiet because I knew I wasn’t a good match for anyone, and I’m not.
Truly. You’re right to cut your heart off from me.
Your life will be happier in the long run.
But…” He arched his eyebrows again and cracked his knuckles just over her knees.
“I’m still Second of this Pack, and I still have to spend time with our people.
I don’t want to be on the outside just because you want to hate me.
I fucked up and I tried to take you back when I didn’t know we had other options, but the second you said you wanted to come back here?
I said yes. I tried to get us out of there. ”
“Before I figured out what you had really done.”
“Yep. That’s me, Delta. I make decisions I think are right, and in the moment, I don’t care about consequences. I care about fixing shit, and I thought I was fixing it for you. I don’t want you to be Rogue.”
“But we’re here. We’re Rogue.”
He shook his head, and she could hear the truth in every syllable as he uttered, “I don’t want you to be Rogue.
You said you want this though, so we’re here.
I’m here. No, we didn’t work out, and I’ll have feelings on that probably for the rest of my life, but we’re in this.
For better or worse, we are in the same Pack, and neither one of us is going to chase the other to the outskirts of it. ”
She didn’t know if she liked this. She’d never seen Nate act this way. Not with her. He was brash and opinionated and said what he wanted and left no room for compromise. But on the other hand, it was kind of hot, and no, she didn’t care what that said about her.
“If we are going to be friends, we need to set some ground rules,” he said.
And to the absolute astonishment of the fluttering butterflies in her stomach, that fine-ass man rested his hands on her bare knees. She was wearing a faux leather skirt she’d bought earlier today, and a pair of sexy boots to make her legs look longer.
He was touching her. He was really touching her. Even his thumbs stroked over her skin there.
“Rule number one,” she said. “You aren’t allowed to touch me. You had your chance. That will be someone else’s job.”
A wicked smile twisted his lips and his eyes flashed brighter.
“Mmm,” he rumbled. “That’s fun. Rule number two, if you beg me to touch you, I will break rule number one.
” He drew his hands away from her skin and leaned back in the chair, resting his forearm on the table.
The cocky expression on his face dared her to argue.
Delta’s heart was pounding so hard against her sternum. “Rule number three,” she whispered shakily.
“Speak up, Delta-Girl. If you have something to say from now on, say it with your chest.”
Bossy. Fuck, this was kind of turning her on.
Delta cleared her throat and sat up straighter, tugged at the see-through lace of her turtleneck, dared to look right into his glowing gold eyes as she said louder, “Rule number three, you will not deter me from moving on with someone else. I do not belong to you anymore. I filled out the paperwork to dissolve our Arrangement. We are both single now.”
The smile flickered to a snarl and he looked away, and then back at her.
His eyes looked like fire. He pulled her chair even closer until her knees rested against the zipper of his jeans, and he leaned forward, pressed his lips right next to her ear, and whispered, “You better hide him from me then.”
Nate leaned into her and nipped her neck. She could feel the sharpness of his teeth and rolled her eyes closed with a soft moan before he eased back.
He wore the devil’s smile. “I like that little noise you just made,” he rumbled.
“I don’t know if I like anything about you anymore,” she whispered.
Nate shrugged. “I don’t blame you. There are benefits to being my friend though. Want to hear them?”
“No.” But her stupid voice had a lie in it. She sighed, and said, “Yes.”
“No one will ever hurt you. If they do, I’ll kill them.”
And a vision of him going after Decker when he’d yelled in her face flashed across her mind. He’d known Decker was the Alpha of a big Pack, and it hadn’t even slowed him down.
And he’d won.
He’d bled for her. She’d been too angry with him to care about that before now.
“What else?” she asked.
“I’ll remember your food. Until you have a mate taking care of your needs, I will force my way into paying for as much of your food as I can. You can gripe at me all you want. I’m going to do what I’m going to do.”
She swallowed hard. “You bought all the lumber to fix the cabin.”
He nodded once. He looked like an avenging angel right now, eyes blazing in the flashing lights from the dance floor, jaw clenched.
“I’m going to fix up the house, and I don’t want to hear shit about it.
Don’t message me in the middle of the night with I’m independent and don’t need you.
I don’t give a shit. I like that you’re independent, but you were mine once, and I take care of what’s mine. ”