Chapter Eight #2
“I’m not yours anymore,” she quipped stubbornly. “Your choice.”
He shrugged and crossed his arms over his muscular chest.
“What else?” she asked.
He leaned forward again and rested his elbows on his knees, his hands hovering right beside her outer thighs. “If you ever need anything, all you have to do is ask.”
“Why? Why would you want to do things for a female who doesn’t belong to you?”
“Because I’m sick in the head like that, Delta.
It feels fucking good to be myself with you right now.
You’re going to have all these questions on why I do things, and here is some insight into the real me.
Because I fucking want to. That’s it. I live moment to moment, I don’t overthink or overcomplicate things, I do what I feel is right in the moment, and you have to accept that, do you know why? ”
“Wh-why?”
He leaned forward just inches from her face. “Because we’re friends now. You dissolved our Arrangement, so now we will navigate whatever this is.”
The way he said that lifted chills on her skin.
“Stand up,” he gritted out.
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
Surprise washed over his face and stayed for just a moment before the wicked smile was back. “I like when you talk back, Delta-Girl. You’ve never done that before.”
“Because you were confusing.”
“And you were boring.”
“And you’re rude!”
“Good,” he rumbled. “Now we are reaching an understanding. Rule five, don’t ask me if I’m okay anymore. It pisses me off.”
“Well, I ask that because you never talked to me, and I thought I was doing something wrong!”
“Just assume I’m fine.”
“Just assume I’m fine too, with or without you.”
He nodded, and that stupid devilish smile was infuriating.
“How can we be friends? I don’t even know anything about you,” she ground out.
“I’m the seventh son of the Donn Pack and trust me when I say I’m tame compared to my father and grandfather. That’s all you need to know.”
“No thanks. I had an empty relationship with a man once. It wasn’t for me.” She stood and strode for the bar, needing a second outside of the tension he was causing inside of her body.
She glanced over at Nory, but her friend’s mouth was hanging open, and she mouthed, That was so hot.
Delta shrugged like what-the-hell because she absolutely did not know what was happening right now.
Nate was different tonight.
And then he was there, walking beside her. His hand hovered at her back. She could feel it. He was testing the boundaries of rule number one, and that pissed her off.
She moved to sit on a stool at the bar, but he was there pulling it out for her and then pushing her closer to the bar top smoothly, like he’d done that with a hundred women before her.
“You are a liar,” she accused him.
“What have I lied about?” he asked, taking the seat next to her.
“About who you are, clearly. I don’t even recognize what this is,” she said waving to all of him. “You were quiet and respectful in front of my dad and my Pack, and you were quiet and distant but respectful for the two months we lived together. Lived together, Nate.”
“My name is Nathan.”
“What?”
He waved two fingers at the bartender, and she came bounding over to him like a fuckin’ golden retriever. It had taken Delta ten minutes to get her attention when she’d ordered her first drink.
“Peach margarita for the lady, and water for me.”
“Water? More pretending you’re a good boy?”
“Water because I’ll be driving your drunk ass home tonight, and I’m not doing that on a buzz.”
Oh. Well, that was kind of nice of him. Safety first.
“You cuss a lot.”
“So do you when you talk to Nory. You didn’t talk to me much, so I had to pay attention.”
“Well, maybe I was trying to be respectful to you too.”
“Boring,” he muttered, pulling his wallet out.
“Why did you choose a submissive mate if you are so opposed to boring partners?”
“Submissive doesn’t have to mean boring. Besides, I’m not hating on you. I was boring with you too.”
“When you would leave me at the hotels to go eat without me, were you talking to other women?”
He tossed her a frown and laughed. “No.”
“Then what were you doing?”
“Getting some time where I didn’t have to pretend.”
“You brought that on yourself. I never asked you to pretend.”
“Didn’t you?”
She shook her head, confused.
“Look,” he said. “The first time I saw you, you had your collar buttoned up your throat. It looked like it was strangling you. You had perfect posture, and your chin held high. I thought you were pretty.”
“Why does any of that matter?”
He leaned closer. “Do you know what Donn wolves are?”
“Delinquents?” she guessed.
He huffed an amused sigh. “Felons more-like. We have gotten away with a lot over the generations. You weren’t the normal type for us Donn wolves.”
“What is the type of a Donn wolf?” she whispered.
Nate dragged his gold eyes down her figure, and back up. “Short skirts, boots, see-through lace tops we can see a bra through. Dark make-up.” He reached for her and tugged a strand of her biggest blond highlight through his fingertips. “Blond streaks.”
“So, I wasn’t your type at all. It makes no sense that you asked my father for the Arrangement contract.”
“It makes no damn sense that you said yes. You didn’t even know me.”
“Maybe I wanted an escape.”
“I was an escape?”
She didn’t like this. He was touching subjects that still stung. “At first that’s all you were.”
“And then?”
And then he was everything. “And then you were a failed pairing. End of story.”
She reached for the peach margarita, but he grabbed her arm and drew her wrist to his lips. He kissed her there at her tripping pulse, eyes boring into hers. He bit her gently before he released her. “We will have more fun as friends.”
“You’re dangerous.”
Another predator’s smile. “You have no idea.”
“You broke rule number one.”
“I don’t care.” Truth.
“Why now, Nate?”
“Nathan. Everyone outside of this Pack calls me Nathan.”
“Nathan,” she whispered. “Why now? Why are you showing up here? Why are you fixing my den? Why are you touching me after showing zero interest for weeks?”
He shrugged up one shoulder and relaxed into his chair, spun the full water glass slowly on the bar top. “Maybe because you are more interesting now.”
“Now that I don’t want you back.”
“Mmm, that’s not true. I can smell your arousal. You want me just fine.”
“You want me now that you can’t have me.”
“I do like a challenge. Maybe. That feels right.”
“And what would you do if I gave myself to you again?”
“Probably squander it.”
She took another sip of her margarita and bought herself time to think. She’d heard nothing but brutal honesty in every word he’d spoken tonight. His answers were disturbing, but on the bright side, she knew exactly where she stood with him.
“Rule number seven.”
“Is it seven?” he asked.
“Always be exactly this honest with me.”
“So you can decide how much to hate me?”
Or love him. “No, so I can know how you really feel. I would rather know the monster than guess at the mystery.”
His mouth downturned for a moment like he was impressed, and then he nodded toward the pool table. “Let’s play a game.” He stood and offered his hand.
“No thank you. I’m tired of your games.”
He huffed a laugh. “It wasn’t a question. Get your fine little ass to the table. I’m going to teach you.”
She watched him carry both of their drinks to a little bench right beside the pool table. He was smooth and confident with every move as he racked the balls and chalked up a pool stick.
“What the fuck is happening?” Nory whisper screamed from behind a nearby support beam.
“I don’t know,” she answered. “What do I do?”
“Bone him?”
“Nory! That’s not helpful.”
“Dudette, it looked like he almost kissed you at the table, and you were not running away.”
“I literally ran away. I came to the bar—”
“Where you let him kiss your wrist.”
Well, he also bit it, technically. Her skin was still tingling there.
Nory did this weird high-knee run to her and slapped at her hands a bunch of times while making this high-pitched human sound of excitement, and not knowing what to do, Delta just dumbly grinned and slapped around on her friend’s fingertips too, and now she had to tic.
She did her shake and then shooed Nory away. “You aren’t helping.”
“I’m your wing woman.”
“You’re just telling me to bone him after we broke up twenty-four hours ago, I don’t think you are a good wing woman.”
Nory walked backward and pointed to her. “He bought you pickle spears.”
Dear Lord, everything had gone sideways tonight.
“Delta,” Nate said. His volume was completely normal, but the base and command in his voice caused this humming in her mind. Was this what drugs were like?
She swallowed down the words, “Yes, sir,” and forced herself not to do Nory’s stupid high-knee run to go mind this asshole man who had literally broken her heart one day ago and then admitted to lying about literally every one of his personality traits.
Why was she walking over to him right now? She tried to convince her legs to veer off to the right and head directly outside, but her stupid inner wolf was in heat or something and had her eyes on another kiss on the wrist from Nathan, the absolute-fuckin’-stranger.
She ticced again.
“I like when you do that,” he rumbled, lining up a shot at the cluster of balls at the other end of the pool table.
“Oh yeah? Well, I don’t like it. People stare when I do it.”
“Fuck ‘em.” Crack! The white ball slammed into the others and they went all over the table. Two went into the pockets.
“Easy for you to say,” she muttered.
“You don’t think people stare at me?” he asked and then twitched his head toward the table of single-looking women in the corner who were most definitely paying attention to him.
“Those dudes over there will probably try to fight me with a few more beers in them,” he said, lining up another shot, and twitching his head toward a table of three guys right beside the bar. “You learn to tune it out.”
She glared at one of the women staring at him. “Can we help you?”