Chapter Five #2
“I’ll be in the truck,” he told her and closed the door.
Outside, she could hear an echoing curse, and then the door opened back up again.
Liam came inside and stood right inside the door, waiting.
He looked so annoyed, but now she understood him a little better.
He wasn’t mad at her. He was angry with himself.
She didn’t understand all the rules for werewolves, but she did understand that he was breaking a big one hanging out with her.
This felt so exciting. She wasn’t a rule-breaker, but this one felt worth breaking.
As she shrugged into her coat and grabbed her purse, she told him, “You don’t have to worry about this. If you think I’m interesting, it’ll wear off soon.”
He huffed a laugh and shook his head, and there it was.
His smile reached his eyes, and the color there started darkening.
Liam held the door open for her and then followed her out and waited for her to finish locking up before he led her down the three flights of stairs that separated them from the parking lot.
He tossed a look at Jackson’s front window, and she didn’t know why, but it made her feel safe enough to not check it herself.
She couldn’t imagine Jackson messing with her when Liam was around.
He was a dominant personality, she could tell.
He was also comfortable with saying how he felt, and she didn’t think he liked Jackson much.
She was safe for the moment.
A soft sigh of relief escaped her, and Liam glanced back, checking on her, then waited for her to catch up. He moved to the side that was closest to the street, and she hid a smile. He might be dangerous, but a part of him was a gentleman.
“I saw that in a movie once,” she said.
“Saw what?” he asked, pulling his keys from his pocket to unlock his truck.
“Where a man moves a woman to the other side of a sidewalk so the man can be closest to the busy street. I didn’t know that was a real thing though.”
“Huh.” He frowned. “I didn’t notice I did that.
” He aimed his key at his truck and unlocked it, then held his hand out to stop her from crossing the parking lot until a speeding car passed.
When it was gone, he led her to the truck, and opened the passenger side door, and left her to get in while he strode around the front.
“What time do you have to get to work?” she asked when he was settled behind the steering wheel and pulling them out of the parking lot.
“Look, I think it’s best if we don’t talk.”
“Oh. Right. Talking is against the rules?”
His nostrils flared with his big inhalation, but he didn’t respond. Okay. Silence it was between them. She reached for the volume control and found a radio station she liked.
He was one of those smooth boys who maneuvered big pickup trucks easily, and drove with one hand, and one out the open window, even though it was early in the morning, and freezing cold.
Thankfully, his truck had booty warmer seats, so she hit the button for hers and zipped up her jacket.
“Cold?” he asked.
“I’m good now!”
He took a right and then rolled his window up three fourths of the way. “I feel trapped in small spaces,” he admitted.
“That must be awful.”
He chewed the corner of his lip and looked at her like he wanted to say something, but changed his mind and focused on the short drive. There were a few cars in line for the drive through at the coffee shop, so she got a few extra minutes with him. Silent or not, she still liked being around him.
He ordered them both coffees, and she tugged at his arm and asked if she could also get a breakfast sandwich, and that she wanted to pay. And that man ordered eight breakfast sandwiches—eight—and then refused to let her help pay.
On the way back, she absently hummed along to the song on the radio as she unwrapped one of the breakfast sandwiches.
She held it out for him to take a bite, and he gave her the strangest look.
She held it closer to his lips, and he leaned forward just enough to take a bite.
While he chewed, she spread a napkin over his thigh just in case he needed it.
“Those are really good.”
“Yeah, I bet most people don’t order eight of them at once,” she said with a giggle as she offered another bite.
He took the bite less awkwardly this time and then took the sandwich from her hand. “You eat yours,” he rumbled around the bite. “I heard your stomach growl.”
The wrapper crumpled loudly as she unsheathed her breakfast sandwich and took a bite. The cheddar cheese was melted onto the sausage patty just right. “Oh my gosh,” she groaned.
“Fuck, human. Stop,” he gritted out, adjusting himself.
Her eyes flew open wide, and she nearly choked. “I’m sorry. It’s just good. I love having these…in…my…mouth—”
“Nory,” he growled, sitting up straighter like he was uncomfortable.
“Accident,” she assured him. It really was. She’d never successfully seduced a man outside of Stalker Jackson in her entire life.
But secretly, deep inside of her in a place that would never see the light…
she loved that she had any effect on this man’s body.
She’d given him a boner with just a groan.
He liked her. He liked her at least a little bit.
Or maybe male werewolves were just rutting animals that got turned on by everything.
That was also a distinct possibility. Actually, now that she thought about it, that was probably it.
He probably had overactive werewolf wiener syndrome or something.
She wasn’t sexy. Nory was awkward, and weird, and smelled slightly of dog shampoo, and never said the right thing.
Boys didn’t get turned on by girls like her. She’d learned that over the years.
He pulled in front of her apartment building but didn’t park.
“Off to work?” she asked, hugging her half-eaten breakfast sandwich to her chest.
“Why did you keep that coaster?” he asked.
The coaster? He must’ve gone through the memory box on her coffee table earlier. Her heart went to hammering against her chest. “I don’t know. I guess because it was a good memory.”
He studied her face. “It didn’t even have my full phone number on it.”
“That’s okay. That wasn’t why I kept it.”
“You have a whole box of trinkets. Are they from guys?”
“What? No!” Nory shook her head. “That’s a memory box.” She got quiet and didn’t want to leave him like this where she was upset, but she was also having a lot of emotions right now.
“You’re mad.”
“I’m not.”
“You’re lying—”
“Why do you just argue? I can feel however I want, and if it takes me a minute to figure out what one of my emotions is, then so be it!” She gasped and clasped her hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
He’d tilted his chin up slightly, and his eyes were glowing. And the most confusing part of the way he was looking at her? The slight smile on his lips. “I’m not trying to bait you, little human.”
“Yet you’ll call me little human to keep me in my place. If I cut you, will you bleed?”
He didn’t answer and the smile faded from his face.
“If I insulted you, would you think about it later?” she asked. “Have you felt loss? Have you felt joy? Do you think about your future?”
She waited, letting the silence thicken between them.
“Yes,” he said softly.
“Well then, we are made of the same thing, you and I.” Her eyes burned from tears that made no sense in this moment.
She was angry now, he was right. “You went through my memory box, and most of those trinkets are from trips with my mother, my grandmother, and my great grandmother. My mother had one, and I remember her sharing all of those lovely memories with me when I was growing up. It was a safe spot when I was having a bad day, or I couldn’t figure myself out, or I was so damn frustrated because I wasn’t like the other kids.
I didn’t move through the world easily like they did.
I just sat on the sidelines, but when my mother would tell me about the memories she held in her memory box, it didn’t matter how many times I heard the stories, I felt happy.
” Her lip quivered and she hated it. She was in it now, so she might as well just expose it all.
“It probably won’t happen for me, but if I am lucky enough to have a daughter someday, I want a memory box so I can tell her stories and give her a safe escape from whatever hard day she has.
I kept the coaster because someday, I could tell her I met a werewolf once, and he was nice to me, and he made me smile and for a little bit, I forgot about the hard stuff.
For me, that’s pretty great. You can have the coaster back if you want it. Or I can throw it away.”
He huffed a breath and settled his head back. “Fuck,” he whispered, and ran his hands down his face, then draped an arm over the steering wheel. His eyes were darker now, and softer. “I don’t know how to be around you.”
“You could just be yourself.”
He shook his head, back and forth, back and forth. “You say that like it’s an easy thing. I have to be different things to different people.”
Nory shrugged her shoulders up to her ears. “Maybe with me, you don’t have to be anything you aren’t. I’m a stranger today, and I’ll be a stranger tomorrow,” she told him, using his own words.
“I would be honored if you kept the coaster in your memory box. Please don’t throw it away.”
She nodded. “Okay.” The silence hung thick between them, and he reached over and grabbed her hand, and just held it there on her lap. They didn’t say anything, they just touched, as her heart raced on and on.
And then his phone vibrated, and he released her hand, and the moment was done.
“I have to get to work,” he murmured. “I have a lot of people to meet with this morning. Gotta convince them I’m fit to lead.”
She didn’t understand. Maybe he was a manager or something, but there was almost a sadness in his tone.
“You don’t like your job?” she asked, trying to find her footing with him.
“I have to tell you something.”
“Okay.”
“I have agreed to meet with the woman you saw last night again.”
She’d never felt words hurt like this before. Nory couldn’t look him in the face, or he would see the hurt in her eyes. Her great grandmother had always said she could never be a poker player. She was too readable.
“Of course,” she rushed out. “Of course you will. You will make a beautiful couple.”
“Nory—”
“No, that’s good.” She fumbled for her coffee and tried to balance her purse strap and half eaten breakfast in the other hand, while pushing the passenger side door open. “I’m really happy for you.”
“Look at the coaster, Nory.”
“I hope you have a great day at work,” she said, forcing happiness into her tone.
“And good luck with your dating life. I’m jealous.
Not of her or you. Well, kind of. I tried online dating before, but I always talk really easily on text and not at all in person.
You would probably be surprised by that because I get around you and I’m like bla, bla.
” She let off a nervous laugh and wished she could stop blabbing. “Okay then, I’m going to go.”
“Look at the coaster, Nory,” he said again.
“Have a good life, Liam,” she said, and shut the door. Hell, it was so hard to walk away from his truck, but she convinced herself not to turn around and get that last look as he drove away.
This was good. He was dating a werewolf, and she knew exactly where she stood.
She was the girl he secretly got coffee for.
The pretty woman was someone he could introduce to his Pack. He was allowed to hang out with her. There were no rules against her.
This was okay. It was fine.
This was how it was supposed to be.
Nory didn’t slow until she’d climbed all those stairs and unlocked her door and stepped inside.
She pressed her forehead onto the cold surface of the door as she slid the deadbolt into place and exhaled her tension.
He made her feel too much, too soon, and he was a red-flag-man. He was forbidden.
She turned around and looked at the memory box on her coffee table. There was a ballpoint pen next to it, and the lid was still open, with the coaster resting right on top.
She approached it slowly, and picked it up gingerly, then flipped it over.
Call me if you ever need anything. Anything at all. Underneath that, he’d finished writing his phone number.
A stupid tear slipped from her and made a small splat onto the coaster, blurring the 1 0 at the end of the number. She dabbed it with the sleeve of her coat, but it smeared all the same. She would remember Ten. Ten was her favorite number.
She looked around her apartment. Yesterday she had been fine. She’d been happy with her routine. She could fill her days, but now she had that awful familiar lonely feeling, like she was on the outside again, and she hated it.
She flipped the coaster back over and placed it in the memory box, then closed the lid.
It was enough.
It was enough.
If it hurt this much this soon, it wasn’t right.
It was too intense, and she, Nory Hunter, couldn’t handle intense.
She was a steady girl. Always had been, always would be.
She and Liam might be made of the same thing, but they were not the same.
He had a big secret life, and obligations and interests elsewhere, and she was just a dog groomer who liked cooking to quiet her mind.
He had a Pack, and she had an exceedingly small circle of friends and family.
He was dominant, and at times abrasive, and didn’t know how to be himself with her.
He’d said as much, while she didn’t know how to be anything other than herself with him.
It was a perfect set-up for Nory to be hurt.
It wasn’t supposed to be this messy or feel this big this soon.
It really was enough.