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 theday. 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.
