“Hi,” I said warily, and I could hear a shower running nearby. “Can I…help you?”
“I’m Logan,” he said, as if it wasn’t a weird place to make introductions.
“Congratulations,” I said, and then bit back the annoyance and sighed. “I’m Walker.”
“I know,” he said with a snort. “Everyone learns the name of anyone new. Shit around here doesn’t change a whole lot, so when something does, like someone new, you can bet everyone and their grandma is going to learn about them.”
“Right,” I said slowly, taking off my shirt and tossing it into my laundry bag, leaving me in just my underwear. “Do you need something, Logan? Or is this just you trying to learn more?”
“Definitely trying to learn,” he said, and I didn’t miss the way his eyes swept over me. It was quick and could easily have been missed. I might not have caught it if someone hadn’t been on the receiving end of being cruised. “I guess I’m just trying to figure out what you’re willing to tell me.”
“I can tell you I’m not interested,” I said, because being blunt was the best approach. Anyone willing to be obvious early on wouldn’t take casual or gentle hints easily in my experience.
“That so?”
“Yeah, it is so.”
“Well, that’s a shame,” he said, leaning closer, and I wrinkled my nose at his boldness. “Since I’ve been getting the feeling that you might be a little pent up.”
“What you think is pent up isn’t,” I told him with a frown. Okay, I was definitely pent up sexually, but I wasn’t going to let him know that. I would sooner be back in my room and taking care of things myself than sleep with a random guy who clearly had the confidence, if not the arrogance, to think he had a chance by being so bold. “But by all means, continue to test me and see what’s really pent up.”
He snorted, circling, so he was near the end of the row of lockers and looking me over even more obviously than before. “I can work with that, too.”
“I’m sorry. How many times do I have to say no? Because here, let me say it again more plainly, no, I’m not interested,” I told him, refusing to strip out of my underwear for a shower or to cover myself up and give him the idea that I was uncomfortable at his attention. I would never understand why, but some people seemed to think that if you were uncomfortable with their sexual advances, that meant you were secretly into what they were selling. “And if that’s not enough, we can try ‘fuck off’ and ‘leave me the fuck alone.’ Does that work for you?”
He rolled his eyes, pushing gently off the lockers, but not coming closer. “There’s no reason to be an ass.”
“Funny, I was thinking of saying the same to you,” I said, wondering if this was going to become an issue. It wouldn’t be the first time I had to be physically direct with someone who wouldn’t take no for an answer, but I really didn’t want to do that here of all places. Somehow, I didn’t think the administration would look too kindly on fights. “Maybe you should try talking about your sexual hang-ups and inability to understand basic English in group therapy.”
He scoffed. “Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be doing that. No one needs to know. Not that it matters. This place doesn’t care if we screw.”
Huh, I hadn’t thought about whether sex was against the rules here, but I realized I would have predicted it would be banned. That information wasn’t all that useful, especially right now, but it was good to know if only because I was still trying to understand how the place worked.
“Great, so you want to sleep with me, aren’t able to take no for an answer,andyou’re in the closet or trying to act like youare,” I said with a roll of my eyes, turning my side to him as I grabbed the towel. “What a winner.”
“Which means you don’t have to worry about anyone knowing,” he said, as if that was my worry rather than his. “All you gotta do is…grk!”
I had spotted the movement out of my corner of the eye just as his words were cut off and I spun to face him in time to see a very large, extremely naked Cade grabbing Logan by the throat and spinning him around to slam him into the wall. Cade leaned forward, lifting Logan enough that the other man was forced to stand on tiptoe to keep from hanging by his throat in Cade’s grip.
“He done told you to fuck off,” Cade snarled, and I felt a zing of worry shoot through me when I saw his grip tighten around Logan’s throat. “Now fuck off, or I’ll teach the same lesson Clay did, ‘cept you’ll be carried outta here instead of limpin’ out, got it?”
“Fucking…” Logan gasped, but I could see it was taking a lot of effort to speak. “Didn’t know you were?—”
“Ain’t about that,” Cade said, and worry became alarm when I realized his voice no longer carried the blazing hot anger from a second ago, but was rapidly cooling off. A hot head on Cade could be a danger, but a Cade who cooled off too quickly was lethal for who or whatever was in his mental crosshairs. “It’s about takin’ goddamn no for an answer.”
“Cade,” I said softly, placing a hand on his wet shoulder. Apparently, he had been the one in the shower, which meant he’d been in there for quite some time. “We both know he’s not worth it. Don’t.”
The last was said with as much command as I was willing to put into my voice, but it was enough, and Cade gave a grunt, letting Logan go with surprising control. I was half expecting him to toss the man aside like a rag doll, but he didn’t.
Logan looked up, and I sighed, shaking my head. “Sounds like you’ve got a bad habit of not learning your lesson.”
He glared at me, but when Cade peered down at him, he shut his mouth.
“He has,” Cade said in a clipped voice that still had me on edge. “Tried to go too far with Isaac a few months ago and got his ass handed to ’em. Surprised Reggie let ’em back.”
“Good,” I said in a bright voice. “Then Logan here understands that if he goes and runs his mouth about what you just did, it will be easy for us to point out that he has in fact not learned his lesson from the first time. I wonder how they’d take that.”
Logan huffed, standing up straight and rubbing his throat. “I wasn’t even doing anything, not like…not like then.”
