Page 32 of The Other Princess

“Why are you offering this one?”

“Because I care about that girl, and what she seems to care about is you. At least, she did before you fucked shit up. So, I suggest you pull your shit together, and figure some things out. Don’t wait too long though, because I know I won’t.” With that bit of a warning and a cockier than fuck grin, Kane disappeared through a back door, heading out for the night, no doubt. I busied myself ordering a pizza to be delivered to Ever’s exterior apartment door.

~ Ever ~

At first, I ignored the knocking at my door, but then a man’s voice called out and my curiosity got the better of me, because it wasn’t a voice I knew. “Gino’s Pizza,” he yelled one more time as I threw the door open.

“I think you have the wrong place,” I informed him.

“Nah, says right here, upstairs apartment above Permanent Marks. Your name is Ever?”

“Yes, but I didn’t order a pizza,” I explained.

“Someone ordered for you, ma’am. If you’ll just take this, and sign that it was delivered?” He asked impatiently, and so I did it.

“Let me go get you some tip money,” I told him as I took the oven-hot pizza from his hands.

He waved me off. “It was already covered. You have a nice night, lady.” Then the man was off, jogging down the steps that led him back to the street. I went inside, closed and locked the door, and then set the pizza on my table. I moved to the interior door that went down to the tattoo studio below. I unlocked it and yanked it open, intending to ask if Zeke or Kane had ordered the food for me, only to come face to face with Deck, who was still perched out on the steps just beyond my door.

“What are you doing there?”

He shrugged, playing it off as nonchalance when the look in his eyes said he very much cared how this all played out. “I never left,” he finally informed me.

“You never…” I glanced over at the clock on the wall. It had to have been more than thirty minutes since I went inside the apartment. “You never left?” I asked stupidly.

“That’s what I said.”

“Did you order me a pizza?”

He grinned at me then. “Sure did, you going to invite me in to share it so we can talk?”

“What if I hadn’t opened this door?”

“Then I would have knocked. Eventually.”

I sighed. Deck was nothing if not tenacious. He was also just as stubborn as I could be, so there was no point in shutting him out again. He’d just stay camped out on my steps until I went to work the next day. I moved back, throwing the door open wider so that he could get by to come inside.

As Deck passed me his scent overwhelmed me, involuntary and unwanted, tingles ran down my spine. That leather and fresh ocean scent that seemed to cling to him just did things to me that I didn’t quite understand, and wished I could shelve for now while we had this conversation. I needed all the strength I could muster for it. I was not going to be that girl who fell head over heels for another club brother only to be booted out the door the minute he decided I wasn’t worthy. I couldn’t handle it, and I was wise enough to know my limits now. I would be everything to someone one day, or nothing at all to anyone. There really wasn’t room for an in between any longer.

I moved to the counter I had placed the pizza on, and swapped it out to the little beaten down wooden table I was using in my little kitchenette. It only had two chairs that went with it, which I supposed was enough considering there were only two of us here now. Once I placed the pizza down I moved to the cabinet off to my left to retrieve a couple plates and then to the refrigerator to grab a couple Cokes out of it. “Sorry, I’m not old enough to buy beer, so your choice is coke or water,” I explained.

Deck grinned at me again. “Coke is fine, Ever. Come sit down, you don’t have to wait on me.”

“I’m not waiting on you. I needed these things for myself too. Now, what do you want?”

“Eat first, then we’ll talk,” he commanded.

“Awful bossy for someone who barely made it through my door,” I returned. He had the decency to look chagrined at my statement until he lifted his beautiful eyes to stare directly into my own.

“I’m sorry, Ever,” he said sincerely and without hesitation. “I screwed up and I’d like the chance to make it right with you, but I think you need to eat first. I may not know everything about you these days, but I do remember that you were always hard to get through to when you were hangry.”

“I don’t get hangry!” I protested with a vehemence that belied my nearly shouted statement. Besides, I knew full well that I did get hangry.

“Okay, babe, whatever you say,” Deck cajoled me as he reached over and grabbed a slice of the pizza that I just now noticed contained cheese, pineapple, bacon, and chicken. It was my all time favorite pizza that I almost never got growing up in my family, because everyone thought pineapple on pizza was disgusting. Judging by how quickly Deck inhaled his first slice, he didn’t mind it. Then again, maybe he did and was just trying to get it over with quickly.

I grabbed my own slice, blowing on it a few times before I attempted to put it in my mouth, and managed to burn the roof of my mouth as I did. By the time I attempted to hiss cool air into my mouth to stop the burning, and managed to swallow the tiny bite, Deck was laughing at me.

“Jesus, is your mouth completely desensitized, or what?” I asked because I had just watched him inhale an entire slice while I couldn’t even manage a bite without burning myself. Deck didn’t seem to take my meaning the way it was meant, because instead his eyes were locked onto my lips, and he was shaking his head.

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