Page 36 of Renard's Deliverance

Was this him trying to get in her pants?

And if he wanted that would she let him? He was gorgeous. And she wouldn’t mind some fun. But Opal was trying to break old habits. She didn’t need to enter another unhealthy relationship. Doctor Susie said being on your own was healthy.

Might be healthier for her, but she was fucking lonely.

Although, to be fair, she’d been lonely when she’d had a man.

The only time she hadn’t felt lonely was when she’d been on the run with Ryleigh, Kye, and Lilac. But then she’d been too stressed to feel much else.

Living with the Malones, she shouldn’t have felt lonely. But she had.

Maybe that was just her destiny. To always be on the outside looking in.

To never quite fit in.

Stop the pity party.

Sheesh. She’d never been one to go all ‘woe is me.’ Probably because she’d always been fighting to survive.

And maybe that’s why she was so tired all the time.

Well, that and the fucking nightmares that kept waking her up.

They pulled up outside her house and he turned to her. “You’re gonna fight me on this, aren’t you?”

“Fighting is what I do,” she replied glibly as she undid her belt and reached for her door handle.

“That’s all right. I can handle a fight.”

She froze at those words.

Most men would back off, would say that she was too much work.

However, everything she said to him seemed to be like waving a red flag in front of a bull.

A very stubborn, tenacious bull.

“Stay where you are until I open your door,” he barked as he got out.

Nope.

She opened the door and climbed out. He had to learn that he couldn’t boss her around.

And she had to show him that she was more trouble than she was worth. He would figure it out sooner or later and better to be sooner, right?

But when he appeared in front of her, he was smiling. She couldn’t call it a reassuring smile.

More hungry.

Shit.

Maybe she was making a mistake. Perhaps she should be doing everything he said without argument.

So change her personality? That would be tricky.

“Don’t give me that look,” she told him, drilling a finger into his chest. “This is not some sort of mating dance that we’re involved in.”

“You don’t find me attractive?”

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