Page 4 of Battling the Enemy
Oh, my God! What a jerk!
“Then what do you want,” I asked through gritted teeth. I may be a nerd, but I wasn’t a pushover.
“Delaney, what’s going on?”
I sidestepped Deke to look beyond his tall body to see Ave standing behind Deke’s little band of lunatics. She was standing behind, but in between, Liam and Roselyn. Good choice. The entire town knew Ramsey lost his mind anytime anyone came too close to Emerson. “Noth…nothing, Av-”
Deke tilted his head back and addressed Ava in a voice loud enough for everyone who was nearby to hear. The party around us had already quieted down when they took notice of Deke grabbing me and pushing me up against the car, so he didn’t have to raise his voice all that much for Ava to hear him. “Mind your own business, Ava. This is between me and Delaney,” he warned her.
My eyes left Ava’s and when I looked back at Deke, his head was still tilted back and I could see the muscle and veins corded in his neck, and I swear to God, I wanted to latch onto him like a vampire. The realization made me tremble.
I was scared.
I’d never felt this way before, and I didn’t need to feel this way about Deke Marlow. My arranged future husband, Winston Reynolds, was the only boy who should evoke these feelings in me.
NOTDeke Marlow.
“Leave me alone, Deke,” I whispered, terrified of these new urges. So terrified, his head came down and his green eyes snapped to mine, because he could hear the fright in my voice.
And if I thought I was terrified before, that was nothing compared to the cold feeling in my bones when Deke leaned so close, his breath tickled my lips. “Not on your fucking life am I going to leave you alone now,” he growled so low that only I could hear him.
I don’t know how I did it, but I could see through his green gaze that I had awoken something in him that should never be awake.
I think I just became Deke Marlow’s newest prey.
“Deke, leave her alone,” Ava called out, and I had to give her credit. I didn’t doubt her friendship, but no one-and I meanno one-went up against Deke, Liam, or Ramsey.
“Ava, this isn’t your business, so just turn right back around and go on about whatever you were doing,” Liam’s voice snapped through the night.
I already had Deke’s spotlight on me, I didn’t need anyone going after Ava. Without taking my eyes off Deke, I called out to her. “It’s okay, Ava. Everything’s fine. You can, uhm, go back to Marcos.”
“But-”
“Ramsey…” Emerson’s voice carried loud and clear.
I couldn’t see it because Deke’s large frame was blocking everything out, but I could hear Ramsey just as clearly as everyone else could. “Back off, Ava.Now.”
You could feel the shift in the air; the panic in the winds, the danger from the crackling bonfire. Emerson Andrews had just invoked her power over Ramsey Reed, and that was all she wrote, folks.
Ramsey had just handed me over to Deke Marlow without even knowing what he wanted me for. Actually, I suppose it was Emerson who handed me over to Deke. She’s the one who called on Ramsey, after all.
I searched Deke’s eyes looking for any signs of compassion, but there was nothing. “Don’t do this, Deke,” I begged. “Just…let me be. I’m sorry I watched yo-” His hand shot out, wrapping around my neck, and I did the worst thing I could have possibly done.
I moaned.
Darkness surfaced in his eyes, and that pulsing between my legs throbbed painfully. Deke squeezed his fingers around my neck, and it was everything I could do not to close my eyes and just bask in the force of his touch and the heat radiating off his body.
But I didn’t.
“I’m going to let you go this time, Lamb,” he whispered. “But I will be coming for you.”
Chapter 3
Deke~
“So, you going to finally tell us what’s going on between you and Delaney Martin?” Liam asked as he and Ramsey walked into my game room. I didn’t bother looking away from the 98” plasma screen television where I was currently battling the forces of darkness for all of mankind.
Last night after I let Delaney escape, Liam and Ramsey had kept mum because, while they loved the shit out of Emerson and Roselyn, they still respected my privacy. That’s why they had formed a shield behind me when they saw something was up. It was that same sense of loyalty that had the girls standing next to them. They were loyal to Liam and Ramsey, hence, making them loyal to me.
