Page 13 of Battling the Enemy
“Getting involved with other guys,” I murmured. I cocked my head at him. “I’m not even involved withyou.”
“Cut the shit, Delaney,” he barked. “You know damn well what I mean. All those other girls? I made it clear I was unavailable for more than sex. Does Marlow know you’re taken?”
I uncrossed my arms and ran my hands through my hair in frustration. “No,” I told him. “He doesn’t know because he doesn’t need to know. There’s nothing going on between us.”
“That kiss suggests otherwise, Delaney,” he argued.
I dropped my head back, closed my eyes, and let out a deep sigh. For four years I’ve been ignored by everyone, and in the span of a weekend and one crappy Monday, I had the attention of two guys I didn’t know what to do with.
This fucking sucked.
I could hear and feel Winston step closer, and when I opened my eyes, he was towering over me, and I wished-oh, God, how I wished he did something for me. If he had, we would have begun a real relationship years ago, and I would have never had been at that stupid party and I never would have gotten caught in Deke’s crosshairs.
The look of irritation was gone, but not forgotten. I needed to make a mental note that Winston wasn’t as laid back as he seemed. He reached up and pushed a lock of hair behind my ear. It’s the first time since the last time we kissed, when we were 14-years-old, that he’s shown any affection towards me. “Delaney, you’re mine,” he stated. “You’ve always been mine no matter what…may have transpired over the years. You need to tell Deke.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” came a voice that froze the both of us.
The bottom of my stomach fell out and I wouldn’t have been surprised if I had fallen out in a full-blown panic attack. Winston turned around, and we were both face to face with Ramsey Reed. I was pretty sure I was going to be sick.
“Reed,” Winston acknowledged.
“Reynolds,” Ramsey acknowledged back.
I stepped forward, and the movement made Ramsey’s eyes focus on mine. “Uhm…”
Ramsey threw up a hand to stop me. He looked back and forth between me and Winston as he said, “I’m going to make this short and sweet. Someone-I don’t care who-better explain what I just walked up on and heard.”
I had to give Winston credit. He stepped up and explained the situation. “Delaney and I are engaged to be married. The arrangement was made years ago by our parents, and we’ll be getting married after we graduate from college.” Ramsey’s eyes shot to mine before returning to Winston’s as he went on, “I was just making sure Delaney was…being honest about her situation.”
Ramsey addressed Winston, “So, you’re telling me that you and Delaney have an arranged marriage agreement, and you’re just making sure she’s not stringing Deke along, is that it?”
“Yeah. We…we agreed to get…some stuff out of our systems before committing to marriage, and since this is the first time Delaney’s shown any, uhm, interest in anyone, I just wanted to make sure she was being forthcoming.” I wanted to argue against Winston’s explanation because he was half-ass lying, but I wasn’t sure if I was up to going against Ramsey Reed, so I kept quiet.
Ramsey gave Winston a terse nod, as if he was mulling over Winston’s words in his head. He finally cocked his head and told Winston, “Here’s what’s going to happen, Reynolds. You ever touch Delaney again while this thing with her and Deke is going on, you won’t live to ever touch her again.” I gasped, but Ramsey wasn’t finished. “I don’t care what plans you two have set for when you graduate college, but right here, right now, you will stay the fuck away from her until Deke tells you otherwise, got it?”
Ramsey didn’t wait for Winston to agree or disagree. He walked over, grabbed my backpack off the ground, grabbed me by my arm and dragged me away.
Shit.This was bad.
Ramsey was literally dragging me behind him and wasn’t even bothering to look at me as he spoke. “I have nothing against you, Delaney, so I’m doing you a favor here. You better tell Deke about Winston, and you better tell him before he hears it from someone else.”
Maybe if I appealed to Ramsey…
“There’s nothing going on with between me and Deke, though,” I tried to point out.
Ramsey stopped in his tracks and I slammed up against his back.Motherfucker.Ramsey turned and stared down at me, and Ramsey Reed’s sole attention was something to behold. But my fascination was shaken loose at his next words. “I always credited you with being a smart girl, Delaney. But you’re stupid if you think there’s nothing going on between you and Deke.” He paused and then sighed as if he didn’t want to utter his next words. But he did. “It’s over for Deke, Delaney. And he’ll kill Winston if you don’t fix this.”
Well, hell.
Chapter 9
Deke~
Emotions are a funny thing.
You can go from being birds-chirping-sun-shining-happy one second to hot-white-murderous-anger the next. Now, granted, I didn’t have much of a birds-chirping-sun-shining disposition, but I didn’t walk around in a perpetual state of hate and anger, either.
I had been mildly irritated when Delaney had run out of class, but I knew she was pissed, so I didn’t have a problem with giving her time to calm down. Fourth period had done that.
