Page 24 of Frank's Felon
“Is that what you were apologizing for? For what happened in the office?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t run out because of you.”
He stopped and raised a brow. “Then why?”
She shrugged. “It’s complicated.”
“I can handle complicated.” His voice was low and not rushed, not in the least, diffusing the anger in her.
“You expect me to give you an answer I don’t have, yet you’re very good at telling me nothing about yourself in turn.” Tess had always accused her of avoiding direct answers. Well, she had to play to what strengths she had left at this point.
“There’s not much to say about me. I’m a guard here.”
“A guard who readsThe Odysseymore than once, who follows a lone wolf through town when he’s supposed to be guarding his pack––”
“I wouldn’t have left if it weren’t important.”
“I’m not that important.”
His eyebrows scrunched together in true confusion. “Why would you even say that?”
“Just forget it.”
When she tried turning away from him, he caged her against a tree. “The moment Damien told me someone was in town looking for a green-eyed shifter, I feared you were in trouble. He thought it was the WSSO looking for Tess, but the WSSO has no reason to look for her now. My instincts said you were in trouble. I couldn’t sit back and do nothing. So, yes, you’re important. To me.”
They had barely known each other at that point.Stillbarely knew one another. “Why?” she asked.
“Do I need a reason?”
“It would help.”
“Fishing for compliments?”
She lowered her eyes.Good-for-nothing, lazy female. The one talent you have, and you refuse to use it to help the pack.
A rough hand caressed her cheek. “You left me again, Del.”
She shook her head. “It’s nothing. Were you serious when you said you were worried about me, even though you didn’t know me?”
“I don’t lie, Delilah,” he said, his voice flat as if she had insulted him.
“I’ll tell you what I can, Frank, but talking’s hard sometimes. Really hard. What do you want to know?”
Chapter Six
FRANK
Delilah stood there with her back against a tree, caged by his arms on either side of her. She didn’t flinch or try to escape him. If anything, there was a pleading look to her lovely green eyes, a softening he hadn’t seen in her before. Inch by inch, she was lowering her walls, but still, she resisted him on so many levels he wasn’t sure where to start with her.
This beautiful shifter with the tough exterior was fragile inside, and he was all brute force with large hands that easily crushed glass. He didn’t want to crush her, and yet every time he talked to her, looked at her, he feared that’s what he’d do in the end, without intending to.
Knowing how and when to be gentle was not something he was good at. He had lived his thirty-two years without many females in his life. His mom had died when he was only ten and he had never had sisters. Most of the females in his pack had always steered clear of him, afraid of his larger than average size, or maybe it was his gruff manner—he never really could figure it out.
“I’ll tell you what I can, Frank, but talking’s hard sometimes. Really hard. What do you want to know?”
Hell, that was a loaded question. He wanted to know everything there was to know about her, but he had no right to ask about anything, except what involved the pack’s security.
