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Declan looked amused by this declaration while Asher just appeared annoyed.

“That’s not the way it works,” he huffed. “Besides, I technically saw her first.”

I snorted. Guys were amusing…well, more amusing than girls who seemed to come pre-packaged with drama. To be honest, I never actually had a girl best friend – someone to do my hair and paint my toenails and whatever else girls do together. I’m 90% positive that it’s not comparing dick sizes and harassing a poor female about her dating life. Hell, for all I knew, this was probably normal man-dude-bro-time conversation.

Smirking, I allowed my eyes to sweep over the men present. I would like to say that I was merely observing my prospective friends, but that would be a lie. I totally was checking them out. How could I not? They were all hot, even Tamson with his reddening cheeks and disheveled hair. Why did they have to be so attractive? They were really testing my self-control.

Shame.

“I don’t date,” I answered at last, disrupting their argument. Ryder blinked. He looked as if he wasn’t sure if he believed my declaration. After a moment, an incredulous expression contorted his features.

“Like right now?”

“Like ever.” I ran my hand over the glossy menu, an absent-minded gesture. “I don’t want to be in a relationship.”

Ryder seemed aghast – though I found that hilarious because he did not seem like the type of guy to do long-term relationships. More like one-night relationships, if you know what I mean. Men with their double standards and hypocritical judgements. As you could probably tell, I haven’t had the best track-record with guys. I suppose that most of that could be contributed to D.O.D. and his string of business partners. They saw girls as easy, and we lived in an unfortunate society where the perpetrator was victimized, and the actual victim was blamed. It wasn’t my fault that I couldn’t trust men; it was my father’s.

“Why not?” Ryder asked, diverting my attention.

I shrugged. There was really no way for me to confess the truth to a group of strangers. How does one say that she’s afraid of getting close to people because they could get hurt? That she doesn’t believing she’s deserving of love?

Yeah, totally not first meeting conversation.

“You just haven’t found the right guy,” Ryder insisted, and my mind immediately flashed to Ducky. His eyes almost reminded me of Declan’s, minus the whole stare-you-down-until-you-die sort of thing that Declan had going on. The two could’ve been related.

“Trust me. That’s not the reason.”

“Where’s Calax?” Asher interrupted.

My body went cold at the strange name. How many people at this resort had that name? It was such a stupid name. An evil name…

“For the love of…” I muttered just as a strident voice demanded, “What the hell is she doing here?”

Plastering a pleasant (but fake) smile on my face, I turned towards the voice, already knowing that I would have to strain my head to make eye contact. Calax was a giant, a real monster of a man. His tousled brown hair grated his eyes which were – unsurprisingly – narrowed on me. He wore his customary scowl.

“Hello Callie. Looking lovely as ever this fine evening.”

Calax pinched the bridge of his nose. This was his standard “trying to be patient with Adelaide” face. Well, excuse me. Itriedto be nice.

“Addie, what are you doing here?”

There was an eruption of voices from the table.

“Your name is Addie?”

“Thisis Addie?”

“Well shit.”

I didn’t look to see whose words belonged to which voice. Calax’s eyes remained locked on mine in an unspoken battle of dominance, and I would be damned if I let him win. Calax was, admittedly, a scary man. If I were to see him in a dark alleyway, I would probably piss my pants. With his shadowed face, black clothing, and towering frame, he could put even the strongest of people in cardiac arrest.

He was also my mortal enemy. Don’t ask me why or how. He just was.

“Thisis Adelaide,” Ryder sputtered. I didn’t like the way he was saying my name – as if he was accusing me of something. Knowing Calax, that wouldn’t be surprising. The entire table probably thought I was crazy. I mean, I probablywas, but he didn’t have totelleveryone.

“Judging by all the exclamations, I assume Callie told you so many wonderful things about me,” I said, subtly giving Calax the middle-finger behind my back. The bastard snorted.

“Trust me. We hear a lot about you,” Ryder said, smirking at Calax. I didn’t even have to turn my head to know that the mountain man was glowering. Calax only had two expressions: a scowl and a semi-scowl. Semi, because I could’ve sworn that he would want to smile but was too stubborn to actually do it. Thus, a semi-scowl.