Page 13 of In Deep

The waitress is watching us from the counter. Her mouth rotates as she chews gum and a blue light from a phone shines from beneath her, lighting up the underside of her chin.

“I don’t know.” It’s the truth. I don’t. I should thank him and then keep the hell away from him. But every time he touches my skin – just those accidental brushes – he flicks a match against flint and fire rushes across me.

It’s as if my body lies dormant, waiting to be stirred into life by his touch.

“I can work with that,” he says nodding. “I have to warn you, I’m pretty persistent. When there’s something I want, I usually get it.”

That heat crawls up my neck and bleeds into my cheeks. “We’ll see,” I say, but I have a premonition he will be proven right.

* * *

He messages me later that night wanting to know that I’m home safely, and then he’s there waiting at the foot of my stairs in the morning.

“I thought I’d walk you to lectures,” he says simply, taking my rucksack from my shoulder and slinging it over his own.

One of the other girls on my floor pushes through us, her eyes widening when they lock on Zane.

“Don’t you have a lecture of your own to get to?”

“Not until later this morning.”

“And how did you know I had a lecture now?” I start to walk, and he strolls easily alongside me.

“I asked around. I’ve never been to the Physics block. I’m curious.”

“It’s more exciting than it sounds.”

I find the elastic in my hair and untwine it, letting my hair shake loose about my shoulders. It’s practical to have it tied back but it makes my face look longer and for some reason I care about how I look right now with him.

The pavement is busy with other students, some walking in small groups or in pairs, others alone. As Sophia lives outside the college’s accommodation, I tend to meet her in the lecture hall, which means I’m usually one of the ones walking alone. It’s strange to have someone by my side, his hand finding the small of my back several times as he moves to the side, letting other students pass us on the path.

The roads are busy too, so I can’t smell Zane’s scent over the traffic fumes, although his palm when it touches me is warm even through the light cotton of my shirt. I want it to stay there. I want it to slip beneath the fabric and touch my actual flesh.

What is wrong with me?

“This is really stupid,” I tell him. “We’re not living in the fifties. I can carry my own bag.” I attempt to wrestle it off his shoulder. But he snatches my hand away and grips it in his own. He smirks at me as if he just won a prize because now we’re walking hand in hand.

“I didn’t take you for a holding-a-girl’s-hand kind of guy,” I mutter when I fail at yanking my hand from his.

“I have no idea what that means.”

“Never mind.” Although, I like it. I like the sensation of his hand wrapped around mine.

“I’m trying to win you over.”

“Win me over to what?”

“The idea of going on another date with me.”

“If I said no, would you honestly respect that and leave me alone?”

He stops and with my hand still in his, I halt too. Someone swears at us from behind, then swerves around Zane.

I look up into the alpha’s face. It’s serious but not stern. There’s a kindness to the set of his mouth and his eyes.

“You haven’t told me no.” I told his pack’s go-between no, but he seems to have forgotten that. “Do you want me to leave you alone, Rosie?”

I notice he doesn’t call me omega. He knows it would be unfair when he’s asking me a question like this.