How It Will Be by T. S. Joyce

Chapter Ten

 

She didn’t know.

She didn’t recognize it.

Bron cast a quick glance over his shoulder to where she was setting the table.

If she’d have recognized the marble, she wouldn’t have asked if it was a pledge token.

No, none of the other members would be offered that. It was special. Bron had won it off her in a game of marbles when she was twelve, and he was sixteen, and he’d kept it all this time for luck. She didn’t realize what he’d handed her, and she sure as hell didn’t realize what she’d accepted.

And let it stay that way. At least until she was less skittish. He was going to win her slowly because that’s how Ren worked now. Just the thought of her lips on his thickened his boner, and he shook his head hard and went back to stirring the taco meat.

When she came to stand by him, she didn’t say anything, just gave him the most adorable shy look he’d ever seen on a grown woman. God, she was so freaking cute.

Pink-streaked bangs all swept to the side, and the rest of her dark hair all cute and sticking out like she’d spent hours on it, even though he knew she didn’t. And her eyes that piercing blue. She was lost in thought, he could tell. Her cheekbones, she got from her momma. And that graceful jawline. Little upturned nose and rosy cheeks, and a faint dimple on her left side when she smiled big enough. It was his secret goal to keep seeing that dimple. That dimple came out when she was really happy. It had come out a hundred times today as they’d hung out with the pledges, and she’d made new friends with the Bane mates and with Cora. She’d settled in so well. Had she realized how much Bron had watched her today? He couldn’t keep his eyes off her.

She’d been out there in her little white tank top and cut-off shorts and flip flops, celebrating every little victory her and Gwen had in the tournament.

And time and time again, he caught her eyes finding him, like she was having as much trouble as he was looking away. How many times had she smiled at him today? Not enough. It could never be enough. He was getting addicted to those grins.

He hoped she would lay with him on the couch again tonight. He slept better near her. He hoped she let him kiss her again too, maybe rest his hand on her thigh…

“Your thoughts are so loud,” she murmured from beside him as she began to cut up tomatoes for their taco dinner.

“Oh yeah? What am I thinking then?”

“From the look on your face, probably dirty thoughts.”

“Busted.”

She did one of those toss-the-head-back laughs that made it impossible to drag his attention from her pretty lips. She didn’t have any clue how pretty she was. That made her even prettier.

“Um, Krome and Cora were clapping for me when you flew away.”

He chuckled. “Good. You deserved a round of applause.”

“Hey Bron?” she asked suddenly, laying the knife down on the cutting board.

Uh oh. “Yeah?”

“About what you said earlier. I made my choice.”

To be his? Had he asked her to be his? He’d given her the marble but he hadn’t said the words out loud. Had she realized what he’d done after all?

“I really do choose to not be bitter about the money Laken spent on this place. In a roundabout way, it feels like I helped to get this place. No one ever has to know that, or where the money came from, but it’s enough that I know it.”

“And me. Now, it makes this place feel even more important.”

She scrunched up her adorable nose. “Really?”

I like you. God he wanted to say I like you. She was looking up at him all clear-eyed, attention only for him. He felt like she was everything good in the world. He felt like he wouldn’t always be such a mess, because she was some kind of medicine for a damaged soul that he hadn’t realized existed until now. He wanted to say the words he felt, but it was too soon for her. He owed her a safe place, not pressure.

So instead, he told her, “You suck at cutting tomatoes,” because he was smooth like that. Plus, he liked how she rolled her eyes at him and shoved him in the arm. He wished she would touch him more.

Maybe his thoughts really were loud, because Ren leaned into him, hugged his waist, and rested her head against his chest. It was such an easy embrace that he pulled her in closer on instinct, and dared to lay a kiss on top of her hair. She smelled like cherry shampoo.

“I don’t hate you anymore,” she whispered.

And there it was.

Those words were the key to releasing the rest of the tension that had settled onto his heart since she’d gotten here.

He let off a sigh and rested his cheek on top of her hair, and then he gave in. Too soon or not…he gave in.

“I like you, too.”