I need your opinion about which ones to get for our bathroom. Right, Gabriel?”
“Definitely.” Gabriel took Anders by the arm and dragged him away, with Temperance and Darcey following suit.
J.D.’s expression was that of pure confusion. “Am I missing something here?”
Anna Victoria cleared her throat. “We should go get more pie.”
“Right,” Damon added, helping Anna Victoria up. “Um, maybe we’ll see you around, Cam,” he said before they walked away.
Now that they were alone, J.D. crossed her arms over her chest and turned to him. “Well?”
What could he possibly say that wouldn’t end up with J.D. walking away or slapping him? This was why he avoided interpersonal relationships with the opposite sex. Apparently, he was terrible with women. “I didn’t get a chance to tell you this because I wasn’t expecting to run into Darcey and Anders. In fact, I’d successfully avoided them these past months and—”
“Just spit it out.”
He huffed out a breath. “Darcey and I used to date—I mean, we went out on dates.”
Confusion, then hurt, crossed his mate’s face. Her animal, on the other hand, hissed at him. “You and Darcey?” she said in a quiet voice.
His bear roared in outrage. “Bloody hell.” He massaged his temples with his fingers. “It’s not like that. I mean … we went out on three dates. That’s it. The last one was the Blackstone Rangers ball, and after that, she told me she didn’t have any feelings for me. And frankly … it was a relief. I didn’t feel any attraction toward her.”
“Relief?” she echoed. “Why did you ask her out in the first place, then?”
How could he explain it best without sounding like a cold bastard or awkward nutter? “J.D., love.” He took her hands into his. She stiffened at the contact, which made his chest twinge, but at least she didn’t pull away. “In case you didn’t notice. People here … they don’t like me very much.” Actually, it wasn’t just here; he’d always been a loner. There was no need to develop social skills if one didn’t socialize, and that was the way he preferred it. At least until this very moment.
“What?”
“I have this reputation, and I put people off because I say things on my mind, and that’s after I’ve already debated with myself on the subject. And Darcey … well, we bumped into each other in a coffee shop, and she’d left her wallet at home, so I offered to pay. In that instance, I was … a sort of hero for her, and it made things less awkward, I think. She didn’t know who I was and she was charming and lovely—her personality I mean,” he clarified. “I felt at ease around her, perhaps it was because she was a shifter or because she was also new to Blackstone and living around so many like us for the first time. So, I thought I would ask her out, and we went on two dinner dates.
And then Damon told me I had to show up at this damned ball, and so naturally, I asked her to come. She and Anders had already met, and I had no idea they were mates. I even accompanied her to drinks with a colleague, but only as friends. I felt responsible, and it turns out I was responsible—for getting her kidnapped.”
“Wait, a minute. You had something to do with that?”
“In a way. I introduced her to the man who connected her with the Alpha who abducted her,” he said.
“Oh.”
“Anyway, you know the story after that. And a few weeks ago, Darcey told me the news that she was mated and expecting Anders’s child.” To be frank, that had been a relief to hear too. “So, it’s understandable that Anders feels some anger and resentment toward me. I did inadvertently put his mate and child in danger.”
J.D.’s lips pursed, and her brows narrowed. Here we go, he thought to himself. She was angry at him, obviously, for dating one of her friends. “J.D.? Will you say something, please?”
She gritted her teeth together. “First of all, it’s not your fault that Darcey was kidnapped, it was that asshole fake Alpha who wanted her gone.” Her fingers gripped his tightly. “And second, if no one likes you because you speak your mind, they can fuck right the fuck off this planet.”
“I—what?” He stared at her, dumbfounded. Did she just defend him?
“And by the way, if you didn’t introduce Darcey to that guy, then she wouldn’t have found her biological family in Australia,”