lightly edited and subject to change.

Dex smiled wider as she reared back, her face deepening in color with embarrassment. He’d needed this, someone to banter with, because his mood had shifted from dark to outright black. The men he’d been chasing were nowhere in sight by the time he got the call from his President of the Blackwater Renegades asking about the status of his job. The curses and threats Ace had offered his enforcer didn’t bode well for him if he didn’t help bring in the two men wanted for assault and robbery. Instead, his job had changed to keeping an eye on the blubbering, sick woman in front of him. At least his words had put color back in her face.

Her fists tightened on the table. “You—”

It was then that Jo sauntered over with a sly smile on her face and placed Hollywood’s usual down in front of him.

“Grandma’s special with extra gravy for you, Dexter.” She winked at him as she walked away, no doubt saying his legal name to give her friend something to rib him on. He glanced over to the woman who was no longer red with embarrassment but fighting a smile. Ah hell, his name was the bane of his existence and the source of provocation.

Dex, as most people called him, lifted his lip in a snarl he hoped would scare the smile right off of her face. “Don’t even start it.” He lifted the fork and shoveled a huge spoonful of biscuits and gravy into his mouth. With a narrowed gaze, he added, “What’s your name?”

She opened her mouth to speak; instead, he lifted a hand, in an attempt to halt her words.

Her eyes widened and she crossed her arms over her chest. “That’s how you do an introduction? Typical rude ass biker.”

Gasping in feigned horror, he placed a hand over his heart. “Language, little lady.”

Again, her face reddened, but not in embarrassment. A bright smile lit her face as she burst into soft laughter. “Nina, Nina James, not little lady,” she corrected, adding another sunburst of a smile.

And … his day just got brighter. He’d entered the diner with a blade in his back sheath and a gun at his side, hoping to find the two men who’d robbed Moe’s gun and ammo store. Unfortunately, he'd lost them in the woods not even a mile from here, and gotten his ass chewed out by his pres, only to end up a babysitter to a sick chick. Or at least that’s what he thought of her until he sat down in front of her and indeed laid eyes on her. She was sick; the pallor of her skin, while had slightly returned to a creamy dark brown, still had traces of sickness, and her brow was slickened with sweat even as forced air cooled the entire diner. He wanted to ask her what was wrong with her, but he knew better. Not only did he want to keep her mind off of the fact he was here while she was close to perhaps her worse, but he also didn’t want to change the atmosphere between them. He didn’t want to be her keeper any more than he wanted her to feel as if that were the case.

She sat across from him her long, delicate fingers no longer balled in fists, but toying with the condensation as it slid down her glass to pool into the table. His objective was to sit with a woman while she was on her lunch break until Spooky got to her with her insulin, so why the hell wasn’t she eating? He did a glance over her body and determined that she was not overfed, but well fed. Her toned body revealed that of a woman who worked out, but at the same time, he’d say the youthful chubbiness in her cheeks and the slight double chin there had possibly been caused by recent stress or even her sickness. He liked the weight on her. Earlier, he’d gotten a good glimpse of her body and liked what he’d seen. The thicknesses of her thighs sent thoughts of lust racing through his head, and her plump ass had his fingers aching to spread them apart as he thrust deep into her. He could definitely imagine her cradling his waist as he thrust deep into her welcoming body, or wrapped tight around his head as she came on his tongue her sweet, fragrant scent surrounding him. Shit, his cock hardened in his jeans at the thought. However, his lust sobered as he watched her eyeing his food with hunger.

He lowered the spoon from his lips, throwing himself back into the present. “Why aren’t you eating? I thought they said you were on a lunch break?” He wanted to comment of the decadent glint in her eyes as her gaze lingered on his lips, but then Dex noticed as the smile fell from her luscious lips and her hands once again clenched into fists. Anger radiated from her, but nestled deep beneath her anger existed insecurity. He could see it in the way she broke eye contact with him. Did her sickness relate to food? And if so, what the hell kind of—

“I have diabetes,” she blurted, watchful eyes meeting his as she visibly swallowed hard. And then, he took her in again, the dots suddenly falling into place. He’d known people in his time to suffer from diabetes, and he’d also understood that if the person took care of themselves, they’d live a very long and healthy life. The stubborn glint in her eyes dared him to admonish her for forgetting her insulin, but even if he hadn't sensed the insecurity in her, he wouldn’t have offered reproach at something any human was capable of doing.

He took a long drink of water before asking, “Type one or two?”

She eyed him uneasily. “One.”

He nodded. “Okay then.” He didn’t know too much about diabetes, but he did know that shit could be dangerous if not deadly left untreated. He pulled his cell from his pocket and sent a text to Spooky. He didn’t care what the man was doing, he needed to get here ASAP. The longer he and Nina waited, the shittier she would feel, and that was just something he couldn’t allow.

“What are you doing?” As she leaned over, he tilted the phone so she could read the text.

You’re wasting my woman’s lunch break. Get your ass over here with her insulin so she can eat, fucker.

A shocked gasp left her lips, but before she was able to utter a word he’d pressed send. No, she wasn’t his woman—he didn’t even know her—but that was how shit started. You met an interesting, sexy ass woman like Nina and you went after her with the veracity of wolf a chasing its prey.