She couldn’t move. Tammy just stood there frozen. “Is that what you look like?” she asked again.
“Can I have your number?” he asked instead of giving her an answer.
“W-why would you want it?” She was just a human, and he was so, so much more.
“So that if your ex comes back and you don’t want him to, you can call me.” He shrugged. “I’ll be security.”
“I can handle him,” she said defensively.
The slow smile was back at the corners of his masculine lips. “I find that sexy.” He stood and pulled his wallet out. “May I pay the Cold Foot tab?”
“Are you leaving?”
“No. I just feel like one of them will try to pay it all before I can.”
Baffled, she took his credit card. “That’s very nice of you.”
“I’m not nice.” The way he said it with such conviction, she believed him.
“This is a nice gesture.”
“It is a selfish one. I’m working.”
“We can hear you, Asshole,” Cash called across the room.
“Jess fed me power just now. I feel good. I want to keep feeling good. In order to stay near Wreck’s Mountains and close to Jess, who can feed me, I need to pull my weight. Perhaps if I pay for their tab, the Crew will soften toward me and let me stay.”
Behind him, the entire Cold Foot Crew was quiet and watching him.
“I don’t have feelings,” Tawk continued. “Not like you, and not like the Cold Foot Crew. That doesn’t mean I can’t build loyalty.” There was this clicking sound on the last word that sounded like a Firestarter, and another wave of bonfire smoke washed over the bar.
“You’re dangerous, aren’t you?” she asked softly.
“Not to you. Not to Jess or her people.”
Okay. Stunned, Tammy turned to the computer and entered in his burger basket order, added it to the Cold Foot tab, and ran his credit card for the entire drink and food check for the Crew.
“So, you understand what nice behavior is, but you don’t really feel it? You don’t feel satisfaction from being kind?”
“No,” he answered sternly.
Well, at least he was honest. More than she could say for Aaron during any part of their relationship.
He took another swig of beer and stood. And stood, and stood. Gads, she forgot how tall he was. He looked bigger now too. Broader in the shoulder, more powerful in the legs. He walked away.
“Say thank you,” Cash called.
Tawk turned. Automatically, he said, “Thank you.”
“Not you, dumbass. I mean Tammy.”
“Tell him thank you for what?” she asked, baffled.
“For making your ex go away. That dude smelled like fuckboy.”
Tammy pursed her lips against a laugh and then cleared her throat delicately. “Thank you for making him go away.”
Tawk held her gaze for a few seconds longer and then turned and made his way back to the table.
