Chapter Three

Pagan

Although it was an age-restricted club, Gee had gotten us inside without a hitch. I’d started to refuse to go inside but Miranda had gotten all excited when the bouncer waved us through. I had to go in to keep Miranda out of trouble.

“Stop frowning, Peggy Ann. It ain’t that bad. Loosen up,” Gee said as we made our way toward one of the empty tables.

“My name is Pagan,” I informed her.

“You used to be more fun,” she mumbled. What the heck did she mean by that? We’d known each other all of six hours tops. I was about to ask about her comment when a guy stepped in front of me.

“Hey, beautiful. You’re new here. I’d remember eyes like those if I’d seen them before.”

I let out a weary sigh and looked up at him. “Really? That’s the best you’ve got?” I asked raising an eyebrow.

His confused frown annoyed me and I stepped around him.

“Harsh! I like it.” Gee chuckled as we took our seats at the bar.

Miranda grabbed my arm and jerked me close to her, “Don’t look now, but Jay is here,” she whispered excitedly in my ear.

I knew Jay went to University of Tennessee, which was just one city over from us but I hadn’t expected to bump into him so soon, especially not on my first night in college. I started to look back but Miranda squeezed my arms tightly. “I said don’t look. He’s with a girl. They’re dancing really close and well I think she may be humping his leg.”

“What do you want to drink Pay-gan,” Gee asked in a mocking voice drawing my name out since I’d corrected her before.

“A Coke will be fine,” I said and turned my attention away from Miranda’s death grip on my arm to Gee, who was perched on a barstool as if she were actually old enough to order something more than a soda.

“You want Coke? Why am I not surprised?” She replied with a roll of her eyes. Her gaze shifted from me to something over my shoulder. “Well, shit.” She mumbled.

Curious, I turned around and my eyes met Jay’s. He was in fact dancing with some girl who just might be humping his leg. His hands were cupping her butt and he was whispering something in her ear or at least he was until he saw me. His surprised expression made me smile. I’m sure he had no idea I was at Boone. I hadn’t spoken to him since Wyatt’s funeral. I smiled and gave him a little wave and turned around to look at Gee. She was watching me closely as if she may need to tackle me to the ground at any given moment. What was her deal? She was just weird enough to make me nervous.

“You know him?” She asked, shifting her eyes from me to Jay’s direction.

Shrugging, I picked up the Coke the bartender placed in front of me. “Yeah, he used to go to my school,” I explained. I didn’t want to explain to her that he had also been my boyfriend for three years. She would probably embarrass me somehow with that information.

“He was her boyfriend for three years. They were inseparable.” Miranda chimed in with her juicy piece of gossip. I’d have to thank her later for that one.

“Hmmm… well Pay-gan, you need to decide what you want to do because here he comes,” Gee replied. She seemed annoyed.

Great.

“Pagan?” Jay’s surprised tone had me wishing I’d stayed in my dorm room tonight. I was not up for this right now. Especially with Gee watching my every move.

I took a deep breath, forced a smile on my face, and turned around to face Jay.

“Hello, Jay.”

“Hiya, Jay. Fancy meeting you here,” Miranda said with a giggle.

“ I can’t believe y’all are here,” Jay said, with a huge grin on his face. “What are you doing here?”

“We’re both at Boone,” I explained.

“Boone? Really? As in you’re living only thirty minutes from me?” The excitement in his voice surprised me. We’d been broken up over a year and a half now. It wasn’t like we were long lost friends.

“Yep. Moved in today,” Miranda said before taking a sip of her Shirley Temple. At least I hoped it was a Shirley Temple. Surely Gee hadn’t ordered her something with alcohol in it.

“Were you gonna call me? Clue me in that you’re right around the corner?” Jay’s focus was on me, but I was watching the blond who had been humping his leg. From the look on her face she wasn’t very happy. I watched her approach us and wrap her arms around Jay’s arm. I shifted my eyes from her angry glare to his suddenly tense one.

“So who are your friends, Jay Jay?” the girl asked, pressing closer against him.

I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing at “Jay Jay”. Miranda kicked me and I heard her muffled chuckle. She was getting a kick out of the nickname too.

“Uh, this is uh, “ he stammered.

I decided to save him from his moment of panic and smiled over at his new girlfriend. “Hello. I’m Pagan and this is Miranda. We went to high school with Jay.” I’d wanted to say “Jay Jay” so badly, but I refrained because I knew if I did, I would burst into laughter.

She reached up and ran her hand through Jay’s shaggy blond hair while keeping her eyes locked on me. Apparently I was the one she was least fond of. “Is that so? He never mentioned either of you.”

That was a little surprising. Since we’d broken up the summer he left to come up here for college. I figured he would have at least missed me a little. Guess I thought wrong. I shrugged, “Must not have ranked real high on his importance radar,” I replied.

I shifted my eyes to Jay’s and smirked. I was done with this fun conversation. I could see the frown puckering his forehead and decided to get away while I could. The last thing I wanted was for him or Miranda to delve into our past.

“It was nice seeing you again, maybe we’ll bump into each other again over the next three years.” I turned back around in my stool and let my fake smile dissolve. Now, it was his turn to walk away. We’d had our little weird moment. Time to move on.

“Is your cell number still the same?” Jay asked. Dang it. Did the boy not take a hint? I was not interested in him. He had moved on. Jeez.

“Yep. Her number hasn’t changed,” Miranda replied when it was obvious I wasn’t going to.

This time I kicked Miranda.

“Ouch!” she squealed.

“Get rid of them,” I whispered to Gee who was sitting there surprisingly quiet watching the whole thing.

She winked at me and turned her attention back to Jay. “Looks like Pagan isn’t up for anymore chat-chat, Jay Jay. So you and your girlfriend can get back to humping on the dance floor. It was entertaining us earlier.”

I covered my face with my hands. Why had I trusted her to handle this?

Miranda burst into a fit of giggles and spun around on her stool away from them too. I kept my eyes closed tightly hoping they’d just walk away. I did not want Jay to think I’d been watching him dirty dance.

“They are gone. You’re welcome.” Gee announced and raised her empty glass in the air and rattled the ice around. “He’s kinda cute but I’m thinking that chick he has hanging on him has silver tipped nails ready to slice open anyone who gets close.”

“I picked up on that,” I replied and drank the last of the soda in my glass.

“He is so still into you,” Miranda said nudging my arm. Was she blind? Jay was very taken. He had always been polite and friendly to everyone. Of course he would be to us. We’d all done everything together from the time we’d been freshman to the year he graduated before us.

“No he isn’t. Besides, I’m not looking.”

Miranda sighed and made a pouty face. “You’re never looking. You weren’t even aware of the sexiness that is Dank Walker today.”

That was where she was wrong. I was very aware of how sexy Dank Walker had been. It would take a blind person to miss that fact and even then they would probably be able to tell. His voice was hypnotic. But he was a lead singer in a rock band. Not my type. His kind wanted a girl long enough to get her naked and in bed. Then he moved on.

“I noticed. I just didn’t care. I don’t do rockers. That’s your thing.”

Gee cleared her throat and I turned my attention to her. “What you got against musicians?”

“The fact that they want a different girl every night. Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll,” I replied.

Gee studied me a moment then nodded her head slowly as if she agreed. “Maybe, but Dank isn’t your typical lead singer.”

“Sure he isn’t,” I replied letting the sarcasm drip from my tone. “I’m not in the mood to talk about this. How long do we have to stay here?”

“We just got here, Pagan. A cute guy hasn’t even asked me to dance yet,” Miranda whined, glancing over both her shoulders for any males who may be checking her out so she could pounce.

“Okay, fine. We’ll wait until you get to dance, then can we leave?”

“You got boring Peggy Ann,” Gee mumbled.

What was it with her calling me Peggy Ann? She knew my name was Pagan. And why did she keep referring to me as if we had known each other for longer than half a day? Did she do drugs? She had been on the back of Dank Walker’s motorcycle today. Maybe she was a groupie. Didn’t groupies do drugs and sleep with the band?

“Oh, boys!” Miranda squealed quietly and tugged on my arm. Two boys were standing behind us. One of them looked familiar; I must have seen him somewhere before.

“It’s nice to meet you, Nathan,” Miranda said in her sweet voice. The one she thought was sexy and only used when an attractive guy was talking to her. The familiar one was very focused on her. He ran a hand through his dark brown hair that curled on the ends giving it a messy look. I liked him. I wasn’t sure why exactly, but I approved.

“This is my friend, Pagan,” Miranda announced to the boys. “Pagan this is Nathan and Kent. They both go to UT.”

Kent took a step toward me. “If you dance with me, I think your friend will dance with Nathan, and if you’ve noticed he’s practically drooling. He hasn’t taken his eyes off her since y’all walked in here.” The teasing grin on his face as he looked at Nathan alleviated any worry I had. He wasn’t hitting on me. He was here as Nathan’s wingman. I stood up and took the hand that Kent had held out to me.

“I’d love to dance,” I smiled back at Miranda, “throw the boy a bone.” I told her causing her to laugh as she stood up and slipped her hand in Nathan’s. He was staring at her as if he’d just been gifted some rare jewel. I liked that. A lot. So far Nathan had my approval.

“By all means, you two run along and dance. I’ll just sit here and drink.” Gee said reminding me she was there. Feeling guilty I looked back at her, but she had an amused smirk on her face so I knew she was teasing. Besides, Gee was a rock band groupie. She didn’t do college boys.

“We’ll be back soon,” I assured her.

She held up her newest drink, “I’m fine and dandy right here. Please go entertain yourselves. Maybe you’ll lighten up Peggy Ann.”

I rolled my eyes at her continued use of her nickname for me. I realized that I would always be Peggy Ann to her. She wasn’t going to stop calling me that.

“Let’s dance,” I said turning to Kent.

He led me onto the crowded dance floor. Bodies were moving everywhere. Most of them were just as intense as Jay and his girlfriend had been. I really hoped Kent wasn’t expecting me to rub all over him. That wasn’t the kind of dancing I’d signed up for.

“I saw you talking to Potts earlier. You know him?”

He knew Jay? The University of Tennessee was a big place. How odd. “Uh, yeah. Jay and I went to high school together.”

Kent pulled us into the thick of things and slipped a hand around my waist. I wasn’t sure I liked that. “Really? That’s cool. Jay and I are ATO brothers.”

Ah. A frat boy. Great.

“Are you at UT?” he asked with interest.

“Nope. I’m at Boone.”

Kent slid his hand down my hip and pulled me against him as the music slowed to a sexy beat. I did not like this. I searched the crowd until I found Miranda to see how she and Nathan were doing. She was wrapped in Nathan’s arms and looking at him like he was the most beautiful guy she’d ever seen. I wanted her to have this time. She needed to have some fun and begin to go out with other boys. But could I deal with Kent rubbing all over me to give her that time?

Just then two larger hands slid around my waist and held me firmly. Warm breath tickled my neck and instead of being startled by it, it excited me. “Times up,” a deep sexy drawl said from behind me. Kent’s eyes went wide.

“Are you… are you … holy shit!. You’re Dank Walker. Cold Soul’s Dank Walker.” Kent’s arms immediately let go of me as he stepped back. His eyes were focused on the guy behind me. Why Dank Walker was standing behind me making some big claim on me I wasn’t sure, but at the moment I was just glad tat he was no longer pressing his pelvis against me.

“Yeah. Now go,” Dank replied. Kent nodded his head and backed away into the moving bodies.

Turning around I frown at him. The relieved look on his face surprised me. “What was that about?” I asked.

Dank’s eyes changed from a simmering whirlpool as he watched Kent walk away to a soft glow as he looked at me. “He was making you uncomfortable.”

How had he known that? “Maybe. But why do you care?”

Dank let out a frustrated sigh and shook his head, “I don’t know. But I do.”

Okay…. That was unexpected.

“Will you dance with me, Pagan?”

I studied Dank as he watched me carefully, waiting on my answer. I didn’t trust guys like him. No female should. But I couldn’t turn him down. I slipped a hand over his arm. His hands were still on my waist.

The music instantly slowed. The sexual beat of the music had changed to something easy and smooth. I eased into his arms and trust came easily. Dank’s hands didn’t wander. He didn’t make vulgar moves with his body. Instead, he held me closely as we moved to the music.

The smell of his shirt was something dark and exotic. I wanted to bury my nose in it and breathe in the scent. This guy could be dangerous. Every part of him was irresistible. Turning my head slightly so I could smell him better I was startled when a soft growl vibrated against his chest. What was that?

I looked at him and saw his eyes were now cold and hard, and they were focused on something behind me. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Jay standing there. His hands were jammed in his pockets and his girlfriend was missing from his arm. He was looking at me. I turned from Dank’s arms and faced Jay. Did he need something?

“Hey, Jay,” I said trying to ease the sudden tension. Did they know each other?

“Pagan. I wanted to see if you would dance with me for old times sake. I didn’t realize you were uh, with Dank Walker. Wow, you moved up in the world.”

I laughed. These boys were really into Dank’s band. “I’m not with Dank. We just met today. I’d love to dance with you as long as your girlfriend doesn’t mind. Let me finish this dance first though.”

Jay shifted his eyes from me to Dank then back to me again quickly. “Yeah, sure. I’ll be waiting.”

I gave him a reassuring smile because he suddenly seemed really nervous. Odd, Jay wasn’t the nervous type. I turned around and put my hands back on Dank’s arms. The muscles flexed under my touch and my imagination took off. He would be incredible without a shirt on. I didn’t have to see it to know it.

“You know him,” Dank said in a slow even tone.

“Yes. We went to high school together,” I explained, purposely leaving out that he’d been my one and only boyfriend. Dank seemed annoyed with Jay. I was probably imagining it but I was going to protect Jay just in case. For a musician Dank Walker was really built.

“Do you like him?” Dank asked.

Well, that was very blunt. I stopped dancing and stared up at him. “I don’t think that is really your business. We just met today.”

Dank bit his bottom lip and dad-gum, if that wasn’t hot-as-hell. I really wanted to pull that bottom lip out and suck on it. I was just as bad as any other groupie. I’d just met the guy and I was thinking bad thoughts.

“Okay. You’re right. I’m sorry.” He replied.

The sad expression in his eyes made my heart hurt. I squelched the desire to reach up and touch his face. I didn’t want him to be sad. Had I sounded mean? I hadn’t meant to.

“Let’s just dance,” I said as the music began another sexy beat.

Dank nodded and his hands slid down further over my hips as he pulled me closer. The smooth easy way his body moved with mine made my heart speed up with excitement. His hands left my waist and circled my wrist. I looked up at him as he took my hands and pulled them up to wrap around his neck, pressing my body closer to his. The dark sultry gleam in his eyes made my breath hitch. I wasn’t experienced enough to play in his world. But no matter how dangerous he could be for my heart, I couldn’t seem to break free from the hypnotic spell he had me under.

“Alright, lover boy why don’t you lay off the heavy with Peggy Ann here. You have places to go and people to see.” Gee’s voice brought me back to reality. I let my hands fall from behind his neck and I took a step back.

“Gee,” the warning in his tone caused me to shiver.

“Don’t go getting all pissy. I’m just reminding you of your plans,” she replied putting emphasis on the last word. What exactly was Gee to Dank Walker?