The Princess and the Prepper

by Barbara Elsborg

  She showered, washed her hair, used as little water as she could, and then brushed her teeth. By the time she’d towel-dried her hair and used Grant’s brush, she felt better, though there was a painful lump on her head from where she’d hit the truck window. When she slotted her toothbrush in the mug next to his, she smiled and put on the shirt he’d given her.

  When she emerged into the living room, he strode past her into the bedroom, saying, “Help yourself to coffee,” before he closed the door.

  Lili sighed. “Aren’t you a ray of sunshine?”

  She saw her underwear by the stove next to the wolf, but when she picked it up it fell to pieces.

  “Shadow!”

  He rolled onto his back.

  “It’s no good looking sheepish. You’re a wolf. I’m not taken in.”

  She crouched and rubbed his belly. “Now I’m rewarding bad behavior.” That was part of her problem. She’d spent so long tolerating bad behavior, she wasn’t taken seriously when she put her foot down.

  She tickled under Shadow’s chin, and he arched his neck. “I don’t blame you for not wanting to be outside. All that snow. Though with a thick, shaggy coat like yours, you probably don’t feel the cold. I need to thank you for last night. I bet it was you who brought me my prince. Did you smell me? Hear me? I screamed, didn’t I, when I fell out of the truck?”

  She curled up on the floor next to the wolf and stroked him. “They never let me have a pet. They said I was enough trouble. You’re lovely. Do you move like a shadow through the trees? That how you got your name?”

  Shadow put his paw out, and Lili put her palm against it. The wolf’s paw dwarfed her hand.

  “Pleased to meet you, too. Those amber eyes look intelligent. Too intelligent to have chewed my underwear. I bet Grant did it.” She grinned.

  “Grant did what?” He walked back in, fastening his shirt, his hair wet. He’d shaved, and her stomach lurched with longing.

  “Chewed my underwear,” she said without thinking.

  His eyes widened.

  Oh God. “Three hundred dollars in tatters.” She caught sight of her boots. “They’re ruined too. They’re Jimmy Choos.” Stop babbling. I don’t care how much they cost.

  She pushed herself up.

  “Want a coffee?” he asked.

  “Do you have any Earl Grey tea? With lemon?” She cringed. Of course he didn’t. It was just what she always had, what Dieter expected her to have.

  He poured a coffee, spooned in sugar, and handed it to her. “Here you are, princess.”

  The mug fell through her fingers and smashed on the floor, spraying coffee everywhere, including her legs and she gasped. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

  “Shit.” Grant grabbed something from the sink, leaped toward her, and Lili shied away, holding her hands up to protect herself. He gaped in disbelief. “It’s a wet cloth.” He slapped it into her palm.

  Lili wiped the coffee from her skin. He picked up the pieces of the mug and threw them in the trash, then handed her another cloth and a roll of kitchen towel. She dropped to her knees and methodically wiped and dried everything. Her skin tingled where the coffee had splashed her. She found a piece of mug he’d missed and picked it up.

  “I’m very sorry,” she said. “I’ll buy you another.”

  “That was handmade and irreplaceable,” he snapped.

  Oh no. “I’m so sorry. Could I glue it back together?”

  “Forget it.” He tossed the piece into the trash along with the used kitchen towel. Then his anger dissipated as fast as it had come. “Sorry. It was an accident. It’s okay.” He poured another coffee and put it on the table. “Sit down, and I’ll make you some breakfast. What would you like?”

  “One egg boiled for four and half minutes and a slice of lightly toasted white bread, please.”

  Lili had deliberately omitted the lemon yogurt and mixed berries, but he looked at her as though she’d asked for fried snake. Ah right. Idiot. Why didn’t I think? “Anything is great, thank you. Sorry.” She cupped the mug in her hand and took a sip. Coffee wasn’t bad. She’d never drunk it before. She always had tea.

  “What are you doing in Wyoming?” he asked as he clattered about in the kitchen.

  “Holiday. Er…vacation.”

  “Skiing?”

  “No.”

  “What else is there to do this time of year?”

  Lili shrugged. It hadn’t been her choice. It never was. Though it was a working holiday for Dieter, who wasn’t a guy to waste time.

  “Where are your clothes and your purse?”

  “In Jackson Hole. My passport and money, too.” Not that she ever had much money in her purse.

  “How are you going to get them back?”

  The weight of what she’d done crashed down on her like a wrecker’s ball. Why hadn’t she thought before she’d run? She never wanted to see Dieter again and now she had to, unless her father could sort something out. Except she already knew what he’d say.

  “Is there anyone you can call?” Grant asked.

  “Ghostbusters?”

  He gaped at her and then laughed. “Apart from them.”

  She loved his smile. “I could call my father.”

  He put his phone on the table. “Go ahead.”

  Her fingers shook as she picked it up, tapped in the numbers, and held it to her ear.

  “Hello?” said her mother and Lili’s heart sank.

  “Liliane! Wherever are you? Dieter has been frantic, calling to see if we’ve heard from you. What on earth were you thinking, walking out like that? This is not the behavior we expect from you. You’ve let us down. Again.”

  “I…I….” She swallowed hard as her chest tightened.

  “Ring Dieter at once and he’ll come and collect you.”

  “I don’t want to,” she said quietly.

  “Don’t be ridiculous. You’ve argued, you can make up. Call him.”

  “Can I speak to Papa, please?”

  “No, he’s busy.”

  She swallowed hard.

  “Where are you? I’ll call Dieter,” her mother said.

  “He’s still hitting me.” She kept her gaze down but could feel Grant watching her.

  Her mother sighed. “Well, I expect you sometimes deserve it.”

  The chill that snapped through her then was worse than the snow had caused. She’d plucked up the courage to speak the truth, and that was what she got?

  “No, Mama,” she said quietly. “I don’t ever deserve it.” She switched off the phone, put it down, and stared at it. “I don’t want her to call back.”

  “She won’t be able to. My number’s blocked.” He came to the table with two plates of pancakes, cutlery, and a bottle of maple syrup.

  He sat opposite, and reached across the table to lift her chin with his thumb. “No one deserves to be hit,” he said and let her go.

  Panic built inside her like a tower of bricks, one block after another rising up her throat until she could barely breathe. What am I going to do?

  Grant tipped up the bottle and let syrup cascade onto her pancakes. He cut off a small piece and held it to her lips. “You have to eat. You need something sweet.”

  She did her usual trick of imagining herself getting smaller and smaller. Maybe she’d shrink enough that she could slip through a crack in the floor and disappear.

  “You should have let me die,” she whispered.

  “If you don’t eat those pancakes, I’ll kill you. How about that? And don’t feed the wolf, no matter how longingly he looks at you. Eat.”

  Lili opened her mouth and took the food from his fork.

  Grant’s ordered life was dissolving around him. When Lili dropped the mug Serena had made, a piece of his heart shattered. But it was as much his fault as hers. Last night, she’d hardly been able to move her fingers. He could have given her another mug, but no, he’d chosen that one. He was relieved when she picked up her knife and fork and began to eat. Had her mother actu
ally said to her that she deserved to be hit? Why the fuck tell your child that?

  She was still working at the pancakes long after he’d finished. He poured himself another coffee and sat back down.

  “Are you counting the number of times you chew?” he asked.

  She shot him a guilty look.

  Christ. “You don’t have to eat all the pancakes. I’m not really going to kill you.”

  Her lips curved in a smile. “They’re very good.”

  He sipped his drink. “What do you want to do?”

  She lifted her head to look straight at him, and he was gripped with a surge of desire so strong, he almost spat out his coffee. He wanted to whisk her back into bed and show her what he wanted to do.

  “When?” She pushed herself up and carried her plate to the sink.

  He turned and watched her, not blinking as she bent to knock the remains of the pancakes into the trash. Down, boy. What had he asked her? She came back to the table and took his plate away. Why hadn’t he left just a fraction of food so she had to bend over again?

  “What’s the plan?” he asked, when she sat down.

  “Now, this minute, today, this week, this year, in my life, after I’m dead?”

  “How about in your life?” He figured that might be the easier option.

  “Find my Prince Charming, go places, see things, make a home, have children, watch them grow, then die of old age as the sun sets, with the man I love holding me tight. And after I’m dead—nothing.”

  He blinked.

  “Too much?” she asked. “I just want to be happy.”

  “Then all that comes before is finding a way to make that happen.”

  “That’s the hard part. Too many obstacles. And I might die at sunrise, not sunset. I’ve always been awkward. And what if there is such a thing as reincarnation? What if I came back as a snake? I’d be so disappointed.”

  He snorted. “And your perfect guy might be out playing golf.”

  “My perfect man won’t play golf. Do you p…play golf?”

  “No.”

  “Oh.”

  “Not in the snow.”

  Her face lit in laughter, and he watched her opening up like a flower in the sun. He thought he’d worked out what had happened. She’d come on vacation with a guy who abused her and had finally found the courage to run. Accepting a ride from a trucker with another agenda had landed her in this cabin and now she was stuck with no clothes, no money, no passport, and no ticket home.

  He pushed himself to his feet and put the syrup back in the cupboard. Her problems weren’t his. He ought to drive her to town and leave her for the sheriff to sort out. Why was he even thinking of doing something different? When he glanced at her, he found her staring at him. The twisty feeling in his gut had to be annoyance, didn’t it?

  “I feel safe here,” she whispered. “As if I’m learning to breathe again.”

  He sat back at the table.

  “Can I stay? Just for a while. I won’t be any trouble.”

  While she was half-naked she would. Maybe even with clothes. Probably tempt him in a suit of armor. Why couldn’t she have been ugly? I am fucking shallow.

  “And after you’ve stayed here for a while?” he asked.

  “I’ll…ask my parents to send me a ticket home.” She put her hand on the table. “I’m sorry for involving you in this. Thank you for not calling the police. Thank you for looking after me. A few days and I’ll leave, I promise.”

  Her hand lay there and Grant told himself to take it, but just as he’d decided he would, she pulled it back and straightened.

  “Okay,” she said quietly. “I understand. Thank you anyway. Sorry to be a nuisance. I shouldn’t have run. It was a mistake.”

  He stood up and scraped his chair back on the boards. “You can’t go anywhere without clothes and shoes. I’ll drive to a store and buy you some. What’s your shoe size?”

  “An…eight.”

  The wide-eyed gratitude on her face sent heat coiling low in his belly.

  “Is there anything particular you need?” he asked. “Any…female stuff?”

  She shook her head.

  “Open the door every now and again to see if Shadow wants to leave, but I have a feeling he’d prefer to stay with you.”

  She glanced out of the window. “Can you drive in this weather?”

  “Yes.”

  He tucked the phone in his pocket, put on his boots and coat, and grabbed his hat from the stove. “Don’t throw a party while I’m gone.”

  “You’re no fun.”

  Grant walked back to her and stroked his thumb along her jaw. “I can be.”

  The moment seemed to hang between them and then Shadow let out a rumbling growl.

  “Look after Lili, you hear?” Grant said and escaped before he threw her on the floor and fucked her senseless.

  Chapter Three

  Grant shuddered when he walked outside, and it had nothing to do with the low temperature. He was an idiot. Instead of driving miles to buy her clothes, he should be taking her to Evans Point and letting someone else deal with this. He knew nothing about her. She could be lying through her teeth—she’d already tried—and he’d just agreed to let her stay with him for a few days. Why?

  He stamped through the snow and dragged the blower from behind the wood store. How could a woman wearing his shirt look so sexy? Or was it because he kept thinking that his shirt was the only thing she wore? She might not have meant to wave that hot little ass in his face, but the temptation to put his mouth on her butt and bite kept sending his brain on a detour from reality. He ached with desire and it annoyed him because it made him feel vulnerable and reckless. That wasn’t him.

  The blower fired up first time, and he shifted the drift away from the front of the shed that served as a garage and a place to store nonperishable supplies. Why the hell had he stroked her jaw like that? His fingers still tingled. Everything in his life had its place, and she didn’t figure in it. There would be no sliding his fingers between her legs to feel that wet heat, no cupping her breasts to tease nipples to hardness, no putting his mouth on her—for fuck’s sake.

  She’d tied his nuts in a knot without even trying. Maybe he ought to clear the snow all the way down to the road and then do the highway. He’d be too exhausted to even think about sex. But once the doors were clear, he returned the blower to its sheltered spot, opened the shed, and drove out his SUV.

  The snow had stopped falling and everything looked calm and peaceful, which somehow made his edginess even more irritating. Once he’d closed the shed, he headed down to the road, following the line of the markers he’d knocked into the ground some months ago in preparation for heavy snow. He had an emergency pack in the rear of the SUV in case he had an accident or got stuck. He recalled how Serena had laughed at the way he always made space for it on any journey, teasing him about how he was ready for everything.

  Turned out he wasn’t.

  When he reached the highway, he hesitated. The town plow had cleared it. He could head either way. Fifteen minutes to the left lay Evans Point, the town where he’d been born and raised. He could speak to the sheriff, talk about how to keep Lili out of the hands of the guy who’d hurt her. Or he could delay that conversation and go right, drive a hell of a lot further to the Target store, buy her some clothes, and let her stay with him a while longer. He knew what he ought to do.

  He turned right. Yeah, well I’m an idiot.

  Eventually, he’d have to turn left and come up with some good reason why he hadn’t phoned Jake North last night, let alone this morning. If the roads were clear enough to drive to Target, he could just have easily taken her into town and made it someone else’s problem.

  Instead, he’d made Lili his problem.

  ***

  Lili washed the dishes, dried them, and put them away. Her chin still tingled from where Grant had run his thumb along it. In theory, she shouldn’t be attracted to him because just like Dieter, ever
y inch of the guy screamed power, authority, control. Both men were alphas, tall and dark-haired with strong, toned bodies. They were the sort of guys who knew exactly what they wanted in life and didn’t let anything stand in the way of them getting it.

  But there the resemblance ended. She already knew Grant was kind. Dieter was only kind if he expected to get something out of it. These days she never looked at Dieter and felt her heart jump, except in fear. She never looked at Dieter and wanted to smile for no reason. She never wanted to look at Dieter again, but life wasn’t a fairy tale. Grant wasn’t Prince Charming. They weren’t going to live happily ever after in a little log cabin with a tame wolf. He was probably speaking to the police right now, not buying her clothes.

  She ought to run. She could make something of Grant’s fit her, wear several pairs of socks inside his shoes. But then what? Where could she go without money? Her father would send some if she asked, but she knew who’d be there when she went to collect it. Staying here with Grant wasn’t only what she wanted to do, it was all she could do.

  His kitchen cupboards were full, everything neatly arranged, lots of cans and jars of preserved food, and it made her wonder if he was hiding or preparing for a siege. But he lived out in the middle of nowhere; she guessed he needed to be prepared to be snowed in. She wasn’t prepared at all. If she’d thought about it, she’d have packed her bags, grabbed her purse, and called a cab instead of running off into a blizzard. If she’d used her brain, she’d have not signed that piece of paper yesterday morning, but instead walked out of that building and caught a cab to the airport.

  Shadow whined at the door, and she let him out. He peed against the fence, came straight back inside, and settled by the stove. Would he protect her if someone came? Dieter didn’t like dogs. She imagined his reaction to seeing her with a wolf and smiled.

  In the bedroom, she ran her gaze over the bookshelves. Grant’s tastes were eclectic. He had everything from the classics she’d never got ’round to reading to thrillers that she had. She couldn’t help but notice there were no photos, no personal items. His desk was tidy to the point of spartan. A closed laptop sat in the center, pads of lined paper on the right, a pot of sharpened pencils on the left, and a printer on the floor beneath.