by Sophia Gray
She seemed like a worrying little thing.
“What were you doing out there on the road?” Elle asked me. She had canted her head sideways and was staring at me curiously now. Her eyes flickered to my chest, but didn’t linger.
I hesitated. I wasn’t about to tell her that I was having difficulties with a rival motorcycle club and had likely suffered an attempted murder before she found me. I doubted that would make her feel too good about saving me in the first place. Instead, I tried for a mixture of white lies and partial truths. “I was supposed to be meeting a friend,” I told her cautiously. “An old buddy of mine. But we got into a bit of a spat and we both left angry.”
She frowned. “Did he do that to you?” She gestured towards the bruising on my face and chest.
I shook my head. “No. I mean, I didn’t see who did it, but a friend wouldn’t do that, right?” I offered her a smile, because I was avoiding my suspicions of the truth and trying to put her at ease. Because no, technically, I hadn’t seen who had hit me, and technically, a friend wouldn’t do that. But Shane hadn’t really been my friend in a long time and I wouldn’t put it past him to pull some chickenshit stunt like this.
Something in my words must have struck her as true, because her shoulders relaxed a little and her face didn’t look quite so worried. “So you were on your way home when you were attacked?” she pushed.
I hesitated, trying to think through something plausible. “Yeah, basically. I’m lucky you found me.”
She blushed a little bit. “I didn’t see your car anywhere. Was it stolen?”
I shook my head and decided to answer this one honestly. “No, I was driving a motorcycle. It was parked there in the trees.”
Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. “A little cold for that, especially in a t-shirt!”
I laughed. “Well, I did have a jacket. Bastard must have taken it when he knocked me out.”
She bit her lower lip, something that reminded me of the raunchy dream I’d had of her. I told myself I just hadn’t been laid in a long time. Add that in with being a little loopy and messed up from being sick and injured and of course I’d dreamt of her doing dirty things with me. She was a beautiful woman. I knew her breasts were perky and firm; I knew her legs went on for miles. And I knew I wanted to see if her hips made as good of handholds as I thought they would.
“Do you think your bike’s still out there?”
I paused to think about it. In all honesty, I hadn’t thought much of my bike. Granted, I’d only been awake for a couple of hours maybe and I’d been delirious all of last night, so I really hadn’t had the time to devote to my bike. But now that I was thinking about it, I wondered if it was still there. Damnit, it’s not good to leave it out in the cold like that, I thought, pissed off.
“Probably,” I told her, still annoyed, though not at her. “Probably looks just like your car out there.” I jerked my thumb towards her buried piece of shit that she called a car. If it was anything like I recalled from my feverish night, it had been a real junker. Worn tires, broken window, half-assed heater. Yeah, a real fucking winner. Sure, it had saved my life and I appreciated that fact, but I doubted it would start now after it had been sitting out in the cold like that. Hell, it was a miracle it started when it was warm outside.
“I’m sorry,” she told me sincerely. “Maybe we can go find it?” She flushed and her eyes widened slightly. Quickly, she added, “I mean, once we get out of here, and you probably would want to do that yourself, but if I could give you a ride, not that I would have a ride anyway and—”
She was rambling again, a mile a minute, something she seemed to do when she was nervous. It was kind of annoying, kind of cute. I couldn’t decide which for sure, but I knew I didn’t want to just let her go off on a tangent for the next hour, so I changed the subject.
“Speaking of,” I interrupted. “Where were you heading out so late and in the middle of a damn blizzard?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “I was heading to visit my parents for the holidays. They live in Iowa.”
It was my turn to raise my eyebrows. Iowa? Seriously? “And you were taking that piece of crap out there to Iowa?”
She flushed a little, but pulled her shoulders up defensively. “Yeah, well, it’s better than nothing. And the bus was all full.”
I rolled my eyes. “Okay, fine. I get it. Sometimes you do what you gotta do, but in the middle of a damn blizzard? Wouldn’t your parents rather you just call them, be safe, and promise to visit another time? Like in the fucking summer?”
Elle winced a little at that, then said reluctantly, “Well, the car doesn’t really have air conditioning.”
“Jeez, does that thing do anything well?”
She folded her arms across her chest, which I instantly decided was a good thing. It plumped up her breasts, shoving them together, and confirmed my earlier suspicions that they were full and perky. “It saved your ass!”
For a moment, we were both silent. Then I burst out laughing. “Okay, okay, there is that.” Still smiling, I said, “But saving me or not, you probably shouldn’t have driven that thing out in a blizzard.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “I know. I was supposed to leave, like, three days ago to beat the weather, but then I got a gig and it’s so hard to get one that I had to stay for it!”
“A gig?” I repeated questioningly.
She nodded her head. “Yeah. I, uh, well, I’m a singer.” She blushed.
My mind flashed back to that soft humming sound. Had I heard her? Was that soft, angelic voice hers? It must have been. “Really. Wow, that’s a big deal. How long have you been in the music business?”
She winced at that. “Well, technically, I’m not really in the music business. I’m…I’m kind of a struggling artist, if you know what I mean. It’s really hard to get anyone to notice my music.”
I considered her for a moment, then I said, “That’s strange. Because I really enjoyed your singing last night.”
Her face turned beat red, her eyes going wide. “You heard that?”
I grinned and nodded. “I did. You’ve got a hell of a voice there. I can’t believe that no one’s picked you up yet.”
She smiled and we fell into companionable silence. She really did seem like a sweet little thing, and that made me feel bad for having unwittingly dragged her into my problems. I hoped I could still keep her out of them, though. All I had to do was play this smart.
…
Elle went to check the office and found about what I expected: no working phone. She said the electricity was out there, too, and while there was a generator it looked like it was out of gas. If we were going to find a phone, it wasn’t going to be around here. She suggested we wait out the storm and that they would probably clear the roads and fix the electricity by that time. Unfortunately, that was going to be a couple of days longer in the least, which didn’t sit well with me.
I didn’t have that kind of time.
But I didn’t argue with her. In fact, I agreed it was a good idea and that we should find some food and more blankets. She informed me she’d already found both and we settled down for food that consisted of canned stew. The best of a bad bunch, she assured me.
She said the water was running in the cabin, which was good, but there wasn’t any hot water. We could boil some if we had to, but that was it. I agreed and ended up actually doing that so I could clean myself up in the bathroom. I wasn’t looking too bad, but I hadn’t showered since yesterday morning and doubted that being feverish did me any favors.
When I was done with that, I ended up napping again. I hadn’t meant to, but my body was still recovering from being sick. Elle kept the fire going and around dinner time we had another canned meal.
Under normal circumstances—not that these were exactly normal—I would have found this to be…fun. Or if not fun, sort of enjoyable. Food, water, a hot fire and fresh clothes. Top it all off with a sexy woman that I couldn’t stop picturing naked and it cou
ld have been a lot worse.
All things considered, I was having a damn fine time.
Unfortunately, I knew it had to end soon before things blew up back home. I had to get back to the Lucky Skulls before things ended up badly. But I wasn’t going to get anything done tonight.
We ended up falling asleep that night close to the fire, several blankets pulled over us and additional pillows taken from the back bedroom. Anything to give us a little extra padding and warmth. We shared a blanket out of necessity, but the following morning I woke up with my arms wrapped around her, her legs entwined with mine, and her breasts pressing into my chest. That, I highly doubted, was out of necessity.
I woke up with morning wood and desperately wanted to take care of it. She was sexy as hell, sleeping there in my arms, still wearing only that sweater so her jeans could finish drying. I knew I could probably seduce her. The desire in her eyes the day before told me as much, but I didn’t see the point. Once I got that car out of the snow, I was just going to leave her behind anyway. Fucking her first probably wasn’t going to do me any favors.
Or maybe it’ll get her out of my system, a little voice in my head countered.
I stared down at her wrapped up in my arms, her hair tangled across the pillows spread beneath us, and her lips slightly parted. Oh yes, I definitely wanted to fuck her. I wanted to slide my cock into her pretty little mouth as I’d done in my dream, but I wanted more than that, too. I wanted to be between her legs until she called out my name in ecstasy.
The urge to wake her and seduce her was strong, but the knowledge that it wasn’t fair to her—and damn it, I owed her for saving my life—stayed my desire.
It wasn’t right. So instead, I pulled myself out of her arms carefully, leaving her sleeping beneath the covers. I stoked the fire and made sure it was going strong, then I dressed in yesterday’s clothes and headed outside. I needed to get that damn car uncovered before things got ugly.
Chapter 7
Ciaran
I was cold. I told myself I wasn’t freezing, not yet, but damn if I wasn’t cold. My fingers were numb from trying to dig through the snow. There was more after last night. I’d managed to find a small trowel in the main office when I came out this morning, but it wasn’t as effective as just pulling off great chunks of snow with my hands and arms. But it did keep them from falling off from fucking frostbite.
Not that they still won’t, I thought darkly.
I’d been out here for an hour at least, maybe longer, and the sun was just now beginning to rise between the trees. I knew Elle was probably going to wake soon and would be pissed to see me deliberately ignoring what she’d told me the day before. But I didn’t care. Getting the car uncovered was all that mattered.
If I didn’t get back to the boys soon, bad things were going to happen. I’d already left Shane a free day to tear shit up. I didn’t want to give him any more than that. But if the car didn’t start, I might not have a choice.
Assuming I can even unbury the damn thing.
Despite being out here for so long, little more than the car roof was cleared. I’d started working on the windshield and some of the windows, but I couldn’t reach the other side without clearing the path, so I only had part of the right side cleared. It was just enough to see inside the car and I winced when I did.
There was snow in there, too. It was then that I remembered how Elle’s car had one window that didn’t work and was halfway rolled down. I had no doubt snow had blown and drifted inside, packed in as more and more fell.
Wonderful, I thought angrily. Even if I get the damn thing uncovered, I’ve gotta clear out the inside, too!
I was not happy at the thought. And I didn’t even want to think about the motor. If it was frozen—which it very well might be—then I was in a world of trouble. Bad trouble. I’d have to come up with another solution.
Not that it really mattered. My numb fingers weren’t the only problem I was having just then and it was starting to look like I wouldn’t even get the chance to see the engine, much less get it started.
My vision blurred and I felt woozy. My muscles were becoming lifeless and quickly, pushed to their limits. I’d just made it through a wicked fever and the bruises I’d received after I’d been conked out were making the rest of me sore. My body didn’t appreciate the way I was pushing it so soon after the injuries sustained and I was sure the frigid temperature didn’t exactly tip the scales in my favor.
I was doing my best to power through it, determined to get this car uncovered if it was the last thing I did. That thought was about a minute before I collapsed in the snow, feeling feverish and numb all at once. The last thing I saw was a cloud of my breath in front of my face dissipating to reveal Elle’s spitting mad expression.
After that, I passed out.
…
When I woke up again, the sun was streaming through the gaps in the impromptu window drapes, still gray but definitely stronger. I was lying on the floor, close to the fire, with lots of bedding beneath me and pillows surrounding me. I’d been covered with the blankets we used the night before—and I’d been stripped naked.
For a second, I thought that was curious. What was I doing in a cabin, on the floor, in front of a romantic fireplace, naked?
Not that I was complaining. Whatever happened definitely sounded like a good time. Pity I couldn’t remember. Except then I saw Elle’s curvy, sweater-clad body and I remembered exactly where I was. I remembered the snow outside, the damn car, and of course the fact that Shane had very likely made an attempt on my life when I’d come to talk of peace.
Way to build trust, I thought dryly to myself.
I tried to sit up, but found my body protesting. It was angry with me for my stunt outside—I probably shouldn’t have tried to dig out the car. With relief, I let myself fall back onto the pillows bunched beneath me. I hoped I wasn’t that sick. If I were, I wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
“Oh, you’re awake.”
Elle was looking at me, her hands on her hips and her full, pink lips tugged down in a frown. She reminded me of Ma in an odd sort of way. Not in looks so much as in that annoyed, determined stance. The one that said she seriously disapproved of whatever cockamamie stunt I’d tried to pull. It made me want to laugh because the effect was less intimidating on Elle and more just cute.
Not that I was usually a cute kind of guy, but I’d had dreams of her naked and now that I knew she’d stripped me down…well, cute could be sexy, too, apparently.
“Did you undress me?” I asked, trying not to smirk and not being very successful at it.
Her cheeks flushed a deep red and I knew she had and was embarrassed about it. “You were freezing. I put you by the fire.” She didn’t say anything about the naked.
No longer bothering to try to hide my smirk, I lifted up the covers to check myself. When I put the covers down and looked back over at her. She was blushing furiously now, but I could see I’d made her shift from being just angry with me to being maybe a little hot and bothered.
“Your clothes were wet!” she cried, defending herself.
My smile grew and I folded my arms behind my head, settling further into the pillows. “It’s okay. I don’t mind. You really don’t need an excuse,” I told her cheekily. “If you wanted to see me naked, all you had to do was ask.” I winked at her.
She made a frustrated sound, her cheeks still burning, but her eyes flashing between desire and anger freely. She stomped over to me, wagging her pointer finger at me as she said, “Now you listen here, buddy. I’m not some…some hussy! I didn’t tear off your clothes so we could get it on!”
I raised my eyebrows at her, as though surprised by her words. “No?”
“No,” she confirmed hotly. “I got you undressed because your stupid, macho ass thought it would be a good idea to wander off into the snow and magically sprinkle a little fairy dust to get my car uncovered!” I almost laughed at the fairy dust comment, but held my tongue as she
continued her rant. “I find you out there, you’re halfway to dead again, and I have to haul you back in here! For the last couple of hours you’ve been feeling feverish all over again and—”
At this I actually sat up even though it made my body ache and my head swim. “A couple of hours? What time is it? Tell me it’s still the same day.”
Elle looked like she was debating between being a real bitch to me or coming over to coddle me like a toddler. She settled somewhere between them, coming over to sit beside me. She put a gentle hand on my shoulder and urged me back. I resisted until she told me.
