Since he was standing only about a foot away from her, she had to tilt her head up to look at his face.
“Just give me a minute to change into my shirt,” she said, her voice unsteady as she gazed into those amazing blue eyes.
He didn’t reply, so she turned and made her way to the staircase.
Was he watching her? He had to be watching her. What was he thinking? Was he already regretting sending her away or was he happy to be rid of her so easily?
Not pleased about the way things were going, but not seeing a way to change them, she climbed the stairs, and once in the bedroom, she took off his flannel shirt and put on her less than fresh one. Shoving her feet into her flip flops, she took a deep breath, then with a final look at the room, she slung her purse across her body and headed back to the stairs.
As she walked down the wooden steps, she felt his eyes on her, and when she looked in his direction, he didn’t look away. He met her at the bottom, and she noticed that he held a small backpack in his hands.
He stared at her a moment. “Are you sure I can’t give you a ride somewhere?”
Say yes, Shay. Just take the ride. “No. I’ll be fine.” You’re such a liar. Do you really want to walk for who knows how long in those flip flops? With blisters? Hopeful that there would be more traffic at this time of day, she pushed a smile onto her mouth. “Thanks for letting me spend the night.”
Barely nodding, he held out the backpack. “I put some food in there, along with a few water bottles.” Something passed behind his eyes, but she couldn’t tell if it was guilt or relief.
She took the backpack from his hand. “Thanks.” When he said nothing more, she walked the few steps to the front door and pulled it open. Bright sunshine flooded the porch, and as she stepped outside, she held out hope that the man would tell her he’d changed his mind, that she could stay.
When the only sound she heard was the chirping of a bird in a nearby tree, she descended the porch steps and began the walk back to the road.
Josh peered out the window to watch her plod down the dirt road. He’d been mildly surprised when she’d left without an argument. Typically, when groupies approached him, they were persistent. Of course none of them had broken into his house. But when he’d told her she had to leave, she hadn’t cried, begged, or thrown herself at him. None of those things.
The only emotion he’d read was resignation, which was actually kind of weird.
Still, he’d been beyond relieved that she’d left without a fight.
Then he pictured the blisters on her feet and the way she’d seem completely baffled about where she was going to go. What was that all about?
And when he’d offered her a ride—twice—she’d turned him down. Was she going to walk to Burton? It was ten miles away.
Josh thought about her reaction when he’d found her in his bed the night before. She hadn’t seemed happy to see him. It hadn’t seemed as if she’d been waiting for him, known he was going to show up. No. If he had to name the emotion he’d read in her eyes, he would have to say she’d been terrified.
That gave him pause.
Why would a groupie who had tracked him down and broken into his house—slept in his bed!—be terrified when he’d shown up?
He was missing something here. He just didn’t know what it was.
Chapter Five
Plodding along the dirt road away from the man’s cabin, Shay kept her ears tuned to the sound of footsteps approaching, hopeful he’d come after her. But all was quiet. When she reached the paved road, she stopped, then turned to look back the way she'd come.
He had to be watching her, right?
Squinting into the morning light in the direction of the cabin, when she didn’t see him, she scowled.
Nope.
Determined to forget the impossibly hot man as if he’d been someone she'd seen in a dream, she stepped onto the main road and began walking the way she'd been walking the day before.
Guess that dream-man is just as much of a jerk as the creep was.
Then she remembered his offer to give her a lift—twice. Plus the backpack with supplies.
Okay, maybe he wasn’t a jerk. Maybe she was just a prideful idiot for not accepting.
Pain from her blisters emphasized her poor decision in turning down his offer and she briefly considered turning around and going back.
No, she wasn’t going to do that. She was going to keep moving. A car was bound to come along sooner or later.
Sighing audibly, she trudged onward, but twenty minutes later she couldn’t take it any more and she sat on the side of the road to take a look at her poor feet. The two blisters she'd had on her left foot had mated and produced an offspring, and a new pair had appeared on her right foot. Frustrated by her situation, she tore the flip flops off of her feet, stood up, then threw the useless plastic shoes into the forest with all of her might.
Better to walk barefoot than to have the cheap plastic rubbing her tender feet.
Shay set off again, and for the first quarter mile her feet actually felt marginally better. The asphalt was rough, but something about walking barefoot helped her settle into a rhythm. Eventually though, she decided her feet would thank her if she walked on that pine needle carpet instead, so she moved off of the road.
The pine needles poked her feet occasionally, but for the most part it was better than asphalt.
Ten minutes later she realized she hadn’t eaten yet, and the moment she saw a fallen log on the ground, she used it as a bench. Curious what the man had sent with her, she took the backpack off of her shoulders and unzipped the storage compartment. Taking the items out one by one, she took inventory.
Three water bottles.
Two large packages of crackers.
Two deep red apples.
One perfectly ripened banana.
“What, no protein?” Chuckling to herself, Shay silently thanked the man for his thoughtfulness. Will never would have done something like that. No, he would have laughed at her and shoved her out the door without a second thought.
Pushing aside thoughts of her ex, she peeled the banana before taking a generous bite. “Mmm. That’s good.” She polished off the banana and half a package of crackers before downing most of one of the water bottles.
“Okay,” she muttered. “Break’s over.”
She put everything away, careful not to leave any trash on the ground, heaved the backpack onto her shoulders, and continued on. Having a full belly made a big difference, and she found herself moving more quickly.
Where was the next town anyway?
It was then that it occurred to her that she should have asked the man this very question.
She was an idiot. Then she remembered the way the man had looked that morning—shirtless and gorgeous.
Maybe she'd just been distracted.
Deciding to go with that excuse, she plodded on. A while later she heard the heavenly sound of an approaching vehicle. Racing to the road, she frantically waved her arms.
“Hey!” she screamed. “Hey, stop!”
When the vehicle—a beat-up black truck—came into view, then began to slow before pulling onto the shoulder twenty yards in front of her, she thought she was going to pass out with relief. Running towards the truck as best she could with bare feet on asphalt, she could see two men in the truck.
Slowing to a walk, when she was less than ten feet away, the man in the passenger seat opened his door and stepped out. He had a scruffy beard and longish hair, and Shay guessed he was in his thirties.
She stopped.
He looked her up and down. “You need a ride, honey?”
Something about the look in his eyes gave her a sudden case of the creeps and she remembered the jerk from the day before. Still, it was a ride. Maybe he would be okay. “Uh, where’re you headed?”
“Burton.”
“How far is that?” she asked.
“About ten miles.”
“Is that the nearest town?”
She figured she might as well get some information.
“Yep.” Impatience crept over his face. “Are you comin’ or what?”
Perilously torn—did she want to possibly walk another ten miles or did she want to take her chances with a pair of possible creeps?—she hesitated.
“We got places to go,” he said with a grin. “Things to do.”
Shay didn’t always make the best decisions—the situation she was in proved that—but this time she decided to listen to her gut, and her gut was telling her to run away from these guys. Far, far away. “You know, I think I’ll pass. But thanks anyway.”
The man stared at her a moment before looking at his companion, who sat behind the wheel. Then he faced her again. “Now, that’s downright rude. You were the one yelling for us to stop, and then when we take the time to stop and offer you a ride, you say no. What’s your problem?”
The man seemed angry now, and Shay was beginning to feel scared, the same fear she'd felt the day before when she'd decided to flee from Will, like she was in imminent danger. “I’m sorry I bothered you, okay?”
He huffed out a breath. “No, it’s not okay.” He glanced up and down the road, then smirked at her. “There’s no one around. I don’t think it’s safe for you to be out here all by your lonesome.” His head tilted. “I think you should come with us.”
Was he kidding? But she could see by his body language and by the look on his face that he was dead serious. Would he really drag her into his truck?
“I said no.” She made her voice as forceful as she could, but the man just laughed.
“She said no,” he said to his companion.
The driver’s door opened and the driver stepped out. His snug-fitting t-shirt emphasized the way his belly spilled over his jeans, and he looked like he could use a haircut.
Deciding it was time for her to get the heck out of there, Shay turned and began to run back the way she'd come.
All that walking for nothing, she thought as she retraced her steps.
“Come back,” they called after her, but when she glanced over her shoulder, they weren’t chasing her.
Slowing to a walk, she kept looking behind her. They hadn’t moved.
Now what? She was walking in the wrong direction, but she wasn’t about to walk past them. Glancing toward the trees, she knew she could go around them by walking in the forest. But that would mean no chance of catching a ride. And a good chance of running into a bear or something.
Well, crap. This is just great.
So focused on what to do next, she didn’t realize they’d gotten back in their truck and had turned around until they’d pulled up alongside her.
What the heck?
The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as fear slithered inside her.
“Get in,” the driver demanded.
On the verge of freaking out, she backed up a few steps. “Please. Leave me alone.” Tears threatened. Don’t cry! It will make you look weak.
Both men laughed, sending a zing of terror to all of her nerve endings.
In her abject fear, her ears began to ring, which is why she didn’t hear the approaching ATV until it was practically beside her.
“There you are, Shay,” a man said as if he’d been searching for her all morning.
She spun in his direction. A man wearing a ball cap pulled low over his eyes was a few feet away. It took her a moment to realize it was the man from the cabin.
“What?” she said stupidly.
He looked at the two men in the truck, then turned to her. “I’ve been looking for you. Get on.”
He didn’t have to ask her twice. Still numb with fear, as she began to climb on behind him, the men in the truck turned their vehicle around and drove away.
Chapter Six
“Get off,” he said.
Startled, and with adrenaline still pumping through her veins, Shay froze. “What?”
“You heard me.”
More confused than ever, she did as he demanded. Then, still recovering from the scare she'd just had, plus upset over the humiliation that this man was heaping upon her, she turned away from him and began walking the way she'd originally been headed.
She'd walked a good thirty feet when she heard him call, “Where are you going?”
Angry now, she turned to face him. “What do you care?”
He drove the ATV forward, stopping in front of her, blocking her path.
“Leave me alone!” Her voice was tinged with fury, her nerves stretched tight.
“I’d like to talk to you.” His voice was calm.
Widening her eyes and shaking her head in disbelief, she said, “Then why’d you tell me to get off your ATV?”
He smiled, which nearly disarmed her. “Because I want to look at you when I talk to you.”
That made sense in a completely ridiculous way. “Oh.”
He glanced at her bare feet, then one side of his mouth tugged upward. He looked toward the forest, his gaze scanning, then he looked at her. “Why don’t we sit for a minute?”
The man was crazy. Still, when he climbed off of the ATV and walked to a spot under a tree, Shay followed him. And when he sat, she sat too.
“Do you want something to eat?” she asked, then felt like an idiot. What, was she a hostess now? She was in the middle of nowhere. And the food in that backpack was all she had.
“No,” he said. Then he smiled.
She gazed at him—he was wearing a t-shirt that nicely displayed his biceps and ripped chest. And that smile—white, perfectly straight teeth framed by full lips. Holy cow. “Thank you for, you know, saving me from those guys.” Who’d been about to kidnap me.
Just the thought of where she would be at that moment if he hadn’t come along sent a surge of adrenaline pounding through her veins.
“You shouldn’t take rides from strangers.” His eyes narrowed. “You told me earlier that you didn’t need a ride.”
Oh, yeah. That. “Like you said, I shouldn’t take rides from strangers.” A smirky smile curved her mouth. “So how could I take a ride from you? I don’t even know your name.”
He laughed, which made his smile even more gorgeous. Shaking his head, he plucked a long piece of grass from the ground beside him, then he focused on her. “My name’s Josh.”
Josh. She liked the sound of that.
“So, Shay.” He stretched his long legs out in front of him. “Where’re you headed?”
All of a sudden she didn’t want to pretend that everything was fine. Her face kind of crumpled, although she refused to let tears fill her eyes. “I don’t know.”
He cocked his head to one side. “You don’t know?” His gaze went to her bare feet, then back to her face. “Yet you’re walking along this road with nothing but the clothes on your back and the little bit of food I gave you. You don’t even have any shoes.” He shook his head. “Not a great plan.”
He didn’t have to tell her what she already knew, and when he listed it out like that, she felt like a complete loser. She didn’t need to sit there and listen to him make fun of her.
Determined to show him that she could take care of herself—even though that was in serious doubt—she jumped to her feet. “Again, thanks for chasing off those creeps, but I’ve gotta get going.”
He looked up at her, a lazy smile tugging up the corners of his mouth as he placed the stem of grass between his teeth. “Yeah, you don’t want to be late to…” He paused a beat. “Where did you say you were going again?”
Why was she still standing there listening to him poke fun at her? She gazed down at him, his animal magnetism holding her in place. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he was so dang hot and she had nowhere to go.
Using all of her will, she took a step back, then turned and began walking toward the road.
“Shay,” he called, freezing her in place.
She turned in his direction, but didn’t speak.
He stood, tossed aside the piece of grass
, then brushed off his jeans. She couldn’t help it. Her gaze slid from his toes all the way up his sexy body, then to his face, and when she thought of the way he’d been her knight in shining armor—okay, her knight on an ATV—her attraction to him could not be denied.
“What?” she said as he walked towards her, but her voice was softer than she'd meant it to be.
He stopped about eight inches away from her, forcing her to look upward to see his face. “I was just teasing you.”
And? How did that help? “Fine, but I have a long way to go, so I need to get moving.”
He looked at her bare feet again, then met her gaze. “Are you really going to walk ten miles without any shoes?”
A huff of air left her mouth and she shook her head. “Why? Do you have a pair of shoes in my size tucked away in that ATV?” She motioned with her head towards his ATV, which was behind him.
He swiveled in that direction, then turned to her with a half-smile. “Can’t say that I do.”
“Right.” She turned away, ready to hit the road, but when she'd only taken one step, his fingers wrapped around her upper arm. It was as if she'd been burned. The heat from his touch scorched her right to her core and she gasped.
“Hang on,” he said.
He let go, but it was as if that one simple touch had branded her, and she couldn’t walk away if she wanted to. Slowly turning to face him, when her eyes met his piercing blue ones, it was like she was hypnotized by his very presence. Even so, her predicament hadn’t changed one bit and she waited to see what he was going to say.
“Since you’re probably going to hitchhike,” he began, “why don’t you let me drive you to wherever it is you’re going?”
Not liking how vulnerable she was, she placed a hand on her hip. “I don’t know where I’m going, remember?”
He chuckled. “Yes. I remember.”
Looking doubtfully at his ATV, she added, “Besides, I wouldn’t want to ride on that for ten miles.”
Smiling like she was a slow learner, he said, “I meant that I would drive you in my truck.”
Illegal Procedure (Fair Catch Series, Book One) Page 3
