“I work at the feed store,” the portly man beside her said and pointed toward the sagging, gray shingled building across the way. “This is far as I go, but the bus comes by at two. You can buy a ticket inside the diner.”
“Thank you, I really appreciate it,” she said sincerely.
He gave her a cursory glance. “Do you have money for the ticket?”
She didn’t get a pervy vibe from him with the look and question, only a sincere concern for her. She’d told him she’d been camping with her friend when they’d gotten in a fight, and her friend had left her behind.
“I’ll be fine,” she assured him and pushed the door open. She had at least forty dollars in her pocket; it would get her toward somewhere a little more civilized. If she could find an ATM, she had enough money in her bank account to get her somewhere far from here.
Climbing out of the vehicle, she stretched her cramped muscles before walking toward the diner. The bell overhead rang when she pushed the door open and stepped into the cool, dimly lit building. Across from her was a long counter with stools and an open view to the kitchen beyond. The scent of pancakes, bacon and hash browns frying caused her stomach to rumble eagerly in response. Her mouth watered at the prospect of food and water. She pushed back the straggling strands of her hair, turned toward the booths lining the outside wall, and froze.
Ian lifted an eyebrow at her from the booth at the end of the diner. She assumed her heart would plummet into her feet, instead it gave an excited little leap as she stared at his massive body spread casually within the booth. Instead of being terrified that he’d hunted her down, she found herself relieved. He didn’t make a move to come at her, didn’t say a word, he simply pushed the glass of water sitting before him toward her.
He wasn’t much in the mood for chasing down an unwilling female, not after his endless, sleepless night, and he supposed the cops might frown upon it, but he would if she bolted. He gave her a challenging stare as he waited to see what she would do. He didn’t know much about her, but she wasn’t the type to walk away from a challenge, and given the rumpled and beaten look of her, she could use a break from running.
Paige glanced at the door, but she didn’t see the point in trying to outrun him again. Not when he was sitting there, staring at her like he wanted to throttle her as much as he wanted to kiss her. Not when she could almost feel the heat of his body pressing against hers. Besides, she didn’t think he would actually rip her throat out, and what could he really do in front of all of these people?
With a resigned sigh, she cautiously approached the booth. “I thought you might like some water,” he said and gestured at the glass.
She slid into the seat but didn’t take hold of the water. “How did you know where I was?”
A smile played at the corners of his mouth; he folded his hands before him as he leaned forward on the table. “I’ve known where you were since the second you climbed out the window.”
She hadn’t been overly angry, and not really astounded to see him here, but her chin jutted out at his statement. “Then why didn’t you stop me?”
“I told you, you’re not a prisoner.”
“So you’re going to let me get on that bus?”
The smile slide from his face; a muscle in his cheek jumped. “I’m going to ask you to do me the favor of staying for, at most, another week.”
Unable to resist the lure of the ice water anymore, she grabbed the glass. She downed the water in one, long swallow. She didn’t think she’d ever tasted something so crisp and refreshing before. Staring at the ice cubes at the bottom of the glass, she lifted it up and shook a couple into her mouth. She would take every drop of water she could get right now.
Placing the glass on the table, she sucked on two of the cubes as she focused on him again. “Why do you want me to stay?”
Ian folded his hands before him. He hadn’t known what to do when she’d climbed out the window; he’d almost grabbed her and dragged her back, but he’d realized allowing her to get a taste of freedom may make her trust him a little more. He couldn’t let her get on that bus, not yet. “So I can make sure my family is safe.”
“What will you do if I say no?”
He pressed his hands flat against the table. “This is my family. My older sister is pregnant, some of my siblings are still only children. I’m asking you to give them time, to give me time to make sure they’re safe. I saved your life, I’ve kept you protected, you may not like my kind, but I have never wronged you.”
Words stuck in her throat as she gazed into his intense eyes. Everything he said was right. Everything she knew about him warred with everything she’d thought she’d known for the past four years. “Paige…”
“Can I get you anything?” The waitress arrived in time to cut off whatever Ian had been about to say.
Ian leaned back in his seat and draped his arm over the back of the booth. He tried to appear as casual as possible, but inside he was a seething mass of turmoil. He was concerned about more than getting her to stay because of his family. He couldn’t deny the lingering hurt he’d felt ever since he’d heard the window open and listened to her climb out. He’d believed he’d been making headway with her; it stung to know he’d been completely wrong.
No matter what, he couldn’t let her know what was going on inside of him. She had to stay with him. She couldn’t realize he was fighting the urge to tear this whole diner apart with his bare hands, throw her over his shoulder, and drag her kicking and screaming back to the cabin. That would be the sure way to guarantee her hatred of him, but it would also make him feel a little bit better to exert his dominance over her and make her realize she couldn’t escape him.
A tingle of unease slid through him at the thought. Of course she could escape him, he planned to set her free when everything was settled with his family, and the vampire who had attacked her. He refused to think about why that thought made his hands fist on the table.
The waitress’s eyes slid to him; her mouth curled into a pretty smile as her gaze slid hungrily over his muscular form. She moved in such a way that she somehow managed to shove her ample breasts upward. Paige fought against groaning and rolling her eyes, but she found herself itching to punch the woman in her jaw even more.
“Order whatever you want,” Ian said to her.
The waitress didn’t look in her direction. Paige didn’t blame her; she knew she could give Pig Pen a run for his money right now. She obviously wasn’t much competition for someone like Ian. It still made her teeth grind together as the pretty woman undressed him leisurely with her eyes, and he smiled sweetly back at her.
“I’d like an order of pancakes, sausage, wheat bread, a coffee and another glass of water,” Paige said.
The waitress finally, reluctantly looked at her again. A haughty expression crossed her face as her gaze ran dismissively over Paige. She scrawled down Paige’s order before turning back to Ian. “And for you?” she inquired with a flutter of her lashes.
“I’m all set,” Ian replied with a grin.
The woman finally turned away and strolled through the diner toward the grill. Paige scowled after her retreating back before reluctantly turning to Ian again. “Do all women throw themselves at you?” she demanded.
Ian’s gaze raked over her flushed face, damp hair, and the smear of dirt across the bridge of her freckled nose. Despite her disheveled appearance, he still found her completely alluring. “You don’t.” She tapped her fingers on the table. “So Paige, what is it going to be? I promise not to hurt you.”
She glanced out the dust streaked window to the dirt parking lot. “I don’t think you’ll hurt me,” she admitted.
He leaned to the side to get her to look at him again. “Then why did you run?” he asked when he finally had her attention once more.
“Because.”
“Because of what happened, or almost happened between us?” he pressed. Paige fought against the blush creeping up her neck and into her cheeks. �
�I’ll stay away from you. I didn’t mean to frighten you, I won’t do it again; I promise.” The thing that staggered her most wasn’t his promise, but the intense feeling of disappointment accompanying his words. “You can trust me.”
“I know.” She hadn’t realized she was going to say those words until they were already out of her mouth. She hadn’t known she believed them until she’d spoken them. “I know.”
His shoulders slumped in relief at her words. She hadn’t run because she feared him, she’d run because she feared the way he made her feel. The urge to destroy something dissipated faster than the click of a second. She did trust him, she just didn’t trust herself. “Then help me, by staying with me.”
All she’d wanted was her freedom in the beginning. In the woods, she’d been convinced she’d made a mistake. Sitting across from him, she knew she couldn’t deny him. All he wanted was to protect his family, how could she say no to that? He’d never hurt her and he’d had plenty of opportunity to do so. How could she tell him she didn’t care what happened with his loved ones just because the way he made her feel terrified her? She’d never been a coward; she wasn’t about to start being one now.
She took a deep breath before giving a brisk nod. She was saved from having to speak by the arrival of the waitress with her coffee and water. Paige drank down her other glass of water before turning her attention to the warm coffee. “Why did you let me get so far?” she inquired.
“Because you had to know.”
“Know what?”
“That I could have stopped you, by force, right in the beginning, but I’m putting my trust into you also.”
Paige sipped at her coffee. “Fair enough. And what would you have done if the man who drove me here had kept driving?”
“I would have kept following you. Hitchhiking probably wasn’t the smartest idea on your part,” he admonished.
She shrugged. “I can take care of myself.”
“Against a gun?”
She threw her shoulders back and sat up straight in the booth. “I’ve been training to fight for the past four years.”
“No human can fight a bullet.” Her jaw locked; she didn’t say anything as the waitress arrived with her plates of food. “I’ll teach you some things, if you’d like,” he continued after the woman walked away.
“What would you teach me?” she asked as she began to pour maple syrup over her pancakes.
“You’ve had no training with an actual vampire.”
“No, I haven’t.” She returned the half empty container of syrup to its holder and grabbed her fork.
“Thought so.” He leaned back in the booth.
“Why would you help train me to kill your kind?”
“I dislike the killers amongst us as much as you do. I’ve had a couple of bad run-ins with them too. I’d also like to see you live to thirty.”
“So would I,” she muttered before finally diving into her fluffy pancakes. She didn’t think it would happen, but she wasn’t going to admit that out loud. It would be good to actually work with a vampire, to learn how they reacted and moved. “I think I’ll take you up on that.”
She tried not to think about what such close proximity to him would be like, but she found her mind entirely focused on it as she munched on her bacon. “Can you at least tell me where we are now?” she asked.
“You didn’t ask the man in the car?”
“No, I made up some crappy story for him. Asking him my location didn’t exactly fit into my tale.”
“This town is Cordia, it’s a small town in the Cascade Mountains.”
“Oh.” She glanced around before leaning closer. “Are we still in Oregon?”
“We are.”
“Good to know.”
“I’m going to see about getting us a ride back to the cabin,” he told her. “I saw a pickup for sale at the garage across the street. Can I count on you not to run off?”
She scowled at him and grabbed another piece of bacon. “Apparently, I could never run fast enough,” she replied.
He laughed and slapped his hands on the table as he rose. “No, you couldn’t,” he agreed.
Paige watched him walk down the aisle toward the front door. She wasn’t the only one watching him as the waitress and a couple of female patrons undressed him with their eyes. They were practically salivating as they leaned back on their stools to watch his ass go out the door. Her hand curled around her fork; she scowled at them before spinning around in the booth. She’d been running away from him, and now she was contemplating using her fork as a murder weapon. It may only be one week, but she’d almost definitely lose her mind by the end of it.
She focused on finishing off the rest of her meal as she watched him walk across the dirt parking lot through the window. He jogged across the street and over to a rusted Dodge pickup truck that had seen better days in the eighties. The truck’s bed sagged, its body had more dents in it than the golf ball retrieval machine on a driving range, but there was something about the vehicle she liked. Apparently Ian felt the same way as he walked around the vehicle before peering inside. A man with graying hair poking out from around his baseball cap approached him.
She finished off her breakfast while she watched them talk for the next ten minutes. In the meantime, she ordered another glass of water and a muffin from the waitress when she returned. Paige turned back around to see Ian handing the older man some cash before closing his wallet. At least he paid for it, she thought. He could have used his ability of mind control to bend the man to his will and walk away. He really was a better man than many of the ones she’d encountered in her life.
Ian looked up at her and happily waved the keys in the air. Paige couldn’t help but laugh at the devilish and carefree smile on his face. If she’d never known what he was, she would have understood why all of those women threw themselves at him and practically salivated over him. His easy-going demeanor, love of life, and stunning good looks were an irresistible combination. Mix that with his reputation for being impossible to nail down…
Well, he’d been easy enough for a lot of women to nail, just not more than once, and he’d been an irresistible magnet for women who believed they could change him.
She had no delusions about changing him; she didn’t even want to think about doing that. She liked him the way he was. Ugh, she groaned inwardly. What was she thinking about? She didn’t care if he changed his ways or not; she was keeping her distance from now on. She nervously licked her lips as he jumped into the cab of the pickup with the enthusiasm of a five year old on his birthday.
Ian parked the truck in front of the diner and hopped out. He glanced at the window where Paige sat before walking around the vehicle one more time. The old man had been a stickler on the price, but he’d finally gotten him to come down to six hundred for the vehicle. It wouldn’t make it cross country, but it would be good enough to get them around town for a bit, and back to the cabin. The cloth seats had stuffing poking out of them, the cloth on the ceiling hung down in the middle to brush against his head, and the struts and shocks were shot. There was something about the vehicle he liked though.
His gaze went back to Paige. The color had left her face, and she now had a haunted look about her that caused him to pause. She hastily looked away from him and lifted her glass to her mouth. He didn’t think about what would happen when she finally did leave. The idea only caused his blood to run cold. Instead, he focused on the here and now; it had always been the way he lived his life and he planned to keep it that way.
Chapter Twelve
Being face down in the dirt wasn’t where she’d planned to be; however, that was where she continuously found herself over and over again. She glowered at the pair of battered sneakers that stepped into her line of vision. She was becoming far too familiar with what those sneakers looked like up close and personal. The smear right there across the top of his toes was like a bull’s eye. Before she knew what she was doing, she punched him on it. She felt like
a child, but for a brief moment she actually felt a spurt of satisfaction.
His laugh only infuriated her and doused her enjoyment. His eyes twinkled with amusement when he knelt down to look at her. “Now you’re getting it a little,” he said.
She hated that he still looked so clean and dignified while she felt like a dirty, sweaty, hot mess. There were wet rats that looked better than she did right now, she was certain of it. Putting her hands underneath her, she pushed herself up. Her arms shook with exhaustion, but she refused to admit defeat.
“Getting what?” she grated.
“Playing dirty is the only way to play.” He danced beyond her grasp when she released an infuriated shout and lunged for his lower legs. “Even I will fight dirty when it becomes necessary. As a human, it’s always necessary for you.”
Climbing to her feet, she forced her tired legs to stop shaking as she turned to face him. No sooner had she found him than he became a blur of motion again. She felt his hands in her back, but he didn’t shove her down. To be fair he’d had yet to make her fall over. It was her own awkward movements, and diving attempts to catch him, that had caused her constant contact with the dirt.
“Are you doing this to prove a point?” she demanded.
“What point would that be?”
She jumped when his breath whispered against her ear. She swung out in an attempt to connect with him, but he was already gone again. “That you’re stronger than me, faster, more powerful. That you can do whatever you want to me.”
“I think you’ve already gotten that point,” he taunted. She turned again, but this time he remained standing behind her. She tilted her head back to look up at him as he towered over her. “I’m trying to make you think ahead. The best weapon you have against a vampire is to outmaneuver them. They already know they’re stronger and faster than you, they’re counting on it. What they’re not counting on is you outthinking them. It’s the only real weapon you have. Don’t let your emotions rule you. Concentrate. Let your instincts guide you.”
The Vampire Awakenings Bundle: Books 1-5 Page 96