by Kimber White
As I burst out of the doors, thunder cracked and the first fat drops of rain began to fall. Making the last bus went from important to a full-scale emergency. Walking home in the rain at night wasn’t high on my list of favorite things.
As I rounded the corner toward the stop, great sheets started to fall sideways, drenching me from head to toe in less than ten seconds.
“Shit!” I looked up to see the blinking lights of the number seven as it pulled away from the curb. I rebalanced my bag on my shoulder and shouted and waved as I ran toward it. “Wait! Fuck!”
A wave of water splashed up my leg and reached as far as my chest as I stepped in a large puddle. I called out at the top of my lungs but knew it was no use. Iris wasn’t driving tonight and no one else would give me special treatment and wait. That bus was long gone, and I was well and truly fucked. I plopped down on the bench under the bus stop awning. It did little to keep me dry as the rain blew sideways and straight at my face.
Fuck. I hated to do it, but couldn’t see that I had any choice. I pulled my cell phone out of my bag and tried to dial Kendra’s number. She had her car and offered to take me home on a daily basis. I always said no. She was my friend and I’d been honest about where I lived. Still, hearing about my living arrangements and seeing them firsthand were two different things. Oakwood Mobile Home Park fit every stereotype there was about trailer trash, located literally on the wrong side of the tracks. Plus, chances were good if Kendra did drop me off, she’d get treated to the Lori Winslow show. This generally involved my mother, drunk off her ass, wearing nothing but her bra and hot pants, screaming at me about how I was getting too big for my britches. Twenty-four and a half more months. Then, I could leave it behind for good.
It was a good plan and probably would have worked. Except the battery symbol on my phone blinked twice, then the screen went black.
Yes. I was well and truly fucked. I wanted a few minutes, hoping the rain might let up, but if anything it got worse. So, it was three miles and one foot in front of the other tonight. Already soaked to the bone, I supposed it made no difference now. I pulled my hood over my head, heaved my bag across my shoulder, and started toward home.
A little more than twenty-four hours ago, I’d stood in Bas’s glass-walled office. Now, I trudged through the rain and sleet toward the closest thing I had to home, freezing to the bone. I let thoughts of Bas warm me. What was he doing now? I shivered against the cold and tried to conjure the feel of his hands on me, warm and urgent. Pulling the ends of my fleece hoodie closer around me, I tried to stave off the frosty air.
I made it halfway around the block when the sound of my name stabbed through my frigid skin and warmed me from the inside out in spite of the pelting rain.
He pulled alongside me in a slick, shiny black pickup truck as if my thoughts had conjured him into existence. I blinked hard, thinking maybe I’d imagined the whole thing. How could he be right here? Maybe I’d actually fallen down and knocked myself out and this was all just some sort of head trauma-induced hallucination. But, it wasn’t. My eyes might betray me, but the sound of his voice sent a tremor through me. I don’t know what I was expecting. A limo? No. He might be a millionaire, a billionaire for all I knew, but Bas Lanier probably wouldn’t be caught dead in one. He rolled the window down and those flashing blue-silver eyes raised gooseflesh between my shoulder blades.
“Get in,” he said. It was a command, not an offer. I looked behind me, but there was no one in the street but the two of us. A million thoughts ran through my head, but they boiled down to a simple phrase that lit his eyes like wildfire when I uttered it.
“Why, Mr. Lanier, what big teeth you have.”
His grin was wide and devilish as he reached across the cab and opened the door to let me in.
Chapter Seven
I was frozen. Shivering. Soaked to the bone. I tried to keep my teeth from rattling as Bas pulled away from the curb, leaving the bus stop far behind. He kept one hand on the wheel and reached behind him, grabbing a wool plaid stadium blanket out of the back and tossing it toward me. His fingers brushed my cheek when he did it and his brows knit together with concern.
“Jesus, you’re freezing. What the hell were you doing out there like that?”
Any ability I had to come up with a sassy retort skittered right out of my head as I shivered. I peeled off my drenched hoodie and pulled the ends of the blanket around me. As I cast my hoodie aside, I realized it was a Wild Lake Outfitters brand. Bas’s eyebrow raised just a fraction of an inch as he saw it too.
“Th-thanks.” I thought about what to say to answer his question about where I was going. Car trouble? Was there some other white lie I could use to cover up the truth? I was pretty sure the likes of Bas Lanier had never set foot in a mobile home park. The thing is, I wasn’t ashamed. I couldn’t help my mother’s choices, only my own. And I was doing everything I could to get up and out of the hellhole she’d raised me in. But, I didn’t like the looks of disgust or pity that settled on the faces of people who didn’t understand the world the way I did. Those who hadn’t had to claw their way out of something.
I squared my shoulders as best I could, considering how they trembled, and turned to face him. “What were you doing out there like that?”
Bas kept his eyes on the road but his mouth curved into a smile. Again, the memory of how it felt against mine flashed through me, warming me more than the heat blasting out of the dashboard vents.
“I was just in the neighborhood.”
“Right.” It seemed he wanted to keep his own secrets as well. “Well, I was just getting out of class.” My body convulsed and I let out an undignified sneeze, hitting my forehead on the glove box.
Bas’s smile dropped and he reached over to touch my forehead. “Okay, this isn’t funny anymore. Your skin’s like ice. You’re going to end up with pneumonia if you don’t get warm and dry.”
“I don’t think that’s how pneumonia works. You sound like my grandmother.”
“Well, be that as it may, Red Riding Hood, I’m taking you home.”
The ice coursing through my veins wasn’t from the wet clothes. No way in hell would I let Bas drive into Oakwood. No. Fucking. Way.
“I’m not comfortable with that.” It was the best I could come up with to say.
Bas let out an obstinate growl and pulled the car into a nearby carpool lot. This time of night, there was no one else around and the woods fanned out on the other side of it. He jammed the truck in park, unhooked his seatbelt and turned to face me.
“Are you trying to drive me crazy?”
“Am I what?”
“You. Look at you. What the hell were you thinking being out there like that? Never mind pneumonia. Were you planning on walking three miles through that neighborhood alone? This is the shittiest part of town. It’s not safe for you out here alone. Do you have any idea the thousand things that could have happened to you if I hadn’t come along?”
“Wait. What?” The ice in my veins turned to molten lava. “Were you following me?”
Bas blinked hard once, but the stern expression on his face didn’t alter. “Answer me.”
I turned and fumbled with the latch on the door, but Bas had locked it. “Abby,” he said, his voice a touch softer, but still full of command. “I mean it. You could have really gotten hurt. Why didn’t you call someone if you needed a ride?”
I opened my mouth to say a dozen things, then clamped it shut again. His eyes gutted me. They flashed silver and blue, staring hard at me. “My phone died.”
He raised a brow and gave an unconvincing nod. “So with all that rotten luck you had going on, you just thought it would change if you took a stroll through the worst part of town?”
“Why is this any of your business? You don’t even know me. I’m grateful you came along. I mean, I guess. But at what point in our non-relationship did you think it was okay to tell me what to do?”
He shook his head and scratched his chin, considering m
y question. Again, I had the sensation the world had just slowed to a freeze frame. Every sense seemed tuned to him. It was as if things had grown so silent, I could hear his heartbeat thundering in my own ears. He closed his eyes slowly and his nostrils flared. I didn’t know him. Didn’t understand his moods. But, in that fraction of a second I knew as he opened his eyes again and looked at me, he’d made a decision that would change everything.
He leaned forward and put his hands on my shoulders and pulled me close to him. My shivering stopped in an instant. His heat poured into me, setting off hummingbird wings against my heart. “What if I told you I want to make you my business?”
He didn’t give me the chance to answer. At least, not with words. He tilted his head and pressed his lips against mine. I raised a fist, intending to what? Fight him off? Knock some sense into myself? But, as his lips feathered against mine, light at first, then sinking into me, drawing me down into the swirling light of his heated touch, my body gave him all the answers he needed.
Yes. Oh, God. Yes. I wanted him to make me his business. I wanted him to make me his. It went against everything I thought I was. Everything I was trying to do. I couldn’t afford a diversion like Bas. But, my fingers betrayed me as I threaded them through his thick hair, pulling him down even closer. He hovered over me, his lips moving down the column of my throat. The blanket fell away. My drenched cotton t-shirt stuck to me like a second skin. There was nothing to it. My nipples strained against the wet fabric.
He whispered my name as he slid out of his own jacket and pulled me across his lap. I was on fire. Soaked in a different place now. His hands were everywhere, playing across my shoulder, sliding up the hem of my t-shirt. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. A fire woke inside of me along with a powerful hunger. I wanted him.
God, this was wrong. Crazy. This wasn’t me. I didn’t just hook up with random guys on the side of the road. But, as Bas’s fingers skittered along my flesh, reaching up over my rib cage and finding the slope of my breast, a flame lit within me brighter than anything I’d ever known. It felt so good, so right. I groaned as he ran the pad of his thumb across my taut nipple. I arched against him as he slid his other hand beneath my ass and lifted me.
He was smooth and strong, shifting his weight beneath me. In one fluid movement, he vaulted the front seat with me in his arms and we tumbled into the back seat of the cab. I ran my hands along the curve of his strong shoulders, felt the solid muscles of his back as he stretched along the length of me. When I finally came up for air, I cupped his face with one hand and looked at him. His eyes flashed bright blue with an animal light that sent heat spearing through me, settling in the juncture of my thighs. I felt myself arch my back and spread my legs. My sex pulsed with arousal as Bas kept one hand around my waist and the other slid under my back.
“Abby.” His voice was raw with lust, and I knew he struggled to keep his wolf in check. A part of me wanted him to let it out, and I ached from it.
He wanted to say something else, the lines etched across his forehead showed some war he fought within himself. It was the wolf, but it was more. Realization slammed into me. He wanted permission. It wasn’t enough that I moaned and writhed with lust beneath him. He needed the words.
Bas held back. It maddened me. Desire coursed through my veins, and it felt like I had my own beast within me fighting to come out. Whatever he’d done to me, I was ready to throw caution and reason out the window. But, as Bas shifted his weight and watched me, logic seeped in where lust had ruled.
“Wait,” I gasped, struggling to bring myself to a sitting position. My heart thundered in my ears in time with the throbbing between my legs. God, I wanted to throw myself on top of him and straddle him like a wild thing myself. Bas shifted, helping me up.
His chest heaved and his hands trembled a little as he tried to collect himself. His jeans tented from his erection and it took everything in me not to reach across and free it.
“God. I’m sorry,” he said, his voice still ragged as he tried to quell the tide of his own desire. “This wasn’t part of the plan.”
I pulled my shirt down and drew my knees to my chest, squeezing my legs together tight to try and drive away the pulsing need between them. I could barely think straight. But, this was a bad idea. If I threw myself at Bas, I wouldn’t be able to take it back. I just met him. There was a conflict of interest. And, I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that fucking Bas would play directly into Dale’s plans.
“What was the plan?”
The corner of Bas’s luscious mouth twitched as he held back a devastating smile. “There wasn’t one. I swear to God. I just saw you walking.”
“Liar.”
He reeled back as if I’d slapped him and trained his eyes on me. This time, he couldn’t hold back the smile.
“What are you looking for, Miss Winslow?”
“I . . . uh. I just don’t want to be used.”
Bas’s eyes widened and some of the color drained from his face.
“You aren’t. Not by me. I promise you that. But, you need to look out for Dale Thorp and the congressman too.”
My heart sank and a blush of anger rose in my cheeks. Not anger. Embarrassment. Maybe a little shame. There could be no question that Dale had sent me to Bas as some sort of gift. Two minutes ago, I had been willing to play right into his hands. As Bas looked at me with those piercing blue eyes and I could still feel the heat from his skin warming mine, I knew I might still be willing. From the moment he touched me, I craved the man like no other. It thrilled and terrified me. I needed to put some distance between us and fast before I did or said something I couldn’t take back. The rain let up and I closed my fingers around the door handle, intending to step out.
“No!”
I froze. Bas touched my shoulder. “I’m serious about it not being safe for you to walk out there by yourself. I’ll drive you anywhere you want to go.”
Where I wanted to go was anywhere with him. But, I couldn’t give in to that. Not now. Not when I wasn’t sure what that said about me. As he sat there with fire in his eyes, I knew he’d never let me leave without making sure I was safe. It infuriated me and melted me all at once. In the span of a second, I made a choice.
“Fine. Take me home.” I could have lied, had him take me to Kendra’s, back to the library, anywhere but Oakwood. But, it felt important that he see me for who and what I was and where I came from. I wasn’t ashamed. If he were, that would tell me everything I needed to know about him.
I moved back into the passenger seat and Bas got behind the wheel. I pointed the way and he drove me the last mile until we reached the rusted, rickety sign marking the entrance to Oakwood Park. I watched him closely. Bas kept his shoulders square and his eyes straight ahead.
“Turn right at the second stop sign and it’s the last unit on the left. The one with the green shutters.” The shutters that were half falling off, I could have added. But, I didn’t. In another few seconds he’d see it all for himself.
He gave me a nod and drove down the street, sliding the car into park right in front of my mother’s trailer. The lights were dim and the driveway was empty. She probably spent the night at Chad’s house, her latest loser boyfriend.
“Home sweet home. How do you like it?” My tone came out harsher than I intended. I wanted to push him, shock him. Make him betray the judgment or pity I always got when people found out where I lived. He did none of those things. He gripped the wheel hard and turned to face me.
“Are you going to rip my face off if I tell you I want to see you again?”
I don’t know why, but that was the last thing I expected him to say. It shocked me into laughter. “Is it all this?” I spread my hands and motioned toward the double wide.
He cocked his head when he looked at me, giving me an expression very much like a dog when he’s confused by a sharp noise. A blush shot through me straight to my shoes.
“Why do you think it matters to me where you live?”
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“It matters to everyone. Why do you think I’m working so hard to get out? I just don’t have a choice right now until I get through law school. I’m saving up to get a place of my own. And believe it or not, it’s quiet here most of the time. At least when my mom’s out, which is often. So, I can’t screw anything up. Not school. Not my internship. Nothing.”
As soon as I said it, I realized how true it was. Just a few minutes ago, I’d been willing to let wild lust cloud my judgment and put everything I’d worked so hard for at risk. I couldn’t let that happen again. No matter how much I wanted Bas to just throw his arms around me again and kiss away everything I’d just told him.
He nodded and tapped his thumb against the steering wheel. “Well, you’re pretty amazing, Miss Winslow. The more time I spend with you, the clearer that becomes.”
I opened the door and climbed out. It took every ounce of self-control I had not to kiss him goodbye. He unsettled me. Deeply. And I couldn’t help but notice the storm of emotions swirling behind his eyes. He could keep the rest of himself in check, betraying nothing. But those eyes flashed and churned, a window to the wolf inside. But, he kept it hidden for now. I turned and waved as I walked to the crooked porch and slid my key into the lock. Bas waited until I was safely inside. Then, he revved the engine of his truck and slowly backed out of the driveway.
I swear I felt his steady heartbeat in my ears as I watched from the window blinds. It only grew silent when his truck made the turn at the end of the street and drove out of sight.
Chapter Eight
“’It’ll be fun,’ you said. ‘We’ll only stay for an hour,’ you said.”
I threw a peanut shell at Kendra’s head as she reached over me and grabbed two shot glasses, handing one to Darby over her shoulder and lifting the other toward me with a wink. They linked arms and did their tequila shots in unison, right down to the crinkled look of disgust on their faces a split second afterward.