by M. L. Briers
“What’s wrong with your shoulder?” How had he missed that one? He believed he’d done a thorough examination of her injuries.
“I guess it got yanked a little when you saved me.” She saw his lips thin and he blew another sigh down his nose with a small shake of his head. He looked angry, but at what she wasn’t sure. “Thanks for saving me, by the way. Who knew the ground did that? Tried to swallow you whole?” She tried to give a small shrug off her shoulders and the pain made her wince.
“Everybody.” Isaac said in an assured tone. His eyes flicking back up to her face to take in the wince of pain.
“Not quite everybody…” She assured him. Moving in the bed and trying to push up with her good elbow to a sitting position. It felt a little weird, lying in a strange bed, in front of a strange man… stranger, she meant stranger. He wasn’t strange, well, if you transplanted him to the city he might have appeared a wee bit out of place…
“You should have been told not to go to Craggy Point, all outsiders are informed.”
“Oh sure. Someone did mention something about Craggy Point…” She was sure she’d heard that name before as a warning. Around about the same time as being warned of cattle in fields, a private estate nearby that she shouldn’t venture near and something about going out at night and a pack of wild dogs…
“There you go then. You were warned and yet you went there anyway…” His tone was a little too authoritarian for her liking. He’d reached for her to help her get to a sitting position and now she wished his hands weren’t touching her. The fact that he’d practically lifted her from the bed into a sitting position up against the pillows made her gasp out. Or was it the fact that her body flushed with heat at his touch, or his words…?
“Because, I’m the local Isle expert and I know where Craggly Point is.” She bit down on the annoyance that rose within her. She’d screwed up, she could admit it, but he didn’t need to berate her like a five year old.
“It’s Craggy Point, and you should have taken note of the signs.” He informed her and she flushed again. The man had a way of making her feel as if she were a small, naughty child that had been caught with her hand in the damn cookie jar.
“There were no signs.” She assured him and he pulled back from her slightly. But he didn’t go far. His knuckles pressed down into the mattress beside her as he leaned down.
“There-are-signs.” He said it slowly like she was a grade A idiot and she felt every word as if it were aimed right at her irk gene. Kerry locked eyes with him, a small quiver of her upper lip as she debated what to do next.
CHAPTER TWO
A small squeak of annoyance rolled up from her chest and she bit down on it. This man might be the most annoying twit she had ever met in her life, and she lived in a metropolis and being an annoying twit in the city was kind of a badge of honour to most men there, but he had saved her life. It might have been considered rude to toss him the finger and tell him exactly what she thought of him in that very moment in time, or at least, that was the way she saw it whilst sitting in his bed.
“Well I saw no signs.” She had to remember to be polite, or more importantly, she had to remind herself to be polite.
“Then perhaps you should have your eyes tested, because there are signs.” He pulled back away from her and she ground her teeth together. Mentally biting her tongue didn’t come easy for her, living in a city meant she didn’t have too, nobody bit their tongue, and from his manner she guessed that living on this Isle meant he could act anyway he damned well chose…
What she really wanted to do was get out of his damn bed, grab him by the nether regions and yank him back to that stupid human swallowing earth point where she could damn well point out that there weren’t any stupid bloody signs! But… she wasn’t going to do that. Not right at that moment in time anyway. Not with the bloody bongo man that was still hammering away in her head.
When he crossed his arms over the broadness of his chest and stared down at her with a look that said victory, smug victory at that, she squeaked again at the injustice of it all. If she did managed to find one of his bloody signs she was sure to know exactly where to shove it… But until then…
“I should be leaving…” Kerry tossed the covers back away from her and squealed long and hard as she realised that from the waist down she was devoid of outdoor clothing. Yanking the covers back up her body, right to her neck she squished down in the bed as her cheeks turned the colour of a red rag, and she was the damn bull. “Who the hell undressed me?” She demanded and saw him give her a perplexed look.
“ I did…” Isaac offered, as if that was an everyday occurrence, the norm, normal bloody behaviour for a grown man to be doing, and she seethed with the knowledge that this overgrown playground bully had seen her naked, nearly naked, too naked for her liking…
“Why the bloody hell did you do that?”
“I needed to check your injuries, as you were passed out and couldn’t tell me…” He narrowed his eyes on her and considered her response. He guessed it was to do with the fact that humans seemed to have a problem with their bodies. Lycans had no such problem, nakedness was to be expected as an everyday occurrence, and he hadn’t exactly seen her naked, yet.
Kerry considered his answer. It sounded reasonable, well not reasonable, he’d undressed her while she was sleeping… but reasonable to assume that was why he’d done it. Besides, she still seemed to be wearing her damned underwear, that was a bonus, she guessed, and he hadn’t really seen much more than a bikini would show, but still…
“Oh…” She muttered finally, and only because he seemed to be waiting for a response to his statement. “Where are my clothes?”
“My sister took them to wash. They were covered in mud, but she left you that.” He motioned towards the chair and what looked like a skirt. Great, because she wouldn’t freeze to death in that. Kerry forced a smile onto her lips.
“Thank her for me.” She added to go with the smile and then waited expectantly for him to leave the room. He didn’t move. She looked about her due to the long awkward silence between them what else could she do?
“I thought you wanted to get up?” He offered and she sighed, it might have been internally or she might actually have let it slip from her lips, she couldn’t be sure.
“I do.” She offered back to him and he nodded, but again he didn’t make an effort to get his backside out of the room.
“Let’s be having you then.”
Kerry snapped her head back on her neck and regretted it when the bongo drums started up again. “Excuse me?” What was that supposed to mean?
“Up you get. I’ll make sure you’re steady on your feet.” Isaac wondered if the woman was all there in her mind after all. She seemed a little slow on the uptake. But that could have been due to her head injury.
“I can manage. Thanks.” Kerry knew he’d seen her naked before, but that didn’t mean she was going to climb out of bed and start a floorshow for his viewing pleasure. She wasn’t that grateful he’d saved her life.
“Is there a problem?”
“Yes.”
“And that would be?” He narrowed his eyes and angled his head towards her as if he didn’t want to miss her answer.
“You.” She saw his frown descending again. Those dark eyebrows met somewhere in the middle over his nose and he looked at her as if she’d just grown another head, or maybe she was just speaking a foreign language, which was highly probable considering where she was.
“I’m the problem?”
“Big one.” Kerry mumbled her words but she knew he’d still be able to hear her as long as his hearing was halfway decent, and from the way his eyebrows were now dancing over his eyes, he’d heard her.
“Would it make you feel better if I closed my eyes?” He was teasing her now, as he’d already seen her with half of her clothes off she supposed he felt the point was moot, but it wasn’t, she hadn’t known he was looking when he was looking, there was a big difference�
� Kind of…
I’d feel better if you shoved your head up your big old backside… She thought it might be a little impolite to say that one aloud. She went to open her mouth to deliver a more subtle version of that thought when another one of him appeared in the doorway. Not quite a Xeroxed version, but an obvious sibling. They were too similar to be anything else.
“How’s the patient?” Joel’s deep tone matched his brothers. He propped up the door frame with one large shoulder and peered at her curiously from across the room. At least he wasn’t encroaching on her personal space, Kerry told herself as her rescuer turned only his head towards him.
‘Human.’ Isaac offered through the link that they shared with an element of exasperation. His mate was a little flaky in his opinion, but he wasn’t about to offer that to his brother for his eternal amusement. But she was human, female and from the mainland, which probably explained why she was a little skittish.
“I was just about to leave.” Kerry offered Isaac an expectant look. How dumb was he? She certainly wasn’t about to get out of bed now that there were two of them.
“We’ll leave you too it then.” Joel noted the way Isaac’s head twisted around on his neck towards him. A questioning look on his face. “The lass needs some privacy.” Joel explained. He was after all, more used to dealing with human females than his brother.
“She’s my m…” Isaac ground it out and Joel rushed to silence him.
“Responsibility, yes, I know. But give her a minute, she’s probably shy.”Joel offered diplomatically and before his brother could blurt out the word ‘mate’.
Isaac reluctantly turned on his heels and stalked towards his brother. Even though Joel pulled back and gave him room to depart, Isaac still shouldered him out of the way. He wasn’t impressed by his brother’s interference, but perhaps where human females were concerned he should defer to his brother’s experience, at least until he’d mated her.
Kerry watched Joel reach in with a large grin on his face and pull the door closed behind them, leaving her finally alone to enjoy her misery. The first thing that came to mind was… wow! The second, oh boy! And the third, I can’t believe there are still men like that around in this century! The man was practically obsolete where she came from. It was as if he was the Alpha male, the lord of the manner, the butthead from a really bad B-Movie.
Kerry pushed the covers back and eased her legs over the side of the bed. She would have preferred to jump right up and out of the bed, pull on the skirt, and hightail it right out of the door and away from him, but that wasn’t going to happen with the way her ribs were aching and her shoulder protested. The guy playing the drums had eased up a little though.
She looked down at the black lace panties she’d decided to wear under her jeans today and sighed. Why hadn’t she chosen the ugly flannel elephant pants? Or even the men’s briefs that she favoured with jeans? At least he would have seen less of her that way. It was as if Fate had played a cruel trick on her. The one day she decided she needed a little bit of spice in her life and what could it hurt under her jeans? She’d flashed them off to a stranger. Sod’s luck, because she didn’t believe in Fate.
He had saved her life though. She should cut him a little slack for that. Without him she’d probably be dead, or worse, injured and trapped down a large hole with no way out and no one to notice she was missing. And he did have nice eyes…Nice eyes? That’s a good reason to flash your knickers at a man! Heaven help her. But then she hadn’t exactly flashed them, he’d just looked. She took a moment to wonder how he’d looked. Was he interested? Was it a clinical look?
Oh gee Gods, woman! Get a grip! Why did it matter how he’d looked? If he liked what he saw. He was male; two sheep mating probably got him aroused!
Kerry pushed up from the bed with a little more gusto than she should have. Her injuries had been forgotten for the moment as she berated herself. A pained moan escaped her lips as her head throbbed with the beat of her heart and her ribs protested the movement.
“Are you alright?” The deepness of his voice boomed through the closed door, into the room and registered with her mind and body as if he’d been standing right there beside her. She jumped and made for the skirt on the chair on slightly wobbly legs.
“Fine.” She bit out quickly. Not wanting him to open the door and find her still in the state of undress in the middle of the damn room. With shaking hands she managed to find the waistband of the soft material and rushed to step into it. Her foot got caught up in the material and she squeaked out in surprise as she tipped backwards.
The floor greeted her backside with a thump that she really didn’t need and she cursed out, but what she didn’t need more was the bedroom door being flung open and the man mountain stalking towards her on long legs that ate up the distance between them. He narrowed those eyes on her. She squeaked again. This isn’t happening to me!
“Let me help you.” His words might have offered but he didn’t wait for her reply. Leaning down, he didn’t just help her to her feet; he wrapped an arm around her back and one under her legs and lifted her from the floor against him. Picking her up and carrying her back to the bed, and all the while the damn skirt still wrapped around her ankles. Oh the shame of it. All Kerry wanted was for the ground to open up again and swallow her whole. Well, maybe not after the last time, but come on, this was just adding insult to injury, and she had another one of those on her backside to add to the list too.
Isaac felt her back in his arms where she belonged and he felt more settled by her presence. The beast within him had been pacing inside as he’d paced outside the bedroom door. She was his mate, he needed to take care of her and yet she was stubbornly independent. He knew it was due to her human nature and the fact that she didn’t quite recognise his role within her life yet, but she would. She had to accept who she was to him…
Kerry felt the warmth of his hand against the backs of her legs and it seemed to warm her right through. Or perhaps that was her shame. She still didn’t have the damn skirt on and her black panties were on full show again for his viewing pleasure, although he wasn’t looking down at her. And then he was; those dark chocolate eyes found hers and she wanted to look away, but she found she couldn’t. Not only did her stomach do a good impression of a jumping bean, but her very feminine side decided to make itself known.
God, he’s gorgeous. All tall, dark and very damn sexy, in a Neanderthal kind of way… caveman… That’s what he reminded her of. The type of man who would toss a woman over his shoulder and carry her off to his man cave to have his wicked way with her… And what a wicked way that would be… She grinned internally. Oh boy, this guy didn’t do subtle male, he was the epitome of a red blooded He-man, testosterone and muscles, and what muscles he had… she didn’t have to imagine them, she could feel them under the palm of her hand as it rested against his chest.
She felt him dip forwards and the bed came up to greet her sore backside. He hesitated for a long moment before he slipped his hand out from beneath her legs, as if he was in two minds about letting her go. Then his hand ran over her back as that left her body too and she felt the loss of contact with him wash through her. It was akin to her body saying Nooooo!
“Am I safe to leave you alone on the bed or might you roll off?” He tipped his head to one side and regarded her with amusement in his eyes. It was overlaid with annoyance and she suddenly snapped out of the haze of stupidity that she’d been lost in for the last few minutes.
He had to go and spoil it by opening his damn mouth! She flushed even brighter in her embarrassment. Roll off indeed. I’d like to tell you an off and it didn’t have the word roll in front of it!
“Could you be anymore arrogant?” It was out of her mouth before she had even filtered it through her, ‘things not to say’ database. And for a long moment he hesitated in his retreat from her. Hovering bent over and just staring back into her eyes. Then a smile broke across his lips, stretching them wide and revealing perfect white teeth a
nd a light in his eyes that made them seem more milk chocolaty brown, and even more appealing than before.
“Possibly not. I apologise.” He drawled. Damn, but that was unexpected. She’d expected him to get all huffy and even more insufferable, instead he was beaming a very disarming smile in her direction and making her insides flutter like a schoolgirl on her first date. “I’m just a little worried for you and I suppose that makes me gruff.”
“Like a big old Troll under the bridge.” She rolled her eyes and groaned internally. So much for that filtering thing. But his deep laughter brought her eyes back to his face.
“My sister calls me an Ogre, but I guess Troll is good too.” He stretched upwards, and upwards, and upwards to his full height. The man had to be a good foot and a half taller than her, and her sitting down meant he looked even taller than that. His upper body could have fitted two of hers against it and the tree trunks he had for arms, well, they were impressive too. Kerry felt so damn small in that moment. But the feel of those strong arms around her had also made her feel very safe and protected.
“Look, I really do appreciate what you’ve done for me…” Kerry didn’t want to seem ungrateful, especially as she’d just insulted the man twice, and he did seem less imposing when he smiled like that.
“Perhaps you should considering staying put for a while longer. You had a fall, you had a shock, and rushing off home is probably not the best idea right about now.” He was being overly protective. He knew it and yet it took her berating him to actually allow that to sink into his skull. She was human, and he could probably have pushed his will on her if he backed it up with his Alpha skills, and yet it was probably better that he just pandered to her human side for now. A smile had seemed to go a lot further with her than allowing his dominant side to show.
“I wouldn’t want to put your family to any more trouble than I’ve already caused…” Kerry felt at ease for the first time since she’d woken to find him and his sister staring down at her. Her body was unclenching from its state of anxiety and the throbbing inside her head had lessened to a mild pulse.