The idea of being in a hotel room with him was definitely appealing, but even as she thought about the possibilities of a hot shower, accidentally forgetting her robe, and emerging just wrapped in a towel, she knew he’d book two rooms. She sighed.
“There’s still plenty of daylight left. Why don’t we just head north and try to get out of this storm?”
Lucas looked up at the threatening sky with its dark clouds scudding lower. “Sounds like a good idea,” he said.
****
Two hours later, it no longer seemed like such a good idea. Not only had the blasted storm followed them up the coast, but they were now mired axle deep in mud, just off Highway 17, somewhere between Savannah and Charleston.
“My cell’s dead,” Sara said as she tried again to get the power to come on.
“With this rain, a tower couldn’t pick up the signal anyway,” Lucas said as he stared at his own cell phone on the dash. It wasn’t working either. “By the Dagda, I havna seen rain pelting sideways, blinding a mon, since I sailed the Hebrides.” As if to answer him, the wind shrieked its fury, lashing at the rented SUV. He swore softly.
“At least we’re in the ditch,” Sara said, “in case this storm spawns a tornado.”
He glanced at her, a little amused that she could be optimistic under the circumstances. He was thankful she wasn’t the squeamish sort.
“Do you think we were run off the road on purpose?” she asked.
It was the question that he had been pondering. The black car had been traveling much too fast for the road conditions—Bel’s Fires! He’d been crawling along at fifteen miles an hour, barely able to see twenty feet in front of them—and the guy had crossed over the line, leaving Lucas no choice but to put the big car into the ditch. And it was probably due to the protective spell of the Shield that he’d seen the car in the first place. He was glad now that he’d brought it along.
“I don’t know.”
She looked at him, her eyes steady on his. “Was it Baylor?”
He had to admit, she had guts. There was no fear in her voice. “I don’t know how he would have found us,” he said finally. That was another thing that left him uneasy. Balor rarely involved himself directly in any sort of confrontation. Yet he had dealt with Sara himself and, assumedly, killed the two abductors he’d hired. Changing his M.O. made him doubly dangerous, since Lucas didn’t know what to anticipate next.
He had other problems as well. Physical ones. The wolf always responded to changes in weather and storms brought out the primitive urge to respond to nature’s frenzy. Even now he felt his blood heat and he throttled the savage howl that rose in his throat. He should get out and go for a run, but he didn’t want to leave Sara alone, not even with the Shield lying in the back.
As he looked at her, the wet T-shirt displaying the perfect outline of her breasts, yet keeping the creamy satin of her skin and the rosy color of her taut nipples hidden from him, he felt another basic urge take hold.
“Do you think we’ll have to spend the night here?” she asked.
His already stiff manhood grew harder and his balls tightened. He groaned inwardly. How in Hades was he going to control himself if they were going to spend the next ten hours in this confined space? But the truth was, he hadn’t heard any cars passing. Even if one did, the ditch was deep enough that they wouldn’t be seen, especially with dusk approaching. But he should try. He reached for the door handle.
“I can go stand on the road and try to flag someone down,” he said.
“No!” Sara grabbed his arm. “It’s getting dark and with the rain not letting up, you could get hit.”
Her touch was sending unbelievable sensations to his groin and his jeans were way too tight. Lucas called on centuries’ worth of will power and was gratified to feel the wolf retreat. He took a deep breath.
“Then this is it,” he said, surprised his voice wasn’t squeaking like an adolescent boy. “You can take the back and I’ll keep watch up here.”
She hesitated a second, looking deep into his eyes, and then removed her hand from his arm. “This seat reclines,” she finally said. “You take the back so you can stretch out.”
“I’ll be fine here.”
A small smile played around her mouth and Lucas gripped the steering wheel in an effort not to pull her across the console and ravage that sensual mouth. The beast raised his head and pricked his ears.
“I appreciate your gallantry, Sir Knight,” she said half-mockingly, “but I would prefer you to rest. We don’t know what we’re going to face in the morning.”
She had a point. Even if Balor or one of his henchmen wasn’t lurking down the road, they still had to get the car out of the mud. But he wasn’t at all sure how rested he would be unless his body would cooperate. He envisioned a bucket of ice water splashing on him, cooling him down. It worked a little.
“Why don’t you change into some dry clothes?” he asked. Maybe if he couldn’t see her form so distinctly he could get past this feral need he had for her.
She bit her lip and then scooted between the two bucket seats to where their suitcases were resting on the folded-down seats behind. He was tempted to watch her in the mirror and then chided himself.By the gods!He was thinking like a schoolboy.
“All done,” she said a few minutes later as she emerged in a dry T-shirt and shorts that made her legs look a mile long. Lucas wasn’t sure if the sight of bare thighs was any better than looking at her wet breasts. The wolf growled approvingly and Lucas fervently wished the storm would stop lashing its fury about them.
