AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“My patience is wearing thin, little girl.”
“Look, grumpy bastard. I don’t know who you are. And I’m not a little girl.”
“The man who likely saved your life. How’s that?” I retorted. Grumpy bastard? Yeah, maybe I was.
She finally seemed to sense a storm was raging outside, taking a jerky step further into the room and quickly glancing over her shoulder. I noticed she was shaking even more. At this point, she was going to fall to the floor and God knew what would happen if she still had the sharp ax in her hand. I’d purposely sharpened it while waiting for the hotshot’s captain to sign me out. Somehow, I doubted she was the kind of woman who knew how to wield the powerful tool.
No, she was far too soft and feminine with a luscious hourglass figure and perfect skin. Ah, shit. Here I went again thinking like a bastard.
When she finally closed the door, I cocked my head. Then I beckoned her with a single finger. “Come here, sweetheart. I’m not going to hurt you.” What I wanted to do was turn her over my knee, teaching her some manners. “You’re better off with me.”
“Na uh.”
Who the hell said na uh? Sighing, I could feel the frustration building to the point I was about to say something totally out of line. Then again, I’d never been known as the kind of guy to watch my mouth or curb my anger. “Sweetheart, if you don’t come here and hand me that ax, I’m going to need to punish you, even if you almost fell into hypothermia. I don’t like your attitude.”
Her eyes remained open wide. Then she narrowed them sharply, her mouth twisting. “And I don’t like yours. I don’t know who you think you are, but if you dare try and lay a hand on me, I’ll cut it off after I’ve handled your testicles.”
Jesus Christ. The woman was serious. This was getting us nowhere fast. “I’m going to come closer so you and I can have a discussion. Why don’t you place the weapon on the dresser. I won’t touch it if you agree you won’t touch it. Fair enough?”
“Who are you? Where’s my beautiful car? Why did you remove my clothes? What did you do to me when I was out of it? And what is that horrible stench?”
She was starting to sway. This was getting out of hand. I took a step closer and she almost panicked. I could see it in her eyes.
“My name is Riggs, but you can call me Phoenix. Yourbeautifulcar, which was a stupid choice to bring to Montana this time of year, is stuck in the snow. The reason you’re standing in my tee shirt is because you were soaking wet. What I did to you was remove your wet clothes so I could bring your body temperature up. And the stink is from remnants of smoke from a huge fire I was battling along with some other smokejumpers. Now, are you satisfied enough I’m not an ax murderer, so you can put that down before you really do get hurt?”
“What kind of name is Phoenix?”
“One I got in the Marines.” I could tell she didn’t believe me. “See the tattoo?” I stuck out my arm, flexing my muscle.
While she lowered her gaze, the smirk remained. “For all I know you could have carved that yourself.”
“First of all, it’s not carved, it’s ink. Second, my knife skills don’t include dancing along skin for fun.” Great. Now I was fulfilling her ax murderer fantasies.
She hesitated, but slowly eased the handle onto the edge of the dresser. “What’s your last name?”
“Social security number too?”
“I’m cautious.”
“Uh-huh. Now that we’re playing twenty questions, you’re going to answer mine. What’s your name? Why in God’s name were you out in the middle of a snowstorm in a car with zero capability of making it through ice in barely any clothes? And where in the hell were you headed on a dark, lonely road leading to nowhere?”
She glared at me with defiance in her insanely gorgeous lavender eyes, but in those few seconds, a jolt of electricity shot into both of us at the same time, the crackling energy unlike anything I’d ever felt before. She certainly seemed to experience the same thing, her gaze shifting into a foggy lust. When she started to speak, she dragged her tongue across her lips and God help me, I wanted to crush my mouth over hers, pulling her tightly against me.
There was no chance the thin towel managed to hide what I was thinking, the ache in my balls severe.
“I’m… I’m…” she stuttered, her eyes falling to my groin. She swallowed hard and pushed her hand through her strings of hair, struggling to return her gaze to my eyes. “My name is Wren Tillman. My beautiful Trans Am was a gift to myself for all the shit I’ve been through recently, so I certainly wasn’t going to leave it behind in Texas. I listened to the weather forecast this morning and there was no mention of a storm rolling in.” She stopped briefly, her chest rising and falling. “And where I’m headed is no business of yours, except I’ll tell you the destination is because of a ridiculous family event that I can’t miss for anything. Does that satisfy you?”
I thought about what she’d said and sighed. “Texas, huh? Well, this isn’t the best way to get to Missoula.”
“I’m from Missoula, so I obviously know what I’m doing and where I’m going.” Goddamn, her attitude was rough around the edges, which made me want to show her who was really in charge. “And why are you staring at me like that? You’re not a very nice man.”
“Nope. You’re right about that.” I lifted my eyebrows, wanting nothing more than to keep fucking with her since driving my cock deep inside wasn’t an option. I was one bad man.
Her face turned beet red. “Okay, maybe I’ve never been on the road before but I trusted my GPS.”
I decided to take another two steps closer, and a slight hint of fear returned on her face. “Well, it was wrong.”
“Fine. Do you want to tell me all the things I’ve done wrong?”
