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More like I’d tossed it when I heard him coming for me.This is a mistake. No. Desperate times called for desperate measures. He’d killed my father.
“Do you have any idea how fortunate you are? I mean, you could’ve died on impact. Not to mention that I came along when I did on such a desolate stretch of road. You must have one hell of a lucky charm.”
“I’m not really a lucky kind of girl.” I dropped my gaze to my hands. I deliberately didn’t look up at him until he spoke again.
I had to work hard to pull off the wary, downtrodden thing. I’d learned a long time ago it was better to meet men’s gazes directly. They were less likely to fuck with you if you did.
But this is not you.
This was Diana Renquist. I needed to put on that persona like a suit.
He held out a T-shirt and a pair of shorts. “These should do for now. I just put your clothes in the wash so you’ll have them for tomorrow at least. In the morning, we’ll figure out what your next steps will be.”
I took the clothes from him. “Thank you for this. I know I was kind of a pain in the ass. I’m just not used to people helping me.”
Rafe nodded, then turned his back. There was an awkward pause before I figured out he was giving me some privacy to change, although he didn’t leave the room. Quickly I scrambled into the clothes, hissing slightly as I pulled the shirt down.
He whipped around at the sound, just in time to catch me as I pulled the edge of the T-shirt past my ribs.
His brows dropped into an immediate scowl. “That bruise from the crash?”
I lowered my gaze. That would certainly explain it, but what if he knew about injuries and shit? Would the lie pass muster? And well, if he thought someone did it to me, it would certainly tie in to my cover story.
When I didn’t respond, his voice dropped slightly, but somehow instead of going warm and flowing over me like liquid, it went icy and deadly. “Did someone do that to you?”
Oh, protective are you? Where was this protective instinct with my father?
I licked my lips. “It’s no big deal.”
“The hell it isn’t. Who did that to you? Is that the reason you were trying to walk to the city?”
I tilted my chin up. “Look, I am grateful. I really am. You’re right. I could have died down in that ravine. But you came along. You did the whole Good Samaritan thing. But not everyone is like you.”
Wasn’t that the truth? Along the way, I’d met better than him. And worse. He was just the asshole at the top of my list.
“There are guys out there who don’t think twice about hitting a woman. Unfortunately, I happened to meet one of those.”
That much was the truth. What I left out was that I’d gotten in a good groin kick as retaliation.
“It won’t be happening again,” I muttered.
The look in his golden eyes was murderous, and a chill ran over my skin. There he was. The killer I knew he was didn’t lie too far below the surface.
I shivered as I remembered the first night I’d seen him. He’d had the darkest eyes I’d ever seen, almost black. Those vampire eyes had haunted my nightmares for years.
Well, now I was about to be the stuff ofhisnightmares.
But he didn’t hurt you.
Again, I shoved down that voice. Never mind that he looked good enough to lick.Stupid vagina, there’s a reason you’re not consulted on these types of things.
One thing though… I’d always wondered why he’d left me alive. It would have been cleaner to kill me. After all, I’d seen him. Though I hadn’t seen his face.
Why had he just left me in a closet when I was so obviously a loose end? I wasn’t supposed to be home that night, but the friend I was meant to stay with had gotten sick. My brothers had been gone. It had been just me and my father in the study.
That’s what I needed to remember. Despite the fact that he hadn’t hurt me then, despite the fact that he’d rescued me today, Rafe DeMarco was a monster. It was hard to reconcile. At the same time, he looked capable of murder right then.
“Tell me his name,” he said quietly.
