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Once again she found her eyes wandering to rippling muscles of his forearms as he gripped the wheel.He kidnapped you, Winona. Right. I am losing it. Oh, and in case you weren’t paying attention, he’s a shifter,she reminded herself.
But whether she agreed with his particular decisions or not, she couldn’t deny that there was something magnetic about him. He was nothing like her shifter ex, Blake. He had a confidence that seemed unshakeable. This whole escape to a safe house was not going to be easy, but he’d made the decision in seconds, and all four boys and Winona were gathered into the fold. Winona knew she was second string and accidentally included, but the truth was, she would actually prefer to be with him, with all that had happened. He felt like a safe place to be, this man, and she’d never had that. It was actually kind of incredible.
She wasn’t sure how long they had been driving, maybe it had been thirty minutes, or maybe an hour since they had passed through the Four Corners and headed north out of town. But at a certain point, Winona felt the ground shift beneath the truck as they turned down a dirt road lined with what she thought were oak trees on either side. She sat up a bit higher, adjusting a still sleeping Bucky and noticed Jaye and Jasper were sound asleep as well. She flicked her eyes up to the front seat and caught Rollo’s eyes in the rear-view mirror.
“We’re almost there. At least from what Bloom said. This is the time to cross your fingers, by the way,” he said as he scanned the road. “Or better yet, to close your eyes.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”she asked as she joined him in studying the path ahead of them.
“Well, it has some warding on it,” he said. “It’s hidden, you know? Fae stuff,” he added when he caught her blank stare in the rearview mirror.
No, she most certainly didnotknow, she thought as she squinted her eyes, intent on seeing whatever was hidden.
“Oh, that must be it,” he said as he abruptly turned the wheel and headed the jeep on a collision course with a particularly gnarling old oak.
“Uhh… Did you say, ‘must be’? Because this would be a time to have total certainty, I think!” she said as he seemed to pick up speed as they approached the substantial tree. She did her best not to panic, but was practically squishing the kids she was hugging them so tightly as they approached.
“You’re crushing me, Win!” Bucky complained. It took all of her self-control to relax her grip as a crash seemed imminent, but then just when she was about to scream, the oak disappeared and they were once again headed down a simple tree lined path. She cleared her throat and let out a little laugh. “Sorry about that, I thought…”
“That we were going to crash?” he said, finishing her sentence? “Yeah, she said I couldn’t miss it. There was only one gnarled oak.”
“Well I’m glad you were right.”
“Well, I cheated a little. I do have a little sensitivity to magic, being a shifter and all. Not much, but enough.”
“Really? I didn’t know that.”
“Fae magic is way different that what we are attuned to. They are more, I don’t know, elemental. We are more, well, primal. But you know, everything is sort of connected,” he said as he gave her a wink. “Anyhow, it should be right up here,” he said. She could see the smile in his eyes.
Is he amused by my reaction?
She leaned forward and put her hand on his shoulder. She caught herself. What do you think you’re doing? She pulled her hand back as if she had touched a hot stove. “Um, maybe you could fill me in some more of this magical stuff at some point. I told you I was brought up with shifters, but like you said, fae magic is something else.”
She noticed some confusion on Rollo’s face as he drove and she leaned forward to be heard over the noise of the car on the rough road. She brought her lips close until she was nearly touching his ear. “Is there going to be a spot to talk where we are going? I don’t want to upset the kids any more than they are already, but I would like some answers as to what in the fuck is actually going on.” She connected with his eyes in the mirror again and tamed her comment with a quick smile.He smells so good, like a wood fire, and a warm blanket.She felt her body respond, her nipples peaking, and her pussy heating up.Oh my god, body, cut it out! Boss. Kidnapper. Dangerous situation. And did I mention you are still a prisoner?
She sighed. She watched as Rollo creased his brow. Is he angry? Then her mind flicked back to when he first locked her in with the kids.To protect the kids.What else was he supposed to do? He had a chance to go after him…that man… Now she really was losing it, she decided.Whose side are you on, anyway?Vaguely, she thought she might want to look up the clinical definition of a split personality.
Rollo just nodded. “We’ll talk later. And yes, you deserve some answers.”
She kept her eyes on him. His eyes stayed locked on hers, so much so that she was about to say something for fear he might veer off the road.
“Everything okay?” she finally said. Were they having a moment?
“Of course. We’re almost there, truly. It’s right up the road.”
“Well, you have the strong silent type thing down,” she finally said as the moment seemed to pass. If there had been one at all.
Oh, there had definitely been a moment.
“Better than the dead type,” he countered. “I have a few things to think about right now, if you haven’t noticed.”
“Fair enough,” she responded as she leaned back and nestled in with the boys for the last stretch.
Finally, after another minute or so, the truck rumbled over some rough ground and Rollo pulled in to park. He turned around to the boys and Winona.
“Okay, we’re here, guys. Wakey wakey!”
As she nudged all the boys in turn, Winona looked around the outside.Why did we stop here?She did her best to scan their surroundings through the windows. At first, she saw nothing but trees. She leaned forward as she climbed out of the Jeep and looked up to see that on their right was actually an enormous hillside. She turned her head to see Rollo looking at her with a bemused expression.
