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“Do you want me to come over there?”
I remained silent and let him interpret my lack of response how he wanted. The water sloshed and a small sense of satisfaction slid through me. I lifted my head and peeked. Billy Bob was nearly waist deep in the creek and half way across. As the water level lowered, I got a really great shot of his package, and… “Wow.” Let’s just say that the cold water had very little effect on him.
He stopped just shy of the shore. “What?”
“What?” Crap, I’d said, “Wow,” out loud. He really was gorgeous. His skin was a perfect shade of heavily creamed coffee and completely unblemished. Unlike my own, which was scarred and knotted in multiple places. I suddenly wished he hadn’t crossed. Self-consciously, I hugged my knees harder to hide my ravaged skin.
“Chavvah,” he said.
I looked up at him, reluctantly meeting his gaze.
“Is it so difficult to look at me?” He held his hands out to his side. “Do you really dislike me so much?”
I didn’t want him to know how much I cared. How much my feelings had grown for him since my rescue. He was the only one who hadn’t made me feel all victim-y and TSTL, too stupid to live. But he’d always been strictly professional with me, and I knew how much he liked, maybe even loved, Sunny. I wouldn’t be second best, not for any man. I wanted someone who wanted me above all others.
“I don’t dislike you.”
“Then stop pushing me away.” He walked the rest of the way over and sat down on the rocks next to me. I tried really hard not to stare at his dangly parts. “Turn so I can see your back.”
I did. He grasped my shoulder with his left hand, and with his right, he plucked the larger shards of window glass from my flesh. I didn’t flinch. I didn’t even whimper at the pain. Instead, I rubbed the gnarled scar at my elbow and let my mind go elsewhere.
“Tell me about the intruder?”
I shivered. “He was large, larger than you even.” I shook my head. “His face was hidden in shadow, his whole body really. I could make out his shape, but not any features.”
“Did he say anything?”
I snorted. “Yeah. He was really chatty for a psychopath.”
“Like?” He pulled out another piece of glass lodged in my lower back. This one was deeper, and I jerked a tiny bit.
“He kept calling me sister and little wolf. I think he thought I was like you. A lycanthrope.”
Billy Bob stopped then. He took my shoulders with both his hands and gently turned me. “What else did he say?”
“Weird stuff, like he wasn’t my enemy and that I shouldn’t be afraid of him.” But I hadn’t needed several weeks of torture to know bullshit when I heard it. “I can’t remember it all.” I caught Billy Bob’s eyes flicker toward my naked breasts. He’d seen them before. He’d seen all of me before on his surgical table and during the many exams I’d had to endure. But I’d never seen him look at me, or them, like this—with heat.
I crossed my arms over my chest and waited for his gaze to meet mine.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “We should get you back to the house.”
“I don’t…”
“You will sleep in my room, and I will not leave you tonight.”
I tucked my chin, “In your room?”
“I will stay in the chair. I won’t be sleeping. Your safety is my only concern.”
“If it’s the killer, he knows where I am now.”
“If it’s the killer, he’ll have more than he bargained for if he tries to get to you again.” He wiped my cheek with his thumb. “Let’s shift, or it’s going to be a long trip back. You covered several miles.”
“Really?”
He chuckled. “Really.” In the next few moments, I watched Billy Bob transform with a fluid elegance I’d never seen in another therian. It dawned on me, as I gaped at his large wolf covered in thick silvery fur that I’d never seen him shift before. Frankly, I found him unsettlingly striking. He waited, his gray eyes expectant. I nodded, concentrated on my coyote, and changed again. I’d never shifted twice in the same night. Hell, most of the time I only changed on the full moon. It was surprisingly easier than before. I could have probably followed my scent trail back to the house, but I let Billy Bob take the lead.
