Linda Thomas-Sundstrom - Desert Wolf

Grant Wade had asked her to stay. Given that he might be hiding something from her, why would he have then issued an invitation to go there tomorrow and then advised her not to visit Desperado?

“Which is it, Wade? Stay or go?”

Her fear was just beginning to evaporate when she noticed a set of headlights behind her, closing in fast. Turning the wheel, Paxton hugged the right side of the road to allow the car to pass. Instead of doing so, it pulled up alongside and stayed there long enough for her to get a clear picture of the man inside that blue truck.

Grant.

Satisfied that she’d seen him, he backed off the pedal. The truck pulled in behind her, as if the man driving it knew what she had been through and was extending his job description to encompass the term bodyguard.

Swear to God though, Paxton was glad to see him.

The café where they’d shared their late-afternoon meal was the first building she saw. She pulled into the lot and turned off the engine. Grant was beside her in a flash and opening the door. Concern darkened his handsome face as he leaned in.

“What happened?”

“Bear. I think a bear jumped on the car.”

He hadn’t looked at the dent in the hood or the one that had to be on the roof. Grant Wade’s focus was on her.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

Paxton heaved a sigh. Having this man here with her made her feel safe. She didn’t recall ever having felt completely safe before.

“I’m fine,” she lied, not quite sure her legs would hold her up if she got out of the car. “Just scared.”

“Coffee?” he suggested.

“So you can scold me in public for driving into the desert?”

“You’re not a kid, Paxton. You could have been hurt.”

She nodded, in full agreement with that last part.

“Coffee?” Grant repeated. “Or something stronger?”

She offered him a weak smile, still gripping the wheel. Seeming to read her tension, Grant reached in to unlock her grip. He helped her out of the car and to her feet, his touch providing the same kind of charge she had experienced earlier.

She supposed she was a sucker for feeling anything at all for this tall stranger, and countered those thoughts by telling herself he merely made her feel silly about going out there.

“Come on.” His tone was gentle but firm.

When Paxton didn’t immediately start walking, he pulled her closer to him with a snap of one arm. Their chests met. Their hips met. Grant didn’t appear to think this was awkward, when, for her, their two bodies meeting in a parking lot where other people might be around seemed almost obscene.

Truly, Grant Wade—solid, somber and handsome in the extreme—was likely every bit as dangerous as that damn bear. His hold on her was light, yet supportive. His pulse was pounding as hard as hers. And he was every bit the solid he-man male she’d imagined he would be.

Was he going to kiss her? She knew he was thinking about it.

Would she allow such a thing?

With cars coming and going from the parking lot around them, Grant acted like they were the only two people here. She was in his arms and couldn’t shake herself free. Hell, she didn’t even try.

Her cowboy’s eyes didn’t meet her questioning gaze. Nor did his mouth come anywhere close to hers. He continued to steady her quaking limbs...and she was a sap for thinking he might have had other plans.

“You think you saw a bear?” he asked, reminding her of what she’d said.

She nodded. “Yes. Big, dark and like nothing I’ve ever seen.”

“It got that close?”

There was no way to miss the trepidation and concern in his voice. Each word he spoke made his chest rumble. However, Paxton couldn’t figure out why he was so concerned about her when her father’s will stated that if anything were to happen to her, the land she’d been left would go to guess who, along with Desperado.

“It looked at me through the windshield before taking off, and nearly wrecked the car,” she explained.

Grant’s hold on her loosened. She didn’t ask him to wait another minute before letting her go. Didn’t confess to needing his strength a while longer. What right did she have to expect anyone to save her from her own stupidity?

“I shouldn’t have tried to follow you,” she admitted.

His voice lowered. “It was a regrettable move, but not entirely unanticipated.”

Had he read her so easily, then?

Maybe that’s why he had found her out there on the road. He had expected her to act like an idiot. Expected her to spy on him.

“Do you know about the bear?” she asked.

“I haven’t heard of one, but we’ll be on the lookout after this.”

“Then why did you advise me not to go out to Desperado on my own, if not because of that bear?”

“The desert can be a dangerous place for other reasons.”

“Such as?”

“Snakes.” He hesitated before adding, “Wolves.”

“The threat of snakes and wolves is what made you warn me off?”

“In part.”

“There are more parts?” Paxton got the fact that Grant Wade didn’t appreciate being questioned when she was the one who had been caught in an unfortunate act of defiance.

Just one more question, she told herself.

“Were you driving back to town? That’s why you saw me?”

He returned a question for a question. “You’re sure it was a bear you saw?”

She pointed at the car. “What else could it have been? No wolf or coyote I’ve ever heard of is that big.”

Paxton was sure that having coffee while sitting across from Grant in a lighted café was not going to make her feel better about that dent in the hood. In fact, she felt foolish any way she looked at tonight’s events...and that made her angry.

“I’m all right,” she repeated. “I should probably get back to the motel and face the fire about this accident.”

“I’ll follow you,” he suggested. “I can talk to Dev, the manager of the motel, about the car.”

“My insurance might cover the damage, if anyone were to believe how it happened.”

Her self-appointed cowboy bodyguard smiled weakly and said, “I’ll take care of it.”

He hadn’t let her go and seemed as reluctant as she was for him to do so. And, okay, she had to admit that having his arms around her was nice. But she also got the feeling Grant was waiting for something. What? An invitation for that kiss?

Stupid girl. How inappropriate would that have been? How absurd was it to wait for a kiss that was not going to happen, in light of them still being strangers on the opposing sides of an upcoming round of litigation?

The thought had barely receded when Grant Wade rested his mouth on hers.

Chapter 8

It wasn’t the smartest move, Grant knew. In fact, kissing Paxton was the polar opposite of smart. He just could not help himself.

The kiss was meant to be a further comfort for her, but didn’t turn out that way. Desire to devour the woman in his arms filled him the second his lips touched hers.

She was soft, and tasted good. He held her lithe body to his, thinking it might have been a fluke that she kissed him back. A kind of stunned reaction. Whatever the reason, Paxton, at least for the moment, accepted the pressure of his mouth as if she also had been waiting for this moment to arrive. As if it had been merely a matter of time before this happened, given their attraction to each other.

Possibly she needed an outlet for getting rid of her recent fear. Maybe he kissed her for the same reason, or because of the growing suspicion that his desire for her wasn’t normal. This wasn’t how strangers behaved. Something else had to be driving them together.

The kiss deepened. He couldn’t seem to get enough of her and didn’t want to stop. Distant thoughts nagged about being needed elsewhere, but Grant shook those warnings off in favor of exploring his ardent desire to possess Paxton Hall.