Without a word, he strips his flannel off and wraps the huge shirt around me. Immediately, my senses fill with the scent ofhim, but all I can focus on are his massive arms and the tight, white t-shirt that hugging his chest like a second skin.
“Better?”
I nod and wrap the flannel tighter around me. It smells of him. Traces of pine, woodsmoke and…all man. I nuzzle my face into the fabric and inhale deeply, letting the scent of him surround me.
“What were you thinking walking down the middle of the road like that? You could have been killed.”
“By you?” I peek up over the flannel. Up close, he’s even bigger, and it’s true that I could have been struck and killed by his truck a moment ago, yet I’m not scared. Quite the opposite.
“Yes,” he growls. “Dammit. I almost hit you and?—”
“But you didn’t.”
He’s silent for a second. “You didn’t answer the question. What were you thinking?”
Tears prick hot at the back of my eyes as I realize exactly how screwed my situation is now. I’m stuck in the middle of nowhere and now I can’t even walk.
I swallow back the tears before I can embarrass myself any further. “I was walking to town.”
“From here? Why would you do that?”
I set my jaw and look straight ahead into the darkness. There’s no way I’m going to let him take me back to the campsite. I’ll never hear the end of it. “Because I can’t be there anymore. Not with them.”
“Did those assholes hurt you?” He closes the small distance between us, puts his hand under my chin and turns my head to face him with a remarkable tenderness in direct contrast to the tension in his voice. “I’ll kill them if you?—”
“No.” My hand slips out from under the flannel and squeezes his thick forearm. “They didn’t hurt me. I just…can you pleasetake me to town? I’ll get a room and figure things out in the morning.”
He looks like he’s going to argue with me. Instead, he pulls the seat belt out and reaches around me before sliding the buckle into place.
“I’m going to have to take you back to my place,” he says a few minutes later once we’re already bumping along the dirt road.
“What? I can’t?—”
“Don’t worry, Sweetheart.” He puts his hand on my leg to still me. Surprisingly, it works. Which is completely crazy considering I have no reason to be calm. I should be freaking out. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
I look from his hand, up to his bright blue eyes and I believe him.
“It’s late,” he explains. “And I happen to know the only rooms in town are in The Den. And you’re not staying there on a Friday night. It’s not safe for a girl like you.”
A girl like me?
“I have an extra room, and first aid training.” He keeps talking before I can ask when he means by that. “I’ll be able to get a proper look at that ankle and?—”
“I don’t even know your name.”
He yanks his attention back to the road and answers gruffly, “Griffin Wolf. Everyone calls me Griff.”
“Well, since apparently I’m going to be your houseguest, my name is Sophie,” I say with as much sass as I can muster under the circumstance before adding, “Not that you asked.”
Griff takes his eyes off the road, and for the first time, under his big beard, I see a small smile tug at his lips.
“Nice to meet you, Sweetheart.”
CHAPTER THREE
Griffin
The drive to my cabin doesn’t take much longer than ten minutes or so, but with Sophie—even her name is sweet and soft—sitting so close to me on the bench seat of the truck, bracing herself against every rock and bump I drive over, trying her best to swallow the pain of her ankle jarring on the rough road, it feels like hours.
