Vivyan tucked her phone in her pocket, hefted her backpack, and grabbed her coat even as she noticed his looked like an army duffel bag.Locking the SUV, she yelped at the front of the Pathfinder when her pack was plucked from her shoulder.
Opening her mouth, she closed it with a snap at his look.Allowing him to carry it for her, him still without a jacket on, they walked to the building.The lobby was full and she was grateful to have a reservation.
At the desk, with her large bearded man standing behind her, holding both bags, she pulled her phone out.
“I’m sorry,” the woman whose name tag read “Maria”.“We’re booked solid.”
“I have a reservation.I called earlier when I was driving to let you know I was still coming but later because of the weather.”
Her concern smoothed away and her light tan face eased as she smiled.“Vivyan.”A blush scampered up her cheeks.“Ms.Souza.I’m so glad you made it.This storm is unlike anything we’ve had in years.They’re about to close the interstate.”
Relief swamped her and she smiled despite her exhaustion.“Glad I made it before that happened.”
She picked up the pen and filled out the paperwork.Maria finally glanced at her and the man behind her, gaze narrowing slightly before her expression smoothed out.“You didn’t say you were with another person.”Vivyan opened her mouth but Maria continued, “With you here, all rooms are filled.Everyone with a reservation has checked in.These others will be hanging out in the lobby to stay out of the cold.It’s fine for you to have another in your room.”The keys were passed over and she looked at the map taped to the desktop to find where the room was.
Third floor.
“Angel?You ready?”His large hand settled on the nape of her neck, both surprising and grounding her.Something about his touch felt right.Again, Maria’s expression made her wonder what the issue was with this.It wasn’t like she’d not faced racism before or people making assumptions about her.
She was a plus-sized half Black, half Portuguese woman.But then again, it could be because of the large man behind her.
I’m sharing a room with a stranger.
A hot stranger, hot as fuck, but still…a stranger.
Chapter2
Mine.
Ronan had one word on repeat in his mind.When he’d first seen Vivyan’s SUV pulling up behind him, something had come over him.His body tingled, much as it had when he’d been active duty that had saved his life many a time.It was an alert.Telling him something was coming, something important.
And that feeling had been correct.This woman was his.Cold and angry, he’d not been sure what he would come up to when he moved toward her vehicle.Hell, he’d not been sure that it would have been a woman.
Heat had slammed into him the second he’d spied her through the windshield.Enough that he’d not remembered he was near frozen after being without heat in a blizzard for a few hours.A full-figured woman with curves he couldn’t wait to explore.Smooth dark skin, full lips and brown eyes that resided behind black and tortoiseshell rectangular glasses.Slightly wavy hair had set piled haphazardly on the top of her head.
He wasn’t about to let her get out into the cold and had held the door closed, refusing to allow her to step out.It didn’t matter that he was near to freezing having been in his cold truck for hours, the heat within him flared to life the second he’d spied her.
Now, he stood behind her, loving the way her jeans molded to those curves, as she unlocked the room they would be sharing for the night.
The first night of many.
He wasn’t sure what she was doing in Sander’s Point, hell, some days he wasn’t sure why he’d even been on his way here.He couldn’t call it his home.Not a good one anyway.A question that had been haunting him since the moment he had been discharged from the Army.The resident bad boy who’d been from the wrong side of the tracks, he’d not been able to do anything right in the eyes of the town.But, his grandfather had passed and left him his house.That’s what had brought him back.And his way out resided in his pocket, an offer.
Pushing thoughts of death and unpleasantness to the back of his mind, he stared at the angel in front of him.
There was one bed in the room and his cock thickened in his jeans at the mere thought of being curled up to her curvaceous body all night.Being able to keep her incredible scent right up to his nose.He took a deep breath.Pushing her, wasn’t something he would be doing.He’d found his woman he could afford to take his time.
Cock kicking harder, he realized, notthatmuch time.
Patience, he told his rebelling dick.
He watched the rise and fall of her shoulders, digging his fingers into the straps of both bags he held to keep from dragging her into his chest.Holding her.
I’m the one to slay all your demons, angel.
“Wishing you’d not stopped for me alongside the road?”
She jolted, like she’d forgotten he was there.Whipping back toward him, eyes wide she blinked rapidly a few times.“What?”A firm head shake.“No.Definitely not.I would never wish that on anyone.”
