“What!” Shauna looked at her hands as if expecting them to melt.
I nodded. “Yep! So this guy isn’t real. Call me in the morning!” Somehow we were already down on the ground, so the last part came out as a shout.
“Put me down, giant!” I punched where I imagined one of his kidneys should be.
He didn’t seem to mind, continuing to walk with me over his shoulder, bee-lining it for the road. “Where’s your horse?” he queried, and I couldn’t help it, I burst out laughing. I was way too drunk for this.
“Myhorse? Good one. Now put me down before I barf on your back.” Things were starting to spin, and I suddenly felt sick.
With a grunt, he lowered me to my feet and then his face swam into view. “Do you still live with your parents? We need to go to your house and regroup while I think of what to do.”
My parents? A pang of sadness sliced across my chest. As an orphan, the word parent wasn’t something I’d heard in relation to me often.
I shook my head. “No parents. I live alone.”
He screwed up his face at that. “Married?”
I crossed my arms. “No.”
“An unmarried woman living alone? How do you manage?”
This freaking guy.
“Look, buddy, I’m going to call you an Uber and tell him to take you to a hotel. It’s like … an inn if we’re speaking in ancient misogynistic terms.”
He nodded. “An inn would be fine. We need to go.”
Peering around, as if expecting a horse to show up, he looked down the street as I ordered the Uber on my phone.
I shook my head. “Weare not going anywhere together. You just tried to kill me. I’m going home.Youare going to the inn.”
He peered down at me and that warmth that was there before spread once again throughout my limbs. He didn’t look a day over twenty-six ... cobalt blue eyes and dark messy hair…
He started to walk away.
Okay.
“Bye, psycho!” I shouted, feeling bolder now that he was moving away from me. When he was about five feet from me, that feeling of being attached to an elastic band pulled at my stomach and I was hurled forward after him. He stopped and spun, wearing a sadistic yet sexy grin.
“Weare going to the inn.”
Fuck me.
The Uber pulled up and I knew we weren’t going to the inn. I didn’t have money for a hotel. I was going to have to take this … creature,WHO I WAS APPARENTLY ATTACHED TO,to my house.
The giant man stared at the Uber like it was an alien spaceship and I couldn’t help but grin. “Get in. Yourhorsehas arrived.”
Thank God it was an SUV. I didn’t think this guy would fit into a compact car.
I opened the door and he ducked his head, lowering into the car and looking around like he’d never seen anything like this. Maybe he hadn’t … obviously he hadn't. For the first time I started to feel genuine fear. This guy had walked out of a haunted cave wall and asked me what year it was before inquiring about myhorse. I don’t think I could deny something seriously messed up was going on here.
“Please take my human and I to the nearest inn,” he told Chuck. Our Uber.
Oh my God.
Chuck’s eyes widened and I gave a nervous laugh as I sidled next to my giant. “He’s … method acting. You can take us here.” I quickly changed the location of the nearest hotel to my home address and Chuck took off down the road.
Giant startled as the car moved, his hand reaching out to the door to steady himself. I was just enjoying his discomfort when he relaxed and started to look around. “You travel like this every day?” he asked, looking left and right.
