It took everything she had not to throw the thing at him. But even if he was acting like a child, she refused to. Folding it up neatly, she handed it back to him. The way he took it made itveryclear he was careful not to touch her.
She hadn’t wanted things to become awkward after their kiss, and she hadn’t believed they were at the awkward stage when they started into the woods again yesterday, but she was wrong.Heconsidered them there, or at least he was making it uncomfortable between them.
She missed the ease of their conversations, but every time she tried talking to him, his clipped, one-word replies ended it. And now she’d given up trying.
She’d never regretted kissing someone before, and she had some pretty crappy kisses in her life, but she was starting to regret the best kiss of her life. Willow rested her hands on her thighs as she tried to think of something to say, but her mind raced in circles.
Rising, she stepped away from the small stream to survey the woods. Declan glanced at her before focusing on the shadows again. The breeze blowing down the hill they’d descended ruffled the hair against her neck. The terrain had grown steadily rockier and more difficult to traverse as they progressed into the mountains.
She started into the woods again, and Declan followed. They walked for another hour before they emerged into an open field. Trees lined the edge of the field, but they stayed out in the open as they crossed what she now realized was a corn or maybe a wheat field.
Willow lifted her face to the sun to absorb its rays. After days spent living in the shadows of the forest, she welcomed this open warmth. They were halfway across the field when three men emerged from the trees and started across the field toward them.
She glanced at Declan to find his jaw set and his nostrils flaring. Red glinted in his silvery eyes as the demon he kept buried beneath his usually serene exterior slipped through. He rested his hand on her arm in a possessive gesture so out of place with the man who had avoided her for the past two days.
She shoved aside the way her skin came alive at his touch, pulled her arm away from his, and removed a stake from her jacket. She started to lower it to her side when Declan stayed her hand.
“They’re not vampires,” he said.
Her violet eyes darkened as her gaze went from him to the woods and back again. Even perplexed, dirty, and tired, she was achingly beautiful.
The murmur of conversation drifting across the field pulled his attention away from her. When he detected the faint beat of hearts, his fangs tingled, and it took everything he had to keep them retracted.
At any other time, the approach of humans wouldn’t have fazed him, but he didn’t likeanyonenear Willow. He frowned as this sank in. He’dneverfelt like that about anyone before, but then, his past relationships with women weren’t exactly healthy. If he bothered to learn their names, he often forgot them before the night ended.
Things were different with Willow. He liked and admired her strength and determination to survive. She was the first woman who made him long for something more. He was trying to figure out what that something more was when the three men stopped five feet away from them.
They all had fishing poles resting against their shoulders and tackle boxes in hand. They wore camouflage hats and jackets over their jeans. The men frowned as they looked from them, to each other, and back to them. Finally, the youngest man’s gaze settled on Willow, and he grinned.
“Hello,” the young fisherman greeted.
Shades of red filled Declan’s vision when the man’s eyes ran leisurely over her. The lust emanating from him had Declan envisioning ripping off the guy’s dick and shoving it down his throat. He shook his head to clear it of the overwhelming, violent compulsion, but he couldn’t entirely rid himself of it.
They had to return home, and he had to get far away from her before he killed someone. But the idea of distancing himself from her pissed off the demon part of him more than the man’s lewd stare.
What is wrong with me?He ran a hand through his hair and tugged at the ends of it. He welcomed the discomfort it caused as it helped to calm him a little.
“Hi,” Willow said with a wave. “Could you tell us if there’s a town nearby?”
The fishermen exchanged a glance. Willow suspected the trio was a son, father, and grandfather.
“Are you lost?” the oldest one asked.
“Yes,” Willow said.
The men all looked at Declan like he was an alien descended from the farthest galaxy. Willow suspected that with his striking looks, they were probably pinning him as some city boy who couldn’t handle the woods. She tried to hide her amusement but started chuckling when they all scowled at him.
“How did you end up way out here?” Grandpa asked.
“Whereisout here?” Declan inquired.
The three of them exchanged another look.
“Where do you think it is?” the dad asked.
“Maine.”
The three men laughed so loud they scared some mourning doves from the ground, and Grandpa slapped his knee. She had no idea where they were, but she liked these guys.
