Desert Wolf. Linda Thomas-Sundstrom

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.

      In that moment, he felt exactly like the animal he was. As his lips moved over Paxton’s, his sense of connection to her doubled. Flames of greed licked at his insides, piling higher and higher with each passing stroke of his palms over the fine bones of her spine. She didn’t struggle to be free or pound him with her fists. Her mouth was pliable, plush and accepting. If she had offered any hint of wanting to get away, he would have backed off.

      That’s what he told himself, anyway.

      Enough, his mind cautioned after more seconds slipped by. But he didn’t want to listen. He took hold of her shirt, intending to tear it from her body without giving a damn about who might be looking. The sheer force of that thought made him draw back.

      Paxton’s breath came in rasps. Her face was extremely pale beneath the glare of the café’s lights. As their gazes locked and his body continued to harden in all the wrong places, Grant knew for certain he was in real trouble where Paxton Hall was concerned, and that his wolfish impulses were the instigators of those feelings.

      She stood there, looking at him.

      He wasn’t sure what to say.

      The quick fix for this problem was to drive away and leave her there, as he should have done in order to regain his wits. But he did have to get her back to the motel. See her safely there.

      Taking her hand in his, Grant led her