Dark Wolf Rising (Bloodrunners) Read Online Free PDF Page B

morning.”
    “How can I get it fixed if I leave it here?” Not that she had the money to get it fixed, but he didn’t need to know that. “Can’t we just tow it behind us?”
    “I’m going to call some mechanics I know and have them work on it here,” he explained as if it was the simplest thing in the world to do. “They’ll have it in running order by morning.”
    Wrapping her arms around her middle, she asked, “Why would you do that?”
    “Consider it a fair exchange for the fact that I’m kicking you out of here,” he offered with a strained smile. He clearly wasn’t any happier about the situation than she was, and yet, he seemed determined to help her.
    She didn’t agree or disagree. She simply said, “It isn’t smart.”
    A deep, almost silent rumble of laughter vibrated in his chest, and he arched one of those damn black brows again. “Neither was camping out in your car in the woods all alone.”
    “But at least I had a good reason for that. ”
    He could have argued that she had a good reason for taking him up on his offer, as well. But he didn’t. He just stared at her, the silver metallic of his eyes mesmerizing, like the liquid swirl of mercury in a vial—making her feel as if he could see right past her sarcastic bravado, down to the real woman huddling inside her skin. The one who was scared and tired and pushed to the edge of her limits. His cool air of command made Chelsea want to slap him, just as badly as she wanted to press her lips against that hard, utterly masculine mouth and find out if he tasted even half as good as he looked and smelled.
    Pulling her lower lip through her teeth, she finally said, “If I accept, it doesn’t mean that I owe you anything.”
    Instead of agreeing, he simply gave her a charmingly crooked grin that made her body react with ridiculous ease. “My name is Eric, by the way. Eric Drake. And you would be...?”
    “Chelsea Smart.”
    He started to laugh under his breath, as if there was something funny about her name, but choked it off when he caught her glare.
    “So, what’s it gonna be, Chelsea?” He stepped back from the bus, shoved his hands deep in his pockets again and lifted his shoulders. “Will you trust me?”
    The question was offered casually, and yet, she had the strangest feeling that her answer was somehow important to him. Which was crazy, seeing as how she’d never been all that important to anyone before, much less to a gorgeous man who didn’t even know her.
    What was it going to be?
    She was acutely aware of each second passing slowly into the next...of each breath that expanded her lungs...each hard, powerful beat of her heart that shuddered through her body.
    Then she did something that she never did, and opened her door, putting her trust in another person. And not just any person.
    No, for the first time in what felt like forever, Chelsea put her trust in the hands of a man.

Chapter Three
    B y the time Eric pulled onto the gloomy, rain-sodden streets of downtown Wesley, he’d managed to learn a bit more about the human than just her name and the fact that she had a prickly attitude. She was twenty-six years old, had just bought her first condo and taught Women’s Studies at a private university in Smythe, Virginia. He’d also learned that she had spent the past few weeks searching for her younger sister, a nineteen-year-old named Perry, who also lived in Smythe...and whose party-girl lifestyle and recreational drug use had a habit of landing her in a variety of unsavory situations.
    According to her roommates, Perry had suddenly disappeared a month ago, after hooking up with an amazingly hot guy at a weekend party. He’d fed her some bullshit story about how he really cared about her, but that his life was just too dangerous for a girl like her, and then skipped out. But Perry wasn’t willing to give him up. After asking around about him, she’d learned he was heading to another party in a neighboring county, and