Mate Marked(17)
He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt and lace-up boots now. A faint breeze rifled through his hair. He strolled up with a look of polite concern on his face.
“Having some engine trouble there, are we, sweetheart?”
“No, just pausing to enjoy the view out here,” she said, gritting her teeth.
He nodded. “Well, I have to admit, I am a magnificent sight to behold.” It was true, but it didn’t make it any less infuriating.
He walked over to the front of her car. “Let me try to give you a jump,” he called. “Go ahead and pop the hood.”
She thought about saying no, but she was tired and hungry and wanted to get the hell out of there. So, without a word, she pulled the latch that opened up her hood. Unfortunately, the jump-start didn’t work.
“Might be your alternator,” he suggested.
She just looked at him. “You’re speaking Martian right now,” she informed him. “I do not speak car.”
“Climb in,” he said, nodding at his truck. “I’ll give you a ride back to town.”
Cursing her luck, she did. She slammed her door hard and looked out the window, refusing to meet his eyes. He hitched her car to the back of his truck, and they began driving. She maintained a stony silence. He was infuriatingly cheerful as they drove.
“So,” she said finally, “What is it that you like so much about Silver Peak anyway? Why are you being so stubborn about sticking around?”
“Hoping to run me out of town?”
“Hell, no,” she said, and meant it. She was not one to run away from her problems, or to try to chase them away.
He shrugged. “Me and my pack, we’ll move on when we’re ready. Right now we’re here to do a construction job. When it’s done, we’ll leave town, go on to the next place. That’s what we do. Never stay in one place for too long.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Sounds lonely. Doesn’t your pack have families?”
A faint scowl creased his brow. “I wouldn’t know,” he said, and the lightness was gone from his voice.. We don’t discuss our pasts. Pack rule. We live in the moment.”
So families were a touchy subject with him.
“Living in the moment is great when you’re in high school,” she said. “Even college. At a certain point, though, I’d think it would get old.”
“Not for us,” Roman said with conviction. “What gets old for wolves like us is being stuck in the same place for too long. Besides, most of us didn’t do college. We didn’t have that kind of upbringing.”
He glanced out the window at the thick stands of trees that rose up on either side of the road, and the mountain range that stretched out into the distance. “If you’re going to pick a place to settle down, though, this is a nice one. So being a sheriff is your dream job?”
“No. My dream job would be owning my own bakery, but you gotta play the hand that’s dealt you,” she said.”
They were approaching Main Street now.
“Which way is your house?” Roman asked.
“That is top-secret information. You can just stop here. Thank you for the ride, but I’m still going to arrest you,” she said as Roman pulled over.
“Of course you are. Anything in particular that you want for dinner when I take you prisoner?” He grinned, baring perfect white teeth, and leaned in close to her. “I aim to please.”
She swallowed hard at the thought of him pleasing her, but she wasn’t going to let him see how much he rattled her.
“So you use aggressive flirting to ensure you’ll never experience real intimacy?” she said sweetly.
He climbed out of the truck.
“So you psychoanalyze men to drive them away when they start getting too close for comfort?” Roman said. He walked over to her car and unhitched it from his truck.
“Touché,” she said. “We’ve both got issues. We should continue to keep a healthy distance from each other. I’ll make an exception for the time that it takes me to drive you to Colorado to deal with that warrant.” She was answered with an amused snort.
The door to the coffee shop flung open. It was still dark in there, since it didn’t open for another half-hour. One of the waitresses stuck her head out of the door.
“Roman!” she simpered. “Can I make you some coffee? You like it black and sweet, right?”
Roman shook his head. “No thanks, Sheila.”
“Shirley,” she corrected him, looking a little hurt.
He glanced over at Chelsea as Shirley shut the door to the coffee shop. “She was just a one-nighter,” he said with what almost looked like an apologetic shrug.