He gusted out a sigh. “It’s freezing out here. Let’s go inside and get warm. I’ll call the towing company again later.”
“If they’re not answering now,” I shouted over the wind, moving closer when my voice seemed to get sucked away, “what makes you think they will later? It’s a holiday. People are out celebrating.”
“Are you?” He pointed at himself. “Am I? No. Not everyone is in a fucking party mood. Now come on.”
When I didn’t budge, he gave me a stern look that made me half expect him to haul me over his shoulder like a sack of Maggie. Then he let out another of those windy breaths. “Please?”
My frozen face cracked into a smile. “Did that hurt?”
“A little. Not as much as my nuts shriveling up into my spine though.”
I swallowed. Along with not hearing a ton of swear words on a daily basis, I also wasn’t privy to men referring to their nuts as if that counted as ordinary conversation.
Hi, my nuts hurt. Pass the crackers.
“You, um, should definitely go inside then. That sounds painful.”
“It is. Come on. I won’t bite.”
“Are you sure?”
Now he did more than almost smile. He barked out a laugh. “Not unless you want me to, honey, and even then, I’m pretty sure you aren’t my type.” He tilted his head and lifted his voice above the howling wind. “I’m not into church girls. Even the ex-communicated kind, which does sound interesting.”
“It is. No, I’m not telling you.” I rubbed my mittened hand over my stinging cheeks. “What happens between a girl and her priest is private.”
“Wow. Some Thorn Birds shit? Kinky little thing, aren’t you?”
Was that actually approval I saw in his midnight eyes? They’d definitely warmed. Speaking of kinky…
“Hardly.” I sniffed, and not out of haughtiness.
I had to sneeze, and I had to pee. I was also freezing and starving and desperately in need of a long, hot shower.
Then again, did I dare get naked within the same four walls as this guy? Even if I wasn’t his type?
Serial killers had types too. They also didn’t kill everyone they met. I couldn’t be sure this guy was safe, but if I wasn’t in his target victim group, he could be a homicidal lunatic and I wouldn’t necessarily be in danger. Plus, I knew some judo.
Oh, the rationalizations a girl who urgently needs a bathroom will make.
“Okay. I’ll go inside with you. Briefly. Until we can reach the towing company. Otherwise, I will have many people out looking for me, and they will descend on your place like a swarm of locusts if I’m not home in a matter of hours.”
Much to my consternation most of the time. I was well and truly sick of being so overprotected by my family, though I loved them for their concern. It was just hard to have much of a life when you were watched like a rabid animal expected at any moment to go on a rampage through town.
In truth, I just mostly studied and worked, along with spending time with my bestie and my boyf—
Yep, not going there.
“Not if I tie you up and make you call them to say you’re okay and not to look for you. Then I might throw your chair in the basement and leave you without food and water.”
His voice was entirely too serious, which was how I guessed he was lying. It was a gamble, but I was going to bet that the usual serial killer didn’t advertise his intentions so brazenly. “You forgot to add that you’d have your way with me first.”
“Hoping, Red?” Before I could stammer out a response, he grabbed my arm and towed me behind him. “Not my type, remember?”
“I didn’t say yes,” I called.
He promptly ignored me.
After dragging me up a short snowy hill, we made our way up a scarcely shoveled path to a short set of rickety steps. He stopped to pick up some wood, then stomped up the steps and pressed his shoulder into the door. “Come on,” he shouted in my general direction before barreling into the dark house.