The guy could kiss. If I’d been wearing panties, they’d have been moist.
“We need to talk.” Heat poured off this guy as if he was standing next to a bonfire. “After we get you back to town. We wait any longer, Gabe’ll send out a search party.” He pulled a blanket from his backpack and handed it to me.
“You can come over later. Gabe won’t mind keeping Theo a while longer.” I wrapped the blanket around me. Never have I been so glad for a piece of cloth. I almost didn’t notice it smelled like wet fur. Almost.
Brody ran his thumb over my lower lip. “We will. Tomorrow.”
Burn. I couldn’t believe he was ending this super-sexy rescue by telling me he’d stop by tomorrow. The noise of an approaching four-wheeler drowned out my muttering.
After Brody phoned in for a ride back to town, he stripped. Tossing me his clothes, he winked and then morphed into a loping wolf. I swear he looked back at me and smiled a toothy grin.
I blinked in disbelief when a weaselly lesser demon pulled up on the four-wheeler. “I’m your transport back to town, sugar tits. Hop on.”
I stared at him unblinking.
“Come on, I won’t bitecha. Hard anyway.” He winked at me and revved the engine, jerking his thumb at the empty seat space behind him. Ugh. It's either him or I walk and I think I’ve had enough adventure for one day.
“Such a gentleman,” I quipped dryly.
My demon chauffeur compensated for his skinny neck, small head, and below-average height with an impressive tat collection. Seeing as how he wore a muscle shirt and I was sitting behind him, I got an eyeful. I scootched back as far as I could manage on our shared seat and held onto him with the lightest pressure that would keep me from falling into a ditch.
As we headed back toward town, he sneezed. Flames shot out his nose, scorching the trees and small shrubs as we rode. When I checked behind us, I saw charred pits smoking. Even the tips of my hair smelled singed.
“’Cuse me!” he hollered over the engine. “I’m getting over a miserable cold. Still got some congestion. Good thing I didn’t have beans for lunch, though.”
What the holy hell!
My eyes widened when realization sunk in. I inched back a little more.
He turned to talk over his shoulder at me. “Hey, want to stop by my place and see my collection of shrunken heads?”
“Hard pass.”
“Suit yourself. But all the ladies like my heads.” He wiggled the small slashes for eyebrows above his black eyes at me. It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask how many he had, but I forced my curiosity to take a back seat in the nick of time. I did not want a peep show.
Brody was a dead man the next time I saw him.
Back in Sleepy Briar, I took my time in a tepid shower and painful blackberry-thorn removal session. I’d only just finished when a disheveled Gabe showed up to return Theo.
“You okay?” I asked him after I’d briefly explained most of what transpired in the wilderness.
“Did you get any more snowdrops?” His eyes darted around the kitchen table.
Double damn! I’d left my pre-accident stash back on the cliffside.
“They were lost in the fall.”
His already downcast face drooped lower.
“But I can get more soon. From Barrow. Don’t worry. I promised to keep you stashed with soap, and I will.”
His eyes slid away from mine. He didn’t believe me. Poor ghoul.
“Hey, I promise you, Gabe, that I won’t run out of soap for you.”
“Shhh,” he hushed me. “I don’t want any other guys to know I use it. I just like it because it masks my smell, not because I like flowers or anything like that.”
“Nothin’ wrong with liking flowers.” I pat his hand and we share a smile. Not many people show him kindness and I aim on changing that.