Page 3 of Beyond the Rules
“Leave?” His forehead furrowed into a puzzled frown. “And abandon you here? In the middle of nowhere? After you’ve been in a planecrash?”
“Yes, leave.” It was his best option. “And forget you eversawme.”
He ripped open a tiny packet and shook some tablets onto his palm. “Open up.” He dropped the pills in my mouth and tipped a bottle to my lips. “Take adrink.”
The water felt good to my throat, new life to my parched body. I drank some more, greedy mouthfuls that helped offset the shakes.Keep it together. Get toUlysses.
“You know, Nina,” Tanner said while spraying my hand with an antiseptic lotion. “I’ve seen all kinds of shit hit the fan, but never before has anyone in need of help sent me away. This is a first.Forsure.”
“I know you think I’m in shock and can’t think straight,” I said, fighting to suppress the hysterics sharpening my voice. “Some of that might be true. But I’m telling you. You need to leave. Hanging out with me?Notsafe.”
“What about you?” he asked, wrapping some loose bandages over myhands.
“I have a place I need to be,” I said. “And I’ll getthere.”
His eyebrows touched the rim of his baseball cap. “And how exactly do you plan to get away from here with your hands scalded and your ankle out ofcommission?”
He made a very good point. I wasn’t thinking exactly in a straight line. On the other hand, this was my mess and he didn’t have to die for it. “I’ll figure out a way, I always do. Please, leave now, before it’stoolate.”
“Sorry, Nina. No can do. Leaving is not my style. I’m thinking you’re in trouble. You’re either crazy or scared shitless and I’m betting onoptiontwo.”
He was right, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. He was also stubborn, I could see that in the glint of his eyes and the set of his mouth. His lips were long, smooth, and succulent, with the lower wider than the upper. I don’t know why—maybe it was a moment of misguided gratitude—but in that instant, I really wanted to kiss him. I wanted to nibble on his mouth, run my tongue along the seam of his silken lips, and breach theboundary.
Uh-oh. Intruder alert. This guy had trouble written all over him. His face. His kindness. His competence. His body. Oh, yeah, his body and the way his biceps rippled beneath his sleeves. He was kind of…scrumptious.
Scrumptious? I gave myself another mental kick in the ass. What was wrongwithme?
A concussion. That had to be it. The hit to the head had clobbered mesilly.
“Hey, Nina?” He gave my arm a little squeeze. “You seem a little dazed. Areyouokay?”
“Probably not.” I blinked away my crazy thoughts and pressed the back of my hand against my forehead, wondering if I had a fever. “I’m thinking brain damage.” It was the only way to explain my completely inappropriatereactions.
“You really may be in shock,” heoffered.
“Yup, I’m in shock,forsure.”
Focus, Nina. I was in the wilderness of freaking Montana, running from a deadly enemy, in search of the only person who could help me. I didn’t have time to ogle a stranger who looked and smelled like a full-throttled male, a breed I’d been familiar with once upon a time, a rare and reclusivespecies.
And he wasn’t just looks either. I recognized the brain behind the brawn in his gaze. I spent most of my waking time with my laptop, but I was a fairly good judge of character. This guy wasn’t about to be persuaded to leave right now. Plan B, then. Speed this up and get him out of dangerwhilegetting toUlysses.
“If you won’t leave,” I said, “then I need you take mesomewhere.”
“Wow.” His lips turned up into a lopsided smirk. “And now she wants to be the bossofme?”
“I mean it. This is important. Can you take me where I needtogo?”
He studied me closely. “And where wouldthatbe?”
“I have an address.” I winced when I went to retrieve my cell out of my bra. My hands were not amenable to grasping anything at the moment. I let out a frustrated huff and pointed my thumb to my cleavage. “Hands.Inhere.”
He arched a sharp brow and flashed me a roguish grin. “Very tempting, sweetheart, but wejustmet.”
He was funny. And sexy. But I had no time for laughs. Or for flirting. “There’s a cell. In my bra. Take itout.Now.”
“Youarea bossy thing.” He leaned over my chest and dipped his hand beneath my T-shirt. “Pardon myreach…”
His hand was both gentle and firm as he groped for the cell. His touch sent tingles all over my body. God, I wanted my brain back! I closed my eyes and tried to think clearly. I needed my head scanned. He was hot, no two ways about it. In a different setting, he would’ve been trouble for sure. But not here,notnow.