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Yes! She shook her head. “No. That’s not—”
“You’re independent and self-reliant. But we all need a helping hand now and then.” He removed his hat, ran his hand through tufty brown hair. “I can get that tire switched far quicker than you.”
Her heart thumped in her chest, and she pressed her dry tongue to the back of her teeth. “I know. And I do appreciate your offer, but I would rather do this myself.” Her knuckles strained around the jack, the metal sweat-slick against her palms. Could he see that? Her scalp prickled despite the breeze. Fixing the damn tire herself was the safest option, but it wasn’t fucking easy.
“Sure.” His gaze darkened, and he showed her his back as if to leave.
Damn, that’s a fine ass. A soft wheeze escaped her.
He pivoted, facing her again. “Where are you going? I could take you there… get some help organized.”
Her face, her neck, her ears, everything was impossibly hot. She must look like a traffic beacon. No doubt he was offering to help her out of pity for her beet-red coloring. She fumbled in her back pocket and waved her cell at him. “I can call for help if I need it. Really, thank you. I’m fine.”
“If you’re sure?”
“I’m sure.” Like hell I am.
He tipped his hat at her like some old-fashioned gentleman and returned to his car. The engine roared with raw power. Whatever was under the hood, it didn’t match the bland exterior. Thirty seconds later, he was gone, his rear-view window flashing goodbye at her as she stood at the side of her busted car.
Jo kicked the tire again for good measure. She’d just had to refuse the help of probably the sexiest man she’d ever laid eyes on. Pain fired up her leg as her toe mashed against the metal wheel rim and made her hop.
Her day just couldn’t get any better.
4
The modified engine of Griff’s car purred with throaty power as he accelerated away from the image of the woman growing smaller in his rear-view mirror.
Something had clearly spooked her.
He’d done his best to look as unthreatening as possible. Not an easy task when you were over six feet and weighed almost two hundred pounds. His muscle tone was minimized because of his injury, and his head was no longer clean shaven, but he was no fool. He knew he cut an imposing figure, especially to a lone woman.
Except it hadn’t felt like it was just about him. The whiteness of her knuckles, the way she stole glances over his shoulder as if expecting there to be someone else, some other threat. The weary sadness in her gaze from whatever shit life had thrown at her all spoke of more, an underlying current.
Except there had been nothing. Just him, a remarkable-looking woman and the sun on the back of his neck, the dry dirt scent of the road in his nostrils.
And remarkable she’s been. Full lips at odds with the severe expression on her face. High cheekbones under pale blue eyes, with only a few lines hinting she was far from her twenties.
She had the outside package, but he’d also seen more. Intelligence shimmered in the glacial blue of her eyes and damn if that didn’t turn him on.
He rounded a bend, and she was gone from his rear mirror.
He pressed his teeth together and opened his window, letting the fresh air clear his mind of all the distracting thoughts of shapely thighs and pale pink nails gliding down his spine as he powered deep inside her body. He didn’t have space in his head to be thinking about the attractive woman he stumbled across on the side of the road. Duty called, and he needed his head in the right place for the ops Leo had planned. He should be grateful for the opportunity of distraction after the fuckery of yesterday’s hospital appointment.
Fine lady. Do it yourself. He gunned the engine and powered up the mountain road, his jaw tight.
The glass exterior of Guardsmen Security glinted into view half an hour later. Griff parked and climbed the stairs to the buff wooden doors.
Floor to ceiling windows gave him a limited preview of Leo inside talking to Zak, his younger brother. Zak perched on the edge of a worn couch, his long legs swinging, an amiable smile on his face, one arm looped proprietorially around an attractive woman’s waist. Griff shook his head with a smile. Zak’s devotion to his new fiancée, Alina Anderson, showed no signs of abating. Her head rested against Zak’s chest, her burnished chestnut hair cascading loosely across her shoulders. Gold flashed on the curve of her ear as Zak pressed a possessive kiss to the top of her head.
Griff was pleased for them. He knew he wasn’t marriage material but for Zak, Alina was a keeper in every sense of the word—intelligent, gorgeous and she made Zak beyond happy. Meeting her had helped Zak to carve a new place for himself in the world, one not soaked in the blood of the past.
He pushed the door open. Guardsmen Security. His place of work but also home. Guardsmen Security, his team, wasn’t just his job, this was his family. And his family were falling in love and being swept off their feet by amazing women one by one. First Zak, then Eli, the third Bychkov brother, and most recently even Thom Fox, the team medic. All of them had embraced love with three awesome women.
Griff swallowed the tiniest tingle of envy as air whistled between his clenched teeth. There was no place for a woman in his life. Never had been and never would be. He was happy for his brothers, but he knew that his own genetic pool was tainted. He’d decided long ago relationships were not in his DNA. It was safer that way. No chance of him turning into an utter bastard like his dad.
Alina lifted her head, her face lighting up with happiness to see him.
“Griff.” She crossed the room and wrapped her slender arms around him. “How did it go at the hospital?”
