Read Online Wolver's Rescue by Jacqueline Rhoades - Free Book Online Page A

the floor. The front of
it was smeared with whatever she’d rolled in while in the
dumpster.
    “ Come on, spitfire, let’s
get you dried off and to bed.”
    “ Just pass me a towel. I’m
all right now.”
    He took one of the larger towels and held it
to her back, sliding the ends under her arms. When she tucked it
around her thin frame, he turned her and lifted her from the
tub.
    “ Not taking any chances.
Messy fixtures, remember?” He sat her in the middle of the bed and
brought her the last two towels. “Now when you fall over, you won’t
make a mess.”
    Her sun starved skin was glowing from the
scrub down he’d given her. The faint sheen of water left behind
from the shower made it glisten in the light cast by the room’s
only lamp. It was darker than his and he figured that when she was
healthy, it would be a deep golden brown. She looked a helluva lot
better than she did before, but no amount of scrubbing could erase
the dark circles under her eyes, or the cracked lips that had lost
all their color. A yellowing bruise stood out on her cheek. Now
that she was clean, her big brown eyes looked even larger than
before. It might have been a pretty face if it hadn’t looked so
gaunt and abused.
    He found a comb in the side pocket of his
duffle and tossed it to her. Rummaging in the main section, he
found the black tee he wanted, smelled it to be sure it was clean,
and passed that to her, too.
    “ Can I have my sandwich
now?” she asked as her head popped through the neck of the shirt.
“It’s in the pocket of the pants. I’ll share it with you if you
want some. You said you were hungry and at this hour, everything is
closed. I lost the fries somewhere,” she added sadly.
    She was starving, yet she was offering to
share her two ounces of meat with him. Bull shook his head. She was
a strange one all right.
    He picked up the formerly black trousers that
were now crusted with yellow and wrinkled his nose. Whatever had
stained his tee shirt had soaked into the pants and burger, too. He
held up the soggy mess now flattened to the size of a small pancake
and showed it to her.
    “ You’re not eating this,” he
said.
    Her eyes followed the arc of burger to
wastebasket, but she said nothing. It was when she closed those
eyes and ran her tongue over her cracked lips in a clear plea for
inner strength that something in Bull cracked. Even his wolf was
moved by that look and echoed Bull’s gut response.
    “ Feed ,” the wolf demanded.
    “ I’m on it,” Bull responded
aloud. He grabbed his keys from the desk and looked back at the
woman on the bed. “I’ll go find us something to eat.”
    Her eyes lit with surprise and she nodded.
“Oh, okay. I’ll wait right here.” She plucked at the tee shirt she
wore. “Can’t run very far looking like this.”
    He was at the exit of the parking lot before
it hit him. She’d run before looking a whole lot worse. That smart
assed little bitch! He didn’t bother turning the truck around.
Lights out, he backed through the parking lot and into his spot.
Key dangling from the knob, he threw open the door and almost
laughed. With those big brown eyes, she looked more like a deer
caught in the headlights than a cunning she-wolf.
    She was kneeling over his duffle with a pair
of socks in one hand, a pair of undershorts in the other, and a wad
of his extra cash between her teeth.
    “ Need a hand?” he asked,
holding his out under her chin.
    She spit the cash out. “I would have paid it
back,” she said.
    “ Yeah, because we’re such
good friends and you know my address.”
    Color rose in her cheeks, “Okay, so maybe I
wouldn’t have.” She sighed. “Look, I’m grateful you helped me
escape, but you have no right to keep me here. I know you’re not a
bad man, but you’re not a good one, either. I don’t know who you
are.”
    “ That works both ways. At
least you know my name.”
    She opened her mouth, but shut it again,
holding back whatever she was about to