Ruthless (Wolf Ranch #6) - Renee Rose Page 0,6

a wink, then I turned to go. Walking up the old stairs, I became acutely aware of Rand following. Of his eyes on my ass. This guy had seen me naked the night before! I knew it was him, but there’s no way he knew that I knew.

I couldn’t tell him either. Obviously, he had no intention of telling me the truth. It was like the saying about a secret being the elephant in the room. In this case, it was a sleek, gray wolf.

“Ack!” My foot dropped through a rotted stair. I shrieked, arms flying out to steady myself as my body dropped. Before I even found the handrail, Rand caught me—one hand under my arm, the other at my waist. Instead of steadying me, he tugged me backward, and I tumbled straight into his arms, honeymoon style. I gasped again, this time from the hard feel of him holding me in his arms.

“Easy, Red,” he rumbled. “I got you.”

“What happened?” Nash called from below.

“We’re good, just watch the broken step when you come up,” Rand replied, pulling me in close.

“Oh!” That was the inane sound that came from my lips as he carried me up the remaining stairs.

Slowly.

Like he was in no hurry to get to the top.

And not because I was too heavy, and it was a struggle for him. No, I felt weightless in his arms, like he could carry three of me and still not break a sweat.

Wolf strength.

My startled gaze found his, which had taken on an eerie, beast-like glow. “Careful, darlin’,” he murmured, his warm breath feathering against my cheek.

For some reason, his words—or maybe it was the deep velvet rumble of his voice—seemed to reach right inside me, speaking to my tingling lady parts like he was singing a serenade. He looked even more handsome close up and personal, the strong line of his jaw made even more manly by a pair of sensual lips. He smelled like sawdust and leather and clean soap.

“Wow. Um, th-thank you,” I managed to say as we reached the hall.

“Might have to keep you in my arms just in case something else breaks.”

I laughed. “In this house? Then you’ll never be putting me down.”

“Works for me.”

O.

M.

G.

I looked back down the stairs, where Nash stood with his hands on his hips, watching us. “Huh,” he said, like he just figured something out.

“What?” I squirmed a little in Rand’s arms, which made a deep rumble come from his chest. I felt it against my arm as much as heard it.

He still hadn’t put me down.

“Um, are you going to let me go?”

“No.”

Just no?

Nash shook his head and disappeared, and a few beats later, the light in the basement stairwell went out indicating he’d gone back to the fuse box and turned off the main power.

“Um. We can’t stay like this.” No matter how much I liked being in his hold, it was a little weird.

Rand sighed then made a show of checking the floor before he gently tipped my feet to the ground. Even when I was safely standing, his hand settled on my low back, like I might fall through the floorboards at any moment.

Which, given the state of the house, was always a possibility.

“So, this B&B idea?”

My heart still galloped like a wild mustang from his casually heroic rescue, and I hoped he didn’t notice how his touch, his nearness made me react. I was flushed and not from the warm summer morning. I was jittery, and I hadn’t had that hit of caffeine that had been denied.

I shrugged again, trying for laid back. “Like I said, not many jobs around here for what I’m skilled at. I’m not sure if I’m enough of a people-person for having out of town guests, but I’ll do what I need to to get by.”

“I remember you and your uncle sitting together fiddling,” he said, surprising me.

I smiled at the memory. “Wow, um. Yeah. Haven’t done that since I was here, either.”

He frowned. “I thought you said you were a concert violinist.”

“Yes, I am. I’ve played the violin but haven’t fiddled.”

He was watchful but said nothing.

My uncle had bought me a violin when I was six and taught me to play. My parents couldn’t afford music lessons and thought it was a real waste of time. Especially later when I decided to go to college to study music. They’d thought I should stay home and help support them, working at the drug store where my mom worked, and when