Page 100 of Ice Devil

Oh, now he was brave.

Damn it.

I took another swig of coffee, a bad taste already forming in my mouth. Babysitting was the last damn thing I needed to do.

Yet when I opened the door, my eyes falling on her, I felt the exact same as I had when I’d seen her in that mangled car. So many emotions I could barely breathe. Not only because she drove me crazy, furious to the point I wanted to drag her over my lap and spank her bottom until she cried. But because I’d been terrified I’d lose her.

The beautiful pain in the ass reporter appeared so vulnerable, so frail in her ugly hospital gown that hid her beauty like she was wearing a potato sack.

She tipped her head, studying me for a few seconds before looking away.

This was going to grate my last nerve.

* * *

“What do you mean you gave my room away?”

Evidently, the feisty reporter wasn’t feeling that bad. Her ballsy personality had returned. Now she was berating the girl who stood behind a tiny counter at a local B & B. I noticed there was a suitcase with a laptop case leaning against the wall. They’d packed up her things. Oh, this was going to start a fight.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Winters, but you only booked for one night. I tried to call you.”

“I booked for three nights and my phone just happens to be crushed under a tree limb!” Sloane blew hair from her face in her heightened exasperation. “I need a place to stay. Just rebook another room.”

The poor girl was already shrinking. Soon, she’d be half her size. Well, that was exactly the way the doctor had acted around me. I had to admit I was enjoying the hell out of myself. Something needed to entertain me at this point.

“I wish I could, but this is the height of tourist season,” the girl told her, which was true.

“You have a tourist season here? You are kidding me. Right?” Sloane was already laughing while the girl was looking to me to rescue her.

“No, ma’am.”

“What other hotels are in town? Surely there is something?” Like an asshole, I hadn’t thought to bring her any clothes. What she was wearing appeared as if she’d been wrestling with a bear.

No, just a wolf.

“I called around just in case since I didn’t know. Everything is booked. You might find something in Seattle, but I doubt it.”

Now the girl was begging me with her eyes to intervene. What did the girl expect? That I’d offer a room at my house?

Oh, hell. That’s exactly what she was thinking. Oh, fuck, no. I couldn’t live under the same roof as the woman who’d sold me out to the entire world. We’d kill each other.

What struck me even harder was that it was obvious Sloane wasn’t about to ask me for a favor. She knew the reality of the two of us. We were oil and water. Dry timber and gasoline.

Ice without a Zamboni machine.

Fuck me.

“You can stay with me until that damn doctor signs off on you leaving town.” I’d had feeling he was doing some witch’s bidding in requiring Sloane stay in town. However, I didn’t need to add murderer on my list of nefarious attributes at this point.

Sloane turned to face me, scrutinizing everything about me. Including what I was wearing. “I don’t want to be any trouble. You’ll likely think I poisoned your coffee.”

The girl was listening intently.

“As long as you don’t poison my whiskey then we’ll be alright.”

“God knows I wouldn’t want to do that. Then you’d be intolerable to deal with.” Sloane’s eyes were beaming from enjoying the hell out of herself.

At this rate, the girl could grab a bowl of popcorn.