Stalked, Stranded and Finally Sated (Contemporary Romance) (License to Love Series:Book 1) Read online

  Stalked, Stranded and Finally Sated

  Amelia Rose

  Copyright 2012 by Amelia Rose

  All rights reserved.

  www.ameliarose.info

  No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced in any format, by any means, electronic or otherwise, without prior consent from the copyright owner and publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places and events are the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously.

  Stalked, Stranded and Finally Sated

  Clara had only been on the road for a few hours when she found herself leaning into the engine of the old pickup, trying to peer through the steam cloud to see if she could find out what had left her stranded in the middle of nowhere on a Friday afternoon. She squinted into the sun’s glare and tried to get some idea of exactly where she was.

  The day was already hot, the sun streaming across the horizon, making the red dirt dance as if it were alive with flames. Strands of sweat had popped up along her brow and were trickling down her face. The hot steam from the engine was not making things any better, and she could feel her hair clinging to her face and neck in thin, wispy strands.

  She was grateful for the heat because the sweat was effectively hiding the tears that had sprung forth the moment the truck had lurched across the gravel road and landed on the sandy shoulder. She swiped at her cheeks with the back of her greasy hand and returned to inspecting the hoses and clamps. Surely, one of them had to have failed to cause such a monumental outpouring of water from the radiator.

  Clara didn’t want to even think about what would happen if it was the radiator that was broken. She had just sunk the last of her available cash into filling up the truck that morning. That gas needed to get her as far as Wichita Falls, Texas. Right now all she knew was that she was somewhere past Walters, Oklahoma, on State Highway 70. She had no idea how far away civilization was, and the idea of having to try to get towed to a repair place this far out into the country was something she wasn’t prepared to consider.

  “You need any help, ma’am?” A deep voice asked from somewhere behind her. Clara jumped and spun around, bumping her head against the hood, causing a small streak of grease to dot her blonde hair. Her heartbeat kicked up a notch, and she immediately thought he had finally found her, that this deserted strand of road in the middle of nowhere was where it would come to an end.

  If it was, she intended to fight. She grabbed the wrench she had been using and let it swing low at her side, but she was still shocked to find herself face to face with a six foot cowboy.

  His dark hair peeked out of his cowboy hat, and his face and hands wore the tan of someone who consistently worked outside. His bright green eyes peered out at her from under the brim of his hat, and his face was tilted in the lopsided grin of a younger man even though she would have guessed him to be in his early thirties. This wasn’t the computer hacker who had terrorized her life. She may not have ever seen his face, but she knew his mean and taunting nature, knew he enjoyed watching her squirm. This strange man didn’t seem that sadistic, but his sudden appearance still sent a jolt of fear through her body.

  “No. No, I’m fine.” She finally managed.

  “You’re fine?” He chuckled a little. “I think you might be underestimating your problem. It looks to me like you might have a busted radiator on your hands, and I happen to know that you’re about thirteen miles from the nearest station.”

  “And how would you know that?” She asked, tightening her grip on the tool. If he made a move toward her, she was determined to swing first and ask questions later.

  “Because my brother happens to own it, and I’d gladly give you a lift if you should need one.” He motioned to his large dually pickup on the opposite side of the highway and waited, but when she didn’t immediately respond he continued. “My name’s Shad Brandt, what’s yours?”

  She released her pent-up sigh and relaxed her grip on the tool. “Oh, sorry, my name is Clara. Clara Roberts.” She swiped the back of her hand across her forehead again, keeping the sweat from rolling into her eyes. Her shirt now clung to her so tightly that she might as well have been in a wet T-shirt contest. She knew she would not be able to get the truck to a station that far away without causing serious damage to the motor. That, and if she stood out here in the heat too much longer she might drown in her own sweat. “A ride would be nice. Thank you.”

  “Not a problem. Let’s just get your stuff out of the truck, and we’ll head to the shop to see what Woody can do for that radiator.”

  “Woody?”

  “Woody is my brother’s name. Well, technically it’s Woodruff, but I won’t be responsible for his actions if you call him that.”

  “I see.” Clara bit down on her bottom lip and fought back the tears that once again brimmed up. She leaned into the cab to grab her bag and used the opportunity to wipe away the tears. Just as she started to pull back from the truck door, she felt the duffle bag lifted from her hands, and for a brief moment, it felt as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

  She had been running far too long.

  *

  Shad studied the girl sitting across the cab from him with intense interest. She was pulling her naturally curly blond hair up in a loose bun, attempting to get all of the sweaty strands away from her face. A few refused to cooperate, and after a few attempts, she sighed and gave up, letting them frame her face and neck. She noticed him watching, and he felt the pull of her light blue eyes.

  He had originally pulled over because he found himself unable to resist finding out why this woman was waist deep in a steaming pickup. Her pert little bottom had been bent over the grill as she stood on her tiptoes to peer inside. He had expected to find a typical meek city girl who had no idea what she was dealing with.

  What he had found instead was a frightened rabbit that was ready to bolt or fight at the drop of a hat. Shad wasn’t one to press in on someone’s private life, but the thought that someone could have hurt this woman so badly she would be ready to attack a stranger who offered her help, made his blood boil. He didn’t even know Clara, but he already felt an overwhelming urge to protect her.

  “So, where are you from?” He asked as he pulled back onto the highway and headed toward Woody’s station.

  She gave him a soft smile. “Oh, here, there, a little bit of everywhere.”

  Another elusive answer. It seemed as if she was avoiding giving any details about herself. He was probably lucky to have gotten her name.

  “If you were gonna try to fix that busted radiator, you must have some experience working on motors. That’s a pretty complicated problem.” He was staring out the window, looking out across the landscape at the horizon, when he realized that there were muffled sobs coming from the seat beside him. He glanced over and saw she was crying and chewing her lip. He knew trouble when he saw it, and this girl was in deep.

  He eased the truck off onto the shoulder again and waited for her to regain her composure.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cry like that. I just didn’t…” her voice trailed off and a small sob escaped. She leaned forward and pushed the palms of her hands to her eyes as if she were trying to force the tears to stop falling.

  Instead of pressing her or saying anything else, he leaned over the center console and put his arm around her shoulder and let her cry. What began as a small whimper soon dissolved into great weeping sobs so violent he thought her whole body would s
hake apart. She turned her head into his shoulder and wrapped both her small hands around his neck.

  As soon as her skin made contact with his, he felt a jolt of electricity flow through his neck. A gasp caught in the back of his throat, but he managed to stifle it. For that moment, he let her tears soak into his shirt. He had a feeling this was a release she desperately needed.

  Shad had been a rancher since birth. Few career choices led to as many rollercoaster ups and downs as growing crops and raising cattle. Every single year the damn rain count alone was enough of a reason to dance or cry, and two low rainfall years in a row were near enough to kill the most hardened farmers. Whatever was affecting Clara went deeper than money. This kind of trauma was something else, and he would make sure he did everything in his power to help her.

  She looked up at him, and without thinking, he used the ball of his thumb to brush away a stray tear. In that moment, he felt an almost irresistible urge to pull her chin up and kiss them away. Instead, he let his hand fall.

  “Thank you,” she whispered.

  As a kid, Shad had brought home every living thing he ever found lost or hurt. He couldn’t stand the thought of them alone and suffering. This woman was definitely both.

  *

  Clara hadn’t let herself cry like that in a long time, and now she felt an immense sense of relief as she sobbed into this stranger’s shoulder. She knew she should remain vigilant, knew she should keep her guard up in case her stalker found her, but in this one blissful moment, she no longer cared.

  When he brushed the tear from her face with his thumb, she felt a surge of heat flow across her cheek. His eyes grew dark and stormy. The moment passed, and she leaned back into his shoulder.

  After a little while, she pulled away from Shad and wiped her eyes and nose with the back of her hand.

  “Here,” he offered, holding out a thin, worn handkerchief with stains and smudges around the edges. She found herself stifling back a giggle. He looked at her, simultaneously lifting his eyebrow and tilting his head to the side. “Is something funny?”

  She took the handkerchief and dotted at her eyes and wiped her nose. “No, no,” she folded the cloth to hide the mascara spots on the inside and looked into his green eyes, which were sparkling in amusement. “Well, yes, actually. I just never realized there really were men out there who carried real handkerchiefs in their pockets. I was pretty sure that was a myth.”

  “Well, I guess that makes me a real live walking, talking figment of your imagination.” He chuckled, his lip tilted upward in a half grin, and even though she knew she shouldn’t, she felt a spike of warmth surge through her.

  They sat like that for a moment, the truck idling on the side of the road as the air from the air conditioner buzzed around them in a cool cocoon. Finally, Clara tore her gaze away from his and looked out the window.

  “Are you going to be alright?” he asked. His voice remaining calm and steady, not pushing too much, but openly asking, and she found herself wanting to confide everything to him.

  Instead of answering, she bit her bottom lip, and Shad leaned back into his seat, giving her the time and space she needed. However, he made no move to put the truck into gear or move forward, and she knew he wasn’t going to, until she let him know she wasn’t going to break down again.

  “Yes,” she told him without taking her eyes off the red dirt landscape. After a moment, he put the truck into gear and continued down the road in silence. Even though he wasn’t forcing the issue, she felt compelled to say something else, to give him some further explanation for her breakdown. “I’m sorry for the outburst. Things have just been very difficult lately, and I really don’t have the money to pay for something like a busted radiator.”

  That was only part of the truth. Until a few months ago, she had worked as a paralegal in an upscale law firm in Colorado Springs, and she had had a fairly solid savings account and retirement plan. That had been before HE had taken everything away. The horrible thing was, she didn’t know exactly who HE was. For her, HE was just some anonymous person at the end of a computer connection that was ruining her life.

  “I’m just trying to get to Wichita Falls, and I’m so close to making it.” Clara confided. She was mere hours away from her wandering expedition that had led her from family members’ homes to hotels. Alyssa’s home was her last resort.

  “So close.”

  *

  Shad continued driving down the road in silence, soaking up what she had just said. He could hear the edge to her voice, and he knew there was a lot that she wasn’t telling him. This wasn’t a road trip or even a trip to see family in trouble. No, this was someone who was fleeing something far more serious than she let on.

  The truth was in her eyes. They were so bright and lively one minute, so haunted the next. The damn puppy syndrome kept kicking in every time he looked at her.

  He straightened up and kept his gaze away from her. He knew he couldn’t afford to take another look at her sweet heart-shaped face for fear of falling completely under her spell. He couldn’t save the world, and he had been burned more than once trying.

  A few moments later, he turned off of the highway and into the parking lot of the store that belonged to his brother, Woody. The two brothers couldn’t have been more different, but they had always been there for each other.

  He maneuvered the truck past the entrance and around to the back of the bay where his brother worked on vehicles. “Do you have your keys on you? I’ll need to get them to Woody so he can tow it back here.”

  Clara nodded and pulled the keys out of her purse. She paused for a moment before handing them over, and he knew that she was debating whether or not to trust him. He had to disguise the fact that he was secretly pleased when she sighed and pushed the keys into the palm of his hand.

  “Wait here, I’ll be right back.”

  Shad got out of the truck and rounded the car that was in the bay just as Woody rolled out from under the engine.

  “Hey, big brother, what’s going on?” Woody asked with an open smile, his face covered with streaks of grease.

  “Picked up a woman whose truck broke down on the side of the road. It looks like it might be a busted radiator.”

  “Is the truck here?” Woody asked, leaning around his brother.

  “No, it’s still out on Highway 70, about thirteen miles straight out. I’ll take you to it later. For right now I’m going to get her set up somewhere for the night.”

  Woody didn’t say anything, but Shad would have sworn his grin faltered just a little. “Okay. I’ll see if I can’t get the keys from her.”

  “I’ve got them right here,” Shad told him, dangling the keys from his finger.

  “Okay, now I’m sure you’re up to something. What’s wrong? Why don’t you want me to see her?” Woody asked, his brow furrowed as he peered around Shad, determined to get a better look.

  Shad chuckled. “Nothing. She’s just a little rattled, and it’s late.”

  “Sure, I understand. I’ll have it towed back here before we close tonight and see what I can figure out” Woody said, picking up a blue rag from the corner of his tool chest and using it to wipe his hands. “You sure everything’s okay?”

  “I’m not ever sure of anything in life, and you shouldn’t be, either.” Shad told him, smiling as he walked back to the truck. “I’ll see you later.”

  Even though they lived very separate lives, the two brothers still shared the ranch with their sister, Melinda. They had three houses built on different sections of the three thousand acres their parents had left them. They often saw each other, and Melinda insisted that they eat dinner together like a real family at least once a week.

  Woody waved as he turned and went back into the garage.

  *

  Clara waited in the truck while Shad talked to his brother. She was not sure what to expect, but when he walked out of the garage, she was a little startled. Woody was a few inches shorter than Shad but stockier, his che
st broader, and his arm muscles were more developed. He wasn’t as tanned as Shad, but they had the same strong chin and nose.

  Assured he was telling her the truth and that really was his brother, she leaned back into the seat and enjoyed the air conditioner. She hadn’t been able to relax since she found out someone was stalking her. At first, it had been a nuisance, but it had quickly escalated into something far more serious.

  Sighing, she tried to avoid the memories of what had happened. She had believed her existence safe and comfortable, but that was before she realized everything solid and tangible could be taken away by someone with a grudge and a computer.

  Just then, Shad opened the door to the truck and pulled her out of her contemplative state. Now was not the time to worry about what she had lost, but maybe it could be a time to look at the future.

  Shad caught her looking at him and smiled. She felt her pulse race a little beneath her skin, and her breath hitched in her throat. He placed his hand over hers on the console.

  “Woody says he will go pull your truck into the garage tonight, but since it’s the weekend, it could be a day or two before he gets the parts to get it running again.”

  Clara realized she was now in debt to this man more than she could possibly repay him. She pulled her hand away from his and took a deep breath.

  “Thanks, but I’m not sure how I can pay for a new radiator.”

  His eyes lost some of their shine as he looked her up and down, obviously appraising the situation. Out of instinct, Clara reached up and tried to soothe the runaway curls. She knew how she must look, coated in sweat and grease, but that didn’t mean she was the lost little girl her appearance would suggest. After a bit, she started to fidget under his gaze. No matter how badly she needed the truck running, or how good looking he was, she would not allow him to buy her off. She couldn’t afford to be in anyone’s debt, especially if they might expect a sexual favor as trade.

  Just when Clara thought he might stare at her in silence forever, he started to talk, “I need someone who can organize my office into something functional. My sister, Melinda, was helping me, but she’s been doing her own thing lately, and everything’s gone to hell. It’s probably at least a two or three day job, so if you would agree to help me out while Woody repairs your truck, we’ll be even.”