“What’s wrong?”
Mel blinked at the unexpected emotion, care, and protectiveness contained in the two words. She never would have expected such emotions from a rough-looking man like him.
She could trust him. She could feel it.
“It’s just been tough,” she said, letting it all out. “I was attacked last night and nearly killed today. My cameraman’s being flaky, and I need to go out to a ranch outside of town to talk to someone I don’t know, who probably has a bogus story, and it’s just all so frustrating. Nothing is how I thought it would be. Not that I’ll give up.”
“I’ll escort you,” he said in a low growl. His expression was hard, but his amber eyes showed that he was sincere.
She stared at him, wondering if she had heard him right. She couldn’t have, right? He had just been ignoring her minutes earlier, and now he wanted to accompany her?
“What?” Mel asked, confused. “I don’t even know your name, and you’re offering to help me? Don’t you have a job or a family or a girlfriend?”
“My name’s Dallas,” he said, shrugging. “And I’m free.”
Who was this secretive, fascinating man? She had to admit, although she knew next to nothing about him, his offer was tempting.
He had saved her once, and she was increasingly curious about this sexy cowboy. If she wasn’t already working on a story, she might have abandoned it just to try and figure him out.
Mel was good at getting things out of people. She had to be in order to be a reporter, but in the last little while, he had succeeded in getting more out of her than she got out of him.
If he came with her, she could continue working on her current story while figuring him out.
Plus, she probably should just be thankful. Still, part of her couldn’t believe that Dallas would want to help her.
“Why? Why would you help me?” she asked.
Another shrug.
Mel blushed and looked away. “Well, I’d be silly to turn down help. I’m heading up to Hillson Ranch. You know of it?”
He nodded.
She cocked an eyebrow. “How? Are you a local or something?”
He nodded again.
“Nice. Anyway, there are some people up there who claim they saw giant monsters.” She continued. “Apparently, they even got video of them.”
Dallas frowned, that beautiful jaw going taut again.
“Yeah, I know,” Mel said, laughing. “I still won’t believe it until I see it.”
Things hadn’t gotten that much better, and she was still no closer to figuring out what was going on in this town, but at least now she didn’t feel so alone anymore, nor was she really worried about anything like last night happening.
For some reason, being around Dallas felt kind of safe. Looking at him again, she got the feeling that she could just trust him.
And Mel rarely got that feeling about anyone.
Hopefully, her instincts would prove correct.
5
Later that day, Dallas ducked a little in the passenger’s side of Mel’s vehicle as they bumped down the extremely well-worn country road several miles out of town. It was so well-worn, in fact, that there were huge gaps and holes, and her van had little in the way of suspension.
Hence the ducking. Otherwise, his head would bang against the ceiling.
And he didn’t want to have to explain why there was a Dallas-shaped dent in the ceiling of her van.
Shifters had hard heads, after all.
“Sorry,” Mel said, grimacing as she looked over at him. “I didn’t think it would be this bumpy.”
Dallas shook his head.
It wasn’t more than he could handle. This whole afternoon had been unexpected. He had only planned on following from a distance, but that had gone out the window.
Hell, he couldn’t even leave her for a few hours for fear that she might get run over by a car, attacked by cowboys, or who knew what.
She was a walking disaster. And he’d never been as intrigued by anyone in his life.
Plus, it was better that he didn’t have to work from the shadows. The closer he was to her, the easier it would be to tell exactly what she was doing. And secretly, he was enjoying being around her, watching her, trying to figure out what it was about her that drew him to her.
Maybe it was her tenacity in the face of such a sticky situation. It wasn’t her fault that she just happened to be digging into something that he was specifically tasked with keeping quiet.
Unless a human was mated to one, it was never a good idea for them to know about shifters.
“I can see the ranch, but the road’s only getting worse, and my van’s not really made for this,” Mel said, wincing as they hit a particularly hefty bump. “Maybe I should stop.”
Dallas nodded. “Best not to get stuck.”
When she pulled over to the side of the road and shut off the van, he got out and walked around, holding out a hand for her to step down, which she took.
Damn, her touch was electric.
She let go of his arm, then took a few steps, but didn’t make it very far, as she was wearing heels.
Dallas fought back a small smile of amusement as he watched her wobble for a second on the uneven ground, determined to make it to the ranch.
Only when she was about to fall did he jump forward to catch her, almost instinctively.
He laughed as he swung her up into his arms. Those pretty newscaster heels really weren’t going to do anything on this terrain.
“Sorry,” she muttered, blushing and looking away. “I should have worn something more practical. They’re so picky about how I look when I do interviews, but after this, I’m going to wear what I want. I probably look really stupid like this.”
On the contrary, Dallas liked her exactly how she was, gorgeous curves and all. She looked delectable, but she felt even better.
He had one hand down supporting her sumptuous legs and another supporting her back as she leaned into him.
Feeling her against him
