Free Chill by Stephanie Rowe Page B

I’m not going to hurt you.”
    She stared at him, her black eyes unreadable in the darkness. “Luke?” she repeated. Her voice sounded foggy with confusion and exhaustion. “What are you doing here?”
    “I don’t know.” He walked over to her. “You okay?”
    She nodded. “I’m fine. I needed the exercise.”
    Luke frowned and pulled out the penlight he kept stashed in his pocket whenever he was flying. It was tough as hell to fix an engine in the dark without a light. He flashed it over her face and narrowed his eyes at her ashen skin tone. “Let me see your shoulder.”
    She pulled back farther. “My shoulder?”
    “I can tell it’s hurt.” He gestured impatiently, trying to keep it professional. Not so easy when she was calling upon every protective instinct in his body. “Let me see.”
    She hesitated, and for a moment he thought shewould resist. Then she grabbed the cuff of her sweater and pulled her arm out of the sleeve.
    Luke averted the flashlight as Isabella pulled her sweater half off to reveal her shoulder. But even with the light redirected, he was viscerally aware of her bare midriff, of the shadows of her bra across her breasts.
    “Ready.” Her voice was throaty and trembling with nervousness.
    Instead of inspecting her shoulder, Luke gently cupped her chin, his fingers gliding over the softness of her skin. “Hey,” he said quietly. “I’m not going to hurt you. Relax.”
    She stared at him, and after a moment, she took a shuddering breath and nodded. “Okay.”
    He smiled and thumbed the scratch on her cheek. “Good girl.”
    She pulled her chin out of his grasp. “Just look at my shoulder.”
    Luke raised his brows at her resistance, then grinned. Yeah, the woman had pluck. Damn if he didn’t like pluck.
    Isabella closed her eyes as Luke released her chin at her command. The moment he stopped touching her, she was consumed with raw regret at the loss of physical contact. Yet at the same time, she shuddered with intense relief.
    How long had it been since a man had touched her in such gentleness? It felt so good, so amazing. To feel the heat of his fingers on her skin.
    But at the same time…it terrified her. After falling so hard for Daniel, she didn’t want to put herself out there again. She couldn’t do it. Not for any man.
    And Luke was all male. Elemental, raw and rugged.Everything she responded to…which was why he terrified her. Her need for Luke was so much more intense than what she’d felt for Daniel, and even the little of herself she’d offered to Daniel had burned her so badly. She’d been unable to see what was really going on because she’d been so desperate for what he’d offered her. All he’d wanted was to get his hand in Marcus’s till, and she’d been so needy to belong to someone, to have a home, that she’d refused to see the truth until it had almost been too late.
    And that was nothing compared to the intensity of her need for Luke. For his touch, for his kiss, for his arms around her, for him to protect her…
    But she couldn’t trust her reactions anymore. For God’s sake, she’d even been wrong about Zack. His invite to Marcus’s birthday had turned into a near abduction. No more trusting men, especially not in Marcus’s world. They all wanted something from her, and she was going to make sure she controlled the situation. Luke had so much baggage, so much pain and so much hatred for Marcus that he was the last one she could afford to fall for.
    “I’m going to move your sweater up so I can see your shoulder,” Luke said.
    “Okay.” She tensed when his fingers brushed her arm as he lifted her sweater aside. God, it felt good to be touched. She wanted to lean into him and just breathe in the feeling of his skin against hers.
    Light flashed as he turned his beam on her arm.
    For a moment, he said nothing.
    She twisted around to try to see her arm, but her sweater was in the way. “Is it infected?”
    “Someone shot you.” It