Free The Guarded Widow by K M Gaffney

accelerated quickly and continued on his way.
    “Let me see,” Olivia demanded, but Gavin only maneuvered her aside before getting up to check the rear tire.
    “Hmm,” was all he muttered after crouching down, inspecting the rear passenger tire. Within seconds of the flashlight illuminating the tread, he’d discovered this tire contained a gash in it almost the same length as the front tire.
    Clenching his jaw angrily, he stood up to survey the dark deserted stretch of road and realized that someone had intended to isolate her here, alone, in these woods.
    Olivia tilted her face up to study him. He looked furious. As she waited for him to say something, anything, only one thought flashed through her mind. Gavin Rafferty’s a fierce looking man when he’s angry. Still having no clue as to why he was upset, she merely stared up at him, waiting with growing impatience.
    He was beyond angry, irate was more like it. And when he’d glanced down at Olivia, he’d suddenly experienced a strong overwhelming desire to protect her. Actually, he’d envisioned hauling her into his car, driving her home and forbidding her to leave the safety of the newly wired house.
    Olivia tucked her hands deep into her jacket pockets, shivered from the cold air, and then looked up into his cold blue eyes. They were unreadable.
    Completely annoyed by his silence, she impatiently demanded, “What is it? What’s wrong?”
    “Someone slashed your tires,” he said, reaching over to open her passenger side door. After removing her keys from the ignition, he lifted her purse off the passenger seat and then locked the doors. Not once did he look at her.
    “Get in the car,” he told her, his tone menacing.
    Once she was settled into the seat beside him, he started to reach across her, to help her with the seatbelt, but then thought twice about touching her. Instead, he stretched out his arm, neatly dropping her purse right in the middle of her lap.
    Unfazed by its sudden presence, Olivia quietly stared out the tinted window with fingers of fear clawing inside her stomach.
    “I’ll call for a tow truck,” he grumbled, still avoiding eye contact as he turned the key in the ignition.
    “I don’t know of anyone who would do this to me. There’s not one person that I can think of who would want to hurt me like this,” she murmured, thinking aloud.
    She averted her gaze to Gavin, his eyes were focused on the road but he still looked furious.
    “I sure am glad I had the idea to have a security system installed,” she quietly joked in a half hearted attempt to ease some of the angry tension emanating off of him.
    It didn’t work. He cast her a brief glance.
    “It’s not Masters. He’s been working at your house all day.”
    Then he fell silent again.
    As the police cruiser approached the front of her welcoming stone home, they both could see Jeff Masters standing in the foyer. And for some reason, completely unknown to Olivia, she suddenly felt the urgent need to explain why Jeff Masters was still there, waiting for her.
    “He needs to show me how to use the security system yet,” she hesitantly offered up, breaking the silence.
    After a few more nerve wracking seconds, Gavin finally addressed her.
    Instead of speaking, he gently shifted her face toward him by placing two fingers along the angle of her jaw. His light touch lingered against her skin while his fiery eyes searched hers. His gaze packed such scorching intensity; it began to physically warm her body from the inside out. Then slowly, ever so slowly, his intense eyes shifted, drifting over face and eventually traveling down to her mouth.
    Finally, he was finally going to kiss her.
    Only much to Olivia’s dismay, he didn’t.
    Instead, he unbuckled her seatbelt and spoke in a low, frustrated growl. “Get out of the car, Olivia. Go in your house. Lock your doors and set the alarm on your new security system.”
    Uncharacteristically, she complied without question. Surprised that