Page 14 of Cold Foot Sentry (Wreck’s Mountains #6)

He huffed a laugh and slowed, waiting for her to catch up. “I found myself in the middle of a boring morning with nothing to do.”

“Seriously? That’s why you’re here? Boredom?”

The smile slipped from his lips, and he scanned around them. “I’m here for the witch then. Or for the coffee. Or maybe for the cupcakes.”

“You’re here for everything but me,” she joked.

“Yes. You are interesting, but I am here for everything but you.” His tone had gone dark and serious, and truth-be-told, his words had stung.

“I was just teasing,” she said, feeling the mood shift.

“I’m…I’m glad you’re here.” Shoot. She didn’t know why she’d said that.

He wasn’t being nice, but she was still admitting her generous feelings, and she felt embarrassed.

“Um, I can get the cupcakes on my own. I’m not sure if Jess is here yet.

Good luck with feeding today, or whatever it is that you do with Jess. Okay. Bye.”

Tammy clenched her hands so tight at her sides, her nails dug into her palms, and she closed her eyes for a three-count as she walked away to ward off the mortification of that encounter.

He’d slept with her and then told her she was interesting, but he wasn’t here for her.

He hadn’t even hinted at what they’d done last night.

Okay, now this felt like a walk of shame.

“You’re upset,” he said, matching her pace beside her.

“Not upset, just not interested in conversations that make me feel bad about myself.”

“You feel bad because I said I’m not here for you?”

“I know how shallow that sounds,” she snapped. “You don’t have to narrate what’s happening. Let me escape my embarrassment in peace, please.”

“You’re embarrassed?”

“Oh my good golly,” she said, exasperated as she rounded on him. “We slept together—”

“And it was awesome—”

“And now we owe each other nothing. I will see you around. Maybe. I don’t know.” Flustered down to her soul, Tammy began walking again.

“I lied to you,” he called after her.

“Shocking. That’s what boys do though, so carry on,” she called sarcastically without turning around.

“I mean I am here for you,” he said low as he fell into step with her again.

She frowned and stopped walking, cocked her head as she studied the earnestness in his glowing eyes. “Then why did you say you were here for anything else.”

“Because you scare the shit out of me.”

“I scare you?” she asked, baffled. “I’m human. And messy. I like studying, and feeding my two feral cats, and I needed your help to even get my truck running this morning.”

“Like I said, you’re interesting.”

“Interesting,” she repeated, confused. She was the least interesting person she’d ever encountered in her life. All she did was work and fill her time with other ways to work. Like now. She had the morning off but had signed up for the bake sale just to keep her mind and heart busy.

“Why do you have all of the miniature hotel shampoos in your bathroom?” he asked suddenly.

“W-what?”

“On your bathroom counter, there is a box of hotel shampoos and lotions. Why?”

“Oh.” She frowned, trying to catch up with his sudden change in subject.

“I used to travel more, and I like the smells of the different hotel shampoos and conditioners. It’s…

” She shrugged and rushed out, “It’s fun to try different fancy shampoos depending on my mood and what I want my hair to smell like.

And I don’t know, it’s nice not to spend a bunch of money on shampoo. ”

He nodded and reached deep into his pocket and then clapped a trio of matching hotel toiletries into her hand. There was a shampoo and a conditioner and a lotion. Dumbfounded, she stared at them.

“I can get more from my room tomorrow.”

Slowly, Tammy closed her fist around the little treasures. “Whose giving who presents now?” she asked softly.

“It’s not a good thing,” he rumbled, looking troubled.

“It feels nice to me,” she told him, and she witnessed a small smile curve up the very corners of his lips and then disappear almost instantly as he looked down at the ground between them.

“You asked why I’m here, and I wish I could be cold and tell you the lie and hold the lie and you detach from me and never think of me again, but the truth is…

” He inhaled deep and squinted his eyes toward her truck in the parking lot.

“The truth is I wanted to see you somewhere new. I didn’t want to see you at your bar or at your home. I wanted to see you…out.”

“Oh. Okay. Well, this is a good place for that. I’ve never even been to the farmer’s market here.

This is a totally new experience for both of us, happening right now, in real time.

” They picked up their short trek toward her truck.

“How are you doing around all of these pesky humans?” she asked, hopeful on getting the subject changed to something she understood a little better.

He huffed a chuckle and now the smile was back, much to her relief. “I’m doing just fine.”

“Oh right, your mom is a human. I forgot.” Tammy pushed the hotel bottles gingerly into her pocket.

She could’ve just put them in her truck, but they felt like a good luck charm.

She was going to think more about the meaning behind him bringing her these later, when she was alone and had time to process.

“You are desensitized to us normies, I bet.”

“You are anything but a normie,” he said low, and then opened the door to her backseat to take another armload of cupcakes out.

“Um, I’m glad you’re here, because I wanted to thank you.”

“For what?”

“For working on my car. It started right up. I want to pay for the parts though. It doesn’t feel right that you had to buy those.”

He studied her face with curiosity swimming in his eyes. “Independent woman.”

“Very.”

“And stubborn,” he said flippantly as he walked away.

“Stubborn and proud!” she called after him, grabbing the final container of cupcakes. Calling her stubborn wasn’t an insult.

She bumped the door closed with her butt and trotted after him like a puppy, carefully holding the cupcakes out to absorb the shock of her clumsy gait. “I was thinking about bringing you a little present at your hotel later today,” she said as she caught up to him.

“What kind of present?” he asked.

“Coffee. Or maybe a couple of cupcakes.”

“Good. Food presents are okay.”

Well, that was a weird thing to say. “Are other presents not okay?”

“Well, you gave me a coaster yesterday and now I have to carry the damn thing around in my pocket or I feel empty, so I’m pretty sure you should keep your non-perishable presents to yourself. My jeans are too tight for anything else.”

She giggled and felt her body relaxing as she fell into step beside him. Tawk was unique. Unique, and handsome, and had sex appeal for days, and grabbed every woman’s attention, and had that raw alpha nature that drew her in, and he was carrying her coaster in his pocket.

She didn’t know why, but she really liked that.

“Um, thank you for the dickening last night,” she said under her breath.

Tawk belted out a laugh. “Did you just say dickening?”

“I remain forever grateful, as does my body.”

His canine teeth still looked sharp as he grinned at her. “See? You’re interesting.”

Well, you’re hot. She thought it, but didn’t say it out loud. She was determined to be a cool girl around this one. Men like him didn’t need to know how much women like her liked them. It would go straight to their heads.

“Anytime you need…dickenings…just let me know,” he told her, and while she was reeling from that statement, he turned his smile to Laura, and introduced himself.

Laura had pulled a few of her friends from town to her tent and Tawk chatted with them politely while Tammy organized her cupcakes on the viewing table. A couple of the new ladies were signing in, and had brought cupcakes too.

“I need to go say hi to Harley and Timber,” she told Tawk when she was done.

“Okay,” he said, and as if he’d been dismissed, he began walking back toward the group of guys that were working about a dozen tents away now.

“Um, do you want to go over there with me?” she called after him. “Maybe Jess will be there.”

He turned, and cocked his head, studying her face. He nodded once and strode for her and escorted her toward Shifter Sweets.

The next few hours flew by. She had fun hanging between Shifter Sweets and Sugar and Spice when the event started and the customers were flooding it.

She met so many nice people. Her shifts were thirty minutes each, with fifteen-minute breaks in between.

On her breaks, she and Tawk meandered from tent to tent, sampling baked goods, and purchasing their favorites.

By the time her shifts were done at the bake sale, her entire passenger seat was stacked with sweet treats to take home.

She made a promise to Laura to do the event next year, and to try and get assigned to her booth again.

In the parking lot, she and Tawk lingered. She was leaning up against her driver’s side door, while he chatted from five feet away.

“Work tonight?” he asked.

Tammy smiled. “Work always. I have student loans to pay off. Text me later, if you want to.”

Tawk pulled his phone out of his back pocket and typed out something, and in her own back pocket, her cell phone vibrated with a text message. A grin confiscated her lips as she checked it.

All the text said was, Here is a text from me .

With a hot blush filling her cheeks, she typed back, Hello sky chicken . She sent it and then watched his face as he read it.

A smile tugged at the corners of his lips as he typed something out. Not a sky chicken. A dragon. Hello hotel shampoo thief.

God, he was so freaking cute.

“I have to go now,” she said regretfully. “I have the early shift today.”

He nodded and kicked at a tuft of grass with the toe of his boot. He ran his hand down the short scruff on his jaw and looked like he wanted to say more, but instead, he gave her a wave and did an about-face and left. Just like that.

He was very abrupt with his decision to leave. He’d left with barely a word last night. Left abruptly when she’d said she was going to say hi to Harley and Timber. And now, he had left so quickly without a goodbye.

She didn’t like that, but mostly because she enjoyed talking to him and wanted him to stick around longer.

A little confused, she climbed into her truck and started it right up. Goodness, she appreciated his work on it. She should thank him again.

She gripped the steering wheel and stared straight ahead at a young family climbing into an SUV. She knew what she was doing. She was looking for excuses to text him, and that meant one very serious thing—she really liked him.

That was bad news.

She’d already thanked him, it was enough, that had been fun, he’d taken very good care of her body, and now it was time to go their separate ways.

He was a dragon shifter.

She was a human.

He had no roots put down in this town, while she was bonding to Darby, Montana with purpose.

He didn’t have feelings like regular humans, while she had all the feelings.

They were just too different.

The end.

Her phone lit up and she fumbled and nearly dropped it in her rush to see if Tawk had texted her.

It was a message from Harley instead. See you tomorrow when you definitely walk the stage. Don’t be a wuss. We will all be there cheering you on.

The disappointment of the text not being from Tawk was extinguished almost immediately. I already have plans to steam my cap and gown tonight. I’m going to be the old lady walking that stage, but you have convinced me. Send. See you in the morning. Send.

While her phone was open, she pulled up the text thread with Tawk. My shift starts at noon. Stop by if you get hungry. Her finger hovered over the send button for a few seconds as she hesitated, but then before she could change her mind, she hit send.

His response was almost immediate. I have meetings today.

Oh. Okay, yeah. Of course he had a life. Tammy shook her head, embarrassed. He wasn’t just waiting around to follow her to each errand she had to run and each work shift. Have the best day , she typed in a rush and sent it.

Tammy tossed the phone into the bag of cupcakes she’d bought just to hide the embarrassing thing from her sight. She was really bad at flirting. Was that even flirting? Inviting a man to come see her while she worked? Gah, she didn’t know. Her cheeks were on fire.

A vision of the hunger in his eyes as she gripped her small hand around his throat made her squeak and close her eyes against the mortification. Why was she so affected by this man? She was Tammy Ray, the bartender who could talk to anyone. Why did this man get to her so easily?

Because he’s a freaking dominant, hot-as-hellfire dragon shifter who keeps her body revved up with just a look. That’s why.

She’d never met anyone like him, so naturally, she wouldn’t know how to act around him.

Plus, he probably had some unnatural shifter attraction that was much more advanced than human chemistry, and he was probably using that on her, and everything was fine.

He had probably just used some special shifter pheromones on her last night and got her a little addicted to him, but everything would steady out!

She would stop feeling obsessed with him with a little distance.

At least, that was what she was going to tell herself.