HER BODYGUARD

The windshield and windows were still intact. The front end looked pretty bad, though, all crooked and crumpled.This belongs © NôvelDra/ma.Org.

Asher reached around his deflated air bag and started the car.

Or he tried to. All he raised was a click, after which the headlights went dark.

The whites of his eyes gleamed at her through the shadows. “Don’t worry. I’ll try again.” He said. He did. Another click. And again. More clicking, but not even a hint of a response from the engine.

“Uh-oh,” she said softly. And she thought of that poor old man again. “Asher. We have to get out of this vehicle and get back up to the road. We have to make sure that man is all right.” She said,

He regarded her steadily through the gloom. “You’re shivering,” he said softly.

The engine wasn’t working-and that meant neither was the heater. She wrapped her arms around herself and ordered her teeth not to chatter. “It’s nothing. I am fine.” She said,

His iron jaw was set. “Your high-heeled shoes are made of satin and you don’t have a coat,” he said.

She despised herself right then. Stuck in a snowbank without proper gear. An old man could die because she’d just had to get away from the man sitting next to her.

“I’m sorry, so sorry. It’s all my fault.” Kimberly said. “I know that. But we have to do something. At least we have to see if there’s anything we can do.” She said,

He reached over the back of the seat and came up with a lap blanket. “Wrap this around you.” He shoved it at her. “I didn’t hear a crash, so it could be that that man regained control of his pickup.”

“How could we have heard a crash? We were crashing.” She said, starting to panic.

He put up both hands. “Don’t argue. Just wrap the blanket around you.” He said. He undid his belt again, reached across her, popped her belt open for the second time then slid the blanket behind her and closed it around her.

She stared into those eyes that had filled her lonely dreams, breathed in his still-remembered scent: plain soap, all man.

“But, Asher -” she began.

“I will go, all right?” he said

“Oh, Asher…” Kimberly said. “I should go with you. It’s my fault that we are in this situation right now. I should have listened to you”

“Take the blanket.” He said. Obviously he wasn’t listening to her. No way he was going to let her go out there with him. He drew one of her hands from the warm folds. “Hold it close around you….”

She did what he said. He let go of her and she felt absurdly bereft. She missed his touch. Funny how some hours ago she was trying to get away from him and now, she wanted his touch so much that she ached all over.

Then he told her again, in an even, calming sort of tone, “I will go. I will go and check and see if there’s anything I can do.” He said. He slid over to the backseat so smoothly, she didn’t realize what he was doing until he was behind her.

Bewildered, she turned to stare at him over her shoulder. Was it those tequila shots she’d foolishly drunk at Rowdy’s? The accident? This whole awful day with Asher right there every time she turned around, reminding her so cruelly of everything they could never be? What exactly did she even want them to be?

Probably all of the above. But whatever the reason, her brain seemed to be working as if in a fog, her reactions all out of whack, delayed. Wrong.

She’d pushed him to go out there and see about the old man. But now that he was really going to go, she was suddenly scared of what could happen to him. “Wait. No, I… This is not right. You can’t go alone. It’s a blizzard out there and it’s not safe….” She insisted.

He was bending over the floor of the backseat by then. But he stopped what he was doing and straightened enough that his shadowed gaze found hers. “We need to go see about that man who almost ran us over. You can’t go, you have to see that. So that leaves me. But now you don’t want me to go. Make up your mind. Please.” he said, a little harshly.

What mind?

“I…” Kimberly began, then she stopped and then stared at him hopelessly. He let out a long breath and bent over the backseat floor again. She kicked off her ruined shoes, shoved the air bag aside and drew her feet up under her, hoarding her body’s warmth.

He straightened again and light filled the cab.

She blinked. “A flashlight? Where did that come from?” she asked.

He didn’t reply but he dropped another blanket over the seat. “Put this around your legs and feet,” he said.

She hastened to do what he instructed. “But where…?”

“There’s an emergency kit under the floor back here. Another blanket, a second flashlight, jumper cables, flares, a thermal tarp, things like that.”He said like that was a very normal thing to have in a car.

“It… came with the vehicle?” Kimberly asked.

“For a price. I like to be careful.”

Of course. She should have realized. He was a bodyguard… Extremely security and safety conscious-almost scarily so.

“I don’t suppose there’s a pair of size seven and a half women’s snow boots and a nice down jacket?” She asked.

“Dream on,” he said. In the weird, slanting beam of the flashlight, she saw his mouth twitch. Good Lord, he had almost smiled. She thought. If things weren’t so dire, that would have done her heart good.

“Asher” she called.

“What now?” he asked.

“I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want you to go out there.” She said.

“Is that a command?” he asked, as he stared at her.

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous.” She huffed out a hard breath and drew the blankets closer around her.

His gaze stayed locked on hers. Level. Unwavering.

“It was an honest question,” he said.

“Can we just… dispense with all that, at least until we’re safely back at the apartment?” She asked.