She jutted out her chin, refusing to wilt under his gaze. Surprisingly, it wasn’t making her uncomfortable. Caelyn didn’t get the sense he was checking her out – at least, not in a sexual way. Instead, he was probably wondering what the hell she was doing out here, by herself, late at night, on the side of the road.
“Well, my phone’s getting reception,” she lied.
“Oh, that’s good.” He put his hands on his hips. “My name’s Elijah,” he told her.
“Cool. Thanks for taking a look at my car,” she said. “I appreciate it. Guess I’ll just call for a tow truck.”
“Listen, why don’t you let me drive you to the next exit, drop you somewhere safe, you can wait there until they fix up your car?”
Relief started to flood through her. But then she caught herself.
Once she was in his car, anything could happen. Anything.
He seemed nice, though.
So did Jayson.
That brought back the tremors and the sick feeling. “I should probably stay with my car,” she said.
Elijah nodded slowly. He leaned back against her car, crossed his arms over his broad chest. She couldn’t help but notice the way his biceps flexed, even under the loose material of his t-shirt. “You know it’s probably going to cost you a couple thousand dollars to have it fixed, right?”
Caelyn’s jaw dropped. “A couple thousand dollars?”
“I’m sorry, but I thought you should know.” He sighed, then turned and placed her keys on the hood of her car. “Anyway, good luck,” he said, and started to head back to his SUV.
He didn’t slow his pace, or even look back.
Caelyn abruptly realized that Elijah was definitely going to leave her there, and that it seemed as if he didn’t have the intention of trying to kidnap and murder her after all.
And that’s when she realized how quiet and dark it still was. With Elijah nearby, the night hadn’t seemed nearly as frightening somehow. Which made no sense, because he was clearly not to be trusted.
Just as he was about to get in his own car, she called out to him.
“Wait!” she said.
He turned and looked at her. “Yeah?” He sounded a little impatient.
“I think—I think I might need a ride after all,” she admitted.
***
Caelyn was sitting in the passenger seat of an exceedingly clean SUV. She had her purse on the seat beside her and the small travel bag was sitting at her feet.
Elijah was driving the car, eyes straight ahead, one hand on the wheel, his free hand draped casually over one leg. He was chewing gum slowly, purposefully, his jaw tensing and relaxing.
Now that Caelyn was closer to him, she could see that he was even better looking than she’d first thought. He was hot—movie star hot—not that she knew any. But Elijah must be what Channing Tatum or Taylor Lautner had been like before they were discovered. He had that effortless intensity—that chiseled body, and the strong masculine features.
She was surprised at her own curiosity, especially after what she’d been through earlier that night. But there was something reassuring about Elijah, something that was slowly allowing her to relax, one minute at a time.
It helped that he didn’t seem to have the least interest in her.
In fact, he’d barely uttered two words to her since she’d taken him up on his offer to drive her to the next exit and see if they could find a place for her to wait until morning.
“You should probably call Triple A,” Elijah said, out of nowhere. It had been so long since he’d spoken that Caelyn was shocked by the sound of his voice breaking the silence of the drive. “It could take them a few hours to tow your car at this time of night,” he explained.
She felt her cheeks turning red. “I don’t have Triple A.”
He looked at her briefly. “What are you going to do, then?”
She sighed. “I’m not really sure.” She glanced at her purse, and saw the postcard tucked safely away inside. She’d somehow remembered to put it in her bag as she was gathering her things up to bring with her.
“Well, the exit’s coming up,” he said, nodding out at the road, and sure enough, the exit loomed at them out of the darkness. They got off to the right and slowly rounded a turn, coming out onto a main road that was still dark, with all the restaurants and gas stations shuttered for the night.
As they drove down the road, Elijah shook his head. “I don’t think anything’s open yet. Want to call around to some hotels and see if you can book a room or something?”
Caelyn pointed to a McDonald’s on the right. “Why don’t you drop me there? It will be open in the next couple of hours, and then…” her voice trailed off.
Elijah glanced at her. “And then what?” he asked. He slowly pulled the car into the McDonald’s lot and parked. When he turned to her, she instantly withdrew, shrinking back against the door. She put one hand on the car door handle, in case she needed to make a quick escape.
His brow crinkled in confusion. “What’s your damage, kid?”
She swallowed, regaining some composure. He wasn’t going to hurt her. She sat up a bit straighter. “I don’t have any damage—I’m just nervous. It’s late at night and I don’t know you. Sorry.”