Twist My Heart by Brooke Taylor (ebook audio reader .txt) 📕

they roared down to the valley. And if you were lucky, you might catch a few spotted elk calves bobbling along with the herds as they stopped for a drink.

Thea pointed to a nearby blue spruce drenched in warm sunlight. “The smell in the air…is it from those?”

Nik shook his head while gesturing to a ponderosa pine. “When the sun hits the bark it smells like butterscotch cookies.”

“And the noise?”

“The noise is from those.” He pointed up to the green aspen leaves trilling in a thunderous rustle with the breeze, the sound like a massive flock of butterfly wings batting the air to take flight. “It’s one of my favorite sounds out here.”

Thea smiled in agreement before exploring further, touching different textures, bending down to pick up pinecones and rocks as she appeared to ascertain their respective weights in her palm. Like with the food at the diner, she seemed to recognize most things in a conceptual form, but lacked the expectation of experience. It was fascinating watching her mind work to fill the memory gaps. From her intense focus, her brain must’ve been whirling like a highspeed computer processor writing in missing chunks of code.

She crouched down and ran her fingers over a patch of snow. A few thick white drifts still collected in the shadows despite the heat of the midday sun and summer approaching. Pinching some, she rubbed it between her fingertips. Her brows quirked up as she cocked an adorable half-smile. Catching his stare, her eyes went round and her cheeks flushed pink. “Sorry,” she said as she flashed a thin, embarrassed grimace. “I know how childish I am to you.”

Nik’s blood stilled. “Where did you get that idea? I don’t think you’re childish at all.”

“You called me a child earlier and here I don’t even know what snow feels like or what makes the sounds I hear.”

Shit. He felt a punch to his chest as surely as if he’d taken shrapnel to his armor. The only reason he’d made the child dig in the first place was because he couldn’t seem to control his own immature, teen-boy response to her. He could do better.

“Most things I can piece together quickly, but other things…surprise me.”

He strode over to a clean drift, scooping some up. “You can taste it, the snow.”

Thea followed his lead, cupping the icy powder in her own hand as she watched him bite a chunk. Her pink tongue whisked the sparkling white surface. With a delicate rasp of her teeth, she scraped the snow into her mouth. Nik imagined the dry flakes turning into an explosion of cool liquid dripping through her like it did him. Her brows quirked up and her smile widened, matching his.

Out of the corner of Nik’s eye, he caught Titan hiking his hind leg over the patch Nik had scooped from. Knowing exactly what was up with the sly maneuver, he shot the dog a laser-sharp glare to put the bratty beast in his crosshairs. This piece of earth here in the Colorado Rockies was Nik’s territory first, thank you very much. To Thea he cautioned, “Don’t taste the yellow snow. Ever.”

A honeyed laugh poured from her. “That’s one of those things I can quickly piece together. But thank you, Nik,” she said as she lifted another pristine scoop to her chill-kissed lips. Before she took another taste, she tilted her head, her eyes twinkling like whiskey on ice as she regarded him. “For always surprising me.”

She spun on her toe, the filmy white skirt flaring about her knees. Her wet fingertips trailed the hand-hewn logs as she took the stairs to the wraparound porch where she then gazed out over the valley. A breeze lifted and coiled through her hair the same way it did with the Aspen leaves.

“Takes your breath away,” she murmured, moving into the warmth of the sunlight.

Nik’s lungs seized. Yes, you do.

Nik pried his predator’s stare off of her and busied himself by gathering his bags from the back of the Jeep. Watching her lick the snow had already made his jeans uncomfortably tight. Seeing the sunlight outlining her naked body through the dress made them downright unbearable. He was aware she didn’t have underclothes. Acutely aware. He’d disposed of everything she’d worn the night of the tornado in a dumpster east of Denver. It’d taken iron-tight control to keep his imagination from going rogue. But now the hazy seductive image of pure woman was gloriously burned on his retinas, which made everything so much harder. Most notably his cock. He ached to unzip his jeans for a little relief, but knew it would be damn fucking creepy of him and he already felt pretty damn fucking creepy for having brought her here when his dick refused to be controlled in her presence.

“Down, boy,” he growled as he adjusted himself. Titan responded with an insolent huff. “I wasn’t talking to you, dog, but so reassuring to know you’d actually obey.”

Nik wiped his forearm across his brow as he flipped his baseball hat around backward.

What was he thinking? That he’d fix all Thea’s problems with a phone call or two? Help her get a lawyer or something and she’d thank him with crazy, wild sex? Time to cut back on the pornos, Steele. No, that wasn’t who he was or why he’d made the choice to bring her here. She was a person who needed assistance, no different from the various people he’d been fortunate enough to help throughout his career. As with those individuals, he’d extracted her from a bad situation, patched her up a bit, and transported her to safety. Soon it would be time to walk away.

Easy.

Heck, this job didn’t even involve RPGs being launched at him.

As he scanned the back of the Jeep to ensure he’d gotten everything, Titan pushed past him, hopping in.

“Hey!”

The dog ignored him, per usual, digging his snout deep under the seat. With a few nipping tugs, Titan dragged a bag out.

“What have you got there,