Read Dawson Bride (Wolf Brides Book 3) for Free Online Page B

us after a day like today, and I can’t sit here and eat when I know you’re hungry.”
    She sat up slowly and I offered my hand. Surprisingly she took it firmly in hers and leaned on me. God she smelled so good and felt so warm up against me. No one was looking, so I lifted her until her feet dangled a few inches off the ground and rushed her to the edge of the hallway before setting her down as gently as possible. I hesitated at removing my arm from her waist. It was so small, and it led to her hips and then to other places the animal parts of me howled to touch. I was losing my damned mind.
    Jerking away, I said, “Call out if someone makes you uncomfortable. Drop your chin.”
    I put our order in and paid, but couldn’t force myself to wait at the bar for the pie. I’d never had such an instinct to protect another human being and here I was, practically circling the tiny woman.
    The pub was filled with late night patrons and an old Irish drinking song rang out across the room. Mugs of ale swayed and spilled, and a staggering man lurched and bumped into Lucianna. A snarl ripped through me before I could stifle it, and though the song was too loud for most of the patrons to hear me, she most certainly did. Her eyes went wide and still. I twitched my head in annoyance and stood between her and the too close men.
    “Meat pie!” yelled the redheaded man.
    “Meat pie,” a couple of the drinkers slurred in unison.
    Weaving my way to the bar, I retrieved our dinner. By the time I made my way back to Lucianna, my wolf stretched under my skin to tear into someone. Literally.
    “It’s too fast,” she said as I tugged at her arm.
    I inhaled all of the rotten smells of the tavern and slowed. We’d left her cane in the room and she used the wall to steady her broken gate. For the thousandth time, I vowed to kill Ralston Bastrop someday. I didn’t want her singing his death chant, but I didn’t mind taking the fury and pain of waiting for it at all. Lucianna was mine and he’d hurt her. Every pained step she took was one less breath he’d take on this earth.
    With the meal in one hand, I used the other to open the door for her. She placed her small hand upon my forearm and used me to balance. If she knew what her caress did to my insides, she’d never touch me again.
    “Tonight’s the last night I’ll see you for a long time,” she said. “I want to eat on the floor with you.”
    I nodded and tried to hide a victorious smile. She cared for me on some level. Despite the hideousness of my scars, she saw past them enough to dread an upcoming separation. “Loosen your dress first.”
    She looked scandalized. “Why?”
    “Because I can smell you bleeding from here. Give your injuries some air. Sitting down that deep is only going to irritate them in that tight dress.”
    “Okay.”
    “Here.” I set the pie on a small wooden bedside table and turned her shoulders until her back was to me. I loosened the laces one by one.
    “About the rules—”
    “I ain’t touching you inappropriately, woman. I swear it.”
    “Are you sleeping outside again?”
    I gritted my teeth. “No. This place isn’t safe for me to be leaving you alone like that.” I turned her to face me.
    “Good,” she said quietly.
    We set our tiny feast out on the sack Doc’s provisions had been packed in and ate in weary silence. The candle on the nightstand flecked shivering shadows across the beautiful planes of her face and when the food was nothing but crumbs, I stood and helped her up. She stayed there against my chest with an unfathomable expression lifted to my face.
    Her fingers reached out and touched my unshaven jaw right over the scars. “When we get to Boston, will you shave your face?”
    “Do you want me to?”
    She nodded so slightly I would’ve missed it if I weren’t looking into the depths of her moss green eyes.
    “You’ll never stop staring at the scars there if I shave,” I said. Her attention to them had bothered me