Live It Up Read Online Free Page A

stuff in his car, he came back to help her stand up and walk, slow as hell, to the dirty khaki-colored SUV that was parked in front of their motel room.
    “That’s your car?”
    “Yup. Like it?”
    “It’s a gas guzzler!”
    “So?”
    She shot him a glare, but he didn’t even notice.
    “Let me,” he said seconds before he grabbed her waist in both hands and lifted her onto the backseat. And as she lay down on the blankets he’d prepared for her, she knew without a doubt that she was making a mistake. She just couldn’t seem to help herself.
    He intrigued her. She wanted to know more about him.
    Her mother had always said her curiosity would be the death of her. Sunny would just hope she’d been wrong.
    After all, what were the odds of her facing death twice in a week?
    * * * *
    As soon as he heard her breathing slow down, Andy slid his cell phone from his shirt pocket and pressed speed dial one.
    “Son?” his father answered.
    “I’m on my way. We should be there by lunchtime.”
    “Good. How is she holding up?”
    “She’s still weak. It’s going to take her a few more days to get back to normal, maybe even more. I don’t know. I still think Nate should examine her.”
    “Then I’ll have him visit you this afternoon once he’s closed the practice for the day.”
    “Sounds good. Tell him to bring Kellie with him. I’m sure Sunny will feel better if another woman is present.”
    “I will.” Silence followed, then, “What’s going on, Andy?”
    He looked dead ahead, his lion growling inside him at the insinuation lacing his father’s words. “Nothing is going on.”
    “You’re my son.”
    “So what?”
    “Don’t play games with me. You might be our Enforcer, but I’m still your Alpha.”
    “True.”
    His father sighed on the other end of the line. “You don’t want to tell me, I get that, but please be more careful than your brothers were. She’s already a problem. Don’t make her an even bigger one.”
    Beep-beep.
    Great, his dad had hung up on him. Damn Alpha shit! Andy swore inwardly. He really hated it when his father knew what was going on inside his head when he himself wasn’t even sure what was happening.
    So what if his lion liked the human female? It wasn’t as if he was going to act on it. Like his dad had reminded him, he was the Pride Enforcer. He had responsibilities. One of them included the woman lying only inches behind him, her soft snores resonating throughout the car.
    She might not know it yet, but her road trip was at an end…at least until his father decided what to do with her.
    * * * *
    Sunny woke just in time to lean up against the car door and watch out the window as they entered a small town. The streets were bordered by tall trees swaying in the wind. The houses were nondescript, and the shops they passed all looked similar to the ones she’d shopped throughout the country over the past weeks. So why was she feeling weirded out all of a sudden?
    She focused on the people walking on the streets and realized there was something in the way they moved…
    “We’re here,” Andy announced before she could put a specific word on her misgivings.
    He turned left and stopped in front of one of the biggest houses she’d seen in town. “Is this your home?”
    “Yes.”
    She watched him get out of the car just as the front door opened and men filed out. Her breath caught in her throat. The two men stood at attention on the porch as if they were waiting to be put on review. What the hell?
    Andy walked up to them and said something, both nodding at him in obvious respect. Was he in the military? Could that be it? After all, he had the right haircut for that. But why weren’t they on a base then? And where were their uniforms?
    God, this made her head ache. She leaned her face against the window until the cold of the glass seeped into her cheek, cooling her overactive imagination.
    She must have dozed off again because when she opened eyes she couldn’t remember