Downpour (Alpha Love - A Paranormal Werewolf Shifter Romance Book 1) by Olivia Stephens Read Free Book Online Page A

doesn’t even really know what it is that she’s craving, but it seems like Ashton’s approval is a big part of whatever it is.
     
    He turns around to face her, and their eyes lock. There’s a connection there; she’s sure of it. She feels the pulses of electricity traveling between them. However, the words out of Ashton’s lips shatter whatever link she thought they had, “If I’d known that was who you worked for, I would have left you out there.” His words are grim, and the anger in his eyes makes her want to take a step back, but she stands her ground. He spins around and stalks back to his truck.
     
    “What an asshole.” Finn makes his comment loud enough so that Ashton hears it. “Why is it always the best looking ones that are such dicks?” He shakes his head at the tragedy of it.
     
    Sofie doesn’t respond. Ashton’s words are still too fresh in her mind and her heart.
     
    “Come on, you need to get out of those clothes and potentially burn them!” Finn says with a laugh, clearly trying to lighten the mood and elicit a smile from his friend. “What did you two do? Go mud wrestling together? Not that I would blame you!” He winks theatrically at her.
     
    Sofie gives Finn the smile that he’d been pushing for. “I thought you said he was an asshole?” she points out, suddenly desperate to get out of her mud-stained clothes and into a hot bath.
     
    “Yes, but a gorgeous asshole. There’s a big difference.” He nods solemnly at her, and they both burst out laughing. “Seriously though, Sofe, I’m glad you’re okay. You had us a little worried.” Finn’s sudden seriousness is so out of character that his concern means even more.
     
    They stop outside her room, and although Sofie is overcome with exhaustion, she still has a question to ask. “There wasn’t anything in the notes about wolves living in Spring Canyon, right?”
     
    Finn looks at her, frowning. “No, don’t let the local cops with their fairy stories freak you out. If there were wolves here, we wouldn’t even be allowed to survey these sites. Why do you ask?” He looks at her dubiously, a frown creasing his forehead.
     
    “No reason. You’re right. It’s nothing. I’m just tired.” Sofie shakes her head to clear out the cobwebs.
     
    “See you in the morning. I better go check to see how much Darwin has insulted the PR guys at Shale.” Finn smiles, but there’s a look of concern on his face as Sofie lets herself into her room and disappears from view.
     
    On the other side of the door, Sofie wastes no time stripping out of her mud-caked clothes and turning on the hot faucet in the aged bathtub to full power. It’s only when she’s fully immersed in the scalding water that she lets herself think about Ashton and what he said to her. His words have upset her more than she thought was possible. It’s not the first time she’s been criticized for what Shale has done to a patch of countryside. She’s never taken it personally though; it was just an accepted part of business. I don’t even know this guy, she reasons. But then why do I care so much about what he thinks of me?
     
    She wipes the steam off of the rusty mirror and looks at herself. She doesn’t have a bad face. She knew that men found her attractive, but that was usually because, in her opinion, most men found anything that vaguely resembled the opposite sex attractive. Her high cheekbones and full mouth are from her Czech mother, probably the Roma gypsy part of her heritage. She took her height and the light brown hair from her Dutch father. Apart from that, they didn’t have anything else in common, and she liked it that way. But that light she catches in her eyes before the mirror steams up again, she is pretty sure that was due to someone else entirely. “Oh, get a grip, Braun,” she tells her reflection in her best ‘pull yourself together’ voice before she lets the steam erase her image.

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    Picking his way through