Page 80 of Unwilling Wolf

His bright-blue eyes dipped to her lips, then back to her eyes. “I like when you tell the truth. Bite?” He held up his sandwich for her to take a bite, but that was downright scandalous, out here for anyone to see.

“But…”

“Don’t think so much, Eliza. What are they going to say? You took a bite of your husband’s food? I’ve kissed you. It don’t matter.”

Oh. Right. She took one more quick glance around, then leaned up on her tiptoes and took a nibble of the sandwich.

“Jesus, don’t be that lady.”

“Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain, and I don’t know what you mean. What kind of lady?” she asked.

“I can hear your stomach growling from here. I don’t like when you’re hungry, and it don’t feel right eating all this in front of you when I know you haven’t eaten anything but a biscuit all day. Take a real bite.”

“Well, be a proper gentleman and dip it in the gravy,” she chirped, and his answering smile nearly stopped her heart. His teeth were bright white, and whooo, when that man’s face lit up with a grin it was something special.

“Yes, ma’am,” he rumbled in that deep, velvety timbre of his, and he sopped the sandwich in the puddle of gravy she’d dumped on the plate.

She took a completely improper bite of that sandwich, and it was amazing. “Oh, I bet they serve this in heaven,” she exclaimed around a mouthful.

He dipped the sandwich and took a huge bite, then offered her another one like it was nothing. Like he didn’t see the people around them staring at them and whispering. Maybe he did that just to get on their nerves, she didn’t know. She did know that Garret Shaw didn’t give a single care about people’s opinions here, clearly, because when he sent her on her way, he patted her right on the rump! Right on it with a sturdy smack. She yelped and jumped nearly three inches off the ground. “Garret Shaw,” she admonished him, which he would’ve probably taken very seriously if she could control the stupid grin that accosted her face.

He was grinning with zero remorse. “Want me to kiss you in front of all these people?”

“You are being a brute,” she said. She had imagined walking away from him gracefully with her chin in the air, but she stumbled and nearly fell, and his stupid booming laugh filled the clearing, and now everyone was definitely staring at them.

Garret Shaw was the worst.

“Eliza Shaw,” he called, and she gasped in shock at how loud his voice was right now.

Everyone was staring!

She turned around slowly. “Yes?”

“I’m sorry,” he said.

She cleared her throat and nodded demurely at a couple of women who walked past her. “For what?” Because if he was going to apologize, he may as well do it right.

He leaned against the new wall he’d just helped raise. His voice took on an entirely wicked tone as he said, “I’m sorry for what I did to you last night.”

Eliza’s mouth plopped open. “Garret!”

“What?”

“People will think…well, they’ll think…”

“Think what?” he asked innocently.

“They’ll think you are talking about something wicked!”

“Maybe I am.” He turned and walked into an opening in the framework, and she saw him scale a tall ladder and settle onto a support beam near the roof like he was a damned billy goat.

Burke’s laughter drew her out of her shock. He was hitting his knees, laughing. “You should see your face right now.”

When she looked back up at Garret, he was looking down at her, wearing the most baiting grin.

Eliza sighed and pressed her cold fingertips against her heated cheeks in hopes of cooling the blush there. “What a beastly man,” she uttered, ignoring the secret little part of her that enjoyed his teasing.

One thing about him, he wasn’t afraid to let everyone here know she was his wife. He’d called out her new last name and everything. She turned and stomped toward the food tables, because sometimes a woman must stomp, especially a fiery woman like herself. “Beastly man,” she muttered under her breath as she ignored all the eyes on her.

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