Chapter One
Shelby was lonely. She had no money, no place to stay, and now her car wouldn’t start. The night was getting cold, too cold to sleep in a car without heat. When she decided to move to Minneapolis, Minnesota, with her best friend, Linda Frankle, everything had seemed perfect. It would have been if Linda had been truthful. Linda had sworn she could get Shelby a job and Shelby could stay with her as long as she needed to. Linda had even moved into a two-bedroom apartment, just for them to share.
For the first month, everything was great. Then the job Linda got her didn’t work out, and it wasn’t long before Shelby was dipping into her savings to pay her half of everything. When she didn’t have her part of the rent the third month, Linda was upset but paid it herself, muttering, “Pay me back next month.”
The next month Shelby still didn’t have the rent, and Linda had had enough.
“Out. You can’t pay out,” Linda said.
So here she was. She’d been living in her car for several days and had five dollars left. Her cell phone still worked, but she didn’t know whom to call. Her parents had disowned her four years ago when she was twenty-two and had been arrested for possession of marijuana. When the charges were dropped because there wasn’t enough evidence, Shelby was set free, but her parents never got over it. She came from a small town, and the gossip was too much shame for her parents to bear. She was already working and living on her own when her parents decided not to have anything to do with her. She didn’t tell them when she decided to move to Minneapolis. They wouldn’t have taken her call anyway. There was no point.
A knock came at the car window. “Great, a police officer,” Shelby said.
“Miss, do you need help? You can’t leave your car here,” the officer said when she rolled down her window.
She explained that she couldn’t get her car started, and the officer offered to jump it for her, after looking at her identification.
“Miss Nevins, I’m Officer Gavin Crisp. Here’s what you need to do.” Then he explained what he wanted her to do once they got her car hooked up and hopefully running.
Shelby nodded.
Gavin looked to be in his early thirties, a little older than her twenty-six and from what she could see in the dark, he was yummy looking. She couldn’t tell for sure, but he looked tall, and the way he lifted the hood of her old beat up car told her he was strong. It took two of them to get her hood open whenever she took it to be worked on. Gavin lifted it with one hand. Following his instructions, they got her car started. Gavin came running back to her and, opening the passenger door, asked if he could get in and talk. Oh no, he will be able to tell I’ve been living in here. Was it illegal?
Gavin sat in Shelby’s car and looked around wondering how this girl had gotten in these circumstances. Even though it was dark, he could tell her long auburn hair w
ould feel like silk in his hands, and her smile made his protective instincts take over. He saw the many fast-food wrappers stuffed in a trash bag.
“How long has it been since you ate a decent meal?”
“I’m not sure,” Shelby honestly replied. She’d been eating the cheapest food she could find trying to make her money last.
“Okay.” Gavin looked at her. “Follow me.”
Shelby followed Gavin’s police car for about ten minutes before he pulled into a truck stop. Scared to turn her car off, she sat there until Gavin opened her door and told her to come with him. As she followed him into the truck stop, she got her first good look at him in the light. He had sandy brown hair and eyes that seem to switch from brown to green. He was several inches taller than she was, and even through his uniform shirt, she could tell his chest would be something to see and feel. She would bet it was rock hard, too. Grabbing her hand, he pulled her into a booth and pushed a menu into her hands.
“I’m buying you a good hot meal. Get whatever you want.”
Shelby immediately started looking for the lowest-priced thing, not wanting to take advantage of this handsome man’s generosity.
As if he could read her mind, Gavin said, “And if you order the cheapest thing on the menu I’ll just order for you.”
He’s somewhat bossy. Shelby thought. It was kind of nice.
Staring at Shelby sitting across from him, Gavin couldn’t believe how beautiful she was and how drawn he was to her. In the darkness of the car, he had known she was attractive, but in the light, she was stunning. There was no other word for it. Under the fluorescent lights, her hair had hints of gold, shades of brown and red. He itched to run his hands through it. His cock was hard, and the more he talked to her, the harder he got.
When the waitress came to take their order, as predicted she tried to order the least expensive thing on the menu. The words were no more out of her mouth when Gavin told the waitress they would both have pancakes, sausage, eggs, and a side of bacon and ham.
“There’s no way I can eat all that.” Shelby tried to go back to her order.
“So you’ll eat what you can, and I’ll eat the rest,” Gavin said in a voice that made parts of her melt and sent a tingle down to her pussy.
After the waitress left, Shelby started to slide out of the booth.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Gavin asked, suddenly standing beside her before she realized he was out of the booth.