Chapter One If it rained any harder, she was sure she’d drown.  It was coming down so ferociously that she could feel it seeping up into her helmet.  And that just made Sinjin Flannagan cranky.  Standing one inch over six feet in her socks, she was an imposing figure on a good day.  And today was not a good day…so, instead, she just looked…dangerous.  However, it was not height that made her intimidating.  She had the build to match---broad at the shoulder, lean through the hip, with just a hint of curve, a rock-hard abdomen, and mountains of muscles all over her impressive physique.  To say she was impressively gorgeous would be an understatement of epic proportions.  Heaving a mental sigh, Sin tucked her chin down in an effort to ward off the damp and accelerated around a slow-moving station wagon.  She was zipping south on I-75, heartily wishing she’d stayed and slept on her couch at the dojo, when she saw the stranded motorist.  Never one to pass up an opportunity to help out a damsel in distress, Sin slowed and veered right when her eye glimpsed an enticing length of leg.  She cozied her Harley up behind the car and cut off the powerful machine. The petite beauty underneath the oversized umbrella shifted nervously upon witnessing the giant dismounting from the motorcycle.  She had just left the comfortable---and dry---confines of her Mercedes to assess the damage when she noticed the biker heading her way.  Spotting the telltale flat tire, Martin Daniels had just begun dialing her auto club when the imposing stranger pulled up and stopped behind her Mercedes.  She stared as the rider reached up to remove his helmet.  It wasn’t until the figure turned around and approached her that she realized her error.  The deep, husky voice startled her out of her study. Sin tilted her head down in the hopes of catching the young woman’s gaze.  Knowing how intimidating her appearance made her look, she softened her voice so as not to frighten.  “Ma’am?  May I help you?” came the low rumble.  Looking down at the vehicle and seeing the problem, she continued, “I can have that changed for you in about ten minutes.”  The tall brunette waited patiently in the pouring rain for a response, now oblivious to the water running down her face and into her collar as she stared at the vision before her.  Her only focus now was the petite wonder standing before her eyes.  She was not the only one mesmerized. Martin couldn’t breathe.  This stranger simply took her breath away.  She took a valuable second to catalog all that she was seeing.  The most obvious was that the ‘he’ was, in fact, a ‘she’.  And ‘she’ was, perhaps, the most stunningly beautiful woman that Martin had ever seen let alone met.  Although she was decidedly masculine-looking, with her incredibly short black hair, somewhat androgynous face, and well-defined musculature, she possessed a gentleness that demonstrated an underlying and understated femininity that Martin found sexy as all get out.  And the stranger’s emerald gaze was piercing and seemed to penetrate into her very soul.  Her mind could only wrap around one thought.  ‘Wow.’ Shaking herself out of her reverie, Martin gave the tall hero an impish grin and said, “Well, I’m sure that would be a hell of lot faster than the Auto Club!  And you certainly look like you can handle the task,” she teased nervously. Sin’s eyes opened wide.  ‘Is she flirting with me?’ she thought.  Her lips twitched in response and she said, “Well, yes.  I have done this before.  If you’ll let me into your trunk, I’ll get started,” she prompted when the shorter woman continued to stand there. “Oh, right,” Martin murmured, embarrassed.  She hesitated as she approached the rear of the luxury car.  “But you’ve got to be uncomfortable doing that in this weather.  It might be easier to just call the Auto Club, so you can get going to…wherever it is you’re going?”  She posed the thought as a question, hoping the strong woman would dispute that and stay.  Not that she wanted her to be uncomfortable or to get sick by working in the pouring rain, but Martin did not wish to see this encounter end anytime soon. Maybe it was the weather that was confusing her ‘gaydar,’ but Sin could not get a reading on this woman.  But, gods, was she hot!  No way was she leaving.  “There’s no reason someone else should have to come out in this weather since I’m already here.  And my clothes can’t get any wetter, so if it’s all the same to you, I’d like to just go ahead and take care of it for you,” she insisted quietly, causing Martin to have to lean in to hear her over the roar of passing interstate traffic and the torrential downpour. ‘She’s a gentle giant,’ thought Martin with a twitch of her lips, pleased as she could be that the woman wanted to help out.  “Okay,” said Martin softly with a hint of a smile as she unlocked the trunk. Sin looked into the immaculately kept interior and briefly wondered if the beautiful stranger owned or rented the luxury vehicle.  Finding what she needed in the side compartment, she effortlessly lifted out the equipment and the spare.  Turning to her damsel, Sin suggested, “Ma’am, why don’t you get back in the car?  There’s no reason you should have to stand out here getting wet.”  She looked thoughtfully at the traffic and continued, “Besides, it’s really not safe to stand on the side of the road if you don’t have to.” “Martin,” came the reply. Sin threw the woman a look of confusion that was utterly adorable.  “Huh?” she queried stupidly, a dark eyebrow arched sexily. Martin laughed and smiled widely.  “My name,” she explained.  “It’s Martin, not ‘Ma’am’.” “Oh,” came the response.  Sin tilted her head and stared at the woman long enough to where Martin was about to speak.  Before she could, Sin continued decidedly, and with a note of pleasure in her voice, “It suits you.”  That was said with a shrug of her massive shoulders and a quick grin as she set down the items in her hands and knelt at the driver’s side rear tire.  When Martin failed to get in the vehicle, Sin reached up with her left hand and tapped twice on the driver’s door, murmuring, “Martin,” as a reminder.  Startled once again, having been distracted by the power of the brunette’s smile, along with the rippling of muscles, the young woman merely shook her head, mumbled her thanks and got inside the car. Sin spent the next ten minutes dividing her attention between her repairs and the beautiful woman sitting inside the Mercedes SL-500.  Glancing surreptitiously through the window, she silently evaluated her findings.  Gorgeous, without a doubt.  Petite, certainly no taller than 5’6”, but filled out in all the right places, at least from what Sin could see under Martin’s raincoat.  Martin.  Sin savored the name in her mind and was unable to suppress the grin still twitching about her lips.  She had always found masculine names for women to be extremely sexy.  This was no exception.  She couldn’t be sure, but she thought the eyes were a blue-gray.  And she had no idea on the hair but thought it was light-colored.  Certainly not as dark as her own.  It was irrelevant in any case, because it was that smile that did it for her.  The impish one.  It was utterly cute.  If she was being honest with herself, Sin would admit that the entire package did it for her.  Of course, she wasn’t going to do anything about it, but she was honest enough with herself to realize that if she ever did let down her guard, this would be the type of woman she would let through her defenses.  As though it sensed her pensive mood, the weather calmed down to a steadier pace, and her sigh was wistful and sad in the softer rainfall. A similar reverie was taking place inside the car.  ‘Who is this woman?’ thought Martin.  Chancing a quick glance over her shoulder, her breath caught in her throat.  She found herself falling into a pool of the most verdant green as the biker gazed back at her.  Blinking twice, Martin quickly turned back around and faced forward.  Having just met this woman, she couldn’t understand her reaction.  Her heart was racing, her palms were damp, and her stomach was in knots.  ‘Of course, that could just be my ulcer,’ she thought ruefully.  But she preferred to blame it on more pleasant circumstances.  Martin tried to consider her reactions to the stranger in a logical fashion.  She was, after all, a highly respected member of the academic community.  There were a host of reasons for the way she was responding---she was lonely, she was tired and stressed, she was merely reacting to the ‘white knight’ scenario.  All of these were possible, but Martin tossed all of them out the proverbial window.  She knew herself, and that was one individual she made sure never to lie to.  ‘So what does that leave?’  She had no idea.  And leaning her head back against the headrest, she wearily realized that she just didn’t care why she was reacting like an adolescent schoolgirl, deciding to just go with the feeling.  She closed her eyes for a brief moment to ponder the actions of a helpful stranger who was, at that very moment, kneeling in a puddle just outside her car door.  She was asleep in seconds. Sin tightened the last lug nut, then leaned backward to straighten her back, sending a cascade of crackles down her spine.  She stood up, looked in through the driver’s side window and smiled.  ‘It seems that the damsel has had a long day,’ she thought tenderly.  Hating to disturb, Sin tapped gently on the window to rouse the slumbering young woman.  She had an incredible urge to open the door and kiss her when Martin turned her head and opened sleepy eyes.  Martin blinked slowly and attempted to focus on the concerned face peering back at her through the window.  Sin’s concern escalated when, after several moments, all she received back was a blank stare.  She reached for the handle and was surprised when the door opened, having expected it to be locked.  She shuddered in disbelief at the trust the woman put in a stranger. Sin rolled her eyes. ‘This woman needs a keeper!’ “Martin?” she asked gently, kneeling once again, this time to avoid towering over the now seemingly vulnerable woman.  “Are you alright?”  Again with the blinking.  Sin was about to query the beauty again when Martin gave a little shake followed by a small, delicate yawn.  In the soft light emanating from the car, do to the door being ajar, Sin was able to discover that Martin’s hair was a very dark blonde, approximately shoulder length.  It fell about her delicate features in a shaggy style that this woman somehow managed to make appear classy.  Sin was momentarily distracted. With a rueful smile, Martin groaned and murmured wearily, “Contrary to current appearances, I am not a flake.”  When a grin flirted around the tall biker’s lips, the damsel continued, “I’m just exhausted.”  She sighed and sat up.  “So, I guess my hero is all finished?” she asked wistfully, a note of disappointment in her voice. Sin’s eyebrows rose up her forehead.  ‘Hero?’  Though the woman appeared lucid, Sin was still concerned.  “Um…are you okay to drive?  No offense, but you look really wasted,” she declared softly, her green eyes conveying warmth.  Suddenly and inexplicably nervous, Sin rubbed her hand across her brow and continued, “I…uh…could follow you home…if you needed me to…that is.”  Her eyes widened and she stuttered, “What I mean is…um…oh, hell.”  Looking up into amused eyes that Sin discovered were slate gray, she groaned, “Forget I said anything.” Martin cocked her head to the side and grinned.  “Why?  It’s a good idea.”  She chuckled at the look of absolute disbelief flitting across the biker’s face. “Lady, are you crazy?” Sin cried.  “You can’t have strangers following you home!  It’s not safe!”  She stood up and began pacing beside the luxury vehicle in agitation, her movements abrupt and choppy. Martin sighed and climbed from the comfortable recesses of her seat.  After several seconds of watching her hero pace, she reached out a small, finely boned hand, placing it on a well-muscled forearm.  “Hey.”  Getting no response, she shook the arm a little.  “Hello?  Remember me?”  The tall brunette stopped and stared down at the diminutive woman and cocked her eyebrow. Sin sighed also.  She stared down at the petite damsel curiously.  “Please tell me you don’t do this with other strangers?” she asked somewhat desperately.  Beyond tired now and just wanting to go home, Martin growled, “No, not that it’s any of your business, I don’t.  I’m a reasonably intelligent individual…and I’ve never had a flat tire before.”  When she saw the hard glint come into the biker’s eyes, she hastily continued, “And, no, I’ve never had a stranger follow me anywhere…let alone home.” Martin thought she heard the brunette grumble, “Thank God,” under her breath, but she wasn’t sure.  “Look,” she muttered, “I can’t thank you enough for what you did, helping me out like that.  I’m sorry if I pissed you off right now.  If I knew why, I’d apologize for that, too.”  Martin turned and slid back down into her car, continuing to speak as she did so.  “I’m just really, really tired.  And I don’t feel so great,” she finished plaintively, feeling the burning in her stomach as she prepared to shut the door.  A thickly muscled arm abruptly halted her movement, as a large hand gripped the doorframe. “What do you mean?  What’s wrong?” Sin growled.  It took her all of about three seconds to take in the pale features, tightness about the lips and eyes, fatigue draped about the young woman, and her guts clenched.  Taking a deep, calming breath, Sin laid a gentle hand upon Martin’s and said quietly in self-reproach, “I’m sorry.  I had no right.  Can you drive?” Martin stared up into piercing emerald eyes filled now with only kindness and concern.  ‘Who are you?’ she wondered distractedly.  “Um…yeah, I think so.  I just need to get home,” she murmured, her own eyes darkening to that of a stormy sky. Making a snap decision, Sin stood to her full, impressive height and said, “Okay.  I’ll follow you.”  Then to keep things light, she teased, “Try not to lose me.” A huff of amusement escaped through Martin’s teeth, which were now clenched in pain.  “I’ll do my best,” she replied softly.  She gave the biker a small, tense smile and started the engine as she pulled the door shut.  She took a deep breath and pulled back out onto the interstate. To be continued...