Total pages in book: 162
Estimated words: 154728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 619(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 619(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
But still, the dog had teeth. Sharp ones. That could tear into Kane’s skin, give him more scars. My stomach lurched yet again at the thought, because I’d come to the realization that he had plenty of new scars because of me, ones that weren’t visible to the naked eye but ones that were bone deep, soul deep.
Instead of finding a dog and man brawl in my kitchen, I found the dog on her back, presenting her stomach for Kane to scratch.
“She’s not barking,” I stated the obvious. “Or jumping on you. Or attacking you.”
“She’s not.” He didn’t look up at me, still speaking in that cold, growly tenor.
It made sense. He wasn’t exactly going to stop being angry at me from the time he walked from the front door to the kitchen.
“She barks at everyone,” I said, watching man and dog together, the sight making both my heart and pussy clench … for different reasons. The pussy was obvious; I hadn’t had sex in about … seven months. Kane looked better than ever in a simple black tee, ripped black jeans and boots. His bicep muscles stretched the fabric of his tee, looking like they’d grown a bunch in the time we’d been apart. His hair was longer too, and he had a dark scruff of stubble covering his jaw. With the tattoos, muscles and in all black, all he needed was a leather vest, and he’d look like an outlaw biker.
Despite Kane looking better than any man on earth had any right to look, it wasn’t just that. It was him. Here. It was his smell. It was his huge presence in my compact, little cottage. It was his large, strong hands scratching the dog I’d adopted.
He was here. In the home I had been trying to create for the past five months. The home that hadn’t been anything more than a house until he stormed through the door.
My eyes welled up, and I struggled to contain my tears.
Pregnancy hormones. That’s what it was.
I cleared my throat loudly. “She’s a rescue,” I explained, focusing on the dog. “And she is … strong-minded. She doesn’t stop barking or running around like an idiot unless I’m feeding her or I’ve tired her out with a long walk on the beach,” I babbled. “And part of that tiring her out is me wrestling with her when another person or dog walks by.”
I placed my hands on top of my belly, unsure of what to do with myself, how to stand, how to act in front of Kane. The man who I’d been more intimate with than anyone in my entire life had become a stranger to me.
When Kane looked up at me, his expression was blank. I had to stop myself from cringing at the sheer lack of warmth in it. This was the man who’d made me feel on fire and alive every time he laid eyes on me. The man who had made me feel like the only woman on planet Earth when he looked at me.
His gaze gravitated down to my stomach for a split second before he focused on the dog again. He gave her belly a rough pat before pressing onto his thighs and straightening up to a standing position.
Blanche jumped up as he did so, her tail wagging madly. I prepared for barking, jumping, plain old wild behavior.
“Go, sit,” Kane commanded, pointing to the rarely used, fancy dog bed across the open plan area in the living room.
I’d tried that command about a million times, at varying decibels. Yelling didn’t work. Nor did speaking softly and calmly. Nothing worked. Nothing that the sweet but befuddled dog trainer did worked either.
He informed me that he’d worked with hundreds of dogs and had yet to have one best him. She was his Everest.
Blanche didn’t skip a beat. She trotted over to her bed dutifully then settled there without so much as a frustrated bark, curling up and chewing on the toy bunny that she’d been uninterested in before then.
I stared in amazement. “Aaron is going to be pissed,” I said without thinking.
The energy in the room seemed to change. I looked at Kane whose eyes were narrowed and hands fisted at his sides. His attention glued me to the floor.
“Who the fuck is Aaron?” he asked quietly.
I kept my hands on my belly and stood my ground, despite my rapid rise in heart rate. “Aaron is a dog trainer.” I nodded to the bed. “Her dog trainer. I’ve been working with her for a couple of months. Aaron is happily married and just sent his daughter Caroline off to college,” I added, though I shouldn’t have had to.
Kane was quite obviously mad at me. Things between us were severed, yet he also thought he could be possessive and wrathful at the mere mention of another man’s name?