AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“At least you were smart enough to use protection that first time. ” He sighed, though she fooled herself into thinking she heard an edge of regret in his tone.
Fooling herself. Just as she had fooled herself those months before he took her to his bed that first time. Fooled herself into thinking he cared about her, that she mattered.
“Yeah, that’s me, intelligent to a fault,” she bit out as she wrapped the sheet around her and moved from the bed. She needed to find her clothes. She needed to shower and wash the smell of Dawg from her body. The scent of sunrise and a storm. Wild and hot. He should bottle it. He would be a millionaire. Hell, she should bottle it, but she would be too stupid to sell it. She would hoard it all for herself.
That was her. Greedy as hell when it came to Dawg.
Too greedy, she imagined, for the lifestyle he had chosen years before.
“I need a shower,” she told him, furious with herself and her emotions.
It had been eight years since she had left Somerset. Eight long, exhausting, completely unproductive years, because all she thought about was coming home, returning to the mountains she loved and the man she couldn’t forget.
And he had forgotten her so easily.
“Go ahead. I’ll hop downstairs and shower. The two bathrooms have separate hot water heaters.
You’ll have plenty enough for a bath or a shower. ”
The Nauti Dawg had all the comforts of home, she remembered. Including a sinfully deep tub large enough to hold even Dawg.
The thought of soaking in that tub, easing the aches and pains from her still-bruised body, was almost irresistible. Almost. Unfortunately, she had things to do. Things like finding a newspaper to begin job hunting. Again.
It was Friday, so actually hunting up a job wasn’t going to happen today. But she needed to return to the house and get organized.
The waitressing job had been okay for a while. It kept her going while she finished the tests for her business degree, but she had no intentions of staying there, anyway. She had been marking time since completing her advanced degree three months before. Something she had put off when she had landed the office manager job in Virginia.
It had been a good job. Until her boss married, and the wife decided she could save her husband’
s money by doing the job herself. Crista had received two weeks’ notice and a very small severance package, and then good-bye.
“I need a ride back to the restaurant to pick up my car,” she told him as she gathered her clothes from the floor and headed to the bathroom.
“I’ll drive you back,” he said behind her. “Then we can go to the house and collect the rest of your things. Did you have any furniture you have to bring back with you?”
Crista froze at the bathroom doorway before turning back to him slowly.
“Why would I need to bring my furniture? You just said until the end of summer. ” She kept her voice calm. When dealing with Dawg, one had to learn to stay calm, or he would drive one insane.
He pulled a pair of shorts over his naked hips before straightening without answering.
His gaze pierced hers. His arms crossed over his chest in a stance of pure power, and he looked straight down that arrogant nose of his as though he were lord of all he surveyed.
Her calm slipped, just a little bit, as she stared back at him incredulously, her fingers fisting in the sheet she held around her. “Have you lost your mind?”
“Do you have furniture that needs to be moved?”
“No, I don’t,” she replied with sugary sweetness. “Because I’m not moving in here with you indefinitely. As soon as I can, I’m returning to the house. ”
The house she shared with Alex was small and located farther outside of town than she liked, but it was nice. It was home.
It was nothing like the nice apartment she had shared with her roommate Mark and his lover Ty: the two-bedroom, ultramodern, brightly lit apartment with a balcony that overlooked the beach. It hadn’t been home, though. Somerset was home.
“Tell me, Crista, do you want to die?” he asked her then. “Because you will. Those men at that warehouse weren’t playing games with those bullets, fancy-face. They were serious. And now, someone else could possibly believe you have their money. How long do you think it will take them to find you and slit your throat in your sleep?”
Crista felt the color leech from her face.
“But I didn’t have anything to do with that,” she argued weakly, feeling the stupidity in her response even as it came out of her lips.
