She shrugged. “Not yet.”
I stood and stretched my back, then started packing a medical bag with supplies Bella might need overnight. “This was supposed to be so easy. Take the abused dog away from her owner and hand her over to the rescue organization. Then I find out she needs immediate medical attention, andthisguy isn’t who I thought he was, and then on top of everything else, Scott slithers his way back into my life.”
“I’m not sure what part of stealing a dog out from under that asshole’s nose was supposed to be easy, but you handing her over to the wrong man was her lucky break.”
“You think so?”
Gina cocked her head. “Henamedher. You should ask him if he wants to be listed as her owner when we register her ID chip.”
“I think you’re right. I will ask him. Maybe tomorrow, after he’s had another day to fall in love with her.”
“I’m not sure he needs another day,” Gina said.
“It doesn’t hurt to be sure,” I said. “Providing a foreverhome for a dog, especially a previously abused one, is a big responsibility.”
“I think Kyle’s up to the task.” She nudged my shoulder. “And who said I was talking about the dog?”
8
KYLE
When I woke up on Cami’s large, comfortable, cream-colored couch made up with crisp, pale green sheets, my internal clock told me it was around 0600. After a quick stretch, I sat up and checked my phone. My estimate had only been two minutes off.
A soft scratching and snuffling at the bedroom door alerted me to Bella being awake. I cracked the door to let her out, making a concerted effort not to glance inside the room. As much as I’d love to see how Cami looked, I didn’t want to be a creeper watching a woman sleep without her knowledge or consent. Maybe someday she’d invite me to share her room and bed with her, but until then, I’d remain a gentleman. At least in my actions, if not my thoughts and way-too-vivid dreams, like the ones that had made me toss and turn most of the night.
At the front door of the apartment, I shifted Bella’s protective, post-surgery head cone and buckled her collar. I glanced at the clinic building’s security feed that I’d linked to my phone. The cameras showed a clear, unpopulated view from every angle, and there’d been no alerts overnight.If Scott planned to come back, he was biding his time. Bella and I slipped quietly out of the apartment and spent ten minutes in the grassy, treelined back of the property. When we returned, I unhooked her leash and fed her breakfast with the same measure of food Cami had given her last night.
While she ate and lapped up fresh water, I made myself at home. I opened the curtains of the windows lining the big open area that was the living room, dining room, and kitchen. Above the sofa and visible from the entire open space was a row of large black and white photos, professionally matted and framed in brushed nickel. I hadn’t paid much attention to them last night, as my primary focus had been on securing ingress and egress points of the apartment.
Now that I observed the images more carefully, I realized Cami was in all of them. She was still a kid in the first two, but she looked very much like her adult self. Her parents were in all of the photos as well, and an older girl who I assumed was her sister was in three. Something bothered me about the pictures, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
I returned to the kitchen and located coffee supplies, then set up her coffeemaker to brew a pot. While I searched through more cabinets, one text dinged on my phone, then another two. I checked my screen, expecting to see an annoyed chiding from Lang, who had been surprisingly nonjudgmental about my predicament last night. It could be an update on the lab work from Pasco, who was the de facto conduit for that type of data. Instead, the messages were from Gina.
I grinned, then went to work. I dug through cupboards, the fridge, and even into the freezer to find the ingredients I needed.
“Looks like I have one supporter, and she said the way to Cami’s heart is through breakfast,” I told Bella, justifying the boundaries I was crossing. I’d ask forgiveness later and hope that my cooking made Cami amenable to granting it.
I quick-thawed the blueberries and bacon, and mixed up a basic pancake batter with extra baking powder to ensure their fluffiness. There had been no sounds coming from Cami’s room, so the smell of brewing coffee hadn’t roused her. I would let her sleep as long as she needed, then discuss plans for our day over breakfast. I wasn’t sure whether she was clear on the fact that I’d be her personal protection force of one until we knew more about potential threats to her. Having her fed and caffeinated might make that news more palatable.
“I’ll be back in a few,” I told Bella, who had curled up on the large blanket Cami had placed on the kitchen tiles for her. When I patted her head, her tail thumped happily, and she closed her eyes, loving the attention. Such a sweet girl. All she craved was kindness. My fondest hope for her was she would find her forever person who would be good to her every day for the rest of her life.
I picked up the fluffy towels Cami had set out for me, and headed toward the apartment’s single bathroom. Bella came right on my heels, her tail wagging expectantly.
“Really?”
She sat and stared up at me, her big, brown eyes melting my heart. Which was how I ended up in Cami’s shower with a dog curled up on the cool tile floor in front of the sink. My next dilemma was finding soap and shampoo. There were several bottles of body wash and shampoo. At least I thought so, although a few of the labels were in French with no English translations, and it had been a while since I’d studied the language in high school. The products allsmelled floral or fruity or both. That explained the hints of vanilla and strawberry I caught when I stood close to Cami. And here I’d thought it was just my mind playing tricks on me because the woman looked good enough to eat.
Thinking lascivious thoughts about her while standing naked in her shower reinvigorated my morning wood. I pressed my hands flat against the white shower tiles and took a few cleansing breaths, then resumed my shampoo search. Behind the row of bottles, I found an unscented bar of soap. There was no such luck with the shampoo, so I chose the least scented one, which was the strawberry. That led me right back to thoughts of Cami, and of having her naked and in the shower with me. I gave up on trying to mentally control my physical reactions and finished showering.
I stepped out of the shower and dried off from top to bottom. Then I threw the towel over my head and used both hands to vigorously rub the moisture out of my hair. Bella thumped her tail, and a split second later, the doorknob snicked. I turned toward the noise. And stood naked and at full mast a couple of feet away from Cami.
Her gaze snapped downward. My cock took on a life of its own and jumped at the attention. And I froze.
9
KYLE
If I moved too quickly, she might realize she was staring, and she’d be mortified. Sure, we were reasonable adults and we could both recover from that, but I worried it might claw back the progress we’d made toward being at ease in each other’s company. Well, thatshe’dmade, since I’d been comfortable with her even when I’d thought she might be a dognapper. Which, technically speaking, she was.
