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Chapter 6

Dax was trying to put the haunting look in the hollow eyes of the woman he’d just left from his mind as he unlocked his front door. Normally, after a day like this, he’d head straight down to the gym and try to work out the anger, frustration, and rage he was feeling, but tonight he had company. Company that he couldn’t wait to see. Company he hoped would take his mind off of the evils in this world.

As soon as the door swung open he was met with an array of smells that ranged from delicious to disturbing. There was definitely the scent of burnt food but it was layered with spices and delectable scents he couldn’t quite discern.

“Arf!” Capone barked at him from the kitchen.

Every day when he came home his loyal companion was waiting, tail wagging, at the door. Today it seemed he couldn’t be bothered. Dax walked through the living room towards man’s best friend. “What, you can’t even come to the door?”

“Arf!” Capone answered, his butt wiggling frantically as he stood in place.

Dax couldn’t help but smile as he stepped into the kitchen and bent down to scratch his pup’s head. “I see how it is—”

His words fell silent as his jaw dropped open. All of the tension and anxiousness that had been bottled up for the past few hours drained out of him in a heartbeat the second he laid eyes on what he could only describe as a real life angel leaning over his table and lighting two candles.

Ginny’s large blue eyes were so clear, so bright they were practically iridescent. Her hair looked damp and was pulled up on top of her head, which showcased her angelic face and long neck. The white V-neck T-shirt she wore only added to her ethereal image. Her face was scrubbed clean and she was radiating beauty. But the real showstopper was the drop-dead gorgeous smile that knocked the wind right out of him.

All of the darkness that he’d been faced with today and was still hanging over his head like a dark cloud evaporated at the light that Ginny was emanating. He was sure that the ethereal effect was amplified by the glow of the candlelight, but that was only a small part of it. She had a grace, a presence, an essence that had nothing to do with the flickering flame that illuminated her.

“Hi, I don’t’ know if you’re hungry, but I made dinner.” Her voice wavered slightly and Dax realized that he hadn’t spoken to her since he walked in.

Shaking his head slightly he hoped to clear the mesmerizing fog that had settled in his brain. “I am. And it smells…” He paused, not exactly sure of how to describe it.

“I burned the first batch,” she rushed her admission out. “But the second looks good.”

Her eagerness was so adorable and he almost told her so, but stopped himself. No matter what he felt, he had to remember what he’d told Seth, they didn’t have that type of relationship. “You didn’t have to do all of this.”

“I know. I wanted to.” She hurried around the table and opened the fridge, pulling out a bowl filled with salad. “I’ve always wanted to cook more and I’m finally doing it. It’s almost ready, about five minutes.”

“I’ll just let Capone out and then wash up.”

“Oh, I let him out about an hour ago.”

“You did?”

She nodded. “He was practically crossing his legs.”

“Okay. Well, then I’ll just go wash up.”

He turned to leave and as he made his way back to his room he tried to ignore how right this felt. How perfectly right Ginny being here when he got home felt. The white picket fence, wife, dog and two-point-five kids had never been his dream. In fact, he’d come to the conclusion a long time ago that the “idealistic” lifestyle wasn’t for him. It had always represented everything his life wasn’t: predictable and boring.

But Ginny being here, in his home, made him want things he’d never wanted before. For a second he blamed it on the emotionally draining day he’d had, but he quickly dismissed that theory. He’d had worse days before and although he might have sought temporary comfort in the opposite sex, he never imagined getting down on one knee and slipping a diamond on one of them. He never had visions of any of them walking down the aisle towards him in a white dress. He never wondered what it would be like for any of those women to be the last thing he saw when he went to bed and the first thing he saw when he woke up. Yet he was picturing all that and more with Ginny.

When he stepped into the bathroom he noticed that it was steamy and saw that a shampoo that wasn’t his was sitting out on the ledge of the shower. There was also a brush with a pink handle on the counter and a new electronic toothbrush beside it. This felt right, too. Her things in his bathroom.

Unlike the front room it smelled fresh and fruity and he closed his eyes as he inhaled deeply, letting himself take in the feminine scent. As he opened his eyes and turned the water on in the sink, he realized that it was only this morning that he’d been in the shower, fantasizing about a woman he hadn’t seen in months and believed he might never see again. In person, that is. He saw her all the time on magazine covers. Now that woman was in his kitchen and she had made him dinner. Her bag was unpacked and her clothes hung in his guest room. Her toiletries were in his bathroom where she’d been in the shower, naked, just moments before.

Knowing that if he let himself hike up that thought trail he would end up at Hard-on Mountain he pushed those images out of his mind. For good measure he splashed some water on his face to help snap him out of it. At least for now. Chances were he would revisit it at a later time and add it to the thousands of other Ginny Valentine fantasies he’d had over the past few months.

He grabbed the hand towel that hung beside the sink, rubbed it over his face and dried his hands before returning it. After taking two deep breaths to try to get his body—that had been at half chub since he’d seen Ginny leaning over his kitchen table—under control.

As he walked down the hall, back to the kitchen, he used the time to remind himself that he needed to have a talk that he really didn’t think was going to go too well. He had to bring up the fact that her mother had hired Elite Security and requested him to be on her detail. He’d meant to tell her as soon as he walked in, but he hadn’t been counting on her playing out the ultimate fifties housewife fantasy.

“No.” He heard Ginny’s voice. “Get down. Down.”

He assumed she thought she was using an authoritative voice but really it sounded like she was amused. As he turned the corner he saw Capone seated at the table, tongue hanging out, panting happily.

“Tscht.” Dax used the corrective sound that he’d heard on Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan and Capone instantly obeyed him. He jumped off the chair and looked up at him to see what he wanted him to do next.

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