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‘I like... I mean, I’d like that,’ she muttered, hovering for a split second lest he wanted to kiss her again but not really surprised when he made no such move. After all, she had acted so jittery at the club when he’d touched her, he was probably reluctant to risk it again. What man liked being pushed away?

‘Tell your boss I’ll drop by tomorrow about the dog,’ Sev added as she stuck the key in the lock.

‘Yes. He’s on duty all day tomorrow but, if you come early morning, you shouldn’t have to wait long,’ she advised him. ‘Thanks for dinner.’

Unsettled, she went to bed and tossed and turned while she mulled over the evening. In truth she was wondering if she would ever hear from him again or if she had already put him off. The prospect of never seeing Sev again already made her heart sink and she groaned, annoyed at herself for being too keen too quickly on a man who would never take someone like her seriously. She was on a hiding to nowhere, as Cordy used to say of hopeless cases. But even so, her brain still wanted to relive every little moment she had been with him, every second of those passionate kisses...and it was a long time before she got to sleep.

The next day, Sev had to cancel a meeting late afternoon to make his call on the surgery and express his interest in Harley. He did so, fully expecting to see Amy again. The more often he saw her, he told himself, the more likely it would be that she would agree to accompany him to the Lawsons’ party, and he could only carry out his plan with her beside him...an unwittingvictim? Well, he wasn’t planning to do her any harm, he reminded himself afresh, had no idea why his motivation seemed to be faltering. No way could she be as soft and vulnerable as she appeared!

Furthermore, people liked to know certain facts about their background. Amy was only human and must always have wanted to know who her father was. Had she had the money she could have gone to court to demand to be told her father’s identity, he reasoned impatiently. But she had neither the money nor the worldly knowledge to be aware that these days adults had the legal right to know certain facts about their parentage.Hisway, Amy would be getting that answer for free.

After a lengthy wait and filling out a welter of forms, Harley was bestowed on Sev. He sat quite happily on the end of the leash that Sev had brought with him while Sev endeavoured to casually enquire where Amy was.

‘This is the day Amy attends her classes.’ The older man studied him with a frowning look of assessment that Sev wasn’t familiar with. ‘She’s a lovely girl. I’ve known her since she was a child. She’s hard-working, honest and marvellous with animals but she’s had a tough life,’ he proclaimed.

‘I gathered that,’ Sev admitted, before taking Harley home.

Harley looked supremely unimpressed with the elaborate outside kennel that had been constructed that very morning for his occupation. The gardener, given a few necessary words in German, took him for a walk and then he was fed and shown into his fur-lined basket. Sev went out to see him, uncomfortably conscious of the mournful whining noise Harley emitted as he walked back into the house again. As Sev worked that evening in his home office, the vaguely audible whining slowly grew to a low-pitched howl that was very annoying.

‘The dog won’t settle,’ his housekeeper informed him when he enquired. ‘I think he’s lonely.’

Guilt settled on Sev’s broad shoulders and he let Harley out of the dog run. The Labrador pushed against him and looked up at him with adoring eyes. Sev worked while Harley snoozed peacefully on a rug but every time Sev stood up, Harley opened a suspicious eye to check on his new master’s whereabouts. Lighting up the garden, Sev threw a ball for the dog, keen to tire him out before bed. Annabel came out to join him, enjoying Harley’s antics because they had never been allowed to have pets when they were children.

Unfortunately, his sister’s spirits had not improved much. He could see that she was working hard at putting on a brave face for his benefit but her haunted eyes told him that she was still devastated. She had loved and trusted Lawson and he had broken her heart. Tomorrow she would be moving into the apartment Sev had found for her near where she worked. He owned the entire building. He had suggested that she should consider staying with him a little longer, but she had insisted that she was looking forward to setting up her own home again.

‘You’re the best brother!’ she told him with forced cheer as he put the dog back in the run. ‘You’re giving me a fresh start and that’s what I need to shake me out of this fog of self-loathing.’

‘Lawson took advantage of you, Bel. He lied. You have nothing to hate yourself for.’

‘Except being stupid,’ his sister interrupted, accompanying him back indoors as Harley loosed his first howl. ‘Oh, dear, I hope he doesn’t keep that up or none of us will get any sleep.’

‘It’s a matter of discipline,’ Sev told her confidently.

‘No, he doesn’t like being away from you. He’s a house dog, not an outdoor one,’ his sibling told him ruefully. ‘You really didn’t think this through, did you? A pet is ahugeresponsibility.’

An hour later, Sev was gritting his teeth and still listening to Harley howl and when he couldn’t stand it any more, he went downstairs and let Harley into the house. Harley accompanied him back upstairs to his bedroom and leapt on the bed. Sev exiled him to a far corner to lie down on the cushions he piled up for him. Harley lay down and sighed, propping his snout on his front paws and looking as pathetic as a dog could, but there was no more whining or howling and everybody got to sleep. Sev, however, wakened to find a large dog snoring on top of his feet.

Three days later, Amy studied her silent phone with annoyance. She was acting so juvenile about Sev and it exasperated her. She might never hear from him again, sheknewthat: she wasn’t stupid. It happened all the time, according to her friends. A man could seem interested one minute and then forget your existence the next. That was just life and, with anyone, there was always the chance that another more attractive option offered and all the wishing and hoping in the world wouldn’t change that fact, she reminded herself irritably. But would it be wrong or a dead giveaway to ask how Harley was turning out for him? Would that be pushy? Painfully obvious? Would it be chasing him? Amy agonised all morning over that issue and skipped her lunch because she felt nauseous and a little off-colour while still refusing to allow herself to think about Sev.

That evening, she felt really sick and wondered if it was the change of contraceptive pill she had been forced to request, but she soon realised that she must have eaten something that disagreed with her. She went to bed early with Hopper snuggled up to her and that was the most peace she got because she spent most of the night being ill, thumping up and down the stairs to the surgery washroom. She got up the next day, pale and with dark circles under her eyes but mercifully, no longer dizzy or feeling unwell. In a more brisk and practical mood triggered by Harold asking if she had heard how her ‘friend’ and Harley were getting on, she texted Sev and asked. It was only a polite enquiry, she reasoned irritably, wondering why she hadn’t been able to find any trace of him on the Internet, reckoning that she was spelling his name, Kenterelli, wrong. But she could hardly ask him to write it down for her, could she? That would make her look stupid.

Sev smiled down at his phone and called her. ‘Come and see Harley for yourself this evening,’ he suggested. ‘We can eat together.’

‘I’m working until nine,’ Amy admitted, suppressing a twinge of immature excitement and trying to keep her voice steady and calm.

‘Not a problem. We’ll eat later. I’ll pick you up,’ Sev asserted, tossing his phone on the desk. He would take her to an art gallery on Friday night and invite her to the party. On one level he was eager to get the party over with, on another he wished he had a few more weeks to play with.

Why? The less he saw of Amy Taylor, the better, he decided grimly, changing tack because he was realising that he was too susceptible to her sex appeal. If he was a bastard, he would just have sex with her to get her out of his system, but she deserved better. Regrettably his attempt to satisfy his libido with another woman the night before had failed. He had been in a weird mood though, he conceded with a bemused frown, inexplicably noting the unlucky woman’s every flaw and, ultimately, unable to summon up sufficient interest to become any more intimate with her. That wasn’t like him. Sex was generally just sex for him, not something his brain or his feelings got involved in. He wasn’t and never had been the sentimental sort. In fact, it would have been more true to say that Sev viewed sex as an appetite to be assuaged on a regular basis, not a pursuit that required much thought beyond decency, safety and consideration. And then Amy had swum into view and sex had somehow become something that was ridiculously desirable but outrageously complicated and impossible.

And how had that happened? Lust was tormenting him for the first time ever because she was the very first woman he had wanted that he couldn’t have. He was burning up for her as if she were his own personal Helen of Troy! She turned him on hard and fast. It was mindless but undeniable. It was also nonsensical, and heknewthat and he firmly believed that it wasbecauseshe was forbidden fruit. He knew that in the circumstances he could not sleep with her and that awareness made her all the more seductive a possibility. The sooner their association was over, the happier he would be, he told himself grimly, thoroughly exasperated by the introspection assailing him.

Amy rushed through cleaning the surgery, threw herself straight into the shower and ran upstairs in her bare feet to get dressed. Were they eating out? She hadn’t thought to ask. Jeans and a top could well be too casual, but she didn’t have much else in her wardrobe, having returned Gemma’s dresses to her. In haste, she pulled on her most flattering jeans and a slightly shimmery blue top she had bought for the surgery Christmas night out the year before. She pushed her feet into canvas sneakers and dried her hair. The surgery bell went before she could even take advantage of her small stock of cosmetics and she groaned, scrubbing at her cheeks and her lips to give them a little colour, wishing she looked her best because Sev always looked amazing.

And Sev didn’t let her down in that expectation. Sheathed in a black business suit, immaculately tailored to his tall muscular physique, he had teamed it with a dark red shirt that accentuated his olive skin tone and glossy black hair. A light covering of black stubble ringed his sensual mouth and jawline, enhancing his superb bone structure. He looked spectacular and her mouth ran dry as she climbed into the limo beside him and discovered that she would be sharing the space with Harley.

‘You had him out with you?’ she queried in surprise.

‘Harley gets stressed when I’m not around. The vet says it’s probably separation anxiety because his former owner disappeared so suddenly from his life, so I’m working on training him out of it with various strategies,’ Sev assured her smoothly.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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