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Chin lifted like a queen staring down at a peasant not worth her time, she stepped past him. “I’m leaving.”
Sasha grabbed her tattered dress and stepped into it. A pity. He liked the way she looked in his shirt and the way the hem rode up just enough to give the occasional tantalizing peek at the lush globes of her ass. The dress was obviously ripped, but the shirt was long enough to keep her from indecent exposure. She walked to the door.
Fuck. Donovan exhaled hard and rubbed his hands over his head. This woman had starred in all his X-rated fantasies for over a year—ever since he first saw her at Redwood Coast Rescue—and now she was walking away.
He couldn’t let her leave like this, with indignation snapping in her eyes. Especially if this was the only night they were going to have together. He didn’t want the beauty of it to be soured by regret.
“Hey, Sasha, wait.”
She paused with her hand on the doorknob. “What?”
“Do you have a ride?”
She was silent for a beat. “Zak was my ride.”
“I’m sure he’s gone home by now.”
“It’s fine. I’ll figure something out.”
“I can drive you home. Just give me a minute to dress.” He went to the bedroom and grabbed fresh clothes out of his bag.
“My car’s at the rescue,” she called after him.
“Then I’ll drive you there.” He pulled on jeans and a sweatshirt and then hesitated a beat, staring at the rumpled bed. Goddammit. This was not how he’d wanted the night to end. He shouldered his bag and returned to the living room to find Sasha still standing by the door, her arms wrapped around herself as if she was cold.
“You don’t have to—”
He waved aside her protest as he stuffed his feet into his boots. “Nah, it’s fine. I’m heading that way anyway. I have to pick up Spirit from the kennel.”
At the mention of his dog, some of the tension eased out of her spine. “How is she?”
Okay, if she was more comfortable talking dogs, then he could talk dogs. Luckily, Spirit was one of his favorite topics. He opened the door and waited for her to go out ahead of him. He took the Do Not Disturb hanger off the knob and tossed it into the room before shutting the door.
Sasha stood in the hallway, self-consciously plucking at the deep-V collar of his costume shirt. He could’ve offered her another shirt from his bag, but he liked the view. And if this car ride was all the time he had left with her, he was going to be a selfish bastard and enjoy it.
“Spirit’s perfect,” he replied and started toward the elevator. “It’s like she never had that tumor. She loves agility and aced her explosives detection training. We finished the twelve-week course a few days ago, and we’re just waiting on the certification paperwork to go through.”
A smile softened her expression as she fell into step next to him. “I’m relieved to hear that. I was so nervous during that entire surgery. Poking around the brain like that is always scary.”
He stopped abruptly, and she nearly walked into him. She peeked around him as if expecting to see someone they knew up ahead.
The hall was empty.
She released her breath in a whoosh, then her brows wrinkled with confusion. “What’s wrong?”
He faced her. “You did Spirit’s surgery?”
“Um…” Her gaze bounced around like she wasn’t sure how to answer and was looking for an out. “Yes?”
He didn’t know why that hadn’t occurred to him. Of course she had done the surgery. She was the rescue’s vet, and she’d been overseeing Spirit’s recovery before he decided he wanted to be her handler. Spirit had a follow-up visit at the clinic two months ago, but Zak had taken her since he’d been in San Francisco re-certifying in explosive ordnance disposal, so he’d never talked with Sasha about her recovery before now. “You saved her life.”
Now she just looked befuddled. “Uh, I don’t know about saving her life. The tumor was benign. But we definitely improved the quality of her—”
“You are the most amazing woman I’ve ever met.”
Color flooded her cheeks. “I was just doing my job, Donovan. Nothing amazing about that.”
She didn’t see it. Was her self-confidence really so low that she didn’t know how amazing she was? “Angel, my entire life has been about destruction. I destroy everything I touch—but you? You fix. You heal. You care.”
