Page 28 of Had to Be You

"Sof, come here, pretty girl." Laura used her high-pitched voice in an attempt to coax her. It failed miserably.

With a sigh, she opened her garage and grabbed the ladder. As she headed back to the front yard, she briefly considered changing into more tree-climbing-appropriate attire but dismissed it. It wasn’t the first time she’d rescued her cat in cotton booty shorts, a tank top, and nothing else, and she seriously doubted it would be her last.

Plus, it was after ten o’clock on a Sunday night, and all her neighbors were sound asleep for work tomorrow.

After leaning the ladder against the tree trunk, Laura gripped the edges and began her ascent. With each rung her foot landed on, her palms grew damper. Logically, she knew that she was mere feet from the ground and in no real danger, but her deathly fear of heights overrode reason.

"Don’t look down," she whispered to herself, keeping her eyes focused on where she was going, not where she’d been.

She’d reached the third from the tallest step and lifted her arm to reach for Sofie. The cat watched with mild interest as her tail swept across Laura’s fingertips.

"Come here, Sof. I got you," Laura said again, changing her voice to a more soothing tone.

The cat didn’t budge. Taking a deep breath, Laura held on to a mid-high branch as she stepped up one more rung. Unfortunately, her hands weren’t the only limbs that were perspiring. The bottoms of her feet were also coated with a thin sheen of sweat, which made her foot slip. The next thing she knew, she was falling backward.

The fall felt like an eternity but was probably less than a second long. That second was long enough for her to dread the impact that the ground was going to have on her tailbone. Her eyes clenched shut as she braced herself. But instead of hitting the grass-covered, compacted earth, she felt herself cradled in strong arms.

Her eyes flew open, and she saw that the arms that had caught her belonged to Knox Savage.

"What are you doing?" She exhaled the breath she’d been holding in anticipation of crashing to the ground.

"I was going to ask you the same thing. Do you always make it a habit of climbing trees in the dark in your underwear?"

"This isn’t my underwear," she defended herself. "They are boy shorts and a tank top."

"So you have underwear under your boy shorts?"

Laura felt her cheeks flush. No, she wasn’t wearing any underwear beneath them. They were, in fact, her underwear.

As much as it pained her to suggest it because being in Knox’s arms had quickly become her favorite place to be, she forced herself to ask, "Can you put me down now?"

Knox didn’t immediately move. He seemed to be considering her request carefully. Part of her wanted him to decline her inquiry and tighten his hold on her.

Laura had always been on the curvy side. Most of the men she dated were in decent shape, but she never felt dainty or petite when they held her. In Knox’s arms, she felt she was one of the flyers in cheer instead of the base, which is what she’d been.

He exhaled as he slowly set her down and stepped away from her. The moment her feet were on the ground, the disappointment was swift and potent. She felt her heart and spirit sink, but she told herself it was for the best.

"Are you okay?" he asked with the earnest sincerity that shot straight to her heart, which had a long way to go since it was on the grass.

She wasn’t sure if he was inquiring about her physical or mental wellbeing, but her answer was going to be the same either way. "I’m fine," she assured him as she adjusted her tank top, pulling the neckline up so there wasn’t a nip slip.

When she glanced back up at him, she saw that his eyes were lower than her chin, and the same intensity that she’d seen in them at the wedding was back. She couldn’t help but feel a little charge at his renewed interest, which she knew was a very unhealthy reaction. But it did make her see that the yo-yo method might actually work. That thought only infuriated her more.

"What are you doing here?" she snapped.

She hadn’t meant for the question to come out sounding so irritated. The truth was, she was frustrated with herself more than anyone else.

"I was out for a run."

Laura realized then that he was wearing running shorts and a gray shirt that clung to his sculpted, chiseled chest. Her mouth filled with saliva at the sight.

"This late?" she breathed out.

"I had some excess energy to burn off."

Even though his answer wasn’t explicit in the slightest, the look in his eyes and the grit in his voice made it X-rated in her mind.

"Meow." Jello announced her presence as she did figure eights between Knox’s calves.

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