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Staking my claim, I push my fingers into her hair, gripping the silky softness, and drop my other arm, wrapping it around her, pulling her against me. Her lips are warm and soft as I drag mine across hers, demanding everything and more. She answers with a gasp, and then my tongue is brushing against hers, over and over again, each sweep turning my hunger into a raging inferno. The warmth of her mouth, the essence that is her, steals the strength from my knees and the air from my lungs. I’d gladly surrender everything to her if it meant I could live in this moment forever. Helpless, I groan against her lips, the sound ripped from the deepest part of me when her fingers grip my shirt pulling me closer. I want to rip the damn thing off—feel her skin against mine without any barrier between us. There’s been enough of that, and I won’t tolerate more.
I’m on the cusp of doing just that when she wrenches her lips from mine. One second, two seconds, three seconds pass as we stare at each other, our chests heaving. Then her eyes dart past me.
“What was that?”
What was what? I shake my head, tearing my eyes away from her pink, plump lips that glisten from the moisture I put there, trying to comprehend what she’s talking about when a mournful howl cuts through my confusion.
That little cockblocker.
I take a shaky step back, and it’s so fucking hard. Now that I finally have permission to kiss her, I don’t want to stop. Then I realize I’ve been mauling her like a caveman in the doorway of my home, and I feel like an ass.
“I kinda did a thing,” I say, stepping back, allowing her to, you know, actually enter my home.
“You bought a puppy?”
I’m helpless in her wake as she makes a beeline for the pen.
“No. I bought you a puppy.”
“What?” she says, spinning around so fast that I almost bump into her.
“Well, I know with the whole food thing, you can’t have him during the day, but he can stay with me when you have to work. Almost like a shared custody kind of a deal,” I finish lamely, suddenly second-guessing myself. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now that Bailey’s staring at me like I lost my mind, I’m thinking it might have been a decision fueled by exhaustion. I mean, who buys a puppy for someone before checking that they actually want one? An idiot. That’s who.
“Kallan Reed. Are you trying to bribe me with a puppy?”
“Uhh, no?” I sigh. “Look, I realize this might have been a bit presumptuous of me, and if you don’t want him, I’ll take him. I like dogs…I’ve been thinking of getting one.”
“Are you crazy? This is…this is perfect,” she breathes, dropping down and scooping him from the pen.
“It’s a husky,” she says, cooing at him and giggling while he tries his best to lick as much of her face as he can.
I’ve never been so jealous of a dog in my life, but then I see the sweet tilt of her lips, and I’m lost at sea.
“Where did you get him?”
“Bumped into the owner when we stopped for fuel. He was on the way back from having their final inoculations done. Saw this little guy, and he looked like a miniature version of White Fang.”
“You watched the movie?”
I nod. “Yeah, had some time on my hands. Read the book, also.”
“Wow, I’m impressed.”
“Read the one about Finn also. It was good. I tried The Black Stallion, but I won’t lie and say I finished that one.”
I did give it my best shot, though, because reading the books she loved while picturing a younger Bailey curled up in that overstuffed leather sofa made me feel closer to her.
“Yeah, because you’re not fourteen,” she chuckles, pressing kisses to the puppy’s head. “Have you named him?”
“He’s yours. You do the honors.”
She hums softly, biting her lip, and it’s all I can do not to replace her teeth with my lips.
“White Fang was named Mia Tuk. Tuk for short. Do you think that’s stupid?”
“No,” I say, giving the pup a scratch behind his ear. “I think it’s perfect.”
*****
