AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Humans sell animals this way?” His elevated, incredulous tone seemed to echo in the store’s vast space.
“Shhh,” she chided. Maybe the hum of the fish tank wall behind her would cover his slip. Then again, maybe someone would take his shock as a genuine question about humanity. These poor little guys got little respect for the beauty, personality, and will to survive they possessed. “Which do you think I’ll pick?”
She’d already made her choice. Would his be the same two?
The cups had each been tucked into their own cubicle. At least the bettas wouldn’t exhaust themselves trying to get at each other. They weren’t called ‘Siamese fighting fish’ for no reason. Males would try to kill any other male in his territory.
Ryn seemed to take his time examining each cup, jostling the water a bit sometimes, possibly to assess the fish’s reaction or to get a better look at the itty-bitty body. Interesting. All were marked as males, with color-coded labels indicating their different types of fin and price, though she doubted he would know the difference between a crown-tail, a rose-petal, or a veil-tail.
He stepped away from his perusal of the skinny, largely impassive fish, maybe thirty in all. “That one and that one.”
She followed where his fingers pointed, and she froze. The exact ones she’d already identified. A nearly black rose-petal with atrociously bad fins and little will to move laid listless in the cup. An emaciated, sluggish crown-tail whose color had faded to a dull gray occupied the other tiny container.
“How…how did you pick out those? They’re the worst of the lot besides the dead one.”
“They’re the worst, and I thought you’d want to save them.” He raised a brow. “Was I wrong?”
“No.” She carefully removed the cups, trying not to stress the little guys any more than she must, and to cover her shock that he would know her this well. She checked the bettas with a critical eye and suppressed the desire to tell them they’d be okay with her now. Instead, she turned toward the checkout. “Hopefully, they’ll live.”
“They will.” Surety rang in his tone and his confidence shook her.
“How do you know? I’m pretty sure they’re near the brink.” The odds of their survival were fifty-fifty. She stepped up to the cashier, who showed little interest in the purchase beyond wanting to know if she had a member number. Caro wanted to rail at the young man, despite the knowledge that a retail employee of a giant chain would have little ability to affect the living conditions of animals in the store.
Ryn remained silent while she paid and gathered her new charges in her hand. Once through the sliding doors, he broke into her dark thoughts.
“How I know they’ll live is that you don’t do anything without deliberation.”
Ha. If he only knew that bringing him with her today was impulsive.
“You didn’t buy them a home,” he continued, “which says you already have one set up. Either you already know how to nurse them back to health or you’ve done your homework on how to best care for them.”
His spot-on assessment left her feeling naked. She didn’t normally let someone this close.
Once at the SUV, he opened the passenger door for her and she scrambled in, making herself busy balancing the cups and buckling in. He did the same while she kept her gaze strictly forward as if he could see the real her through her eyes.
Instead of starting the engine, he shifted toward her and put his forearm on the steering wheel. “You chose the worst of the lot. I wouldn’t have expected any differently because you champion the underdog, Caro.”
He’d further stripped away any cover she might’ve gathered. “Pretty words won’t get you in my pants, Ryn. I’m no hero. I’ve done plenty of things I’m not proud of.”
“Haven’t we all? That’s life. What we do after we make a mistake counts most.” Instead of the canned phrases of a self-help guru, his gentle words indicated he understood.
She picked up a cup and held the container at eye-level, trying to focus her thoughts on the little gray crown-tail, rather than the dead woman which occupied most of her self-flagellation. “What if you did something bad, but don’t feel any remorse?”
“I suspect you had a reason for what you did, and it wasn’t selfish.” He shifted to face forward and started the vehicle. Before he put the SUV in reverse, he said, “Besides, I don’t need pretty words to get in your pants. You’ll lower them for me of your own desire.”
He’d delivered his words in a smug, knowing tone which banished her memories and sent heat fireworking through her system. She’d screwed up asking him to come with her. To hide how his confidence made her want to perform exactly as he predicted, she added irritation to her next words. “Your amount of gall is amazing. Is that something issued to all demons, or just your inflated ego?”
He bumped his turn signal and entered the road, taking the direction toward her apartment. “My ego isn’t what’s inflated here.”
Laughter infused his words, and her irritation soared. “For goodness’ sake, you’re—”
“You and I are going to end up in bed, Caro Kavenaugh. Make no mistake about that fact. I’m going to make you scream my name when you come. It won’t be once. It won’t be twice. You will never want another like you want me. You’re going to crave my touch on your breasts. My mouth on your pussy. Maybe even the handkerchief I’m carrying in my pocket right now.”
Hard truth reverberated in her brain with his dark, hot words, and the images he conjured robbed her of speech. A carnal movie began playing in her mind’s eye featuring that blindfold, his fingers, his lips, his cock. Heat flooded her breasts and belly making her want to squirm with desire, making her full, slick, and ready.
Stop.
She shook her head to erase the torturous images and reached for any reason to deny his temptation. “We’re not the type for this, Ryn. You know that. Relationships can’t work in our world, especially one made after a couple of hours spent with each other.”
