Page 33 of Gentle Fox

But it didn’t matter if, in the end, she chose not to stay. Unless I wanted to follow her and that idea didn’t freak me out nearly as much as it should.

“Why are you being so patient with me? I’ve done nothing but be a pain in your ass from the second you spoke to me.”

I snickered. I doubt she was ready for the full truth but I was willing to give her a glimpse.

“It only took hearing your voice once for me to know I wanted to get to know you. I’m not done getting to know you yet.”

What she did next surprised the hell out of me. I didn’t have time to guess and never in a million years would I have been correct, even if given the option.

Annalee yanked hard on my hand that was interlocked with hers causing me to lean forward. Her other hand ran along the scruff of my beard and wrapped around the back of my neck pulling me even closer until her lips crashed onto mine.

They were as soft as they looked. There was nothing unsure about the kiss. Annalee knew exactly what she wanted and was willing to take it.

I was too shocked to do anything other than kiss her back and let her take control.

My cock whimpered when her tongue plunged into my mouth, jealous of the heat my own tongue was getting to feel.

I was allowing myself to get lost in her. To let her take her frustrations out of my hair the harder she tugged until reality came crashing down.

It didn’t matter how good it felt. We needed to stop.

I forced myself to disentangle our bodies, pull away, and scoot farther back on the couch even though it was the last thing I wanted to do.

"Why did you stop?" The hurt was evident in her eyes but I couldn't change my stance.

"Because it wouldn't be fair of me to influence your decision when it comes to Willow Creek."

I pushed off the couch and rushed like hell to get away from her before I did something stupid.

Like begged her to stay just for me.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Annalee

I slapped the thin local newspaper down on my desk and glared at Kati.

"Who the hell writes this shit?" I wasn't mad at her, but unfortunately, she was the one who brought the stupid article to my attention so now she was stuck with my ire.

"No one knows. It's Willow Creek's biggest mystery. Between that and the town blog, someone's able to find out all kinds of dirt on folks."

I knew exactly what blog Kati was referring to. I had read it several times over the past few weeks when I was preparing myself to move here. The Town Buzz Blogger had a bee and a feather as their logo. I guess that’s why the “journalist” used the name Ms. B. Feather. But come on, like anyone believed that was the person's real name.

"How did they even find this stuff out?”

Kati shrugged her shoulders where she sat in the chair across from my desk. Easton mentioned she would be stopping in this morning and the thought of spending time with her again madewaiting for her arrival to drag on. Now I was regretting how excited I had been.

"That was a rhetorical question. I don't expect you to know anything. Unless you're the Buzz Blogger?" I raised my one eyebrow suspiciously.

Kati laughed. "Definitely not. One, I don't have the time to figure shit out on people, and two, I hate gossip. When I was dealing with my own problems, Ms. Feather also wrote about it. To say I wasn't happy would be an understatement."

I didn't actually think Kati was behind the article. She wouldn't have brought it to me if that was the case.

"The whole reason I moved here was to get away from my stepbrother. Having his name plastered in the local newspaper doesn't help." I doubted Dennis would ever see the paper but Willow Creek’s newspaper could be found online as well. All it would take was an internet search of his name and I could guarantee it would pop up. Knowing how conceited Dennis was about himself, he probably did those kinds of searches weekly.

"Talk to Owen about it. These guys specialize in security. I'm sure they would help, and aren't you staying with him anyway?"

I chewed on the side of my lip. "For now, but I'm supposed to move soon. The sublet should be available any day now and I can't chance passing it up. There's no guarantee when another place will become available."

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