Page 27 of Embracing Easy

“Baby—”

“Don't 'baby' me.” I push away from the counter. “What else did you decide for me this morning?”

He runs a hand through his hair, looking uncomfortable for the first time since this conversation started. Great. This is only going to get worse. “I claimed you. As my old lady.”

He claimed me. The words play on repeat in my head and I can feel the anger inside me boiling to the top. I’m not some piece of property. “You what?” The words come out sharp. “What does that even mean?”

“It means you're mine. You’ll get a Property cut and be protected.” His voice drops lower, that possessive tone I found hot before spilling out of his mouth. “It means no one can touch you.”

“Property,” I repeat the word slowly. “Like some kind of medieval arrangement where you just... stake your claim, huh?”

“It's not like that?—”

“Really? Because it sounds exactly like that.” I grab my plate from the table and dump it in the trash, my appetite gone. “I need to get ready for work.”

“Lex—”

“No.” I hold up a hand. “I have to be at the clinic in an hour, and I can't be late on my first day.”

I head upstairs, my hands shaking as I dig through my suitcase for a pair of scrubs to wear. The black set with the powder blue trim will have to do.

In the bathroom, I splash cold water on my face, trying to calm down. The woman in the mirror is staring back at me with fury in her eyes.

Not for the first time, I wonder how the heck I keep getting myself into these messes. The answer doesn’t come, but I don’t have time to stew on it.

Twenty minutes later, I'm dressed and heading for the door.

“At least let me drive you,” Shawn says, following me.

“I'll take an Uber.”

“Like hell you will.” His voice carries that commanding tone that probably works wonders in his club but just pisses me off more.

“Fine.” I storm outside and yank open the passenger door of his truck. The sooner we get this over with, the better.

The drive to Happy Tails Animal Hospital is tense. Shawn keeps peeking over at me, but I keep my eyes fixed firmly on the passing scenery. I know if I don’t take some time to think, there’s no telling what I might say. I have a temper and I own it.

When we pull up outside the glass-fronted building, he kills the engine. “What time do you get off?”

“Five.” I reach for the door handle, but before I’m able to grab it, his hand shoots out and catches my arm.

Glancing over my shoulder, I narrow my eyes.

“I’ll pick you up,” he says softly.

“Shawn—” I start, ready to tell him this isn’t going to work, but he cuts me off.

“Please.” Something in his voice makes me really look at him. It’s there, in his eyes. I can see that he knows how far over the line he stepped. “Just... let me do this much.”

I nod, not trusting myself to speak, and climb out of the truck.

Inside the clinic, a young man with kind eyes looks up from the reception desk.

“You must be Lexi,” he says with a warm smile. “I'm Ben. Dr. Andrea's waiting for you in her office.”

I follow his directions down the short hallway and find the doctor right where he said she’d be. “Hi,” I say, stepping into her office. “I’m Alexis Vale.”

Dr. Andrea looks up from a stack of papers in front of her and smiles. She’s nothing at all like what I expected. She’s a tall woman in her late forties, if I had to guess, with steel-gray hair and laugh lines around her eyes.

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