Page 1 of Pretty Puppy

Chapter One

“Um…Brooke? Have you seen my wallet?”

Panic clawed its way up Ash’s throat as he regarded his sister. She was sprawled on the sofa of their one-bedroom apartment in El Cajon, just northeast of San Diego, staring at him with an expression of boredom. Ash noted that she tended to look at him that way quite a bit.

“Why would I have seen your wallet?” She pointed the TV remote back at the screen of the enormous flat screen that didn’t quite fit the small stand, and returned to skipping through the menu. With her gaze still pinned on the movie choices, she continued, “You should probably keep better track of it. Just sayin’.”

Ash’s stomach plummeted. She’d promised. The one time he’d caught her fishing a hundred-dollar bill out of his wallet, she’d promised it would never happen again.

“Brooke, tell me the truth. For real. I won’t be mad.”

I’ll be infuriated.

His plea received zero reaction. Instead, she took a hit off her ever-present bong before continuing to channel-surf. Ash wrung his wrist, desperate to come up with something,anything, that might get through to her.

“Uh, so you should probably know. The six hundred bucks that was in there? That was my part of the rent.”

She graciously paid a couple hundred dollars more, since she had the one bedroom, and he got the couch. At least when she wasn’t passed out drunk and high on it. Otherwise, the floor worked too.

He gave a quick nod of his chin and crossed his arms. That should do it. If she knew that’s what the money was meant for, then she could always cover her tracks by saying not to worry about the rent for that month, that she’d cover it for him or something. Sure, she’d never covered him for anything monetary in the past, but this was therent. She’d be just as screwed as him if it wasn’t paid.

Brooke took another long drag off her bong. After a short bout of baritone coughing, she dragged her gaze up to him. “You should probably know that we’ve been evicted. I wouldn’t worry about paying your share.” She snorted a choking laugh before flicking her lighter on again. “See? Problem solved.”

Ash gasped. In one move, Ash swooped down on her, wrestling the bong from her iron grip before hurling it across the small living room. It sailed over the counter separating the kitchen from the rest of the apartment then exploded into the metal sink.

She kneed him in the groin and Ash fell to the ground, clutching his nuts as he writhed on the floor in agony.

“You’re paying for that asshole! I spent a hundred buck on that bong!”

“Bullshit,” Ash gritted through his teeth, tears leaking from his eyes. “I could get a nicer one at the smoke shop on the corner for twenty bucks.”

Brooke smirked. “Yeah? Not that one. I only buy the best.”

Ash gingerly pushed himself up from the floor and rose to his feet. “Perhaps paying the rent would’ve been a more prudent use of funds?”

She jerked her head around, returning her attention to the TV. She grabbed the remote and resumed channel-surfing. “Fuck off.”

Ash regarded her and shook his head, disgusted at how the last remaining member of his family that he had any type of relationship with was now treating him as badly as all the others.

“Actually, that’s probably a good idea. Have a nice life.”

Ash winced as he made his way to the bathroom to get away from his vicious sister, new tears threatening that weren’t caused by the nut-crusher Brooke had just given him.

“If there’s anything you give a shit about, you might want to take it with you if you go out,” she called after him. “Not sure when they’re changing the locks.”

Oh God. Now what? His job as a stockroom grunt at the big-box pet store wasn’t going to afford him a new place—especially now that Brooke had stolen his rent money. And he’d already borrowed too much money from his friends. He chewed on his bottom lip. There was that overtime on his latest check. Sure, he’d spent a little of it, but he didn’t think it was all that bad. So, that left him with…

Ash whipped out his phone from his pants pocket as he dropped onto the closed toilet seat. He didn’t have furniture to worry about moving, so that was a plus. The last Dom he’d been crashing with had kicked him outand all the stuff had belonged to him.

He hadn’t been in love—or even very much in like—with the guy. But he’d been desperate, and he knew the Dom had been crushing on him for a while. He hadn’t meant to hurt him. Ash genuinely believed it was time for him to settle down and thought that maybe, justmaybe, he’d grow to love the dude.

Ash let out a long sigh. Not comparing every single fucking Dom he’d ever met to Daddy Lee was next to impossible. He rubbed his eyes with thumb and forefinger. Why hadn’t he accepted his bestie’s offer of a place to stay until he got on his feet? After they met at the annual pet play event in Tahoe, they’d been joyful partners in puppy crimes. And when Ash left Tahoe for good to return to San Diego, they’d become roommates.

Swallowing past a lump in his throat, Ash signed into his bank account. But Owen had fallen in love, moving in with his own Daddy Dom to live happily ever after. Neither of them wanted to leave Ash out in the cold, insisting that he come take the spare room. But experiencing the joys of everlasting love right under his nose day in and day out was more than he thought he could handle. It didn’t work out with Greg, didn’t work out with Lee, and didn’t work out with all the other guys in between.

He sniffed. Lee was his fault.Allhis fault. He’d had a good—nogreat—thing and he’d fucked it up. Sure, he was only nineteen and Lee thirty-three at the time, but that was no big. Older guys were hot. No, being full of himself and thinking he needed to play the field for a while is what had done them in.

The balance of his checking account stared him in the face, making his stomach drop even more than it had when his dear sister shared their imminent eviction with him.Sixty-six dollars and twenty-seven cents.That can’t be right. He scrolled through his transactions, his panic gaining in strength as the frivolous charges he’d made in the past twenty-four hours revealed the truth of how careless he was.

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