Page 10 of Canadian Wild: Love

She stirs in the little nest of blankets that I laid out on the floor by the fireplace, letting her catch the heat and warm up, dry out.

She rolls over and her perfect bow lips open on a yawn and sigh. Perfectly pink and open in a silent O that makes my dick hard as a fucking rock. The pup is curled up with her and grunts and growls when she moves.

She jerks and her eyes open, wide and golden in the morning light. She turns towards me and squeaks out a soft, “Hello.”

“Hello, Lizzie Montgomery.”

She winces and groans, covering her eyes almost before I see the quick flash of hurt in her eyes.

“Why don’t you like your name?” I ask her, for some reason needing to know whatever strange thought is going through her head.

“It’s my ex’s name. I should have changed it when our divorce went through but I didn’t want to start over with my work and everyone knows me by that name.”

“What is your work?” Her hazel eyes flash to mine and the pure golden spice in them makes my heart race in my chest. Her lips curl up in a soft smile.

“Travel blogger.”

“Ah.” I nod my head. “You must have travelled to a lot of different places then.”

“No. Actually, I have only been here. This is my very first trip.”

“How can you write a travel blog when you’ve never travelled?”

“A lot of research and videos mainly. But of course that meant that my stories needed more of a personal touch and it’s something that I knew I could do better.”

“What held you back?”

“My ex. He didn’t want to travel. He is a huge homebody and just likes to stay at home.”

I nod my head. “I see. So he wouldn’t even go with you, even when he knew that you were good at it and you liked it.”

“No, he wouldn’t. He just told me to find something else that I could do from home. He didn’t want me to work outside of the house. Or at least he didn’t want me to until he started seeing the secretary at his office.” She hangs her head and my fingers itch to push that soft cascade of gentle red-gold out of the way so I can lose myself in those golden-green eyes, touch the soft curve of her pale cheek, trace the light freckles that dot her nose and the top of her cheeks.

She sighs. “He didn’t even flinch when I walked in the bedroom and found him in our bed with her, his dick in her like it belonged there.”

Sympathy wells up in me. I know that feeling. Know the shame and anger that fills you when the person you trust most in the world does something that breaks that trust more than anything else can.

I grunt and push the long hair off my forehead. “You’re better off without him.”

“I know that,” she chuckles but it’s short-lived and I see the pain in her eyes. “Doesn’t make it any easier.”

I nod my head but don’t tell her that I’m well-aware of that particular fact.

She stretches out and touches my shirt. “Do you need the shirt back? My clothes might be dry.”

I shake my head, angry at the thought that she wants to get out of my clothes as fast as possible. “No. Keep them. I’ve got more.”

“Thank you.” She glances around and then sees the tiny kitchen with a very tiny stove. “Is there food here?”

“Kind of. It’s all just dry stuff that can be cooked quickly. I’ve even got some MRE’s here.”

Her brow lifts. “I know you think I don’t know what that means but my daddy was in the army.”

“Where’s he now?”

Her eyes spark with so much sorrow that I wish I’d kept my damn mouth shut. “You don’t have to tell me,” I say quickly, not wanting to hear what she’s going to tell me.

“It’s okay.” She sighs and sits up, wrapping her pale arms around her knees. “They passed away in a car accident right before I married my ex. I actually wanted to postpone the wedding but he threw a fit about wasted money until I gave in.” She huffs and pushes her hair out of her eyes, tilting them up to me, giving me a heartbreaking smile. “I guess I should have known right then that he didn’t give a damn about anything but himself.”

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