Page 14 of I Hate Myself for Loving You
He pulled her up against him and smiled cockily. “You sure about that?”
“As sure as I am that your motives for being here aren’t what you’d like everyone to believe, and I intend to find out what they are. There was a time when I would have already known all of this because you would have told me, damn it!” she yelled, regret in her voice.
Kissing the top of her head, he let her go by dropping his hands to his sides.
“Knock yourself out then.”
“I don’t need your permission.”
“No, you’re right. You’ll rush headlong into something before thinking it through. Much like that mouth of yours, you’re impulsive. You always were.” His sardonic response was laced with a chuckle.
Yeah, yeah. “Look, meat murderer. This—” she pointed to the space between them, “—isn’t going to happen again. Got that?”
He winked at her, his face splitting into a grin that enhanced his dimples and made her knees weak. “Yeah, I gotcha.”
Placing her hands on her hips, she sneered. “Good. Now go away. Better yet, I’ll go away,” she yelled at him, whirling around to stomp off toward the Adams house.
“Niiight, Avery,” he called from behind her.
Arghhhh! He was so smug, so arrogant.
Crashing her way back to the Adams house, she pushed the door open and tiptoed into her bedroom, resolving to never get close enough to Lassiter again that they’d find themselves wound around each other like a tangled ball of yarn.
Nosexnosexnosexnosex.
Her hormones protested. But why? It was good. It was so good one might call it spectacular. How silly is it to deny yourself the small pleasures in life?
Lassiter was anything but small.
Avery blushed. No more Lassiter and no more sex and no more thinking about his damned enticingly gift-wrapped package.
No matter how lip lickingly hot he was.
And he had howled.
Yes, he had. She wasn’t deaf. She’d heard him howl in pleasure.
Avery intended to find out exactly what that meant and if hiding her true nature, the nature of the Adamses, had all been for naught.
Chapter Six
“Avery! Avery, get up!”
Avery popped an eye open to get a blurry glimpse of Hector standing over her, stroking his favorite bunny, Pinky. “What’s up, Hector?” she mumbled, pulling the covers around her and holding on to the cocoon of warmth she’d created.
“You have to get dressed and come see! I can’t believe you did it, but you did. Thank you, Avery. Pinky thanks you too.” Hector smiled and lifted Pinky’s paw to wave at her.
“How about you gimme a sec and let me brush my teeth and get dressed, and then I’ll come see. How’s that?”
“Okay, but hurry!” Hector scurried out of her room, his broad back a stark contrast to his child-like behavior. Hector was sweet and innocent and nearing thirty years old. Sometimes, even Avery couldn’t believe he was a fully grown man. He was certainly as smart as one, but the maturity level he displayed sometimes was anything but adult-ish.
Nonetheless, Avery had found him irresistible when he’d come to ask for help from her animal rights group. His genuine concern, his knowledge about wildlife, coupled with his simple joy in living had given her all the reason she needed to support his cause.
And now, she needed to find out what had Hector so excited he’d come and woken her up. Dressed and washed up, she headed outside to find him waiting for her with a wide smile on his face.
He tugged her hand, enveloping her smaller one in his very large one. “Come with me. Oh, Avery, you so rock!”
Indeed, she had rocked. Or had rocks, stuck in her spine, that is. Her back was a bit tender from her overt display of uncontrollable lust in the middle of the wilds of Adams land, and as Hector dragged her back to the scene of the crime, she couldn’t help but flush with guilt.
