Pinching the bridge of my nose between my thumbs, I sighed. "Why does Smaug have a vet?"
"Um he's alive? All animals need veterinary care, Lorenzo," she said teasingly but then flinched. Her tawny cheeks tinted with the blush of a rose, and she turned away to hide it. Seeing her come so undone, be so affected by me, I wanted to spend the rest of my life knowing I was the only man who got those genuine reactions from her. Before I'd made her say my name during sex, she'd thought nothing of trying to use my name as a weapon. Of taking the name no one else was allowed to say and tormenting me with it. Now she'd automatically remember how it felt to have me moving inside her. She'd associate my name with the feel of my cock striking against the deepest part of her and my skin smothering hers.
She'd remember her Lorenzo taking everything she had to give and making it his.
Sadie dropped to the floor next to the dog, as the dog finished eating. Shifting to rest her head on Sadie’s thigh, the dog—Rebel—stared up at her like she hung the moon in the starry night sky and led her home.
Sadie's fingers scratched behind Rebel's ears, studying the motion with a soft, unusually vulnerable smile on her face. "I always wanted a dog," she admitted quietly. My heart clenched watching the two of them together, of the instantaneous love and bond that formed between them.
I couldn't take that dog away from her, even if I was jealous of all the attention she gave it. Not with the way Sadie looked at her.
"So why didn't you get one?" I asked, sliding down the wall to sit opposite them and study Sadie's face. My boots brushed against hers, and, in a surprising turn, Sadie shifted to the side so she could rest her ankles on my shins. She didn't look at me as she did it, too absorbed in looking at the dog's admittedly sweet face.
"The apartment is too small. I'm never home enough. Among other things. I wasn't sure I'd be the right person for a dog, and I'd never be able to give one up once I took her home," she whispered. I didn't know much about Sadie's habits, aside from figuring out she counted to five with everything she did and that she liked ninety-degree angles.
But I suspected the cause went deeper than that, and wondered if the mess a dog tended to make would be problematic for her. "But now you have one."
Sadie turned a bright smile to me, her eyes bright even though moisture gathered in the bottom corners of them. "Yeah. Now I have Rebel," she said, massaging the dog's belly when she rolled to her back.
Rebel.
As if Sadie could name the dog anything else.
Time passed through the day, with Sadie's anxiety growing with every hour that went by without word from Ivory. Rebel slept the day away behind the desk, content in her makeshift bed and with the warmth that was probably so unfamiliar to her in the harsh February in Chicago. How she'd survived in the cold with her fur being as short as it was, I didn't know.
Even with Sadie busy with clients and paperwork and tours for new members, she was still preoccupied. She glanced at Rebel nervously any time she could, and I felt so bad for her being so seemingly conflicted that I took it upon myself to spend a few minutes at a time with the dog throughout the day. I grew on her, the growling never happening again, and eventually the little shit wormed her way under my skin, too.
I liked dogs.
I especially liked dogs when they weren't mine.
But this dog somehow felt like mine within a few hours. The bond might not have been as instant as it had been for Sadie, but she was mine. My woman. My dog. My girls.
What the fuck had happened to my life?
When Rebel finally fell back asleep, I stood and made my way back to Sadie. I ignored her guarded eyes on me while she watched one of her female clients strike a bag, observing the motion and the strength so she could offer notes for improvement. It had been too long since I’d had my hands on her, too long since I felt her heat against me. I wrapped my arms around her from behind, breathing in the scent of her hair. Like orange blossoms and vanilla, it flooded my nose and instantly put me at ease. Sadie shrugged out of my grip after leaning into me briefly, turning a glare my way.
"I'll be back in a second," she said to her client, taking my hand and storming over to the corner. Her body stiffened with fury, her rage palpable, but I couldn't be bothered to care. She'd have to get used to me touching her in public, because there was nowhere she could go that I wouldn't touch what was mine. "I'm working."
"You were working last night too," I reminded her with a chuckle. "It didn't stop you from staining the mat with cum."
"Gross," she hissed like she didn't do exactly that and enjoy every moment of it. Her fight was admirable. Her resistance of the inevitable was pointless. "Stop touching me when there are people around. I will not have my customers thinking that I'm just a piece of ass. I worked my tits off to be respected here, and I won't have you turning that on its head just because you got lucky. Sex does not make me yours. It doesn't give you a claim over me," she growled, crossing her arms over her chest and daring me to contradict her.
If she thought
