Hot breath wafted across my face and I heard panting.
I opened my eyes.
Lying on the pillow like a human, a German shepherd with morning breath was inches from my nose.
“I was asleep,” I grumbled.
He nudged my hand.
“What?” Damn dog.
He nudged me again.
“Fine.” I scratched his head like I’d seen Dane do. “How did you get in here?”
“He cried at the door last night until I let him in.” Dane’s deep voice carried across the room.
I looked up and my heart jumped at the sight of him standing in the doorway. “He slept with me?”
Dane nodded once. “All night.” His stare intent, he stepped into the bedroom. “How are you feeling?”
I stretched my legs. My pride was worse than my body. “Fine. What time is it?” I couldn’t believe I’d slept through a canine getting into bed with me, let alone the sunlight streaming into the room.
“Just past ten. Breakfast’s ready.”
I didn’t want him seeing me last night, and I certainly didn’t want him rescuing me, because I felt like I deserved everything I got from Viktor. After five years of being reminded you were nothing but a business transaction, you started to feel like one. I fell asleep last night thinking over everything that had happened. I’d thought I was saving my mother. I’d thought I was saving Dane and his friend. But all I was doing was perpetuating the cycle I’d put myself in with Viktor. I wasn’t ever going to save Dane or André. They could save themselves. And my mother was beyond saving. She was never going to change. I hadn’t realized that last night, and I hadn’t wanted Dane to see me how I was, but with each maddening moment he wouldn’t give me space, I wanted him around even more.
Stuck in thoughts, I didn’t notice he’d come over to the bed until he sat down.
I glanced out at the sparkling turquoise ocean. “Nice view.”
“Agree.” His gaze fixed on me, he didn’t even look toward the windows.
I slid out of the other side of the bed and Hunter got up with me. I glanced down at him then at Dane. “What’s wrong with him?”
“He wants to go with you.”
“Why?” I wasn’t even nice to the mutt.
“He’s worried about you.”
What a load of crap. “You can’t tell that.” The dog sat down at my feet.
“Hunter,” Dane called.
The dog looked over his shoulder at his master.
“Are you worried about Irina?” he asked.
Hunter barked once then looked back at me and his tail thumped.
The corner of Dane’s mouth tipped up.
My heart skipped a beat. “That doesn’t prove anything.” Dane was devastating when he smiled.
He leaned back on one elbow and shrugged. “Ask him another question.”
“He doesn’t know what I’m saying.” He was a dog. A dog that Dane had lovingly trained, and that stupidly only made me more attracted to him.
“He understands a lot more than you think.”
I didn’t know what dogs knew, but I was willing to play his game because every interaction with Dane was like discovering another piece of the mystery that was uniquely him. “Hunter, are you hungry?”
He barked once and his tail thumped against the floor twice.
If I liked hairy, shedding animals, I would’ve admitted he was cute. “Hunter, why are you following me?”
He nudged my hand, leaving a cold wet mark on the back of my fingers.
I wiped my hand on my shirt.
Dane laughed.
I scowled. “This isn’t funny.”
A smile on his face, Dane agreed. “No, it isn’t. He’s a damn traitor.”
Hunter made a sound in his throat similar to a person saying aw-aww with an inflection in the middle.
“That’s right,” Dane taunted the dog. “I called you a traitor. What are you going to do about it?”
Hunter barked once and trotted over to Dane. His tail wagging, he got right up in Dane’s face.
“Nope.” Dane shook his head. “You had your chance.”
Hunter nudged Dane’s hand then put a paw on his leg.
Dane didn’t give the beast an inch. “Nice try.”
Hunter jumped up on the bed and put both of his front paws on Dane’s chest.
“You’re going to have to do better than that.” You could clearly see the love he had for the animal.
Hunter cried and tucked his muzzle against Dane’s neck.
Dane didn’t budge. “I paid your vet bill when you ate my damn socks.”
One of Hunter’s paws moved to Dane’s shoulder.
“I also let you chase every rabbit on the property.”
Hunter’s giant tongue came out and licked the side of Dane’s face.
Dane chuckled. “Fine, I forgive you.” He lay back on the bed and the canine stood over him and lick-bathed every inch of his face.
It was the cutest, most disgusting thing I’d ever seen. “You need a shower now more than me.”
Dane sat up and dislodged the hundred-pound beast as if he weighed nothing. “Is that an invitation?” He lifted his T-shirt and wiped his face, exposing a strip of his rock-hard abs.
My heart leapt to my throat and swirls of awareness I never thought I’d feel again fluttered around in my stomach. “No.”
The corner of his mouth curved up again. “You hesitated.”
I channeled all the attitude I could muster. “You wish.” I walked into the bathroom and shut the door.
My heart pounding, I leaned on the counter. Two deep breaths later, I turned on the shower and stripped.
The hot spray hit my body hard, but I didn’t have nearly the amount of soreness I had last night. My thighs looked worse, black and purple and yellowing at the edges, but they didn’t hurt as I soaped myself.
I tentatively washed my breasts even though the pulsing ache in my nipples had disappeared. They were still red, but the hurt was thankfully gone. Washing my hair with Dane’s shampoo, smelling his scent all around me, it made desire pool between my legs.
Inhaling, I dragged a finger through my folds. Wet that had nothing to do with the shower coated my finger, and my core throbbed with need. Despite Viktor’s vibrators, I wasn’t sore. At all. I’d been conditioned. A single touch and I was achy with need.
Ignoring the pulsing between my legs, because I’d also been conditioned to deny myself, I got out of the shower. I towel-dried my hair and didn’t bother combing out the slight waves. I also didn’t bother with makeup. Half of me thought it made me less attractive to Dane not to be made up, but the other half had me hoping it didn’t.
I walked into the bedroom and my heart skipped a beat when I saw my suitcase. Knowing he’d gotten it for me when he’d retrieved Hunter made me feel both grateful for his consideration and sad that I wouldn’t being staying here. I dressed in another one of his T-shirts I found in a drawer, and my own leggings. Sucking in a deep breath, I walked toward the kitchen.
Sitting at the kitchen table in front of two plates of pancakes, Dane immediately looked up. His gaze locked on mine, he tossed his phone on the table and stood.
My heart started to race.
In three strides, he closed the distance between us, and without a word, he pulled me into his arms. The scent that was uniquely him filled my head and sank into my heart.
Encircling me in his strong embrace, he simply held me.
My thoughts in overdrive, my fears and hopes and dreams all mingled into a fast reel of all my moments with him. Seeing him walk into his house for the first time. Hearing his voice as he held me in the dark. His hands as he handled a gun. Stapling his wound. His retreat when I told him to stop. His gentle touch. His mouth on me. His fingers pushing his seed back inside my body. His face when he looked at me shackled. His determination when he’d kneeled in front of me. All of it swirled together and made this moment possible, but none of it felt like this, like rightness and hope.
I wanted the moment to last forever.
“That is a proper good morning, beautiful,” he murmured, kissing the top of my head.
At the sound of his voice rumbling from his chest, tears sprung. It was so quick and unexpected, I didn’t stand a chance of stifling it. A sob broke free and too many emotions mixed with overwhelming gratitude and tears dripped down my cheeks.
Horrified, I tried to pull away.
His arms tightened. “No, sweetheart, not this time. I’m not letting you go. It’s okay. You’re okay. You’re safe.”
My tears stained his shirt as I desperately tried to regain control.
“I’m not going to let anything happen to you ever again.” His hand brushed over my hair. “I’ll never hurt you, sweetheart.”
Everything he did hurt. It hurt because he knew what I needed before I did. It hurt because I wanted him so much. It hurt because a man who loves his dog like he did would love children, and that’s all I kept seeing—him as a father. I didn’t see him as the man who’d killed Viktor with his bare hands, or shot Peter. I saw him as the man who’d saved me from myself, and that made me cry harder.
“It’s okay, love. Let it out.” He stroked my back. “I’m right here.”
Oh God. “I am not crying,” I sobbed.
“I know. And I didn’t freeze like a fucking pussy when you kicked me in the chest.”
I didn’t want to laugh. I didn’t even want to smile, but a hiccupped half cry, half laugh escaped.
He pulled back just enough to look down at me, and his lips turned up. “You think that’s funny?”
His attempt at a joke staunched the worst of the tears, and I sucked in a deep breath. “I didn’t aim for your stitches.”
“Lucky me.” His thumbs brushed at my tears and his expression turned serious. “You okay?”
No. But for the first time in five years, I started to feel like I would be. “Yeah.” The tears, his arms, they were more cathartic than any drug.
Hunter nudged my leg and cried. We both looked down at him.
“Pretty sure he thinks he’s keeping you.” Dane scratched behind his ears.
I swiped at my face and inhaled. “He’s just been deprived of female company for so long, he doesn’t know how to act.”
Rich and intoxicating, Dane laughed. “Probably. Come on, you need to eat.” He led us to the table, but before we could sit, a knock sounded at the front door.