Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 55491 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 277(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55491 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 277(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
Sweet and warm, like fresh-baked donuts. Like honey vanilla caramels, too gooey to eat.
But now that I recalled it, her scent had only further agitated me. Like, it irritated me that my wolf had found her scent pleasing. It made me cranky. Or crankier.
I remembered the way her gaze had gone to my dick when I squatted down. That had been a dumb move, but I wasn’t modest. Not that I’d planned to flash my neighbor wearing only my four-year-old’s tiny fucking towel.
A flush had spread across her chest, but she hadn’t looked embarrassed.
No, there had been a boldness in the way she looked at me. Like she’d been drinking me in.
Like she was interested. Like she wanted me.
I scrubbed a hand over the back of my neck, which seemed to heat with the thought. Because for some reason, I was glad she’d been interested. That she found my body appealing.
Joy. The neighbor. Pretty blonde hair all messy on top of her head. Blue eyes, full lips that seemed to be in a perpetual smile.
I wasn’t interested, but I should have shaken her hand instead of showing her my dick. Then I’d have her scent on my palm to review now. I could have introduced myself.
I’d just bought the house next to her and had a preschooler who I apparently couldn’t trust to stay in the house when I told her to.
She might be someone I could ask to babysit now and again. Like, if I had to run to the grocery store after bedtime. Hell, I’d been worried about what I was going to do with Remy after her morning preschool during the summer calving season, which would be starting up any day now.
This was my first season as foreman. I’d missed the spring calving. So while I was in charge, I was winging it a bit based on what this ranch did with their cattle. I figured if I had to go to the ranch at night, I’d pull her out of bed and make a little nest of blankets for her to sleep in my pickup while I worked.
Once she was asleep, she didn’t wake up for anything.
But if I had a neighbor who didn’t mind coming over…
My thoughts had nothing to do with the fact that Joy was young and pretty. She wasn’t my type. The last thing I needed was a sweet, dimpled, blue-eyed human in my life, except as a babysitter.
Nope.
My heart was closed to females–she-wolves and humans alike. It couldn’t contain the pressure of loving a four-year-old pup. Plus, I didn’t have enough time to manage one tiny female and myself. There was no way I was going to complicate things by getting involved with a woman. Especially a human.
Not even one that smelled like pralines and sunshine.
“Is that Joy?” I tapped the paper Remy was drawing on.
She nodded her head, her red curls bobbing. “Uh huh. You can tell by the bun on top.” She pointed to the yellow ball above the stick figure’s head. “How do you write her name?”
“Let’s sound it out,” I said, taking a cue from Remy’s preschool teacher, Riley. “J-J-J.”
She stuck her tongue into the corner of her mouth, just like she always did when concentrating. “G?”
“J. But you’re right, G makes that sound, too.”
Remy’s face scrunched up as she drew a giant letter J at the top of the paper in yellow. She traded out the yellow crayon for a blue one. “And then what?”
“Oh-oh-oh.” I made the sound with my mouth.
She glanced at me for confirmation as she drew an O beside the J.
I nodded.
“Is that all?”
“Y. Like in Remy.” I hoped she wouldn’t ask why it wasn’t pronounced Joey, then, because I sure as hell didn’t know. I didn’t think they taught exceptions to sounding things out quite yet.
When she’d added her crooked Y, she held it up. “Can I bring it to her?”
My dick twitched under the towel at the thought of returning next door. Which was exactly why I had to say no.
“Not now.” I stood and ruffled Remy’s hair. “Daddy has to get dressed and figure out something for you to eat for dinner.”
“Can we buy popsicles?” Remy asked.
An image of Joy licking her raspberry popsicle flashed through my mind. That tongue dragging up the side as she perused my body with her leisurely gaze.
Suddenly, my mouth watered, and it wasn’t for popsicles.
Maybe I should be neighborly. I could bring Remy over to deliver the drawing. I could introduce myself properly and get off on a better foot with my new neighbor. After I got dressed.
More importantly, I could get another good whiff of her scent.
That would be the only reason for going over there. Not because I was interested.
I definitely didn’t want Joy to lick my popsicle. Or to open those thighs for me to get my face between them.