Page 68 of Trust

“Thank God.”

He dropped her gently to the ground and lifted the pile of their discarded clothes. “But we’re gonna have to do it at your house since mine is full of relatives.”

Olivia took her clothes and stepped into her shorts. “Speaking of that, did you get any intel about exactly what went down last night and why they ditched us?”

“I got grunts when I checked in with them earlier.”

“That won’t do.”

“Men are lousy at sharing the details.” He slid his T-shirt on. “What did the ladies say?”

“Nothing,” she whined. “They are both avoiding my calls.”

“Looks like a wait-and-see situation.”

Olivia snorted. “Zane, we know I’m not a wait-and-see kinda gal.”

Shoving his feet into his shoes, he gave her a grin. “Get to it, then.”

“Believe me; I will be on the case and have a bag full of facts before you know it.”

“You can start right after I deliver a couple of mind-bending orgasms.”

Olivia whistled for Bella and then took a couple of steps back. “Less talking, Zane, more action.”

The dog crashed through the trees heading toward home, and Olivia followed her. Not a man to ignore an order, he jogged in her direction and prayed he could wrangle his demons into submission before too long.

Women like Olivia didn’t come along more than once in a man’s life, and the last thing he wanted to do was screw up his one chance for happiness.

EIGHTEEN

Oliva tossed a dress on her bed and thought about endings, wondering why the universe couldn’t manage clearer signs when a crash and burn was imminent.

She was reasonably sure that the brief acrimonious encounters she’d shared with Zane over the last week were meant to be just that, but she couldn’t be certain.

The weather pattern had been unpredictable, and she didn’t know if he was going to snarl or take her into his arms like it was his last day on earth when he happened to stop by.

Bella barked out a greeting as the screen door slapped shut. “Friend or foe?”

Heavy footsteps clomped against the wooden floors, and she assumed the latest Zane storm was about to land on her shores.

She sighed, lifted a dress off the pile, and prayed it would fit better than the last.

“Hey, Liv, what are you doing?”

“Hello, neighbor.” She dropped the dress on the bed and tried calculating the chances of being blessed with the mother of all it’s not you, it’s me speeches. “How have you been?”

“Not much different than when you saw me a couple of days ago.” He looked down at the dog on his heel. “I can’t seem to shake this little beast.”

Stepping back, she told herself there wasn’t a bite of recrimination in his tone but one of frustration. “I guess he’s enamored and showing you some proper hero worship.”

“Where are you going?” He lifted a discarded dress and frowned. “We don’t have special plans I’ve forgotten about, right?”

She snorted and immediately saw his frown deepen. “We’ve yet to have a date, sir. So the answer is no, we’ve got no plans. Special or otherwise.”

“We’ve been places.”

“We’ve done errands and grabbed a sandwich, so I suppose there is some truth in that. But you’ve never asked me out on a proper date.” His generous mouth flattened into a firm line. Was she not supposed to point that out? “So, what have you and Linc been up to?”

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