Page 2 of Anything for You
My screams cut off right in time for me to hear his words and register he wasn’t restraining the dog… he was clinging to it!
“Who are you? What are you doing here?” I demanded, my pulse thready and my breaths uneven.
He released the dog, who stepped forward but sat, blueeyes pinning me and sending a shudder of recognition through me.
Oh.
It hit right as he said it.
“I’m Dorian Forrester. I own this house. And I believe I’m your new landlord.”
My mouth dropped open becausehowhad I not realizedhe’dbe my landlord? I mean, I knew, but I’d been led to believe I’d never see the man. I hadn’t at any point in the rental process—we’d done everything over email via a rental agency and I’d picked up the keys at the Saint Security front desk. In my brain-melt of exhaustion and stress, I’d completely neglected to think about him being in my space because why would he be?
But also… how did I not recognize him? To be fair, it’d been a few months since I’d last seen him.
Still… now that he’d stepped into the light spilling in from the hallway and my contacts weren’t glued to my corneas, it was clearly him.
He was tall—like, he probably had a foot on me, not that I was towering at five foot four, but he was a massive person. Probably clocked in just shy of Jude Rawlins’s size. Broad shoulders and a dark beard bushy around his face and neck with longish hair under a hat on top. He wore a plaid shirt and dark utility pants like so many of the Saint Security guys… Honestly, even in the dimly lit room, I should’ve recognized him sooner.
But wait, that still didn’t explain this. “Why are you in my bedroom?”
He exhaled, dropping his head and then finally meeting my eyes for the first time.
“Well, Ms. Jensen, this ismybedroom.”
CHAPTER TWO
Dove
No.No no no no no.
This couldn’t be happening.
“Your bedroom? Like, um, like the one I’m renting from you and therefore itisyours but it has very recently, upon the signing of the lease I emailed you yesterday, become mine, you mean?”
He grimaced, and my eyes snagged on a chest of drawers in the corner with a photo on top, one drawer slightly ajar with what looked like a single sock peeking out.
So. Yeah. Not the appearance of a furnished rental so much as a person’s actual home I’d apparently invaded. Which was totally fine and not horrifying to recognize at all.
He stepped forward, over Bear’s dog bed which I clearly hadn’t noticed earlier either, and held out a hand to me.
And yes. I knew his dog’s name. I was mildly obsessedwith his dog now that I could see him in the light and recognized his Alaskan Malamute beauty and that he was not, in fact, a vicious killer beast.
My new landlord’s earnest gaze peeked out from under the brim of a well-worn hat fraying at the front edge. I’d never seen him up close enough to know what color eyes he had, but this was Dorian, or Stone, as the Saint Security team called him.
One of funny, adorable Kenny Carmichael’s best friends. One of charming, gorgeous, gentle Luc’s best friends. One of steady, medically brilliant Adam’s best friends. I could keep going…
His beard was long and scraggly with what I’d guess was a mix of colors, looking incredibly unkempt and every bit the wild man I’d imagined him to be the few times I’d gotten a glimpse. His expression was serious, though he could’ve been beaming under all that facial hair for all I knew.
“I’m sorry for frightening you,” he said, his voice low, even, and calm, and his hand still outstretched.
Just as I reached toward him, I saw a brief tremor before he clasped my hand in his.
“No,I’msorry. I—” Horror dawned fully when I remembered the lock. “I may have broken in here.”
His brows raised, though he didn’t appear to be all that surprised. Clearly, he’d noticed his door was unlocked because no doubt I’d forgotten to lock it behind me.
Dangerousandrude. What a fun combo, Dove!
