“And to think I thought you were a dog hater when I first met you.”
“I told you it was because I care about them that I didn’t want them in the building.” He dipped down and stole a kiss. “You were predisposed not to like me.”
“No, I was predisposed to kiss your face off and then not like you.”
“That was your first thought when you saw me?”
She let her gaze drop down his body, then reached out her hand to flatten her fingers over his T-shirt, pressing hard enough to feel the shape of his shoulder, pec, and then one outstanding ab after another. Down to the button of his jeans. “Maybe not only your face.”
“Yeah.” His voice was thick and gruff, and he covered it with a drink of wine. “Same.”
“First thought?” she asked. “Sex?”
He started to answer, then angled his head. “No. First thought was, ‘Run, Josh Ranier. Run fast and hard and away from this creature.’”
Her jaw dropped. “Really?”
“Really. I knew from the moment I looked into your eyes that I could get lost there. I knew that all my determination not to get involved again would go right out the window. I knew you were every rule I shouldn’t break but wanted to.”
Each sweet compliment fluttered over her skin, as effective as if the words fell from his fingers and found secret places to make her weak with need. She didn’t answer but closed her eyes and leaned back to enjoy each sensation, feeling him take the wine glass out of her hand before she dropped it.
“But I didn’t run,” he whispered.
“Thanks to Stella.”
“I’d have found another reason to be near you,” he said, easing his body onto the chaise next to her. “I’d have made up an excuse to see you. Dreamed up a rationale to touch you.”
He grazed his finger over her arm, featherlight and perfect.
“Like that?” she asked.
“Like this.” He trailed his touch up to her shoulder, sliding under the strap of the dress, then down, over the rise of her chest.
Darcy finally opened her eyes to find him inches away and shivered at the intensity in his expression. “Out here?”
“Right here.” Kissing her again, he reached up to the top of the chaise and freed the latch, lowering them flat. “Right now.” He eased the strap of her dress to the side, sliding it lower to reveal more skin to kiss and touch. “I’m not waiting another minute for you.”
“I’m the one who’s been waiting for you.”
“We both waited, and that’s officially over.”
She breathed in, filling her lungs with the musky scent of him, of the forest, of the clean Carolina air that tickled her skin. She heard him moan, or maybe that was her, their sounds and skin already connected, their bodies moving in a natural, timeless rhythm, their breathing growing heavier each second.
“You’re so beautiful,” he murmured, easing the dress all the way down to press more kisses on her breasts and over her bra.
She answered by tugging on his shirt, wanting him to stay with her, lost clothes for lost clothes. He sat up, grabbed the collar of his T-shirt, and yanked it over his head in one easy move, giving a sly smile that said he knew exactly what mattered to her.
“Oh, Hot Landlord,” she said on a satisfied sigh as she pressed her hands on his chest. “So perfectly named.”
Still kneeling over her, he laughed. “How did this happen?”
“Um, you brought me out here, gave me wine, and started taking my dress off?”
“I mean you. Us. This.” He shook his head and moved his gaze over her nearly naked body. “You.” He barely whispered the last word. “You…” He reached under her, unhooked the bra, and very slowly eased it off, staring at her breasts. “You.”
She had to laugh at the genuine awe and the sheer delight his admiration sent through her. She arched her back in invitation, and he lowered his head to suckle and taste her, the heat of his tongue making her cry out softly, then bite her lip to be quiet.
“No one for miles, sweetheart,” he muttered as he drifted south to kiss her belly. “Make all the noise you want.”
But she couldn’t make any, because every move rendered her speechless. Hot, searing kisses and long, lazy licks and strong, capable hands that easily removed her dress, his jeans, and the rest of what came between them.
When he produced a condom, all she could do was dig her fingers into his hair and bring him in for a grateful kiss. “My rule follower.”
He took that kiss and leaned up, searching her face, his gaze still dizzyingly intense. “I thought it was just Stella, you know?”
She frowned. “Stella…nope.” She stroked his face. “Sorry, not following.”
“Who makes me break rules.”
“All for a good cause,” she assured him. “You’re not thinking about that document or convincing Terry to let us into an apartment? Not now?”
“No, now I’m thinking about you.” He positioned himself over her, the weight and size and power of him enough to make her lose it.
“As you should.” She rocked into him, wrapping her legs around his hips, ready and weak for more of him.
He hesitated just a second. “I don’t want to regret this.”
She opened her mouth to tell him her low regard for regrets and maybe to beg a little bit. But all she could tell him was the truth. “You won’t regret this, Josh Ranier. You won’t regret me. I promise.”
He closed his eyes and rocked into her, filling her, holding her, transporting her to a place where there was nothing but the sensation of sweet, strong, sexy Josh. Every time he said her name or kissed her mouth or groaned in complete pleasure, she felt closer to him.
So close they became one. So close all the lines were blurred. So close she didn’t care about her stupid independence. She wanted only him, like this, all the time. All the time. All the time. It was the polar opposite of independence. It was…completion.
When her mind finally surrendered to that, so did her body. And as she lost the last shred of control to total satisfaction, all she could do was kiss his mouth. Kiss his cheeks. And kiss her independence goodbye.
* * *
“How does he know?”
In his arms, Darcy groaned away some sleep, her body limp with contentment and draped over Josh. It was well past midnight with the moon high outside his bedroom window, and they were both spent from that bottle of wine, a pizza they’d shared, and another long, sweaty, ridiculously amazing hour of making love. Only this time, they’d started in the shower and finished in his bed.
“How does who know?” she muttered.
“Your dad.”
She popped up, suddenly alert. “He knows? What? What does he know?”
He laughed, curling his fingers into her hair and easing her head back down to his shoulder. “I meant how does he know who to match his kids with? What’s the secret to his success? Has he ever failed?”
“No, but there’s always a first time.”
Not this time. But Josh kept that thought to himself, not wanting to get too deep into an intimate conversation when they were both on the verge of sleep. But the fact remained that, barring something Josh couldn’t even imagine, the Dogfather had another W on his scoreboard.
At least it felt that way right now.
“Seriously, he’s never done a setup in which the two people didn’t click?” he asked.
On a long sigh, she turned, rustling the sheets with her bare skin. She settled on her back, right next to him. “You know, what my dad does is not really a ‘setup’ in the classic sense. Not a blind date, per se. It’s not like the empty seat next to the single person sitting at the table suddenly gets filled. He’s more subtle than that. He puts his victims into the same situation and sees if anyone comes out alive.”
He snorted. “Victims?”
Laughing softly, she turned. “Well, they don’t know what’s about to hit them.”
Yeah, he got that. Eyeing her, he asked, “Yo
u’re not wallowing in second thoughts over there, are you?”
“Me? You were the one talking about regrets at the most inopportune moment.”
“I don’t have any. Do you?”
“Not a single one,” she promised, tiptoeing her fingers over his bare hip to splay them on his stomach. “Didn’t you feel me brand you with a nice, bright pink DK?”
“Mmm.” He covered her fingers with his hand. “Marked by my woman. I like that.”
“Your woman,” she whispered.
“Was that your pulse I felt jump fifteen beats a second?”
She laughed. “Only five. I’m okay.”
“Are you?” He turned on his side, wrapping his arm around her waist to pull her into him. “Because I want you to be okay with this. With us.”
She nuzzled his neck, kissing his skin. “We sailed past okay outside on the deck.”
“And where did we end up?”
Inching back, she looked up at him, her eyes glinting in a stream of moonlight. “I don’t know, HL. But I’m hanging on for a long ride.”
He let the promise hit his heart, waiting for the doubt and fear and urge to run. None came.
Stroking her cheek, he brushed back a strand of hair, studying the angles of her cheekbones and her creamy, flawless complexion. “So, he did it again. Back to my original question: How does he know?”
She considered that for a long time, never looking away. “I guess he knows our hearts,” she finally said. “He knows where the holes are, and then he meets someone who seems like they could fill them.”
“Where are the holes in your heart, Darcy?” He wanted to know. He wanted to fill anything and everything of hers.
“I don’t want to be coddled, like the baby of the family. I don’t want to be taken care of or for people to have lower expectations of me because I’m the youngest. I don’t want to need anyone. But that can be a lonely existence.” She ran her finger over his lower lip, thinking. “When my dad was slyly suggesting I live in your building, he said something very telling. He said, ‘There’s a big difference between independence and loneliness.’ See? He knew the hole in my heart.”
“You’re lonely.”
She exhaled softly. “I guess I was. I didn’t know it, really, until…” Her eyes filled a little, and she blinked as if the moisture surprised her. “Until now.”
Something inside his chest shifted, like his heart lifted, repositioned itself, and found a new place to pump. “I feel exactly the same way.”
She smiled and leaned in to kiss him, but he inched back to make a very important point.
“I have a different theory about your dad,” he said.
She choked a soft laugh at being denied the kiss. “Okay, what is it?”
“It’s luck. Timing. And maybe he didn’t do anything at all, but is enjoying taking the credit for it.”
“No, he’s got the magic touch. And I say…” She leaned in for that kiss she was determined to get. When they parted, she smiled. “More power to the old guy. And he will get his comeuppance in the form of some very lively dates we are all lining up for him.”
He shook his head. “You might regret that.”
“Or we might dance at his…” She closed her eyes. “Yeah, maybe we’re not ready for that.”
He laughed softly. “However, your family can probably handle anything. There’s never been one quite like them.”
“You know.” She poked his chest playfully. “I think you like them more than you like me.”
“I like them a lot,” he agreed. “But…”
“But what?” she asked after his hesitation lasted a few seconds.
“You know how you ‘sailed past okay’ out on the deck?” He stroked her shoulder and ran his hand down her side, lingering at the dip of her waist and resting on her hip.
“Yeah?”
“I did, too. But not then, before that. I don’t know when. I haven’t known you very long, Darcy, but I’m falling hard. Fast. For real.” He felt his throat tighten at the admission, and from the look on her face, he knew she heard the fear and longing and honesty that gripped him. And happiness.
She closed her eyes and pressed against him, holding him in the dark, silent and still for a long time. So long that he thought she might have fallen asleep, until she sighed and whispered, “Does that scare you?”
“To death,” he admitted.
She answered with a slow, wet, dreamlike kiss and a whisper in his ear. “Same.”
Chapter Twenty-two
Josh and Darcy went straight to Waterford Farm the next day, anxious to see Stella. She hadn’t reacted to light again, despite many tests, but she was happy to hear their familiar voices.
“Come on, Stella baby,” Darcy cooed, holding her little face toward the sun that streamed into Josh’s truck as they drove to Ambrose Acres. “Don’t you see that brightness, sweet girl?”
But Stella didn’t blink the way any seeing creature would at the bright summer skies over Bitter Bark. She stared the same way she did in a dark room or if the light of a flashlight passed over her eyes.
Darcy huffed out a breath and hugged her closer, turning to check on Kookie, who lay on the backseat, staring at both of them.
“You’re a good girl, too, Kooks. You take such good care of Stella.”
Her tail swished a tick-tock, acknowledging the compliment.
“Are you sure you can keep her all day?” Josh asked as he pulled into his parking spot behind the apartment building. “Because I can check on both of them during the day. I’ll be up in Unit 3 working on the kitchen all day. All the cabinets are coming out and floors are being ripped out.”
“No, too much noise for Stella,” she said. “That’s no place for dogs.” She added a saucy grin. “What kind of landlord would let dogs in that building, anyway?”
He tapped her on the chin. “One with a weakness for a certain tenant and…” He ruffled Stella’s fur. “A certain dog.” Then he turned to Kookie. “And you, kid number two.”
She lifted her head, and responded with one bark.
“Uh, number one,” he corrected. Turning back to Darcy, he gave her that same smile he’d been wearing since they woke up this morning. A little goofy, a little lost, a little perfect. “I wish we could have stayed there.”
“We can go back,” she said. “It’s an amazing place for a weekend escape.” She lifted Stella a little. “And we can bring our friends.”
He studied the dog’s face closely, inching back and forth from eye to eye. “Come on, kid. You can do this. This is your week. You’re going to see something soon.”
Darcy moved Stella to the side to kiss him lightly. “Give her a little time. She’s got this.”
After a few more minutes of lingering with the dogs and each other, they gathered up their things and leashed the dogs to head in, able to hear the construction noise the minute they got inside the building. Stella, most sensitive to loud noises, barked and backed up, pulling at her leash.
“Let’s keep her down here in your place while I run upstairs and change for work,” Darcy suggested.
“Good call.” He pulled out his keys and unlocked the door marked with a gold 2, frowning as he did. “What the hell?”
“What’s wrong?”
“The door wasn’t locked. I would never leave the door unlocked.”
He opened it slowly, and Darcy noted that he blocked her body and view as he did. But she heard him mutter a dark curse and instantly got up on her tiptoes to see over his shoulder. At first, it looked normal, but when he stepped inside and she could see more, there was nothing normal about it.
“Stay back there,” he whispered, holding up one hand to underscore the order. Darcy didn’t walk any closer, but leaned in as far as she could, sucking in a soft breath at the sight.
Ransacked. It was the only word possible for this mess. Sofas opened, drawers gaping, things pulled out of the entryway closet and strewn all over the floor.
Josh di
sappeared out of sight for a moment, probably looking in the bedrooms and kitchen, but Darcy could see enough in the living room to know there was only one thing to do: call the police.
“Okay,” she heard Josh call. “You can come in. There’s no one here.”
Swallowing hard, she took tentative steps in, being careful not to touch anything. But instantly, Stella and Kookie pranced right over a jacket lying, inside out, on the floor.
“No, no,” Darcy said, scooping up Kookie with one hand and Stella with the other as he walked back in. “What did they take?”
“Nothing.” He stepped over some boots that must have been in the front closet, taking Kookie from Darcy’s loose grip. “That’s what’s so weird. My laptop, tablet, some valuables on my desk, all right out in plain sight. I wasn’t robbed. I was…”
“Searched?”
“I don’t know.” He looked around again. “Whoever did this was desperate and in a hurry.”
“And able to get in without picking the lock,” Darcy noted, glancing at the doorknob that looked untouched by any kind of tool. “You didn’t, um, happen to give Savannah a key?”
“No, of course not.” He frowned and looked around. “Savannah? This doesn’t look like anything she’d do. She’s actually too methodical to leave a mess like this.”
“But someone must be looking for something. What would you have that Savannah would want?”
“I have no idea.” He shook his head, as perplexed as she. “The only thing I have of hers is…Stella.”
They both looked down at the dog in Darcy’s arms, quivering at the noise from upstairs, and probably the tone of their voices. Still, she stared straight ahead in her own little cone of darkness.
“Oh, Stell.” Darcy dropped her head and kissed the dog. “This is hard on you, baby.”
In Josh’s arms, Kookie looked up and licked his chin, which would have been cute and adorable, except they were standing in chaos, with trouble all around.
“Think, Josh. What could Savannah want that you have? Something she left with you when you were dating?”
He gave a blank look and shook his head again. “Nothing.”
“Did she give you anything when she gave you Stella?” Darcy persisted, certain they were closer to another puzzle piece, but no matter how she turned it, nothing fit.