His nostrils flared, no doubt in response to the confirmation that I was sticking around for the foreseeable future. Then he braced his hands on the bar top, the move making his muscles bunch and coil and reminding me what a pretty package this jackass was wrapped up in. “Are you going to order a drink or just waste more of my time?”
Unbelievable.
This motherfucker had some nerve. I didn’t understand how my initial assumption of him at the hotel could have been so utterly wrong.
“Your brother’s a nice guy.” I grabbed my purse and shopping bag before sliding off my barstool. I didn’t make it a habit to stay somewhere I wasn’t wanted. “Too bad it doesn’t run in the family.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
SUTTON
There wassomething so refreshing about coming home after work and not being exhausted down to my very bones. While my days at the clinic were busy, it was nothing like the filled-to-bursting schedule I’d come to expect in a day. On top of that, I felt a connection to my patients that I hadn’t in…well, ever.
I wasn’t used to being able to spend twenty minutes with a new mom, listening to her fears while encouraging her she was doing great. What I had been used to was the inordinately high number of people who came into the ER with a random object stuck in their butt, claiming they had no idea how it had gotten there.
That, I definitely didn’t miss.
It had been a couple weeks since Laurel and I had moved to Starlight Cove, and while I actually sort of liked this too-cute-to-be-real town and the people within it, my daughter still wasn’t completely sold.
She was making more friends, though, and spending time with them outside of school. She and Cami were hanging out tonight, which meant I had the cottage to myself for a bit.
After changing out of my scrubs into leggings and a T-shirt, I grabbed my current book and settled on the couch, ready forthese characters to stop dancing around one another and bang already.
I shot off a quick text to Laurel, reminding her to let me know when she was ready to come home. Then I tossed my phone onto the couch next to me and cracked open my book just as a notification sounded.
Expecting it to be my daughter’s reply, it took me half a second to register who this message was actually from. But as soon as I did, my spine went rigid, my hackles rising.
“Motherfucker,” I muttered under my breath.
It wasn’t the first—or even the fifteenth—time my ex had texted me since I’d broken things off. And the messages had only gotten more insistent since Laurel and I had moved—something I’d mentioned in my singular response to him, hoping it would be the final nail in the coffin.
Unfortunately, that hadn’t deterred Doug.
Doug:
Don’t forget you left your favorite pillow at my house. Let’s plan a weekend so I can get it back to you.
He followed it up with a picture of said pillow, just to prove his point. And yeah, that was definitely my favorite pillow. But it could have cost me ten grand, and it wouldn’t have been worth it to set up a meeting with this guy.
As if he hadn’t been giving off enough red flags before—hello? Stalking my daughter’s and my locations without my permission? Talk about over-stepping. But his continued contact even after I’d shut him down shoved those flags straight into blood-red territory.
Of course, the nice, unassuming guy I’d met at a coffee shop would turn out to be the biggest creep I’d dated in five years. Andthat was saying something. Laurel’s assessment of my dating history wasn’t wrong. My normally sharp instincts seemed to abandon me when it came to men.
Rather than tell Doug exactly where he could shove my pillow, I ignored the text and blocked the number. Why I hadn’t done that sooner would forever remain a mystery. Usually, I liked to see my enemies coming. But what could this guy do now that Laurel and I were nearly a dozen states away?
Needing a change of scenery, I tugged on a hoodie and grabbed my book before slipping out the front door. The yard shared between our cottage and Atlas’s oversized—yet incredibly tasteful and warm, dammit—mansion was straight out of a home design and landscape magazine.
Large pots filled with greenery lined a concrete patio, a circle of chairs surrounded a fire pit, and an outdoor kitchen anchored the space. String lights hung from trees, crisscrossing the area above and illuminating the yard. And then there was the freakin’ pool. The shape was organic, as if it had always been there, with edges that blended into the surroundings, a cascading stone waterfall, and…an Atlas?
Fuck.
He swam laps, his huge body gliding effortlessly through the water. The glow of the string lights bounced off his toned shoulders, back, and arms, highlighting every bunch and coil of his muscles as he moved.
I bit back a groan as I pressed my lips together, not wanting to let him know how much his presence affected me. That would give him way too much power over me. And who the hell knew what a guy like that would do with a power trip?
I didn’t know anything about him, other than the fact that he could make me come as easily as snapping his fingers and what I’d gathered around town. The consensus was, he reallywasanasshole to everyone, grumpy and aloof. People called him the big, mean one, and I wasn’t inclined to disagree.
Add to that the fact that he was the son of a former rock starandhe’d been a professional athlete—a group who, in my opinion, tended to think they could get away with anything—and it was a recipe for disaster.
