“I must,” she assured him.
“It wasn’t meant to be,” Garrett said, making her frown until he added, “She wasn’t in love with me.”
“How do you know?” Kristen asked, shifting to get more comfortable as she found herself wondering about the woman that he fell in love with.
“Because she spelled it out for me,” he said, making her frown as she opened her mouth to ask a follow-up question only to have him cut her off with a question of his own. “Why aren’t you married?”
“I believe we covered that,” she reminded him because they weren’t here to talk about her.
“Coward,” he said only to sigh as he gestured for her to get on with it. “We were discussing your need for establishing dominance.”
“Right,” Kristen said with a firm nod, reminding herself that she was here for a reason and it had nothing to do with wondering why he wasn’t married when she knew just how badly he wanted a family of his own. “I’m going to need veto powers.”
“For…” Garrett said, letting that one word trail off as the dog, who was seriously starting to make her question his loyalty, lay his head on Garrett’s knee and released what could only be described as a dreamy sigh.
“To ensure that we don’t have a repeat of the mall or the hiking incident,” Kristen said, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to get out of their deal, not if she wanted to finish her book, butshe was hoping to at least limit the psychological trauma that this deal was most likely going to leave her with.
“What are you proposing?” Garrett asked as he absently began petting the dog, who she was going to name Spot out of spite at this point.
“That I get a say in how you cash in your hours,” Kristen said, hoping to avoid another trip to the mall, camping, or any of the deeply disturbing ideas that he came up with.
For a moment, he simply watched her, his gaze turning assessing as he absently pat the dog and-
“For every hour that I allow you to use me for my body, you owe me an hour,” Garrett said, leaving her with no choice but to release a heartfelt sigh.
“Your negotiating skills suck for a lawyer,” Kristen said with a pitying look as she held her hand out and made a kissy sound, trying to lure the dog that had yet to be named, only to drop her hand away with a grumble when he shifted closer to Garrett.
“You’re right,” Garrett said, looking thoughtful for a moment before adding, “Two hours for every hour that I allow you to use me for my body.”
“Wait. That’s not how negotiations work,” Kristen pointed out as she sat up and-
“A weekly trip to the mall, a round of mini golf every Saturday, and you watch the game with me every Sunday,” Garrett said, making it difficult to remember how to breathe.
“You sick bastard…” she said hollowly.
“That’s the deal. Take it or leave it,” Garrett said, shrugging it off as she narrowed her eyes on the large bastard.
“I think there’s been a misunderstanding,” Kristen said, licking her suddenly dry lips as she watched him stand up.
“Let me know what you decide,” Garrett drawled as he headed for the door while she struggled not to panic and-
“Blanket, hier,” Garrett said with a soft whistle that had her staring in disbelief as the dog that she’d been trying to come up with a name for happily followed him, leaving her sitting there, trying to figure out how the bastard did it.
CHAPTER 21
So. Fucking. Adorable, Garrett thought as he sat there, watching as the adorable woman who broke into his house an hour ago tried to lure Blanket off the bed with what appeared to be a hot dog.
He watched as Kristen, who’d been forced to regroup in the hallway twenty minutes ago after an attempt to lure Blanket off the bed with a cheese stick failed, was forced to drop to the ground, mutter to herself and-
God, she really couldn’t be any more fucking adorable, Garrett thought as he watched her small hand suddenly appear, holding the hot dog, gave it a wiggle to draw Blanket’s attention only to drop her hand out of sight a moment later. That was followed by grumbling, the sudden reappearance of the cheese stick, and incoherent muttering as he heard the unmistakable sounds of her crawling back towards the hallway.
Curious to see what she was going to do next, Garrett reached over and scratched Blanket behind his ear while he waited. Thankfully, she didn’t keep him waiting long before she came back, presented Blanket with the hot dog and cheese stick, made them do a weird little dance along the edge of his bed, and whenBlanket didn’t take the bait, muttered to herself as her hand dropped out of sight again.
A moment later, her head slowly appeared just enough so that she could level a glare on the golden retriever lightly snoring by his side. He watched as that glare slowly, really fucking slowly, shifted to him. Seconds later, Kristen narrowed her eyes on him before she slowly dropped out of sight again and the muttering began.
Deciding to give her a moment to regroup, Garrett got up and made his way around the bed only to pause long enough so that Kristen could crawl army style towards the hallway, muttering every inch of the way.
It was nice to know that she was still the best part of his day, Garrett thought with a satisfied sigh as he found himself thinking about the adorable woman currently trying to steal her dog back.
