“You know damn well-” Trevor bit out tightly before she had the nerve to interrupt him with a teasing smile.
“They really are the cutest couple I’ve ever seen,” she said dreamily, leaving him on the verge of committing murder.
“Y-Your brother?” the woman next to him choked out, clearly not believing that he could be gay. At least one person realized how foolish Zoe’s claims were and-
“I should have known,” the woman said, sighing as she gestured to the end of the aisle. “There’s a larger bag on the top shelf,” she mumbled before walking away, clearly not willing to waste another minute of her time on him.
“Thank you,” Zoe said brightly, clearly fighting back a laugh as she threw him a wink and headed off, leaving him confused, pissed, stunned and admittedly impressed. Any other woman would have either freaked out over the insult or started crying, but Zoe not only ignored the woman’s intended insult but had come out on top, laughing and knocking him on his ass for shits and giggles.
Self-confidence like that was fucking hot.
It was too bad she wasn’t his type, Trevor thought as he walked past her, only pausing long enough to grab the bag out of her hand and give her luscious little ass a swat for good measure, grinning when he heard that little growl of hers that he liked so damn much.
It really was too bad that she wasn’t his type.
Chapter 12
“I just took you out twenty minutes ago,” Zoe complained as she reached for the new black leash with the small baby blue teddy bear pattern that she’d bought during her second trip to the pet store and headed for the front door.
Sure, she could have used the black leather leash that Trevor bought, but she liked this one. It was manly no matter what he said. The teddy bears were blue, not pink, she’d pointed out when he’d spotted it during their last walk. That was immediately followed by a one-minute glare that she found adorable.
She wasn’t sure if he’d been pissed about the so-called “girly leash” or the fun she’d had at his expense at the pet store, but it hadn’t mattered because both had put a smile on her face. Several times today, she found herself laughing at the memory of the scene from the pet store. She really wasn’t sure what she found more entertaining, the disappointed expression on the woman’s face who thought just because Zoe looked a certain way that she was a pushover or the horrified, almost comical expression on Trevor’s face when her words hit home.
He really was an entertaining guy. Haley was right. Screwing over a man just for the hell of it was a lot of fun. It was also nice having someone in her life that she could just be herself with. Over the past three years, she’d learned to keep her mouth shut and accept all the crap life handed her as she’d tried to get through the day.
She’d never been a pushover a day in her life, her big mouth guaranteed that, but working in that office had slowly sucked the life out of her, leaving her grinding her teeth and accepting whatever bullshit her bosses handed her, all while fighting the urge to open her mouth and land her ass in trouble. Turning into a meek little worker had been one of the hardest things she’d ever done, especially when she was used to speaking up for herself.
Growing up the way she had, there hadn’t been much of a choice in the matter since there was no one else to speak for her. Even though she’d had about a half-dozen different social workers from the age of two until fifteen when she’d finally run away, none of them cared about what happened to her. To them, she was just a case they got stuck with and she only saw them about once a year when they had their mandatory meeting to make sure that she was actually alive.
Her foster parents, all one hundred and fifty-three of them, had been a different story completely. Some had been nice, some not so nice, and some had acted like she wasn’t there, but in each and every home, she’d been a paycheck and a charity case, nothing more. Not in one single home had she been treated or expected to act like one of the family.
There were always separate rules for her and the other foster kids and different expectations. She was expected to do as she was told and keep her mouth shut when something happened that she didn’t like. They learned quickly that they couldn’t push her around just because no one cared about her.
She knew other kids kept their mouths shut, too afraid to upset their foster parents and be shipped off to a new home, but that wasn’t her. The inconvenience of packing up her small duffle bag and going to a new home, dealing with new foster parents, and learning new rules hadn’t been enough for her to keep her mouth shut. If they treated her like crap, she spoke up, plain and simple. She never acted like a spoiled brat who liked to bitch and whine about everything, but when she had foster parents who wouldn’t feed her unless she worked for it or liked to hit her or some of the smaller kids, she spoke up loudly.
Instead of coming to her aid and reassuring her that it would never happen again, a few of her social workers actually told her to learn to shut her mouth, telling her it wasn’t so bad and that if she wanted a roof over her head and food in her stomach that she needed to learn how to keep her mouth closed. Sometimes she followed that little tidbit of crappy advice and kept her mouth shut. She might have been a kid, but she hadn’t been stupid. She knew that no one was ever going to rescue her and love her and that she was damn lucky not to have to live on the street, but sometimes the way her foster parents treated her was too much and she couldn’t keep her mouth shut no matter how much she wanted to.
It wasn’t until she was fifteen and found herself living in an abandoned car that she realized that sometimes it was better to keep her big mouth shut, especially if she was going to make a life for herself. Although she did her best to curb her big mouth, sometimes it still got her in trouble and she found herself in trouble a few times over the years.
When she landed an entry-level job with The N.W. Corporation a few years ago, she’d forced herself to keep her mouth shut, knowing she didn’t want to mess up the opportunity to make something of herself. As difficult as it had been, she’d learned to keep her mouth shut, mostly, until she barely recognized the person she’d become, where being screwed over didn’t bother her because she truly believed she’d move up in the company and all the nonsense they put her through would be worth it.
Had she really been that delusional?
Apparently, she had because she allowed them to push her around until she didn’t care anymore. Even though it had only been a few months since she’d worked in that hellhole, she still couldn’t believe that she’d let them treat her that way or worse, that she’d let the job become her life. She’d lost touch with the few friends she’d made over the years and stopped dating, not that she’d done much of that in the past, but at least a decent amount of sex might have made her life more tolerable.
She really missed sex, Zoe thought with a sigh.
But if all went well tonight, she wouldn’t be missing it for much longer. Not that she’d ever been a tramp. She hadn’t. She just had a healthy sexual appetite for a twenty-nine-year-old woman who hadn’t had sex in five years.
She also missed the intimacy of being close to another human being. She missed lazy Sundays in bed, fighting over the remote, snuggling to stay warm, and the way she felt when a man made love to her.
“No fucking way,” Trevor said as he stepped out of his apartment and caught sight of the leash.
“This is just getting sad,” Zoe said, sighing. “It’s just a leash, a cute leash, but a leash all the same.”
“If it’s just a leash, then why aren’t you using the black one?” Trevor demanded, crossing his arms over his chest as he continued to glare at the offending leash.
“Because it’s cute. Did I not just cover that?” she asked, knowing she was taunting him and heaven help her, but she loved it.
