“My dad is allergic to almost everything.” She sighs. “So we could never have a pet of our own, but at New Springs I would spend hours caring for the animals, feeding them, and talking to them. It was my heaven. I spent every single day of my summer vacations volunteering there until I graduated from college.”
“That’s why you became a vet assistant?” I take a sip of my beer.
“It was the next best thing to my dream job.”
“Working at the retreat full-time?” I question with a cock of my brow.
She shakes her head. “Owning it. Running it.”
“You can’t do that from New York,” I point out.
“The couple who owned it when I was a kid sold it three years ago.” She runs her fingertip along the surface of the table in a circle. “That was right around the time I graduated. I decided I needed a change, so I moved to New York.”
“The point of my very long-winded story…” She huffs out a laugh. “My point is that I had a dream but it fell through, so I found a new dream to be passionate about. I don’t need to chase after the obvious brass ring to be fulfilled. I don’t want to be a vet. I’ve never wanted to be a vet. I’m happy standing next to the vets to help them do what they love.”
“That’s what’s important, isn’t it?” I ask. “Personal fulfillment?”
“I think so.” She shrugs. “Maybe you’re not meant to work with the district attorney’s office helping them put criminals away. Maybe you’re supposed to be in that office getting the job done. If being a detective isn’t your backup dream, you owe it to yourself to pursue what you really want.”
She’s what I really want right now. I look at her gorgeous face. “Do you have any other dreams, Matilda?”
“A few,” she says simply. “Do you?”
I stare at her lips. “Many.”
“Tell me one,” she whispers as she leans even closer.
“I’d rather show you.” My voice is husky and low.
Her gaze drops to my mouth as she wets her bottom lip with a swipe of her tongue. “Show me.”
I do.
I push every reservation I’ve had to the side when I wrap my hand around the back of her neck, lean forward and press my mouth to hers for a soft kiss.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Tilly
I weavemy fingers into his hair to deepen the kiss. He groans into my mouth in response and all I want to do is crawl into his lap.
At this moment I don’t care about Maya or Julian, any of the people around us, or what happens tomorrow.
Nothing exists but this man and me.
His kiss is everything I imagined it would be. It’s tender yet demanding, soft and sensual and the way his tongue flicks over my bottom lip to tempt me to let him in makes my entire body weak.
A loud crash breaks us apart but not before Sebastian trails his lips over my cheek.
I catch his eye for a brief second and I see the same lust I feel reflected back in his gaze.
“For fuck’s sake,” he says under his breath as he looks over at the bar.
Another even louder crash draws many of the bar’s patrons to their feet, including Sebastian. It’s obvious from the drunkencheers and litany of curse words filling the air that there’s either a fight in progress or one is about to happen.
“You both need to calm the hell down, or I’m going to call the cops.” An angry woman’s voice rises above the noise.
“I fucking dare you.” A man’s gruff voice responds.
