She didn’t hear it. The music covered it.
I tried the handle.
The door swung open.
I took one step inside, into the smell of coffee and paper, and opened my mouth to say her name —
Right at that moment, something large and white launched itself at me from behind a bookshelf.
The dog was huge, and it had an enormous, territorial bark. It lunged at me before I could register it was a dog. I stumbled back against the doorframe as a Great Pyrenees, easily a hundred pounds of dense white fur, planted both front paws on my chest and pinned me against the floor with its full weight, teeth bared, a sound coming from its throat that suggested it had strong opinions about uninvited guests and was prepared to act on them.
The dog’s face was approximately three inches from my face.
I did not move.
CHAPTER 15
CAMILA
The first thing I noticed was just how large Luna really was.
Somehow, Luna’s size had never really registered, or even mattered to me until the moment I saw she was on top of a person on the floor.
And that person was Jason.
He was flat on his back with a hundred pounds of Great Pyrenees pinning him to the doormat, Luna’s enormous white head approximately level with his face, her growl a low continuous sound that vibrated through the whole front of the shop. Jason’s arms were slightly raised, communicating non-aggression. He looked miserable, a complete contrast from the self-assured asshole who was fucking another woman on our third anniversary.
His eyes found mine across the shop.
“Camila.” His voice was careful, and controlled. He seemed to be trying very hard not to make any sudden movements. “Could you please — the dog—”
I looked at Luna.
Luna looked back at me briefly, then returned her attention to the man beneath her with renewed professional focus.
I said nothing.
“Camila.” He tried again. “Please.”
I crossed my arms and stayed where I was.
A year ago I stood in a dim corridor outside a stateroom door and listened to my name in his mouth and kept walking. A year ago I watched explicit videos of my husband fulfilling his twisted sexual fantasies on the phone of his lover.
He deserved this. He deserved not one, but a whole pack of Wild Pyrenesses keeping him pinned to the floor, and deciding what they wanted to do with him.
Seeing Jason on that floor didn’t just make me angry. It just made me want to instruct Luna to shred him into pieces.
I was no longer the meek wife he left on the cruise. I was vicious now, and I’d make sure Jason knew it.
I was not going to call off the dog.
“Camila.” His voice changed. “Please. I’m not here to — I just need you to hear one thing. One thing I should have told you before we even got married. Please.”
“I have nothing to hear from you, Jason. Leave before you become minced meat. Get up, and get out. You don’t need to explain anything.”
“I do.” He was still flat on the floor, Luna’s paw on his sternum. “What I did was devastating. I know that. I destroyed your trust completely and I have no defense for it. But there was a reason — and that reason is far from what you think, and I need you to hear it.
“You don’tneedme to do anything. Now, scurry away, I don’t want to ever see you again.”
