Page 32 of Mommy

“Don’t call me that,” she bites out.

Raising a brow I wait for her to rise to her feet and come closer before I utter my reply.

“You didn’t mind it last night.” Or this morning.

Color rushes into her cheeks, making me grin.

“Shut up.” This time her tone is more defiant, almost seething.

She pushes past me, out of the kennel and starts to make her way down the hallway back to the entrance, leaving me to trail on behind her.

“I will.” I pause, and catch up to her. “If you play house with me tonight.”

This might be desperate, but I don’t care. I like having her over, and I like having her spread out on my bed.

We are close enough to the front desk that Shelly and McDinnahol could hear us. Ivy probably realized that too.

An adorable little snort comes from her lips, her slim shoulders squared.

“Make me.”

I can only grin at the challenge. If she thinks she can be mouthy because we are in public, she is sorely mistaken. She thought because I’m here in uniform, and with an old fuck of a colleague at my tail I wouldn’t be clear about where I stand with her?

Think again, little poison.

Leaning into her I don’t bother to keep my voice low.

“Make you what, a mom? Trust me, I’m trying.”

This morning, when she came downstairs, I could almost picture it: Ivory, waddling around in one of my shirts to cover a big baby bump?

My cock strains against my pants. Yeah. That’s definitely doing it for me. I don’t even need to picture rope when it comes to her, the mere idea of having her around is enough to do me in.

She stutters out something even I can’t decipher, and when I pull back, I watch as the blush takes over her face. Red dusting her cheeks, then the tip of her nose.

The moment it takes her to gather her wits again is enough for me to drink in the expression on her face, the fine line etched between her soft brows.

“Hey, Ivy, I let the pups back in with Viv. Do you want to take her out for a walk or⁠—”

The male voice breaks off, and I turn to see a young man stopping in his tracks. Slim but built, long black hair put into a messy bun in the back of his neck, lip ring and a sharp jawline. Definitely not ugly.

I immediately dislike him.

“Thanks, Liam.” The brimming smile on her face makes it worse. The gratitude. As if he plucked the stars from the sky for her.

“No problem, there,” he reaches out to hand her a cup. “I also made you a cup of tea to go.”

The wink he gives her before he finally fucks off borders on suicide at this point.

Yeah, I definitely hate that dude.

Chapter eighteen

Derek

“Wassup bro, come in.”

Ezekiel pulls me into a bro hug before I make it over the threshold, and I have only a second to reconsider my decision. There were no new dogs in the shelter today, but I asked Shelly to keep an eye out and inform me if that changed. Now I’ll tell Ezekiel to do the same.