Chapter 4
DOMINIC
Istepped out of my Range Rover and stared at the old cottage on Pine Hollow Road that I passed to and from work twice a day.
Each time, I had to force myself to look away as I passed the house, lest I catch a glimpse of her.
And yet, here I was. Forced to walk up to the crumbling Colonial cottage that was as familiar to me as my own house.
All because of Rose-pain-in-my-ass-Murphy.
Trevor followed me out of the car, and for one long minute, the two of us stood next to each other, staring at the ivy-covered walls of the cottage.
“Did you call her?” asked Trevor.
“I tried, but she didn’t answer,” I bit out, worry eating at my insides. What if I was too late? What if Joe had already proposed to her while he was in a lasagna-induced food coma? Wait, it was too early for dinner.
“Why does she always pick such losers?” Trevor complained. “Imagine wanting to marry that loser.”
Because she knows it makes me mad, I thought to myself, but didn’t say aloud. Sometimes, I felt the little minx spent all her time trying to think of ways to make me miserable.
“That’s not our business,” I replied, and led the way to the front door.
I resisted the impulse to kick down the flimsy front door out of fear that the whole cottage would come crumbling down. Instead, I rang the bell.
There was no response.
I rang again. The house seemed silent.
I frowned at Trevor.
“Do you think she’s out?”
“Umm, boss, I just saw her bedroom curtain twitch. She’s here all right,” said Trevor, hiding a smile as he leaned forward to press his finger against the doorbell again.
“Come on, Rosie Posie. Open up. The big bad wolf is here to gobble you up,” he called, and winked at me.
“Don’t call her that. Never call her that!” I growled.
Because Rosie Posie was my name for her. Even if I didn’t call her that anymore, because it felt far more intimate now than it did when we were kids.
There was no reply.
“Alright, Rose. You asked for it. I’m kicking the door in,” I snarled. “Move back, Trevor. On the count of three! One… two… “
Before I could finish counting, the front door swung open, and Rose glared up at us. Man, but she lived up to her name! She was as prickly and beautiful as a rose. Fiery and heart-stoppingly gorgeous. Especially when she was angry, as she was now.
“What the hell are you guys doing here?” she demanded.
“I’m here to stop you from making the biggest mistake of your life,” I announced, and she turned a fierce glare on Trevor.
“I can’t believe you ratted me out, you traitor!”
“I was worried about you, Rosie,” he replied.
“Worry about yourself, because I’m never making my lasagna for you again,” she growled.
“Hey! I was just looking out for you,” he protested.
“What’s that smell?” I asked, leaning forward as I wrinkled my nose.
“Step back,” she ordered. “In fact, get out. You have no right to interfere in my personal life.”
“I promised Aunt Polly I’d look after you,” I began, but Rose held up a hand.
“I release you from that ridiculous promise, Dominic. I don’t need anyone to look after me because I’m an independent woman. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to clean my oven.”
“Burnt the pasta, did you?” I asked with a smirk, and she turned stiff with anger.
“Get out,” she snarled.
“Not until you drop this stupid plan. You’re not going to marry that idiot, Rose.”
“Why not?” she asked, and I opened my mouth to give her a long list of reasons why, but for some strange reason, my mind went blank.
“Because your mother would have hated him,” I said, at last, and her face fell.
I felt like an asshole for putting that look on her face. I knew Rose still missed her Mom, and I had no business weaponising that. Her shoulders drooped, and I drew her into my arms slowly.
“I’m sorry,” I said gruffly, resting my chin on top of her head. “That was a low blow.”
“I hate you,” she muttered, and I let out a loud sigh.
“I don’t blame you. But you’ll hate me more if I let you go through with this, Rosie Posie.”
A little shiver went through her body, and I wondered if she was feeling cold. She stiffened in my arms and pulled away to glare at me.
“You have no say in how I live my life, Dominic Carlisle. You’re not the boss of me.”
Before I could retort, a car screeched to a halt right behind mine, and Joe Cheney jumped out. He scowled at me as he raced up the little cobbled driveway.
“Babe! What’s going on?”
Rose groaned at the sight of him.
“Joe! I asked you not to come here today,” she said wearily.
“Sweetheart, you look upset. Are these people bothering you? Come on, let’s go into the house and talk about it,” he said, trying to get past me.
“Stay where you are,” I growled, and he froze in place. “Rose, did you ask him not to come to your house?”
She stared at him in dismay before she nodded once.
“That’s not true,” he cried, but I held up a hand.
“Do you need him to go away for now?” I asked, again looking only at her.
“Yes,” she replied softly. “Joe, there’s nothing to talk about. I told you everything I had to say. This isn’t working out for me.”
Yesss! She wasn’t going to marry this loser. A wave of triumph roared through me, and for the life of me, I couldn’t understand why.
“It’s not all about you, Rose,” replied Joe angrily. “There were two people in this relationship. You and I. And if we have to break up, it has to be mutual. You can’t just dump me because you feel like it.”
He took one step towards her, and I turned to glare at him.
“Nuh-uh,” I said, shaking my head at him slowly. “We’re not doing that, buddy.”
“Get out of my way, buddy,” he snarled.
“Hey, dumbass…she said she wants you to leave,” said Trevor loudly. “What part of ‘go away’ don’t you understand?”
“Why are you guys even here?” demanded Joe, and Trevor rolled his eyes in disdain.
“Because we’re her friends. Now, git!”
Joe shook out his shoulders in anger.
“I’ll leave now, but I’ll be back, babe. You can’t dump me without giving me one chance to change your mind. I’ll be back.”
The mean look on his face told me the moron wasn’t going to give up so easily. And I didn’t want him coming back when I wasn’t around to protect Rose. Before I could think it through, I pulled her closer and put my arm around her waist. She froze in place, and Joe’s eyes went wide with shock.
“No, you won’t. Because, like she said, there’s nothing to talk about. She’s with me now,” I growled.
Trevor let out a little yelp of surprise that turned into a cough when I glared at him.
“He’s right. Their love was meant to be,” he said hastily.
Joe cursed under his breath, and I could sense that Rose was about to say something she shouldn’t.
I gave her a little squeeze, and her breath hitched.
When I turned to look at her, she was staring at me in horror.
As I gazed into her eyes, her pupils dilated, and her tongue snuck out to moisten her upper lip.
I tracked its movements with my eyes, and before I knew it, my head was dipping towards hers.
Her breath was coming in short, shallow bursts, and her lids drooped as I got closer.
I nuzzled the side of her face gently, and she let out a little squeak, but before I could claim her lips with mine, Joe muttered a loud expletive.
“I always thought you were frigid. Should have known better,” he said bitterly. “You were just holding out for his billions.”
I took one quick step in his direction, and he paled.
“Scram,” I said softly, and he didn’t need to be told twice. With one last venomous look at Rose, Joe Cheney fled the scene like I’d set his hair on fire.
Rose slumped against me for a few seconds, and just as I was about to put my other arm around her, she straightened up and pushed her hair behind her ears with shaking hands.
“Well, that was awkward,” she said, with a bite to her tone.
“You sound…upset,” I hazarded a guess.
“Of course, I’m upset! You didn’t have to lie to him like that,” she cried.
“You might not have noticed, but I was helping you out,” I said, and she looked furious enough to make me take a hasty step back.
“Yes, well…I doubt it worked. All of Maplewood knows you’re dating your supermodel,” she snapped.
That darn article! I was this close to buying out The Whisper and shutting it down for good, I thought viciously.
“Didn’t I tell you to speak to the editor and demand a retraction?” I asked Trevor, who was examining his nails with interest.
“Sure, you did, gorgeous. I even went over to their office in Carlton Square to demand an apology on your behalf,” he replied. “But Miss Wendy, who owns the newspaper, sent me off with a flea in my ear. And a plate of her famous gingersnap cookies.”
I pressed the bridge of my nose, wondering - not for the first time - why I’d chosen to spend the rest of my life in a stereotypical small town where everybody knew everybody.
Wendy Sutton was the English teacher at Maplewood High until she retired last year and started her own newspaper.
And the woman was a menace, if there was ever one.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much anyone could do to stop her.
“Maybe you should try and talk to her directly,” suggested Trevor. “Isn’t she one of your grandmother’s cronies?”
“Yes, and that’s exactly why I cannot say anything to her. If you think she didn’t have my gran’s blessing before she ran that asinine piece of gossip, you’re not as smart as you like to think,” I said, with a snort.
“Whatever do you mean?” he asked, batting his long, fake eyelashes in my direction.
“Umm, can the two of you go flirt somewhere else? I have an oven to clean,” Rose broke in grumpily.
“No, you don’t. Trevor can send a cleaning service to have your cottage cleaned from top to bottom. Meanwhile, you’re coming home with me,” I announced, and she stared at me in disbelief.
Damn it! I wasn’t supposed to blurt it out so bluntly. I was going to explain the situation reasonably and politely. But one look at her and all reason flew out of the window, leaving me growling and snarling like an animal. I swear, I was normally way more suave than this.
Whatever she saw in my face must have alarmed her because she took a step back. And that was all I needed.
I stalked towards her, each of my steps driving her back until I was in the house. Trevor followed me in. I ignored Rose’s protests and turned to study her.
She was short, her head barely clearing my shoulder. And she was curvy. All tits and ass. With her thick hair hanging down her back in a riot of strawberry blonde curls. She met my gaze defiantly and stood up taller.
I clenched my jaw and looked away from the perfection that was Rose.
Because while she was exactly my type physically, we were poles apart in every other way.
And anything we started would only end in disaster.
More for her than me, because if Rose and I had a fling and then broke up, as we surely would, it wouldn’t just destroy her existing relationship with me, it would also destroy her bond with my mother.
My mom was the only mother she had left, and I couldn’t take that away from her.
“You’re coming home with me tonight,” I repeated. “You’re not safe here in case Joe Cheney decides to come back and make you see sense.”
“That’s true. He looked very upset when he discovered you’re with the boss now,” added Trevor helpfully.
“I’m not with the boss,” snapped Rose.
She raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest, drawing my gaze to her plump breasts. When she realized where I was staring, she dropped her hands, breathing unsteadily.
“What about your girlfriend? Won’t she mind?” she said snarkily.
“She’s not my girlfriend, so I don’t care what she thinks,” I said curtly.
“I’m still not going home with you,” she argued, and I leaned over to look her in the eye, my nose almost touching hers.
“I don’t have time for this, Rose. Get whatever you need for a few nights, and let’s go.”
Her eyes dropped to my lips, and I heard her breath hitch. The sound went straight to my dick, and my throat went dry.
Just then, I heard a scream, and I could have sworn that sound emerged straight from the depths of hell. It sounded like someone was being gutted alive.
Rose’s eyes went wide with fear, and I moved closer to her out of sheer instinct.
“Sweetpea, noooooooooo,” she cried, and I whirled around in surprise.
Who the heck was Sweetpea?
As soon as I turned around, a ball of black fur flew out of her house and attached itself to my legs, digging its talons into my skin and biting me viciously.