CHAPTER EIGHT
Sierra
Once Ezekiel left to get dressed, Sierra turned on the sink faucet and splashed cold water on her face.
She was a terrible adoptive mom.
She hadn't given Chupa a second thought while Ezekiel attended to her wounds. Her world shrank to amber eyes, warm skin, hands rough in texture but gentle in touch, the wicked resonance of his baritone voice, his intoxicating earthy scent piercing and rooting inside her with each breath.
She’d never been this aroused in her life; not without the mouth of a man sucking her breasts, hands stroking between her legs and spreading her slippery heat, tasting it, stroking deep.
Girl stop! she thought, poking her finger at her reflection in the mirror.
If she was bold like her cousin Dalinda advised her to be, she would've stripped Zeek Evers of his sole piece of clothing and fucked him right here in his bathroom. If she stayed on his land long enough maybe she'd grow so unrecognizably bold she’d end up doing it.
No, that would be messy.
Sex with her landlord was not permitted; things would become more awkward than they already were. Except it wasn't the awkwardness she was really concerned about.
Focusing on her ward’s wellbeing, she returned to the back room to find Chupa and Odin sitting on their hunches five feet across from each other; both unnaturally still, both staring the other down silently.
“Neither of you are dead. I’ll take that as a win,” she said, sitting cross-legged on the floor and forming a perfect triangle between them.
“I’m proud of you both. It takes a lot to combat your instincts for the greater good.
” She refused to think about Zeek Evers.
“Just don’t be like me and my cousin Dali.
When we were kids we used to fight over the stupidest shit—both of us were only daughters and used to having our way.
When the adults pulled us apart and threatened to whoop us, we’d begrudgingly go to our separate corners, but baby, the minute we were alone we went in on each other.
This is a cautionary tale, don't be like me and Dali. Plus, I’ll have my gun soon and Odin, if your owner shoots Chupa, I’ll be forced to shoot him, then everybody loses. ”
Odin’s gaze shifted to her momentarily. It must have been the opening Chupa needed because she stood, walked over to Sierra, and climbed into her lap and curled into the perfect little crustacean. Chupa watched Odin with her head propped up on Sierra’s leg.
“There’s my beautiful girl,” Sierra said, bending over to kiss Chupa’s crown.
Odin chuffed, sounding eerily like his owner. He walked over and dropped beside Sierra, placing his back along the length of her thigh and lay down facing away from them both.
“You’re so big and fierce looking, but maybe you just need a mother too.” Sierra smiled, reaching out to stroke his silky coat. “You might think I’m crazy, but I think we’re all going to end up being great friends.”
A snort sounded behind her and her hand stilled on Odin’s flank.
“Except him,” she said, refusing to switch her attention from her canine god and shape-shifter fox. “He’s too?—”
“Sexy?”
“Unfriendly, bossy, pushy?—”
“Sexy?” He said as he walked over to stand across from her, making their pyramid into the perfect diamond.
She looked him up and down.
“I mean...if you think so, I guess, because who am to disagree. Some people say all kinds of things to feel better about themselves.”
He’d changed into a ribbed sleeveless gray undershirt that made his muscles somehow more defined, more chiseled—he had to know that.
He also wore brown pants that looked like Dickies, and of course she couldn’t leave out the gray socks covering his feet because that one detail made him that much more attractive.
He was so fucking sexy, but she refused to say it, which wasn't like her. When she saw something she appreciated about a person she told them; wanted them to know they were seen, but he knew she saw him and was gloating over it.
“Alright bambinos,” she said, placing Chupa back in her sling. “Let’s go see what the big sexy man wants to show me.”
Ezekiel reached out and pulled her to her feet and Odin stood walking toward the exit.
“Maybe you should sit this one out bud, don't want those injuries to?—”
Odin bumped him in passing then nudged the screen door open and walked outside.
“I guess he told you.” Sierra smiled.
“Get the hell out of my house,” he groused as she walked past him, laughing.