New Hope, Old Grudges Read Online Anne Malcom

Categories Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary Tags Authors: Anne Malcom Advertisement

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It was too much.

Another clang from the kitchen shifted my attention. Brody was there, kitchen towel over his shoulder. Cooking.

At some point, he’d changed out of his uniform and was now wearing sweats and a Henley like the one I was wearing.

Unlike his shirt on me, his was tight. Tight enough to show sculpted biceps, rock-hard pecs and what were likely washboard abs.

I swallowed as he looked up. His eyes were still warm and concerned and intense.

I gripped onto the railing of the stairs.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“Fine,” I croaked before clearing my throat. “I’m great. And I’m ready to go home now.”

That was a lie. I was most definitely not ready to go home. But I couldn’t stay here. And I had nowhere else to go.

“Food will be ready in ten,” he replied. “Go warm yourself by the fire.” He nodded behind me.

“I didn’t say I wanted to warm myself by the fire,” I folded my arms over my chest. “I said I was ready to go home.”

Brody didn’t look perturbed by my anger. He looked pretty close to being amused by it, which only served to annoy me further.

“We need to wait until the weather slows.” He gestured with his spoon to the floor to ceiling window. It was almost too dark to see the snow falling at a steady rate.

I chewed my lip. That should’ve made me feel panicked, trapped. But instead, I felt relieved. A valid reason not to go and face the music. Even if it meant I was stuck in the house of my childhood bully with no way out.

There was still an angry part of me that was willing to brave my family in order to get away from Brody, but that part of me was just as tired as the rest. So instead of arguing, I walked down the rest of the stairs and toward the fire.

BRODY

I lied.

The weather was coming down pretty bad. And conditions were terrible. Dangerous. But I was a member of law enforcement. I had vehicles to handle this kind of weather. I’d grown up in New Hope… This kind of weather had never stopped me from getting anywhere before.

But I didn’t have a redheaded bombshell in my house, wearing my clothes and spitting fire at me before.

So I used the current conditions to my benefit. It helped that I had another deputy who could take care of things in town. And I was always able to make it in if the occasion called for it. Of course, if that happened, then Willow would find out I was lying. A gamble I was willing to take.

It was wrong of me, taking advantage of the weather, the holiday, her family situation in order to spend more time with her, to attempt to win her over, but I was discovering that maybe Willow was right… I wasn’t a good guy.

Seeing her in my clothes did something to me. More evidence to the point I wasn’t a good guy. She’d almost just fucking died in a snowdrift, and here I was, hard as rock because I liked seeing her in my clothes, liked knowing she was naked in my bathroom.

My attention followed her ass as she descended the stairs, pointedly not looking at me and walking toward the couch.

Velma immediately left her bed and hopped right on top of her.

I opened my mouth to yell at her but stopped when I saw her beam.

She rubbed my dog’s fur, letting her kiss her face and murmuring to her.

My cock pulsed.

I was sick. Seeing her with my fucking dog made me horny.

But something about it seemed so right. Me in the kitchen, cooking us a Thanksgiving meal, Willow fresh from the bath on the couch with my dog.

Except the fact that it didn’t feel right to her.

I’d just have to change that.

WILLOW

The fire was warm. Lovely, in fact. It didn’t quite work to chase the chill that seemed to have settled into my bones, but my teeth stopped chattering, and I had regained feeling in all of my limbs. The warm weight at my legs belonged to the Lab that had already greeted me with kisses and seemed to be content laying on me.

I was more than content with it too.

Brody had been gone for a while. Not before repeatedly checking me over and then staring far too intensely with worry pinching his features.

Real worry too. Like he was actually concerned about my well-being. He’d brought me another mug of cocoa too. Which was delicious. I wasn’t used to the sugar, the marshmallows, but I enjoyed it in a big way.

It was all much too picturesque… The fire, the snow, the cozy clothes, the dog, the square-jawed, muscular man in the kitchen. Like some kind of cheesy holiday movie where two unlikely old acquaintances become lovers.

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