Savage Love: A Stand-Alone Romance (Love Like This) by Cassia Leo

Author:Cassia Leo [Leo, Cassia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gloss Publishing LLC
Published: 2021-05-24T18:30:00+00:00

14

Wondrous

Her eye makeup is smeared with raindrops and tears, and it only makes her even more beautiful. But it reminds me I need to take her inside or she’ll freeze. It’s barely above fifty degrees out here, and she’s soaked to the bone.

“Come on. We need to get you inside,” I say, grabbing her hand to guide her back to the warm, dry lobby.

The way her hand almost disappears in mine as our fingers interlock makes me nervous. She doesn’t understand how small and vulnerable she looks to a man like me. Being scrappy isn’t enough to protect a woman when someone is intent on overpowering them.

My mom was feisty as hell, but that only seemed to add fuel to the inferno of my stepdad’s anger.

I glance down the hallway when Colette and I reach her front door. I don’t want to make Colette feel unsafe in her home, so I’ll keep it to myself how worried I’ve been these past few weeks whenever I’ve thought of the conflict with her neighbor.

I know the statistics about violence against women. It’s necessary for my thesis. It’s definitely not the sort of knowledge that eases one’s mind when the woman you love is being harassed by a man with obvious anger issues.

Data shows 97% of young women, ages eighteen to twenty-four, have been harassed in public. And nearly half of those women didn’t feel it was worth reporting the harassment.

This is why I made Colette promise to tell me if her neighbor bothered her again. I want to know if the harassment escalates. It clearly did when the bastard destroyed the gift I left for her. She doesn’t understand how fast a situation like this can turn into violence.

In her apartment, Colette releases Gary from his crate, and he greets us both with excited whimpers and butt wiggles. I squat down to let him lick my face, and he nearly knocks me over when he jumps up and puts his paws on my shoulders.

“I guess he missed you,” Colette says as she reaches for his leash, where it hangs from a nail on the wall. “I’ve never seen him jump on anyone.”

I stand and hold my hand out for the leash. “I’ll take him out, so you can change into something dry.”

She smiles as she hands it over. “Thanks.”

When Gary and I return, Colette is waiting just inside the door, dry clothes on her back and a towel in her hands for Gary.

Hanging the leash on the nail, a tentative smile spreads across my face as she tends to the dog. Something about this feels too easy. It’s probably because I still haven’t given Colette enough information to decide whether she wants to spend Thanksgiving with Frankie and me in California.

When Gary is dry enough, he returns to his dog bed as Colette and I take a seat on hers. We watch him rub his back and fur all over the bed for a moment before we turn to each other.

“I think

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