by Lindsey Hart
She’d quickly formulated her plan. She’d pay him back for the little stunt he’d pulled earlier that afternoon.
And there she was, his boxers hanging from her hand, right by her face. She hated that they smelled like him. Not in a gross way either. In a really horrible, sickeningly good way.
“How long have you been standing there?” Markus’ feet hit the bottom and he stood. The water remained at chest level, lapping right under his incredible pecs.
God, she’d give anything to see him rise out of the water just a few more inches. To watch the droplets bead off his chiseled abs. She almost licked her lips. Seriously? She wanted to shake herself, give herself a good slap, and a few words of choice. It was all Markus’ fault. It was his fault for looking like that.
“Long enough.” She hated that the words came out as a squeak.
“Long enough for what?”
“Long enough to see your bare ass on this beach.”
“You were watching me?” His face twisted into a scowl.
She almost laughed. That’s more like it. It’s so much easier to dislike him when he’s being an asshole.
“Fair’s fair. You watched me earlier.”
“What? No, I didn’t. I walked in on you by accident. There’s a big difference.”
“Is there? You stood there ogling me long enough. You could have turned and walked right out, but you didn’t.”
“So, you thought you’d get revenge by what? Coming out here and taking my clothes?”
Stated like that, it did sound pretty childish. “I…” Leanne pressed her lips together. She didn’t want to appear flustered. “I’m not going to take your clothes. But you can come out here and get them.”
“Why? You’ve already seen everything.”
“I might have, but I want you to have to stand a few feet away and have me look at you like you looked at me. Maybe then you’ll feel a little remorse for what you did.”
“I didn’t mean to walk in on you!” Markus protested roughly. “God. You shouldn’t take everything so personal.”
“Personal? You call eye-fucking me something I shouldn’t take as personal?”
“I sure as hell was not eye-fucking you. There isn’t anything to eye fuck. You’re not exactly my type.”
That should have made her relieved. Instead, it made her furious. She struggled to hold back the anger when what she really wanted to do was hurl some choice of words at him. She wanted to do more than that. If the beach had any rocks, she would have picked them up and flung them at him.
“Oh really? It sure looked like you were enjoying yourself.”
Markus took a step out of the water. He crossed his arms over his chest. Beads of moisture slicked over abs that were hard enough to scrub clothes on. His hair, which was cut pretty fairly short, spiked up adorably. No! Not adorably. She tried to unsee the beads of moisture starring his thick dark eyelashes. His face is way too pretty to belong to a man. He could have seriously been a damn model. Online or otherwise.
“I was just shocked. You obviously think pretty highly of yourself. Believe me, it was nothing I meant to do and if you want me to apologize for it, you should have just asked. I am sorry. Just not as sorry as I am that you’re going to have to be a part of my life from now on.”
“Why? Because I’m so fucking beneath you? Because my mom and I aren’t as well off as your family?”
“No. Because you have zero sense of humor. You call me out for thinking people are below me, but you’re the one who is standing on the beach, all self-righteous about me seeing your tits for like ten seconds. So really, if you think you’re that special, you must be pretty high on yourself.”
“You saw more than my tits!” Leanne couldn’t help it. She knew it was completely undignified, but she gathered up the rest of Markus’ clothes, walked over to the water and threw them in. “You know what’s worse than being a gold digger?” She hissed. “Not appreciating anything you have to the point that you lord it over everyone else. If I hear you talking shit about my mom again, you’re going to regret it.”
The fucker actually laughed at her. He didn’t seem phased at all by what she’d done. If anything, he looked amused at her little outburst. He’d probably wanted her to lose her shit all along.
Just for good measure, she picked up a handful of sand. Like a child, she flung it straight into Markus’ face. That stopped the laughter. He spluttered as it hit him right in his annoying, flapping, far too big, mouth. He spluttered and coughed. Leanne turned and ran up the beach, across the lawn and back to the cabin. She’d gained a second’s worth of satisfaction by the fact that Markus hurled expletives at her all the way until she was inside.
She shut the door quietly and leaned against it. She was sweating and it wasn’t that hot out. Certainly, her thin shorts and t-shirt that she used as pajamas didn’t warrant the flush that was creeping up her skin. No, that horrible heat came from the fact that she couldn’t erase any of the finer details of Markus’ body from her mind.
CHAPTER 8
Markus
Okay, so far things with Leanne were going absolutely about as bad as could be. If he was playing ball, he would have struck out a long time ago. Even if he wanted to be friends, he doubted it would ever happen.
Despite the fact that the night before she had obviously been the instigator, Leanne gave him the cold shoulder the next morning. When his dad suggested that they go outside and sit on the deck to wait for breakfast, he tried everything to think of a way out of it. He came up empty handed, so he was stuck sitting on a lawn chair right across from Leanne.
He expected foul, sidelong glances or the fake sugar act she was so good at putting on. He got neither. She refused to look at him. Which was fine with him. Except… except that he was struck by the strangest urge to apologize to her. To offer a truce. They were about even, he figured. Maybe they could put it behind them and just move on.
Yeah right. That’s just because I’ve seen her headlights and can’t get them out of my damn mind. The fact that Leanne was far too pretty certainly had something to do with it. He didn’t want to think it was everything though. He didn’t trust her or Sarah and he was just as skeptical of the marriage as he had been at the start, but he figured the old adage about catching more flies with honey, was probably true. At least he wouldn’t end up with sand in his eyes and down his throat again if he made peace.
Markus was still working on something to say to break the silence that enveloped them. The day promised to be hot, though it was early. The sun overhead beat down, overtly warm. There was no breeze to speak of and the lake was flat and calm as glass. It was quite serene, or at least it would have been if he didn’t have so much shit going on inside.
After several false starts where no words came out, Markus gave up and turned his attention towards the lawn. If Leanne could ignore him, then he could ignore her as well. At least they weren’t hurling words back and forth, spilling coffee or throwing sand.
The little white fluff ball that they called a dog, Charlie, was lying in the grass. Markus focused on the dog since it seemed the safest place to look. Charlie snuffled around. He looked off, like he was listing to the side a little. Then again, he was old and tiny. Maybe that was just how he maintained his balance.
After a minute, Markus was sure something was off. Charlie wobbled again and collapsed onto his side. It wasn’t just the laying down kind of thing either. His little side heaved up and down, up and down, like he was struggling to take in air. And then it stopped rising and falling.
Okay, that is definitely not alright.
Markus jumped out of the lawn chair so fast it fell over. Leanne, startled, whipped her head around to stare at him.
“Your dog,” he pointed to the white ball that was lying so very still. “Something isn’t right.”
“Oh my god!” Leanne sprung from her chair as well, faster than he had, but hers somehow remained upright.
She rushed over to the spot on the l
awn where Charlie lay. He hung back while she picked him up. The panic on her face said it all. There was something horribly wrong.
“He’s not breathing!” She screamed. Her face changed, terror taking over.
He moved real quick, without even thinking about it. It was like he was watching someone else take the dog from Leanne’s hands. He placed it on the ground and started pumping with his two fingers, where the heart should be. He’d never done CPR on a dog before, but hell, it couldn’t be that much different than a person. He counted the pumps, turned the dog’s little snout up and breathed hard down its open mouth and over the nose. He wasn’t sure any oxygen was actually getting in there, but he didn’t know if he should actually offer lip to lip service like on a human.
He kept pumping, gentle, even pumps. He increased the tempo a little and the pressure, as he got used to the small animal below him.
Leanne stood and ran back into the cabin, screaming her mom’s name. Her voice faded out for a few minutes and then there was a rush all around him as Sarah, Leanne and his dad all crowded around.
“I don’t know what happened,” Leanne sobbed. “Markus pointed him out and I looked and went over and he was just laying here not breathing.”
“I saw it happen,” Markus interjected calmly, still pumping over the little heart. The dog was so still. So very still. “I pointed it out right away. He’s only been this way for a minute.”
“You’re doing CPR?” Sarah asked, frozen at the side. Her hands were clutched in front of her and silent tears streamed down her cheeks.
His gaze flicked to Leanne. The tears streaming down her cheeks as well were a pretty telltale sign as to just how much Charlie meant to them.
So, he kept pumping and breathing, pumping and breathing. He went on for a few more minutes, not wanting to give up. He tried rubbing the sides, over the heart, pumping again, breathing again. And just when he was about to give up, sure the old little ball of fur really had crossed over, there was a tiny little whimper, more like a gasp of air and the dog moved in his hands.
“Oh my god!” Leanne exclaimed. “Oh my god, mom, he’s moving!”
Sarah rushed in fast, scooping up her dog. She held him in her arms like a child and stared down lovingly at the tiny little guy. “Oh, Charlie! Oh my lord, you scared us.”
“I think it’s probably best we find a vet,” Carl said. “If you want to hold him, I can drive us. There’s a town about twenty minutes away. I’ll look it up and see if they have something. I’m sure they do. We’re out in the middle of nowhere so there has to be a vet around somewhere that services this area.”
“Are you coming, Leanne?” Sarah’s eyes strayed to her daughter’s face, which was completely white.
“N… no,” she muttered. “You go ahead. I’ll stay here. Probably the fewer people in the car the better. I would probably just be in the way. I… if something happens to him, I’m going to be a mess.”
“Okay. We won’t be long. I’m sure he’s going to be fine.” Sarah stroked the white curly hair for a moment before she rushed off in the direction of the truck.
Markus watched his dad hold the door open for her. They looked at each other, their gazes met and held and something passed between them. Something fleeting and deep. Something he knew nothing about. A shiver traveled up his spine. He’d never seen his dad look at his mom that way before. He’d never seen his dad look at anyone like that before.
Carl shut the truck door and whatever was going on between them, passed. He ran around to the other side of the truck, hopped in behind the wheel and peeled out of the driveway.
Markus remained where he was, frozen on the grass, a few feet away from Leanne. Slowly, her eyes swiveled to his face. Her sweet blue eyes locked with his. She blinked slowly, in amazement.
“You saved him. You saved Charlie. How… how did you know how to do that?”
“I… I don’t know.” The warmth that the look on her face created in him spread slowly, creating a damn mental block that made him sound like a moron. He gave himself a shake, trying to hold it together. “I mean, yeah… I’ve never done CPR on a dog before, but in high school, I used to want to be a lifeguard. I had to take CPR to do the rest of the training.”
“Is this the first time you’ve done it?”
“Well… yeah. Actually, it is.”
“That was- I don’t even know. I couldn’t have done it. I would have panicked. Even if I knew what to do, I don’t think I could have done it.”
“Honestly… maybe I shouldn’t have.”
“What?” Leanne’s mouth fell open. “What are you talking about? You shouldn’t have saved his life?”
“No, I didn’t mean it that way, it’s just that- he’s an old dog. There’s obviously something wrong- I- maybe it wasn’t kind of me to bring him back.”
Leanne stared at him hard for a few seconds. Her chest and shoulders heaved in and out with the terrible force of angry, rapid breaths. Slowly, the red crept up her neck into her cheeks and flooded the rest of her face. Her beautiful pale blue eyes filled up with tears.
“Of course, you would say that!” She yelled before she burst into tears.
CHAPTER 9
Leanne
The guy had no redeeming qualities. Absolutely none. His father wasn’t that bad. Leanne actually liked Carl. She was happy for her mom. Truly happy. How could a nice guy like that have fathered a piece of shit son like Markus?
“You… you…” she searched for just the right descriptor to hurl at him, but words unfortunately eluded her. There didn’t seem anything that would do that level of despicableness justice.
“Me what?” Markus challenged her. He took a step forward and closed the distance between them. “I did save your dog’s life. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you cry. I was just trying to point out to you that he probably doesn’t have a whole lot of time left anyway. If he’s suffering, I just made it worse, instead of letting him go peacefully.”
“He’s not suffering!” She wailed. She wished she wasn’t crying, but she couldn’t help herself. They were tears for Charlie, because she loved him, not tears of anger or frustration. “He was fine this entire time!”
“Until he just died there on the grass. Clearly, something isn’t right.”
“Well, mom will get him fixed up at the vet. You’ll see. He’ll live for another ten years!”
“That would be unlikely. A dog’s lifespan-”
“Just shut up! Just shut up, would you Markus? For once in your freaking life?”
Instead of getting herself under control, the tears came harder. The sobs that wracked her body were horrible and shuddering. She knew her face was a swollen mess, that she had tears and probably snot and god knew what else all over. She didn’t care. The thought of Charlie not making it, of him leaving her behind, was too much. It broke her heart.
She swiped at her cheeks in an attempt to wipe away some of the tears. She tried to take a few breaths, but it didn’t work. The sobs just kept on coming.
And then… out of nowhere, Markus wrapped his strong arms around her. His hands slid around her shoulders and guided her in against his broad chest. She pushed against him, trying to get away, but he held her tight.
“It’s alright,” he said soothingly. He ran his hand over her long hair, combing out the snarls with his strong, sure fingers. “He’s going to be okay. Like you said, he’ll probably surprise us all and end up setting a world record for the longest living dog. I’m sure my dad will find a vet and they’ll get him fixed right up. He probably had a heart attack or something. People have those all the time and they’re fine after a few weeks and live long, healthy lives after.”
Leanne let him, strange as it was, soothe her. She could no longer find the strength to fight him at the moment, so she just let him hold her pressed to his grey cotton t-shirt. She inhaled and even past her stuffy nose, she could smell the deep, woodsy scent of him. He was spicy and masculine and below that, just a hint of the scent o
f lake water, from his middle of the night swim, remained.
The smell was nice. Too nice. She pulled away when she realized just what it was she was doing. When she realized that, her pulse had accelerated wildly and her heart was pumping double time and her insides were a tangled up hot mess. Worst, she realized she’d gone from thinking about Charlie to Markus in the span of a few seconds. She was uncomfortably damp in places that should still be dry.
Leanne planted a hand on his rock-solid chest and pushed away hard. It served to separate them a little more than a few inches.
“Why- would you- say that,” she choked out, her voice still uneven and raspy, even though the tears had ceased falling.
“Because it’s true. You never know.”
“Why are you trying to be nice to me now?” She stared up at him suspiciously, unblinking. He stared right back.
“I- I’m just saying. I guess I feel bad that I made you cry about your dog. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. Sometimes I say stupid shit.”
She was surprised to see honest compassion in those deep dark brown eyes. Compassion and… and something else that she couldn’t even begin to put a name to.
“Oh really? I never would have guessed.”
He grinned. “I really am sorry. I didn’t want to make you cry. I- your dog means that much to you?”
“If you had a dog then you’d understand. Charlie has been mine since I was ten years old. Do you know how much he went through with me? We’ve been together for a decade and a half. Most friendships don’t last that long. Most marriages don’t last that long.”
“You can say that again,” he sneered.