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“I don’t want us to be this,” she repeats.
“We are whatever we decide we are together. Your ex doesn’t get to decide for us. And he wants to intimidate you by hurting the animals. Fuck him. Fuck him to hell where I hope he burns.” I kiss her again. “Let’s eat. I want to hear about the shelter. I want to go to the shelter. When can we go?”
“You want to go to the shelter?”
“Gabbie gave birth," I say. "I’ve never seen newborn pups. Take me to meet Gabbie and her babies.”
Surprise and a hint of warmth light her eyes. “Now? Tonight?”
“No,” I say, sitting us down on the couch again. “I’m not letting you out of here until sunrise with me by your side.Nowwe eat our pizza and go fuck our brains out in my bed.”
“Sunrise?” she asks. “You want me to stay?”
“Yes, Abbie. I want you to stay and you damn sure better want to stay.”
“I can’t go to my mom’s place in the morning in today’s clothes,” she counters. “She saw me yesterday."
"We can go by your place in the morning." I lean in close, my gaze lowering to her mouth, which I really want on about every part of my body right now, before my gaze collides with hers. “Do you want to stay the night? Yes or no?”
She inhales, her lashes lowering, those full lips I’m presently obsessing over parting as she says, “Yes,” and then meets my stare, “I do want to stay with you, Gabe.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear.” I lean in and kiss her. “Let’s eat. You’re going to need your energy and so am I.”
She laughs. “Is that right?”
“Yes. It is.” I wink. “Now, I need something to keep my mind off your nipples under my T-shirt. Tell me about the shelter.”
Her cheeks heat and she laughs. “My God. You’ll say anything.”
“And I’ll do about anything, too.” I wiggle a brow at her and open the pizza box. “I’ll let you think about that one while we eat.”
“I don’t want to think about that one too hard,” she teases and grabs a fresh slice of pizza. “The shelter is a special place. We just had Santa days for the holidays. Kids could meet the dogs and cats and take photos. We had a big charity day as well with donations for the animals. It was really successful.”
“Define successful?”
“Enough to feed the animals for a full month.”
“How many animals are there?”
“A hundred at any given time. We’re no-kill, so we usually stay at full capacity. We can’t take in a lot of new animals, so we’ve been working hard to expand our foster volunteers, but that can be a lot to manage.”
“And you help with all of this?”
“I do.”
“Isn't that a big job? Aren’t you an attorney outside of the shelter?”
“I am. Well, I was. I quit my job a few years back. I then started working for the shelter for free, as well as helping with a variety of charity operations my ex wanted me to help with, free of charge, to make him look good. In essence, I put my career on hold.”
“And now?”
“I saved enough money in the past five years so that I’m fine, but I’ve just sent out my resume, and I’m going to re-launch my career. I’m actually excited about it. I worked for Neal and Newman Brothers as staff counsel before I resigned.”
“Were you good?”
“Yes, I was,” she says firmly. “They want me back, but one of the executives is too close to my ex for that to feel like a good career move. Plus, I’d like to focus on a broader caseload, ratherthan one massive monster of a company with the same kind of repeat problems. I want to work for a firm.”
“Did you send us a resume?”
