Groomed For Love: A Steamy Standalone Instalove Romance, Flora Ferrari [macos ebook reader .TXT] 📗

to keep waiting for him in the hall in case he comes back.

But my tears return.

The loud, barking sobs of my own self-loathing as I rush to get inside before anyone else sees or hears me.

I throw myself face down onto the sofa-bed in my one room apartment, crying like I’ve never cried before.

Crying like someone who’s seen what life could be like, but knows it never will be.

It’s the story of my life but I’ve never felt it hurt so much as it does today.

Something in me really believed that Parker was interested.

That I really stood a chance in this life.

In this body.

Even just for a moment.

And it felt freaking amazing.

CHAPTER FOUR

Parker

It feels like the same dream I’ve just walked into, I’m now walking away from.

What the fuck are you doing?

The most beautiful girl in the world, and I’m walking away?

I got Moose back, and I told Naomi she’s irresponsible for advertising her whereabouts.

Cop job done.

But that’s not what I’m feeling inside.

Not by a long shot.

It’s not what I want to leave behind and just walk away from.

My first instinct after seeing her there in her doorway is to cover her up.

To get that body of hers out of view of any other prying eyes, she’s too perfect for anyone but me to see.

That’s my gut instinct. To cover her with my own arms. My whole body against hers.

My non-cop side, Parker as a man instinct.

She’s mine. That’s the only thing I can tell myself when I finally manage a single thought, once I make it to the stairs.

I don’t even look back. I can’t.

Proving to myself I’m just walking away would destroy me.

Moose bucks and lags a little, something he’s never done when he’s on his leash with me.

Like I said, his keen senses pick up on everything, and it’s nothing for him to notice that there’s already something wrong with this picture.

He’s sure glad to see me, but it’s obvious he likes being around Naomi as well.

We both do.

I try and tell myself I’m just overtired, that there’s no way I’d have a chance with a girl like that. I mean, she must be half my age…

Those eyes.

That hair.

Jesus, those hips.

That chest.

I feel the pleasing ache returning to my crotch as it thickens again at the memory of her.

Can’t remember the last time I even looked at a woman, let alone felt like this.

Moose whines and tugs at his leash again in the stairwell, his neck craning back in the direction of her apartment.

“C’mon buddy,” I reason with him, looking down knowing just how he feels.

Knowing his instinct is one I trust more than my own, but today I know we’re both right.

I try to command him to come with me, but he’s not having it.

He slips his leash, something I know most dogs can do if they really want, but it’s something he’s never done with me either.

Taking off up the stairs again, there’s only one place I know he’s going.

I give a sigh of frustration, but also have to hand it to Moose. Sometimes he’ll give me a push in his own special way.

Jogging after him, back up to her floor, I hear the muffled sound of raised voices.

Male and then female.

Moose barks and I shift into action. My own training kicking in within a split second.

My first concern is that it’s Naomi. My second is for my partner and buddy, Moose.

There’s always an unpleasant rush of adrenalin when he runs off ahead of me, putting himself in the firing line first.

Moving into the hallway I reach for the holster I’m not wearing.

Technically I’m off duty, my uniform and gun belt are in my locker at the precinct. A carbon copy of all of it in my house, in case of an emergency.

Right now I have my badge, and I have a Moose.

I also have a fucking good reason to step in when I hear Naomi’s shrill voice and the figure of a male in her apartment doorway, grabbing at her wrist.

Moose is lunging for the assailant, and I’m not gonna give him the command not to. Nor do I stop him once he has a hold of the guy by the arm.

Naomi screams and covers her mouth with both hands, almost falling back into her apartment.

I identify myself to her attacker and in a second, I’ve joined Moose in pinning him to the ground.

The guy’s no muscle head, but he is heavy. I command Moose to release and he does, reluctantly, planting his growling jaw right in the guy’s eyes but it doesn’t have the desired effect.

This guy’s wound up on something and he still has some fight in him.

I see the flash of a small steel blade when his bloody arm slips from my grip momentarily, and it streaks across my field of vision until I hear Moose’s jaw snap tight on the offender’s wrist.

He screams in agony and I flip him like a burger, hog tying him with cable tie cuffs I always carry.

But the knife, the guy. They’re not what has me worried.

It’s Naomi I care about.

Moose can handle himself, and he stands guard over our suspect as I rush to Naomi, who throws herself into my arms.

It’s the best feeling in the world, I only wish it could be under better, safer circumstances.

“Are you okay?” I ask her firmly, enjoying her touch like nothing else but needing to know she’s unhurt. Needing to know I have her safe now.

“Are you injured?” I ask her again louder this time, holding her at arm’s length as I ask, scanning her sweet body for any sign of injury.

She shakes her head quickly, her lower lip trembling and against all my training. Against every instinct as a cop, I hug her.

A proper, full body hug that sees every part of me pressed into every part of her.

My instinct as a man to hold her and protect her winning out.

I am off duty after all.

Feeling both her hands move up my chest, clawing into