Everything but the marriage by Dallas Schulze Read Free Book Online Page B

with her. But he couldn't deny the relief he felt when he saw her slight figure returning.
    Maybe it was the fact that he'd saved her life; maybe it was just that she seemed so helplessly inadequate when it came to taking care of herself—whatever it was, he seemed to feel responsible for her. He didn't want to feel that way, but he didn't appear to have much choice in the matter.
    Devlin drove a nail into a shingle and turned to look at her again. Her arms appeared to be crossed in front of her body. Her head was bent downward over than. He frowned. Had she injured herself? Fallen maybe?
    He slid the hammer through a loop on his leather tool belt and started down the ladder. He was going to feel guilty as hell if he'd sent her off to get the mail

    he'd known wasn't there and she'd managed to hurt herself.
    Devhn reached the ground at the same time that AnnaUse entered the yard. He started toward her, his quick, urgent strides slowing when he saw that she was uninjured.
    Instead of clutching the hideously bleeding wound of his imagination, she was holding a cat. Devlin stopped, letting her cover the remaining distance between them.
    Annalise stopped in front of him, lifting her eyes from the cat to meet his. Devlin felt the impact of that look like a blow to the solar plexus. This wasn't the blank stare he'd seen all morning. Her eyes were dark with concern.
    "She was down by the mailbox," she said.
    "She?" He had to drag his eyes from hers. He stared at the unprepossessing lump of scruffy gray fur in her arms. So she had beautiful eyes. So what. They were just eyes. Blue-green and deep as the ocean, but they were still merely eyes.
    "I couldn't simply leave her there," Annalise said, her voice uncertain. "I'm sure she's hungry."
    Devlin forced his attention to the cat, who was regarding him with deep suspicion from the safe harbor of Annalise's arms.
    "I've got some tuna," he offered, holding out his hand to allow the cat to sniff his fingers. "She's pregnant."
    "I know. Do you think someone abandoned her because of that?"
    "Probably."

    Distress flared in her eyes. Devlin lowered his hand, clenching his fingers against the urge to smooth the frown from her forehead. He'd thought nothing could be more disturbing than the blank lack of expression she'd worn since waking. But he was discovering that Annalise St. John was infinitely more disturbing with life in those wide-set eyes.
    Annalise followed him into the house, her attrition all for the cat. Devlin opened a can of tuna and emptied it onto a saucer that he set on the kitchen floor. Aside from the obvious bulge of her stomach, the cat was hardly more than skin and bones, but when Annalise lowered her on the floor, she didn't immediately rush toward the food.
    She stayed just where she was, her thin body stiff, her eyes wary. She eyed Devlin, weighing the potential hazard he represented. Obligingly he moved back from the food. She hesitated a moment longer and then slinked slowly across the floor. She sniffed at the tuna and then lifted her head to give the surroundings one last careful look before she finally took a bite.
    "How long do you think it's been since she last ate?" Annalise asked softly.
    Devlin shrugged. **A few days, probably. She's not in bad shape, aside from being a little scrawny."
    "How could someone just abandon her like that? When she needed help?"
    Devlin looked at her, wondering who had abandoned her when she needed help. Her interest was focused on the cat, who was devouring the tuna with dainty greed.

    "They probably told themselves that she*d hunt her own food. People like to believe that lie, especially about cats/'
    Annalise lifted her eyes from the cat, catching him by surprise as her gaze met his. "Do you mind that I brought her here? I should have asked."
    "I don't mind." With those big eyes looking at him uncertainly, he'd probably have said he didn't mind if she wanted to puU his fingernails out.
    "I've got to get back to work," he said