Inescapable (Men of Mercy Novel, A) by Joss Wood Read Free Book Online Page A

How the hell should she know? She was an expert in wearing rose-colored glasses when it came to relationships. Good thing she’d stopped all that nonsense now. As she closed in on thirty, she wanted to get to the point of being fully confident in the idea that she was fine on her own, doing her thing. Actually walking the walk and not just talking the talk.
    She could do that—she
would
do that—but unfortunately, she missed sex. Dear God she missed sex. She longed for the feel of a warm masculine body to lie against at night, missed the connection that lovemaking brought, even if it was only a physical one. And, damn, she missed orgasms. She missed those a lot.
    Withdrawal symptoms, she told herself; being with a man was a habit and she was still going cold turkey. Jason’s phone rang again and they all groaned. Rufus barked and plopped his butt onto her foot, crushing her toes. “Ow, dammit, Rufus! Off!”
    “That dog is so in love with you, Flick,” Kevin commented. He snapped his fingers, all traces of teasing leaving his face. “Oh, that reminds me. We’ve got an injured kitten running around. If I catch it will you take it?”
    Flick wanted to say no, she really did, but she knew, everyone knew, that she was a soft touch. The thought that Pippa might kill her if she took home a kitten crossed her mind. But she couldn’t say no, she never said no. If it was young and dumb and injured then it was in her nature to scoop it up and nurture it back to health. Animals
and
men.
    “Sure, bring it around when you have the chance.” Flick handed the empty water bottle back to Jace. “Thanks for the water. I’m going to get back to my run.”
    The men started laughing again, so she rolled her eyes as she pulled Rufus across the road.
    “You do know that running, by definition, means that you should move faster than an ant?”Jace shouted when she reached the other side.
    Haha, so funny. Not.
    ***
    The sun was high in the sky and perspiration was running down Flick’s temples by the time she crested the first hill. She hadn’t even made it a mile and she was huffing and puffing and the muscles in her right arm were burning from trying to keep a hundred-and-thirty-pound dog from haring off after rabbits.
    Trying to control Rufus was like trying to control a baby rhino on smack, Flick thought as she slowed down to a walk, pushing her fingers into the stitch in her side.
    He was more than a handful. She had to do something about him, and soon. Getting rid of him wouldn’t ever be an option, and he didn’t respond to her training methods. Mostly because he knew that she was a soft touch.
Yes, have a cookie, sleep on my bed, chew my new sneakers.
    She had one, just one, option, and it wasn’t an easy decision to make. But neutering Rufus would make her life so much easier.
    Flick thought that she owed it to Rufus to discuss the procedure with him first though. She needed to rest anyway, so decided that there was no time like the present. Pulling him over to a log, she sat down and placed her hands on either side of his face. “We need to talk about getting you fixed, sunshine.”
    He cocked his head at her, waiting for her to explain. “That means chopping off your balls.” Flick was certain that his eyes rolled back in his head in fear.
    “Aaarrrrroooooooo!” Rufus howled and Flick winced.
    “It doesn’t mean that you’ll be less of a man,” she hastened to assure him.
    “Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooooooooooooooooo.” Rufus plopped his butt down and dropped his head onto her knee.
    “Aw, baby, you’ll be fine.” Flick rubbed his wobbly jowls and kissed his head. “It’ll make you less crazy and far more stable and you’ll settle down and be normal.”
    “Nothing normal about getting your ’nads removed, bud. Trust me on this.”
    Flick whirled around so fast that she almost fell off the log. Then she wobbled again when she saw that a sweaty Kai Manning was standing on the path behind her, his fingers