Nyght's Eve by Laurie Roma Read Free Book Online

she
did.
      A
laugh escaped Dare as all four animals pushed against him in their plea for
attention, their tails wagging wildly. “These are some good looking dogs you’ve
got here.”
    “Thanks. That’s Lancelot, Gawain, Percival
and Galahad.”
    “You named your dogs after Knights of the
Round Table?”
    Evie shrugged. “Why not? It suits them.”
    “Four dogs is a lot of work.”
    She laughed. “I think of all the dogs at the
center as mine. But these four are my friends and a joy to have in my life.”
    Dare took a few more minutes rubbing each of
the dogs before he straightened. “So, about that pie...”
    Shaking her head, Evie chuckled. “Come on.
It’s up at my house.”
    She and Dare walked towards her stone and
glass house with the dogs milling happily by their sides. Her house was
interesting. The center structure of the building was two stories and had a
tiered roof, with two ranch-style wings spanning from the main structure. The
large “U” shaped structure was modern in design, but all the buildings on
Evie’s property worked well with the landscape.
    He knew he should probably put his shirt back
on, but he liked how she had looked at him. He’d seen that same expression on
other women before, but for some reason Evie’s blue eyes seemed to pierce
straight through him. It ignited a fire of need that left him slightly uncomfortable,
and yet strangely liking it. For some reason he enjoyed being around her.
Simply being in her presence seemed to settle some of the sharp edges inside of
him. But he couldn’t deny he wanted her, and that made things complicated.
    He was damaged and had no business getting
involved with anyone.
    “This is a pretty impressive house,” he said,
struggling to find something to fill the void between them.
    “Thank you. We’re pretty proud of it. I live
in the main part of the house, and my cousins live in the wings. To the right
is my cousin Francesca, and the left is Beckett’s home. You’ve met them,
haven’t you?”
    “Yep, last time I came to visit.”
    “That’s right. I heard about it after I got
back from my trip. Someone in Baton Rouge had adopted one of my dogs, and I
went to make the delivery.”
    “Do you always do that? Check out the homes?”
    “We try to, unless we know the people. Since
most of our dogs are pit bulls, we try and make sure that their new homes are
safe, for the animals as well as the people around them.”
    “Hunter mentioned that you have to make sure
the dogs can’t get out of yards and that the dogs get along with any other pets
that the adopters may have before you leave them,” Dare said. “I knew some
people feared pit bulls, but I never realized how misunderstood the breed
really was.”
    “It’s a shame, because they truly are
wonderful dogs.”
    “But you don’t own one personally?”
    She smiled at him and held out her palm
facedown by her side without looking down. Dare was impressed when one of her
dogs immediately pushed its head under her hand. “I do love pit bulls, but my
guys are the best. Since we do search and rescue I needed dogs that were more
suited to that kind of work.”
    She led the way up to the front of her house
and the dogs ran inside ahead of them as soon as she opened the door. Practically
hearing his mama’s scolding voice in his head, he took a moment to put his
shirt back on before entering her home. He may have liked the way she looked at
him, but he had a feeling being almost naked in private with her was not a good
idea.
    Once they were inside, Dare was surprised as
he looked around. For some reason he thought she would have had one of those
feminine places where a man felt out of place, but that wasn’t the case. He
should have known better. With four large dogs having the run of the place,
Evie had decorated with style tinged with practicability. Like the boarding
house, her furniture was large and looked exceedingly comfortable. There was a
feeling of warmth that came from