The Truth About Cats & Dogs by Lori Foster, Kristine Rolofson, Caroline Burnes Read Free Book Online Page A

support or assistance.
    For years, she’d been hungry for human contact, and to compensate for that lack, she’d turned to the animals she’d understood best. But now Buck held her hand as if he really cared. Sadie was amazed, and very grateful.
    â€œToward the end, she had very few good days.”
    Buck turned her hand over and rubbed her palm with his thumb while looking into her eyes. Sadie felt touched everywhere. Not just on her skin, but in her heart, too. For once, the icy memories didn’t linger. They got soothed away by the intrusion of other, warmer emotions.
    It was the oddest feeling, like falling into a deep, heated pool. Silence stretched out between them. She saw Buck’s eyes narrow marginally, saw his shoulders tense.
    He said, “Finish your breakfast, okay?”
    â€œI am finished.” Her upset was over, but now she was too excited and anxious to eat.
    The dogs came back into the kitchen, distracting them both. Tish crept, keeping her eyes on the humans. Butch just pranced beside her, waiting as Tish dragged the colorful cotton boxers to a sunny spot in front of the sliding doors. She laid them down, used her nose to push them this way and that, digging, tugging with her teeth, before circling three times and dropping into the middle of the material with a grunt.
    Butch, openly confused but unwilling to be left out, glanced at Sadie and Buck, back at Tish, then curled into her side.
    A slow grin came over Buck’s face. “I think she likes me.”
    Sadie actually giggled. “If she’s willing to sleep in your underwear, then she must.”
    He turned to face her, still holding her hand captive. “And what about you?”
    â€œI don’t want to sleep in your underwear.”
    Buck accepted the joke with a laugh. He tugged her closer, leaning toward her at the same time. “But do you like me, Sadie? Because I like you. A lot.”
    And to Sadie’s utter shock and excitement, he kissed her.

CHAPTER THREE
    B UCK FELT AS THOUGH SOMEONE had just knocked him onto his terry-cloth-covered ass. It was a simple kiss, a featherlight brush of his mouth on hers. No tongues. No real heat.
    And his whole body was buzzing.
    He pulled back just a little to take in Sadie’s expression. Her eyes were closed, her feathery lashes leaving shadows on the smooth texture of her flushed cheeks. She swayed a little toward him.
    Damn.
    When he’d started all this, he’d meant to go slow, to get to know her better, figure out why she didn’t seem to like him.
    Given her expression now, she liked him all right. But Sadie had more burdens than any single woman should have to bear. She was shy and sweet and so damn generous.
    He leaned in again, but this time he let his nose graze her throat, inhaling the sweet female scent of her. You’d think a woman who played with animalsfrom sunup to sundown wouldn’t smell so nice. But she did. He felt…intoxicated.
    And if his friends knew his thoughts, they’d laugh themselves silly.
    Ethan and Riley and Harris, his best buddies for some time now, all considered him too goofy to ever settle down. Their wives probably agreed. He’d once heard Rosie call him a “goober.” And then Clair, Harris’s wife, had qualified that he was a “big lovable goober.” Whatever the hell that meant. It didn’t sound very complimentary, but the women had said it with affection, not insult, so Buck hadn’t taken offense.
    He knew he wasn’t intense like Riley, and he sure as hell wasn’t heroic like Ethan and Harris, who were both firefighters. He was just himself, easygoing, ready to laugh. He loved his lumberyard, his family and his friends. He loved women, and he especially loved sex. He was fortunate in that he’d inherited some good genes, resulting in a body that was tall and strong and well-muscled. All the men in his family were big—and plenty of women appreciated