Page 14 of Feral

But yes, I was definitely considering his offer. I’d been considering it non-stop since the moment he sauntered off into the darkness. And who walks in the dark, anyway? There was no moon last night at all, and the guy didn’t have a flashlight.

He probably thought he could see in the dark. I remembered when I was a kid, I could. Until my foster brothers locked me in a dark closet to prove I was wrong. Then whatever superpower I thought I possessed drowned in a new fear of the dark.

The knock came again. When I opened the warped door, a dark-haired woman in her early thirties stood there with a smile and a plate of brownies in her hands.

“Hi.” I pushed open the screen door.

“Hi! I’m Audrey Ames-Wolf, your new neighbor.”

Wolf.I peered past her at the Wolf Ranch, as if that would clarify who this woman was. Hopefully she wasn't Rob’s wife because that would make him a cheater, considering how he’d kissed me last night.

“I heard my brother-in-law barged in on you yesterday. I’m sorry about that. We didn’t know you’d already arrived. Rob’s been looking in on the place. He was close with your uncle and felt responsible while you were away.”

Brother-in-law. Good. “Yes, I met Rob.” She didn’t mention justhowI met him, and I wasn’t going to. “Come on in.” I stepped back to invite her in.

“Here.” She pushed the plate at me. “Brownies. I made them, but you can just throw them in the trash. My sister, Marina, is the baker in the family, and you’ll meet her soon enough. She’s… engaged to my husband’s brother.”

I stood there and stared at her trying to figure it out. “You married one Wolf, and your sister’s engaged to another?”

She grinned. “That’s right. But not Rob. He’s not married. Single.Verysingle.”

“Okay. Got it.”

“Back to the brownies. They’re a housewarming gift, but the gift may be that I tell you not to eat them. I’m a doctor, not a chef.”

I led her toward the kitchen. “How about something to drink, and we won’t eat the brownies?”

She laughed. “Sounds great. I hope Rob didn’t make too bad of an impression. He seems gruff and grumpy, but he’s actually a softie.”

Softie?

Nope, it was plenty hard.

“Um, it wasn’t so much gruff and grumpy...” My pussy clenched remembering the sight of his very long manhood straining his jeans. The sensation of it pressed against my belly. My mouth twisted into a wry smile. “It was more cocky.”

“Oh!” Her laugh was musical. “I thought that was my husband’s specialty. I guess all the Wolf boys have that in spades, though.”

I shoved away my sudden interest in finding out everything there was to know about these Wolf boys. They hadn’t come up in any part of my investigation, which meant they weren’t involved with Markle. I liked the guys more just for that. I had Markle to worry about. That’s why I was here, not to have a fling with a sexy rancher.

Oh God, I really wanted to have a fling with the sexy rancher!

I set the brownies down on the table. “I don’t have much to offer you, yet, but I did buy some of these flavored seltzer cans. Are you a fan?”

“Sure,” Audrey said.

I opened the fridge and stared at the cans. “Lemon or mandarin orange?”

“Mandarin, thanks.” She took it and cracked it open while I opened a lemon one.

“So do you all live together there?”

She cocked her hip against the counter. “No. Boyd and I have a little cabin west of the ranch house, and I—we—also have a little house in town, which is easier when I’m on call or at the hospital late. I’m an Ob/Gyn.”

“You live in both places?” I scrunched my forehead, trying to figure out how that worked.

“Just for now. We’re newly married—still getting settled.” Her hand drifted to her lower belly. The detective in me didn’t miss the gesture.

“Oh, congratulations.” I let my gaze drop to her belly, too.