she would be moving into the apartment Sev had found for her near where she worked. He owned the entire building. He had suggested that she should consider staying with him a little longer, but she had insisted that she was looking forward to setting up her own home again.
‘You’re the best brother!’ she told him with forced cheer as he put the dog back in the run. ‘You’re giving me a fresh start and that’s what I need to shake me out of this fog of self-loathing.’
‘Lawson took advantage of you, Bel. He lied. You have nothing to hate yourself for.’
‘Except being stupid,’ his sister interrupted, accompanying him back indoors as Harley loosed his first howl. ‘Oh, dear, I hope he doesn’t keep that up or none of us will get any sleep.’
‘It’s a matter of discipline,’ Sev told her confidently.
‘No, he doesn’t like being away from you. He’s a house dog, not an outdoor one,’ his sibling told him ruefully. ‘You really didn’t think this through, did you? A pet is a huge responsibility.’
An hour later, Sev was gritting his teeth and still listening to Harley howl and when he couldn’t stand it any more, he went downstairs and let Harley into the house. Harley accompanied him back upstairs to his bedroom and leapt on the bed. Sev exiled him to a far corner to lie down on the cushions he piled up for him. Harley lay down and sighed, propping his snout on his front paws and looking as pathetic as a dog could, but there was no more whining or howling and everybody got to sleep. Sev, however, wakened to find a large dog snoring on top of his feet.
Three days later, Amy studied her silent phone with annoyance. She was acting so juvenile about Sev and it exasperated her. She might never hear from him again, she knew that: she wasn’t stupid. It happened all the time, according to her friends. A man could seem interested one minute and then forget your existence the next. That was just life and, with anyone, there was always the chance that another more attractive option offered and all the wishing and hoping in the world wouldn’t change that fact, she reminded herself irritably. But would it be wrong or a dead giveaway to ask how Harley was turning out for him? Would that be pushy? Painfully obvious? Would it be chasing him? Amy agonised all morning over that issue and skipped her lunch because she felt nauseous and a little off-colour while still refusing to allow herself to think about Sev.
That evening, she felt really sick and wondered if it was the change of contraceptive pill she had been forced to request, but she soon realised that she must have eaten something that disagreed with her. She went to bed early with Hopper snuggled up to her and that was the most peace she got because she spent most of the night being ill, thumping up and down the stairs to the surgery washroom. She got up the next day, pale and with dark circles under her eyes but mercifully, no longer dizzy or feeling unwell. In a more brisk and practical mood triggered by Harold asking if she had heard how her ‘friend’ and Harley were getting on, she texted Sev and asked. It was only a polite enquiry, she reasoned irritably, wondering why she hadn’t been able to find any trace of him on the Internet, reckoning that she was spelling his name, Kenterelli, wrong. But she could hardly ask him to write it down for her, could she? That would make her look stupid.
Sev smiled down at his phone and called her. ‘Come and see Harley for yourself this evening,’ he suggested. ‘We can eat together.’
‘I’m working until nine,’ Amy admitted, suppressing a twinge of immature excitement and trying to keep her voice steady and calm.
‘Not a problem. We’ll eat later. I’ll pick you up,’ Sev asserted, tossing his phone on the desk. He would take her to an art gallery on Friday night and invite her to the party. On one level he was eager to get the party over with, on another he wished he had a few more weeks to play with.
Why? The less he saw of Amy Taylor, the better, he decided grimly, changing tack because he was realising that he was too susceptible to her sex appeal. If he was a bastard, he would just have sex with her to