Number Neighbors - Emma Hart Page 0,15

had to bring it up.

How the fuck could I not? How the fuck could I look her in the eye and not tell her that I knew exactly how she wanted to be fucked?

Quite easily, in theory.

In actuality—it wasn’t going to happen.

There was no way I was going to leave Hannah’s house tonight without telling her I knew that she wanted to be put on her knees and fucked to within an inch of her life while her ass was gripped and her hair was pulled.

That she wanted to pull a guy right out of the shower and suck his cock.

I rubbed my hand down my face. I needed to get those thoughts out of my head, and fast. There was no way I’d be able to focus today if I didn’t stop thinking.

I shrugged off any thoughts of her and headed to the back room where all our overnight animals were just starting to wake up. I wasn’t surprised at all to see Lucifer wide awake and pawing at the front of the crate, meowing his little head off. I paused at him for a moment, let him sniff my hand, then poked one of my fingers through the bars to scratch the side of his face.

When he was suitably attended to—although still meowing for food—I moved along the line, giving everyone a look over. There were more cats than dogs today, and I stopped to see Luna, the silver Maine Coon who’d been spayed yesterday afternoon. She purred the moment she saw me, and a quick glance at the wound showed it was healing nicely and she could go home today. Mila, the dark-nosed Rag Doll kitten in the crate next to her was in the same situation, although she was a lot more miserable in her cone than Luna was.

Blue, Mila’s brother, was next to her, but not because he’d had his balls snipped—nope, he’d eaten a piece of dry pasta that I hoped he would pass this morning so he could leave with his sister.

After seeing Delilah, a terrier mix who’d gotten in a fight with a bulldog in the dog park, I checked in on Bruno, a Great Dane puppy who’d also eaten something he had no business eating.

Animals.

Anyone would think their owners never, ever fed them. Especially if they heard Lucifer’s caterwauling right now—and I knew he’d been fed, because I’d done it myself the moment we got here.

I shook my head and asked the tech not to feed the greedy little bugger, assuring her he’d already eaten an adequate amount of food, then walked through to reception. There, I updated Joy on everything and asked her to make the necessary calls after nine a.m.

With her agreement, I returned to my exam room and stared at my phone, sitting where I’d left it on the table.

If I was going to stop thinking about Hannah, I was going to need to spend every second of this shift with the animals.

I pocketed my phone and went right to the back where the animals were—including a still-meowing Lucifer.

***

“In you get.” I put the carrier with Lucifer in on the front seat of my car and strapped it in place, then put his medicine down in the center console. You never knew when you needed to do an emergency stop, and this little critter was a noisy little bastard as it was.

I didn’t need him screeching and the box going flying into my windscreen if an arsehole pulled out on me.

With him secure—but still meowing, of course—I got in the driver’s side and started the engine. My brain was going a million miles an hour, whirring like mad. It was like a tornado going through my mind, obliterating all thoughts that weren’t of Hannah and what the bloody hell I was going to do now.

I had to tell her I knew. She had to know that I knew, regardless. If she’d saved my number the way I had hers, it would have come up immediately when she’d called.

Fuck, if I’d known…

Would I have given her my number? I didn’t know. This was such a fucking weird situation, one that I never imagined I’d be in, so I didn’t really have an answer for it.

A part of me thought I would. That no matter what, I would have eventually given my neighbor my number. Even if it was only for matters of neighborly issues.

That’s what I was going to tell myself.

I hadn’t quite imagined she’d ever get it like