Read Online Not That Kind of Girl by Susan Donovan - Free Book Online Page A

truthfully, yes. When I wasn’t busy reading about you online, I was ordering crap I don’t need from the cable shopping channel.”
    She heard his chuckle and decided to meet his eye once more. Holy shit, that man is gorgeous, was all that went through her mind.
    “Buy anything for me?”
    She laughed again, thinking, How the hell am I supposed to pretend that I haven’t spent the last nine months picturing this guy naked? “Do you have any need for a vibrating eyelash curler?” she asked.
    “Not in the foreseeable future.”
    “How about a holiday nail care collection featuring twenty-five festive polish colors and a year’s supply of emery boards?”
    “Can’t say that I do,” he said, pursing his lips while the lines around his eyes crinkled in amusement. “What else you got?”
    Roxanne leaned back into her chair and crossed her arms over her chest, sighing deeply. “What I got, Eli, is one incredibly fucked-up dog.”
    He nodded kindly, and in that deep-velvet-mellow voice of his he said, “It kind of looks that way, Roxie Bloom.” She watched him take a slow, deep breath. “Did you bring a copy of her records?”
    “Yup.” Roxie reached in the bag at her feet and pulled out a manila envelope. “Everything’s in there—the report from the rescue group, her adoption papers, all her shot records and vet visits. I even enclosed the letters I got from the dog trainers who kicked her out of class.”
    “Wonderful. Thank you.” Eli pulled the papers out and glanced at them quickly before he shoved them back inside the envelope sleeve and slid it back across the table.
    “You don’t want to keep them? You’re not going to read them?” Roxanne asked, puzzled.
    “Nope. Just wanted to make sure she was up to date on her shots.”
    “Hmmph,” Roxie said, thinking that all he had to do was ask her for that information, for God’s sake. Maybe he didn’t trust her to tell the truth. Men.
    Why does this particular man have to be so drop-dead hot?
    “Now, before we get started, there’s one thing I need to ask you.”
    Roxie felt her eyes go wide. “Of course,” she said, her head spinning with the possibilities. What did he want to know? she wondered. Are you seeing anyone? Do you know how wrong I was to turn you down for lunch? Do you think you could orgasm at just the sound of my voice? ( Why, yes, Eli! I believe I could! )
    “How do you picture your ideal relationship with Lilith?” was his question.
    “Huh?”
    “Lilith,” he repeated. “Your dog. Picture the perfect relationship with Lilith. What do you see?”
    “Oh.” Roxanne flipped her hair over her shoulder, slightly embarrassed that her imagination had roamed so far off topic. That had been a good question, and it just so happened that she’d asked herself that very thing many times over.
    “I want us to enjoy each other’s company,” she said, her voice confident. “I want Lilith to stay calm and feel safe, no matter where we go, what we do, or who we’re with. I don’t want to worry that she might growl, lunge, froth at the mouth, or bite again. I just want to have fun with my dog. ”
    Eli blinked a few times, then unleashed one of those supernova smiles that seemed to appear for no reason, without any effort. Roxanne had never seen anyone—man or woman—produce such a white-toothed, full-faced smile of joy without it looking fake. Where did that smile of his come from? she wondered. Why did she find it so engaging? And why did it feel so fascinatingly familiar?
    “Good answer. Now tell me why,” he said.
    “Why what?” Roxie sat up straighter.
    “The ideal relationship you just described with your dog—why do you want that?”
    She smiled a little, enjoying the way this conversation challenged her. She might have known the answer to Eli’s first question, but that was where her introspection had ended. “You know, I’m not sure why, exactly. Give me a minute to think about that, okay?”
    “Of