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The laughter coout of et out of the way I needed to get safe I put up a shaking hand as if I could ward off the onco myself someplace far far away as I braced for the impact

It never came

My breath rushed out and my knees ally steady voice tell the other men, "Hey, fellas, how about you let the lady slide past you real quick?" There was nothing in his tone but friendly inquiry and nore his request Since I had uys offer up an easy agreement I couldn’t tell how close they were to me, but in the span of a heartbeat I could tell they had stepped aside and my path to the dooras clear

A fuzzy handful was shoved into rasp and I could feel Wheeler’s body heat as he stepped next to"Coet you and the pup out of the cold"

I forced ave a jerky nod as I buried my face in the puppy’s warh the security door Wheeler was holding open

"Thanks, fellas" He flicked his fingers out froaze locked fir what on earth rong with me I heard the other men mutter back a bunch of "no proble myself to look in their direction

Thankfullyout of Rowdy’s sister’s house and into a place ofprocess, but I knew that there was no way I could ever chance being stuck in an elevator alone with a man I didn’t know That would send me into a full-on breakdown Fortunately, I found a place on the ground floor that luckily happened to be located right next to Dixie Carmichael’s apart out at, so it wasn’t like there was a stranger sharing the ith mine Eventually Dixie and her bubbly, sunny disposition wore o over to her place and didn’t freak out if she caone And I really didn’t want to think about the prospect of having a new person living that close to me

"Give me your keys, Poppy" Wheeler’s voice was still even and calm as could be even when he had to repeat hi in front of ically open for me

"What?" I looked at hi trapped uncorip

He held out his hand, palany-colored eyebrows atout in the hallway the rest of the night I can do that but I think the puppy needs soh the cuff of asped when I noticed that the dog had indeed chewed his way through the too longover my hands

"Oh no! I’m so sorry I didn’t notice" I scrambled to pull my keys out of the wide pocket that ran across the botto so badly that I iround by my feet Before I could bend to pick them up, Wheeler moved and not only had the forith nothing more than a shift of his body behindfroet control ofbody Effortlessly, he found the spot in the tiny kitchen where I had been keeping the Puppy Chow and settled the tiny terror in with some food and water He was far too corateful for his presence I didn’t care

I put my hands to my cheeks and held my face I could feel heat under the surface and I could hear the rush of blood between et you soenuinely concerned about me and that only made me shake even harder

"No, I’ time "Dixie is in Mississippi She took Dolly down because Churchto get used to their new home and so she could see what it was like to have a yard" I was babbling but I couldn’t stop the words fro a hand oninto his chow Those blue eyes were like lasers as they cut into me from across the room He put his hands on the counter and leaned forward "What are you talking about?" His voice still held that sa in it, some deeper note, that letabout

I wrappedand et stuck, frozen with fear I end up caught between rab ain Either that or they go aroundanything"

His eyebrows shot up and the corners of his mouth pulled down in a frown "People shouldn’t touch you unless you tell them it’s okay, even if you are in the way"

His words hadin a completely different way than I had been before and I was the opposite of cold "I didn’t use to mind it" The words cracked and sounded al touched It wasn’t until … after"

He lowered his gaze and I saw his chest rise and fall as he sucked in a deep breath "The reason doesn’t matter If you don’t like it, people should respect that No one has a right to put their hands on you unless you want theht I wouldn’t mind it too terribly much if he walked across the room and replaced the frail and thin arether with his thick, strong, tattooed ones It was probably the only touch I would ever crave but I would never be brave enough to ask for it, so I cleared my throat and aardlyI lifted myself up into one of the barstools that was across the counter fro us and prayed they would stop shaking