Linger by Lauren Jameson

hairy and gray and nearly as big as she was.
    The dog lifted his head, looked at her, and returned to his nap. Scarlett smiled, amused, and looked back at the house.
    Made of the same rough wood as the front gate, the house wasn’t as big as it had seemed at first glance. But almost the entire front of the building was made of glass—windows that stretched floor to ceiling—and the way the glass reflected the setting sun and the blazing sky cast an optical illusion, making things seem more open than they really were.
    And they were plenty open already. Shading her eyes, Scarlett took a moment to stretch out the kinks from her long drive and to get the lay of the land.
    So much land. Open, untouched, stretching out under theendless Montana sky. The vast emptiness was fiercely beautiful—and more than a little unnerving, after the neon lights of Vegas.
    â€œHey there, big guy.” When the massive dog finally roused himself, trundling over to say hello, Scarlett crouched down, eager for the company. “You must like having all this space to run around.”
    The dog sniffed her hand and promptly flopped down to the ground, rolling over to beg for a belly rub. Charmed, Scarlett buried her hands in the soft fur and indulged him.
    â€œOh, I see. You’re more the type to just laze around and survey your kingdom.” Scarlett laughed when the dog shook the fur out of his eyes and rolled them in delight. “Well, thank you for letting me come here to look after all of your royal subjects.”
    â€œThat’s Mongo. You’ve got his number already.” An amused male voice made her jolt. “It’s his house. I just live here.”
    Shading her eyes again—she’d left her sunglasses in the car—she rose to her feet and dusted her free hand on her jeans before holding it out. She’d been looking forward to meeting the supervisor of her veterinary internship in person for months.
    When her eyes locked on the man who was staring at her, looking equally shell-shocked, she understood the pained expression that Luca had given her over coffee yesterday.
    A jolt went through her as their eyes met. Damn it. That inexplicable connection between them was every bit as tangible as she’d remembered.
    â€œI . . . What . . . ?” Uncharacteristically lost for words, Scarlett let her stare linger on the man whom she had last seen with a hard, lickable ass bent over a barstool.
    â€œ
You’re
Dr. Logan Brody?”
    Scarlett took a step forward—to do what exactly, shewasn’t sure—and wondered if she should throttle Luca or thank him.
    Now she knew why he’d looked uneasy for a split second yesterday . . . He’d been at the club that night. He’d seen what had pulsed in the air between Scarlett and the beautiful blond man whom she’d topped.
    Knew he’d sent her off to
live
in close quarters with that cowboy for the next year. And he hadn’t said a damn word.
    â€œ
S
stands for
Scarlett
, then.” Under her scrutiny, Logan stuffed his hands in the pockets of his worn jeans and stared back, his expression unreadable. “Or maybe for
sadist
. My ass is still sore. You have a hell of a swing.”
    â€œYou said you wanted to feel it,” she shot back, then found herself blushing. She
never
blushed.
    But here it was, out in the open. And oh, what a clusterfuck.
    Her one-night stand, the man she’d admitted to wanting to break apart and build back up, was her boss for the next three hundred and sixty-five days. And though he had to have come to the same realization, he was just standing there, a hint of an insolent smile curling his lips.
    In fact, he looked like he was enjoying the hell out of that notion—like he was relieved that their power struggle had finally flipped in his favor.
    Scarlett’s gaze raked over him hungrily. So many times in the last few days, she’d replayed