Page 15 of Animal's Reformation
Chapter Four
The flames curledand swayed, crackling as they burned the dry wood in the fireplace. Animal sat on the couch, feet plopped on the coffee table, watching the wisps of silver-gray smoke dance their way up the chimney. He brought a bottle of beer to his lips and took a long pull. Lucy was in her room playing LEGO Jurassic World that his sister had given her the week before. He’d offered to play with her, but Lucy had shot him down, preferring to hole herself up in her room and play it alone.
Since Emerald had left Lucy in Animal’s care, his daughter seemed to grow angrier and more withdrawn as the weeks rolled by. He attributed part of it to the fact that Emerald hadn’t made one fucking phone call to Lucy in almost three months. She’d called when she arrived in Illinois, and then nothing. Not even a damn postcard. And to make matters worse, Animal was fighting a seven-year bashing campaign that Emerald had instigated against him. He couldn’t blame Lucy for hating his guts.
Animal took another gulp of beer and leaned his head against the back of the couch. Lucy drove him fucking crazy most of the time, and he had to keep his anger in check when she’d give him attitude, but he loved having her in his life, and that surprised the hell out of him. The only problem was that he didn’t know how to reach her.
When Animal saw theSOLDsign in front of the yellow cottage, he’d hoped the new buyer had a kid around Lucy’s age who she could play with since it seemed his daughter hadn’t made many friends at her new school. That was about as much thought that he’d given to the new potential neighbors until that afternoon.
When Lucy had first come running into the house, telling him that he had to help carry some furniture, his first reaction was “Fuck, no.” But one look at his daughter’s sparkling eyes and he was out of the chair. Animal snapped off the football game, grabbed a couple of screwdrivers and his work gloves, and followed Lucy out the door.
The china cabinet stood out like a sore thumb, and as Animal had walked toward it, a shot of lust buzzed through him after he’d seen Olivia bent over, her killer ass facing him. For a split second he just stood there and admired the view, then Lucy tugged on his arm and snapped him out of his sexual fog. But when she’d straightened and turned around from the piece of furniture, Animal hadn’t expected her to be such a knockout, and if Lucy hadn’t been in his life, he would’ve laid it on thick. Animal was on his best behavior even though he’d stolen a couple of long sideways glances toward her as he worked on taking the cabinet apart.
And,damn, if she wasn’t a looker with long dark-chocolate brown hair that would make any man long to wrap the tresses around his hands, green eyes the color of spring leaves on an aspen tree, and a pert nose that twitched when she’d pretended not to have checked him out, which had been often. And her lips.Fuck.They had him betting they were as soft as they looked. Her full tits, which made a groan rumble up from his chest and get stuck in his throat, a small waist, and rounded hips filled out the package quite nicely.
Animal kicked his feet off the table and put the empty beer bottle on top of it. Ever since Lucy had come to live with him, he’d been as good as a fucking choirboy, and he couldn’t afford to blow it, especially with the tempting next-door neighbor. Lucy was his focus now. She was his daughter and she deserved his care and attention. Her bitch-of-a-mom had abandoned her, and Animal knew Lucy was hurting something awful because of it; he had to try and ease her pain—to make her whole again. And pretty Olivia was a dangerous distraction he didn’t need.
Animal pushed up from the couch and glanced at the time: 6:30 p.m. He smoothed back his hair, climbed the stairs to Lucy’s room, then knocked on her door.
“What?” A thread of irritation wove through her soft voice.
He turned the knob and swung the door open. Lucy sat cross-legged on the bed with her eyes fixed on the television screen, a black control in her hands.
“You kicking ass?” he asked, entering the room.
A small shrug. “I guess.”
“How ’bout getting some dinner?”
Another shrug. “I guess.”
Animal wiped the corners of his mouth with his thumb and index finger. “Whaddya feel like?”
Another damn shrug.Fuck!
“Work with me, kiddo. Do you wanna go out or order in?”
Lucy paused the game then turned toward him, her eyes narrowed, her body tense. “Why don’t you know how to cook?”
He jerked his head back. “Never had to do it. I’ve lived at the club since I patched in twelve years ago.”
“So we’re gonna have pizza all the time?”
“Guess that’s the plan until you’re old enough to cook. Now, what the hell do you wanna eat?”
“I don’t care.” Lucy turned away and restarted the game.
His stomach hardened as he watched her grip the control. “You gotta give me a fuckin’ break here,” he said, scrubbing a hand over his face. “I know this is hard for you, but I’m tryin’ to find the way for us, you know?”
Lucy didn’t say a word, her gaze still glued to the screen as her fingers pushed various buttons on the game device.
“Just fuck it,” Animal muttered under his breath as he stalked out of the room and walked down the hall to his bedroom.
Perched on the edge of the bed, he tapped in his sister’s phone number and stared out the window at the snowflakes that had begun to fall.
“Hey, Jada,” he said.
“Hey. How’re you and Lucy doing?”
