Page 39 of Beware of Dog (Lean Dogs Legacy #6)

Shep was waiting for her, and she was so lost in her own thoughts it took her a second to notice the tension in his face. He had his helmet off, his shades pushed up into his hair, and watched her approach with a muscle flicking in his jaw.

She shifted her helmet to her other arm so she could rest a hand on his shoulder and lean in for a kiss. Even if his expression was tight, his lips were soft and welcoming.

“Hey. What’s up?”

“Okay. Don’t freak out.”

“Oh God. What?”

“We’re going to your sister’s for dinner. She, uh…” He winced. “She knows everything.”

~*~

Cass wasn’t angry with Shep. He’d expected her to be, clearly, but there was something sweet about him having crumbled: he wanted to look after her, even if that put him in an uncomfortable position. He assured her that Raven wasn’t angry, either, but that she wanted to talk to Cass.

By the time they approached the door of Raven and Toly’s flat, Cass’s heart was throbbing low in her stomach like the time she’d been called to the headmistress’s office in primary school for sticking gum in another girl’s hair.

She was going to get a lecture, and it didn’t matter how old she grew, she didn’t want one.

“It’ll be fine,” Shep assured, one last time, stroking her back as she let them in the door.

Yeah right.

Toly was in the kitchen, phone pressed to his ear. He tilted it away and said, “I’m ordering pizza, what do you want?” Then, to Cass, softening a fraction, “Raven’s in the bedroom.”

Cass took a deep breath, nodded, and turned that direction.

Behind her, she heard glass bottles rattling in the fridge as Shep got a beer.

“Cass likes that alfredo shit with the artichokes,” he said, failing to mention that the last time they’d ordered that, he’d inhaled more than half the pizza without complaint and licked the grease off his fingers afterward.

“Oh yeah, Raven too,” Toly said.

The door to the main bedroom was ajar, and Cass eased it open with a push, lingering on the threshold.

Raven was on the bed, the coverlet folded back, sitting up against the upholstered headboard in a black tracksuit, nursing Natalia.

Raven was gazing down at the baby, stroking her soft little cheek, expression reverent.

She lifted her head when the door opened, and the softness didn’t leave her face as she gazed upon Cass.

“Hello, darling,” she said, quietly, and tipped her head to the empty space beside her, the half of the bed that must be Toly’s. “Come join me.”

Cass stood rooted. “I know what you’re going to say, and none of it will change my mind.”

Raven’s brows flicked, mild curiosity. “Oh? You know what I’ll say?”

Cass folded her arms, cold with nerves. “You’re going to say that I’m too young, and he’s too old.

That I’m too inexperienced to know what or who I really want, and that I shouldn’t tie myself down so soon.

That I should go out and see the world, and travel, and date boys my own age.

You’re going to say that being a Lean Dog’s old lady is a burden, which is completely hypocritical because you’re a Lean Dog’s old lady, but you’ll probably say something about you being old enough, and ready enough, and wealthy enough to handle that burden.

You’re going to say that Shep is an asshole, and he is, but he’s my asshole, and he’s very good to me, and I love him dearly, and…

” She trailed off when Raven smiled, tired and fond. “What?”

“Cassandra,” Raven said, so warm and loving it immediately put tears in Cass’s eyes. “Come sit down, darling.”

Cass toed off her boots and climbed into bed at her sister’s side, close enough their arms pressed together.

Raven was warm, and smelled of Chanel No.

5 and milk. The sheets, when Cass settled, smelled like that, too, and a whiff of men’s deodorant.

She had the absurd sense of experiencing something novel that she’d never had the chance to do as a little girl: climbing into her parents’ bed.

There had only ever been Mum and Raven, Dad a thrilling visitor, like Santa Claus.

Raven said, “Shep came to see me today. He told me all about Jamie.”

“Ugh.”

“Yes, we’ll get to that. And all about you and him. He shouted at me about that, actually.” She chuckled. “He said I’d have to shoot him to keep him away from you.”

“Oh.” Cass couldn’t deny that warmed her insides to hear.

Nat was growing sleepy. Raven shifted her around, tugged her shirt back into place, and lifted the baby onto her shoulder to be burped. “Did I ever tell you about that man I dated for a while in London? Charles?”

Cass shook her head, bemused by the non-sequitur.

“I had to call him Charles,” Raven continued, “and never Charlie, thanks to our Charlie.”

“That’d be twisted.”

“Yes. So I called him Charles. He was very handsome. Very patrician; well-dressed, and perfectly-groomed. He had flawless manners. I took him to all sorts of events and he performed like a Thoroughbred. Everyone told me he was a keeper and that I should hold onto him.

“The first time we shagged—”

“Uh,” Cass said, because they’d never been those kinds of sisters before.

“Oh no,” Raven said, grinning while she patted the baby’s back. “You’re a grown woman now, we can talk like girlfriends. Besides, there’s no way you’re sleeping with that man and are still bashful.”

Cass felt her face heat, but nodded.

“The first time,” she said, “he unzipped my dress, and brushed my hands away when I went to touch him. He wanted me to lie flat on my back on the bed, and he didn’t even attempt foreplay. We were like two planks banging together at the lower halves.”

Cass snorted. “Oh my God!”

“It was dreadful! Utterly bloodless. It was worse than a pelvic exam! My friends thought I was insane when I dropped him. ‘You have a go,’ I told them. ‘See if he knows what a clitoris is.’”

Cass giggled. “Charles was not a keeper, I take it.”

“ No ,” Raven agreed. “And then there was Henri.”

“I don’t remember a Henri.”

“That was when I spent the summer in Paris.”

“Ah.”

“He was an artist. Lovely boy. Long hair, and this little patchy beard, and tattoos on his wrists. He painted me, and we ate fresh figs from the garden of the house where he was staying.”

“Not another plank, I take it.”

“No. It was very good. A little soft, but.” Raven shook her head, mouth curving downward, and Cass could tell that her fond memories of Henri weren’t all that fond.

“We were walking along the Seine one night, hand-in-hand. There was a festival on, and all these lights, and crowds, and happy couples strolling. A man stepped in front of us with a knife, and demanded our valuables.”

“You were robbed?”

“Yes. And what did Henri do? He shoved me at the man. He made me a bloody human shield!”

“Christ.”

“Henri may have been a talented lover, and an even more talented artist, but he wasn’t a man.

Not like I wanted, deep down. When the situation turned dangerous, he was a frightened mouse.

” She tipped her head back against the headboard to give Cass a serious look.

“No one puts a sign in their yard proclaiming ‘Beware of Artist.’”

Cass swallowed hard.

“All those times I urged you to find a boy at school…that was wrong of me. I wanted your life to be simpler and safer, but I’ve never felt safer than I do with Toly.

If you’d had a Henri of your own, I would have worried constantly.

When you’re out there in the city with Shep at your back, I don’t ever worry.

I know he’d rip the throat out of anyone who raised a hand to you. ”

Cass nodded, eyes starting to sting again. “I know that it—it probably seems like he’s…I don’t know, taking advantage. That he’s preying on me or something. But it’s not like that. We’re friends .”

“I know you are.”

“He really does love me.”

“Oh, sweetheart.” Raven lifted her hand from Natalia’s back and wiped a tear from Cass’s cheek. “I know he does. He loves you desperately.”

Cass could only shake her head, marveling that Raven could know . That she could believe .

Raven sighed. “I’m not sure he even knew himself, or that it was that sort of love, at first. I watched him watch you for a long time, and I told myself it was just as you’d said: friends.

He’s not the most charming of the bunch, I know.

But you gave him a soft place to land. But at Christmas, that’s when I knew for sure.

Remember those headphones he gave you? The ones with the little cat ears on top? ”

“Yeah.” They were currently resting on the nightstand back at the club flat. Back home.

“The look on his face when you opened them. When you smiled.” Raven glanced toward the ceiling and blew out a breath, as though bowled over. “Christ. It was staggering.”

Cass wished now that she’d been watching him, that she’d seen it for herself.

“My point is,” Raven said. “There’s a part of me that wishes you’d chosen an easier road…but I know that we don’t always pick our roads that way. The heart wants what it wants.” Her lips twitched sideways into a smile. “You always wanted a Dog, didn’t you?”

“I always wanted someone to love me for who I am,” Cass corrected, and Raven blinked, her eyes filling.

“Well done, then, darling. That’s exactly what you have.”

Overwhelmed, Cass laid her head down on Raven’s shoulder and they sat in comfortable silence until Nat burped and could be laid down on the mattress at Raven’s hip.

“How’re the boys going to take it?” Cass asked, meaning their brothers.

“Truth told, I’m not sure. They handled Toly much better than I expected, but then again…”

“I’m the baby.”

“Yes. I’m afraid so. But don’t fret over it. I’ll pave the way. And he might earn himself a black eye for mouthing off, but Shep won’t have trouble standing up for himself.”

Cass grinned. “No, he won’t.”

“He’s going to make a complete ass of himself at the Met.”

“Oh, absolutely.”

Raven sighed, but then her voice turned sly. “So. Is he good in bed?”