Overview
When a sexy veterinarian rescues a brooding attorney, the temperature rises...
Perfectly content saving animals at her clinic in a charming but run-down neighborhood, veterinarian Ellie Blevins slams into new landlord Jackson Kincaid, who plans to turn the local buildings into condos.
Hotshot defense attorney Jackson is intrigued by the feisty Ellie and gives her one month to convince him not to put his gentrification plans into progress. Attraction soon sizzles between them, but when Jackson makes his desires known, Ellie's vulnerable heart doesn't know what to think.
She wants to trust the sinfully handsome Jackson, just as he wants to gain her trust, but finding their way to love isn't easy when her traumatic past and his criminal clients threaten to sabotage their relationship for good.
Can the enchanting veterinarian and the guarded attorney fight the ghosts of the past and build a new future?
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781913186852 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Totally Bound Publishing |
| Publication date: | 12/03/2019 |
| Series: | Rescue Me , #1 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 283 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Sara Ohlin has lived all over the United States, but her heart keeps getting pulled back to the Pacific Northwest where it belongs. For years she has been writing creative non-fiction and memoir and feels that writing helps her make sense of this crazy world. She devours books and can often be found shushing her two hilarious kids so that she can finish reading. When she isn’t reading or writing, she’ll most likely be in the kitchen cooking up something scrumptious, a French macaron, shrimp scampi, a fun date-night-in dinner with her sexy husband, or perhaps her next love story.
Read an Excerpt
Copyright © Sara Ohlin 2019. All Rights Reserved, Totally Entwined Group Limited, T/A Totally Bound Publishing.
Ellie was a soggy, soapy mess of bubbles and puppy fur. By some miracle, a few strands of her hair had survived the battle to bathe Chewie, one of the litter of four she’d found at the front door of her clinic, dirty, scrawny and huddled together in a cardboard box.
It wasn’t the first time since she’d opened her vet clinic four years ago that animals had been abandoned at the door. Once, she’d even found a lovebird waiting for her. One lovebird. Everyone knew lovebirds were a pair. Ellie couldn’t stand to see animals abandoned or put down, not if there was the slimmest chance someone could love them and give them a home.
Fortunately, these four babies would be adopted soon. Puppies always were. They were part Lab and part a whole bunch of mutt. Chewie was chocolate brown, like his namesake, and his hair was velvety and curly, more retriever-like. His shimmery brown baby eyes filled with longing every time he gazed at her. I might have to keep this one. As she poured water over him, he launched himself into her arms trying to cling to the large rubber apron she wore. Before she could disentangle him and put his butt back in the water, the bell over the front door rang. Damn! She’d meant to lock it. She kept Chewie attached to her chest with one hand, grabbed a towel to wrap around him with her other and headed out front.
Holy cow! “Can I…ah, help you?” The man stood by the front window, silhouetted by the fading evening light. Huge and gorgeous with rugged tan skin, black hair curling over his collar and the coolest blue-green eyes she’d ever seen. Ellie almost sighed, but that flash of beauty disappeared in an instant. Anger radiated from him.
“What the hell is going on, Ken?” he said into his phone, but he pierced her with his gaze.
His anger vibrated over them. Chewie started shaking in her arms and buried his head in the towel. “I’m sorry, sir, but can I help you? This is my—”
“What do I mean?” he ignored her to yell into his phone. “I’m standing here on my property that still has tenants in it. Explain!”
Sheesh. She leaned back with the force of his words. “It’s okay, baby,” she cooed to the shivering puppy in her arms. “Sir,” she called louder this time, “we’re closed right now and you’re scaring the animals. If you wouldn’t mind taking your phone call outside, I—”
He sliced his hand up to silence her.
Excuse me? She was not about to let this foul-mouthed jerk boss her around, but before she could say anything else, he hung up. “If you were closed, why was your door unlocked?”
“What?” It wasn’t merely his size or harsh tone that had her brain malfunctioning. She couldn’t keep up with his line of questioning.
“Your door,” he said, his tone singeing her. “Why would a woman like you leave her door unlocked while she’s here by herself?”
‘A woman like you?’ Ellie flinched. She didn’t even want to know what he meant by that comment. She’d spent eighteen years of her life with people putting her down. No way in hell she was going to listen to more of it, not after she’d clawed her way out of that filth so long ago. She chose to focus on only part of what he said.
“I’m not alone.” She scrubbed the soft puppy.
“Jesus.” He closed his eyes.
She certainly didn’t know what that meant. His swearing said a lot, but at the same time it didn’t really say anything.
“Would you mind not swearing?”
“Excuse me?”
“I said, would you—”
“I heard you.”
Okay, now she was getting angry. “Listen. I don’t know who you are or what you’re doing here, but, like I said, we’re closed for the evening and I need to get home. You can make an appointment or come back in the morning when we open.” God, she hoped he didn’t come back.
“You should have been closed for good a week ago. Closed and vacated.”
“What? What do you mean? This is my clinic. I signed a lease through the end of the year. That’s seven months away.”
“I know when the end of the year is.”
The man had a degree in condescending behavior. His tone, his attitude, his entire demeanor said power and money, and the tailored gray suit, black dress shirt and shoes all bragged of wealth. The way he tried to silence her with his hand in the air. She couldn’t stand people thinking they were better than everyone else. It got her hackles up. That and the way he studied her, assessing.
“I was stating the terms so you could realize your mistake and apologize for barging in here with your atrocious behavior and yelling at me.”
He stared at her again. His features transformed from a pissed-off beast to a quiet, controlled predator. As if he carefully leashed his temper, and instead saw her as a problem to be solved. His eyes were calculating. It sent a nervous tingle up her spine.
“Well?” she prompted, trying to act braver than she felt. Chewie’s heartbeat raced against hers. He wiggled to get loose from her tight hold.
“Terms have changed.” He raised an eyebrow. Those eyes of his were a mysterious blue-green, like a deep pristine lake surrounded by mountains. And when he wasn’t yelling, his voice soothed. He took a step toward her which jarred her out of her observations. She leaned back.
“What terms? Who are you?” She had to look up now. Jesus, he was well over six feet tall.
“Jackson Kincaid. I’m the new owner of this block. I’m tearing the entire thing down. Everyone was supposed to be vacated last week at the latest,” he finished, delivering the blow to her gut just when the wriggling mass in her arms threw himself onto the floor and shook his sudsy, wet puppy body all over the man. Unable to find traction on the slippery floor, the pup flopped over on his back and clung to Jackson’s pants with his tiny claws.
“Christ!” He reached down and plucked the pup up into the air, holding him away from his body.