Laura's Solo Honeymoon - The Ice Cream Shop Boy #1 (Erotic Romance) Read Online Free

painful minutes into the argument, the dog came padding back to the back room. Princess sat down at my feet and looked up at me, her little tongue lolling out.
    “I feel sorry for you,” I said to Princess. “Poor girl. You have to live with crazy, twenty-four seven.”
    The dog cocked her head and gave me a precious look.
    Sharise yelled out, “Princess! Get over here! Princess! You bad little bitch!”
    The dog left my feet and padded out obediently to her owner.
    Shawn said, “Don't call her that.”
    “She's a female dog. That's what they're called, stupid.”
    “Well, she's my dog too, and I say don't call her that. Don't call anyone that.”
    “It's a compliment,” she snapped at him. “Bitches get what they want.”
    “Sharise, don't be like this.”
    She started shrieking, “Fuck YOU Shawn! Why don't you go kiss your out-of-town SLUT some more! Why don't you go have your FUN and then tomorrow come CRAWLING back to me!”
    “Yes,” he said, his voice level. “I do think we should take a break from each other.”
    She made a sound like an angry howl and stomped out the door, slamming it behind her.
    In the silence that followed, I heard him sigh. Then he opened the till and counted the change he'd tried to count before.
    I smiled to myself, because he didn't know I was there. He believed my door-slam, that I'd left.
    Giggling quietly, I was reminded of playing hide-n-seek with my cousins when we were little. I'd always get so nervous, hiding in a closet behind my father's trench coats, my heart pounding in my throat whenever anyone came near, looking for me.
    What was that emotion? Fear? Excitement? Both of those make your body produce adrenaline, so being afraid and being sexually excited had a lot in common. That explained why I always wanted to make love to Lars immediately after watching a scary movie.
    I felt that same hide-n-seek excitement as I waited in the back room for Shawn to discover I was there.
    The lights went out.
    He was leaving, locking up!
    I jumped up and tripped over my foot, which had fallen asleep. I grabbed for something to steady myself and sent something, perhaps a spoon, noisily clattering across the room.
    “Hello?” he called back.
    “Shawn, it's Laura.”
    The lights came back on and he rushed through the curtain. Grinning, he said, “I almost locked you in!”
    “How terrible. I would have had to eat ice cream all night long.”
    “I'm sorry you had to hear—” he nodded toward the front “—all of that.”
    I shrugged. “It happens to all of us. The crazy. It's in everyone's lives. And all of us get a little crazy sometimes.”
    He raised his eyebrows and stared deep into my eyes. “Laura, you are the most grounded person I've ever met. You came in here, I think it was six or seven days ago, and you woke me up. You woke me up .”
    “You were sleeping?” I looked around the tiny room, which had some prep space, some sinks, and filing cabinets, but nowhere soft to sleep.
    “You woke me up, in a manner of speaking,” he said, taking me by the hands. He raised my fingers to his lips and began to nibble on them. “It's my birthday today.”
    “How old are you?”
    “Twenty-five.”
    I was confused. Had I mixed him up with his brother? They both looked so similar.
    “Just kidding,” he said. “I'm turning twenty-one.”
    “Ah. Shouldn't you be on a tour of every bar and strip club in town?”
    “If that's where you want to go, I'll take you out.” He kissed my fingers some more, then moved to my wrists. “But I'll warn you, we only have three bars, and one of them is karaoke.”
    “Sounds like fun,” I said.
    “Let's go.” He led me away from the little back room, stopped to flick off the lights, then took me out the front door and locked up behind us.
    “Had to get you out of there,” he said.
    “Why? Were you worried I was going to kiss you?”
    “Yeah. And then we would have melted all the ice cream.”
    I swatted him on the chest playfully.