Twist My Heart by Brooke Taylor (ebook audio reader .txt) 📕

folded his arms over his chest. “So…what is this, anyway?”

“Leave it alone,” Leo cautioned from the bar chair he’d taken.

“No, I won’t leave it alone. Nik brought some…woman with a dog home,” he said as he rolled his eyes. “We need to discuss this.”

Frustration whipped through me. “Why does everyone think I’m a hooker with a dog?”

A wide smile split Coop’s rugged features. “My God, priceless, Steele!”

His bulky frame collapsed sideways on the couch as he erupted in laughter, gasping so hard it looked painful.

Nik clasped my hand, his thick fingers threading between mine and locking down. I wasn’t sure if he meant to comfort me or restrain me. But I needed both.

“No one thinks you’re a hooker with a dog, Thea.”

“You said Dylan did. What does Coop mean by ‘woman with a dog’, then?” I asked, emphasizing the incredulous way he’d said the words.

“Who the fuck is Dylan?” Coop sputtered as he righted himself, still not quite composed from his hysteria fit.

“Dylan is… You know what, never mind. Thea, Coop wasn’t giving you shit, he was giving me shit. We do that. We’re jackasses that way. He’s naturally skeptical because he knows I don’t normally bring women nor their pets to my house. End of story.”

“End of story? Already? And me without my happy ending.” Coop spread his heavy arms across the back of the couch as he resumed his critical appraisal of us. “Speaking of lack of happy endings, after you texted me you weren’t coming, I checked your surveillance and caught the world’s strangest and yet most boring porn.”

Leo slapped a hand over his mortified expression. “Jesus, Coop!”

I didn’t quite follow, but from the way Nik’s grip tightened painfully down on my hand and his eyes cut sharply to what appeared to be a security camera in the corner of the room, I pieced it together. Coop had watched us? Seen me? Memories of Nik carrying me, my cold naked body pressed to his bare chest, and our first kiss on the couch, flooded back to me. Between the towels and blankets most of my body had been covered. I hoped. But more than catching a flash of my ass or boob, it pissed me off Coop had invaded such an intimate moment.

Nik dropped my hand, his fingers curling into a fist and his jaw clenching hard. For once the kill flex wasn’t directed at me. “Don’t worry, I’ll be taking you off my security system immediately.”

Coop eyed him with boredom. “Please do. I hadn’t realized I’d subscribed to the Lifetime Supply of Tampax channel when I set it up.”

“For what it’s worth, she beat your ice bath record.”

I cringed, not wanting any reminders of my stupidity or why I’d done it, but damn if Coop’s eyes didn’t cut right through me as he asked, “Trying to kill yourself?”

“What the hell, Coop? Seriously?” Leo snapped again, shaking his head in disgust. “I apologize for my brother, Thea. He has no manners.”

No shit.

“Don’t even act like I’m the one being the asshole, here.” Coop jerked his feet off the table and leaned forward, propping his forearms on his knees as he stared at Nik. “You flat-out lied. To me. We had plans.”

“Then take it up with me and stop being shitty to Thea.” Nik’s tone was a firm command and the subtext clear.

The two men’s eyes locked with intensity, leaving the rest of the great room in a blur of tension. I half expected them to go after each other again. This time I planned to aim the Squatch Knocker at Coop’s head.

Nik scrubbed his jawline, pushing his palm to the back of his neck with agitation. “I shouldn’t have lied to you, but it’s complicated.”

“Well fucking simplify it and fast.” Coop’s brooding stare cut across the room, avoiding me before it dropped on Titan, neutralized. “Sprechen sie Deutsch? Pooch?”

The strange sounds confused me momentarily, before I recognized he was speaking another language, or rather, asking my dog if he spoke another language.

“Hey, hey, rinde.”

At the command for speak, Titan let out a sharp, single bark, his focus intent on Coop.

“You do! Kommen.”

Titan approached Coop at the come command.

“Braver hund!”

Wagging his tail at the praise, Titan scooted closer to Coop, letting out a whimper as he step climbed his front paws up on Coop’s thigh. To my shock, Titan poked him hard in the head with his snout.

Fearing Coop might punish my dog, I called out, “Titan, no! Off.”

Leo shifted uncomfortably, still uneasy about Titan nearly attacking him and now possibly his brother. Coop, unfazed, maneuvered Titan off him, all the while rubbing, patting him, whispering into his ear.

“I’m sorry! I’ve never seen him do that.”

As Coop pulled back, he put his finger over his lips as if shushing Titan.

“He’s fine. Just getting to know me.” To Titan, he cooed, “My girl spoke Dutch. You want to see her? This is Alley Cat.”

Coop took his phone out and flashed the screen at Titan. I stared at the exchange. Was Coop really sharing secrets with my dog? Showing Titan pictures? Baby talking to him?

From the short distance I could make out the screenshot of Coop in full military gear with a dog marked similarly to Titan. Her body was much leaner with sharper lines in her facial structure. The dog’s breed, Belgian Malinois, flashed into my consciousness.

“Wasn’t she pretty? She was the smartest, bravest girl. Saved our asses more times than I can count.” He kissed his fingertip and touched the screen before clicking it off and giving Titan’s scruff a good scratching shake.

“We’re gonna be good buddies, huh, boy?” He turned to me, his friendly expression gone. “Do you speak German, too?”

I’d understood the foreign words he’d spoken to Titan, but feared I wouldn’t be able to speak them. Not wanting to give away my amnesia, I shot him a wry smile, my eyes meeting his full-on. “If I do, will we be good buddies?”

Coop rattled off a few words in the foreign language. I roughly understood them