Chapter FIVE-AVERY

Dante Bianco checked every single one of my boxes.

If I were a sculptor, he would be my very own Pygmalion come to life.

I sometimes wished I was one of those effortlessly confident women who could make men fall at their feet with barely a glance. You know the type. Tall, elegant, perfectly aware of their place in the world at the top of the totem pole.

But that wasn’t me. In fact, I was the polar opposite of whatever that was.

So naturally, I stood like a moron as he exited his truck and walked around to greet Rosie, those sturdy arms open wide for my little girl.

My mouth went dry, my thoughts silenced by the sight of him closing the space between us.

Every step seemed deliberate.

Each one a display of restrained power.

The sturdy denim of his jeans gripped his tree trunk thighs like it was barely holding together.

Stretching and yielding as if defying the laws of whatever it was that held fabric together.

Physics maybe?