Love's Game (LarssonSiblingSeries#5)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

OLIVE

I don't like Aaron. In fact, saying I don't like him is an understatement. I can't stand him. I tried to be understanding of his brash behaviour, putting it down to him settling down in a new place, but then his behaviour only got worse making me believe he's more than a little homesick - he's an arsehole.

Turning the television up, I try to block out the obscene noises coming from Aaron's bedroom. It's verging on disgusting and I know it's going to disturb me for a while. It's just plain disrespectful considering there's two more people living in this apartment. Not just him.

My coat lands on my lap along with Sed's dog lead, a frowning Dexter standing next to the arm of the sofa. "Come on, we're getting out of here."

I pull a face. "Thank god."

Clipping on Sed's lead, I follow Dexter out of the apartment and towards the staircase. We could take the lift, but the stairs are good exercise and Sed enjoys to leap down them. Dexter speeds off, encouraging the dog to pull out of my hand, so I let go, knowing he'd grab on to my boy as soon as they passed.

And he does, right away. I try to catch up. "I vote that we ditch Aaron."

Dexter keeps hold of Sed at the bottom step and waits for me to hurry my bum up. "We can hardly chuck the bloke out for having sex."

"Every day and most nights," I respond.

"Still," he lets out a long sigh, "It's not a good enough reason and he's tied into our contract too. I'm going to have to set up some rules or something."

I laugh. "I doubt he'd even read them."

"True," he snickers.

We stop by the reception to let an old couple by us when I say, "Can he even read?"

Dexter snorts, "Savage, Liv."

And there he goes again with the nickname. I struggle to stop my heart from pumping a little faster. I like it. In a weird way, it makes me feel special.

I let Dexter keep hold of the dog as we come out of the apartment complex and cross the road to the park opposite until Dexter releases him. Sed bounds over to two dogs who're play fighting near the big oak tree but then gets sidetracked by a bird that lands near the water fountain and takes off in that direction.

"That dog gets crazier every day," Dexter says, stopping to watch Sed run circles around the water fountain.

"You haven't seen nothing yet. You wait until he sees snow. Then he turns crazy," I respond, letting out a high-pitched whistle which gets ignored.

Dexter calls out to Sed and to my surprise my dog follows after us when we head towards the wooded area. "Come on, boy!" he shouts again, looking behind him to check his command worked.

I frown. "My dog listens to you more than me."

Dexter laughs, "Of course he does. I'm the master."

Snatching the lead from his hand, I let out a long-winded huff, "I think you'll find that I'm his master."

To prove a point, he puts two fingers inside his mouth and breathes out to whistle and to my mortification, my dog's ears prick on end as he comes bounding over here. Little traitor. As if he's listening to Dexter now. They've known each other five minutes!

"There's my lad," Dexter says, messing around with the fur on Sed's neck.

I frown at Sed's relaxed open mouth, knowing he's enjoying the attention. "Don't forget who buys your food, Sed."