Beautifully Decadent (Beautifully Damaged Book 3) by L.A. Fiore Page B

unexpected and nosey women that we are.”
    “I enjoyed it.”
    “Us too.” Darcy waved, as did Emily. Ember gave me a half hug before lifting Faith into her arms. Faith reached over and touched my cheek, her little fingers so soft and then she said, “Pretty.”
    My heart melted.

Resting against the tree at the back of Rafe’s property, I pondered my wardrobe for my night out at Allegro. I couldn’t wait to get out and socialize; I was feeling a bit stir-crazy and, if I was being honest, lonely. I had known it was going to be lonely coming here, but I didn’t realize how lonely. Jess had been so close that we visited each other all the time and even being closer to Nat now, with her schedule I couldn’t just pop over like I used to with Jessica.
    I liked that Rafe’s friends had been by to check out his new tenant, more for his benefit than mine—wouldn’t want a crazy person living within reaching distance—but to be included…yeah, I was definitely looking forward to the evening. Loki and I had just taken our walk and after, we usually sat for a bit outside as I enjoyed the quiet and he the sun on his coat. And it was while we sat there, that I pondered Rafe’s neighborhood. It was seriously swanky, and remembering that Trace had said Rafe had purchased the white elephant, a description that no longer applied, what did Rafe’s neighbors’ homes look like if this place was the white elephant? How often did an average Joe like me get to see multi-million dollar homes? It was hard to see the houses on our walks because they were all set back from the street and, like Rafe’s, cleverly concealed. Maybe I could see through the foliage along the fence to the neighbor on the other side. But even peering through a section of the fence where the vegetation wasn’t as dense I still couldn’t see through to the neighbors. Glancing at the height of the fence, I was sure I could scale it. How hard could it be? I mean, who would know? A quick climb up, a look over and no one would be the wiser. Reaching through the plants to the metal fence they concealed, I was about to start up when Loki barked.
    Looking back at him, he cocked his head at me but I hadn’t a clue why he barked.
    “I just want to see. I’ll only be a second.”
    He barked again.
    I put my finger to my mouth. “If you bark, you’re going to draw attention. I don’t want the neighbors knowing I’m sneaking a peek.”
    I wanted to believe that he understood me because when I turned back to the fence, he didn’t bark. Unlike the front of the house where the fence was a fancy, black wrought iron, the back fence was chain link. Getting a good grip, I started up. It was far easier than I thought it would be, but I wasn’t congratulating myself for long. I felt resistance as I attempted to move higher and twisted my head around to see that my sweats were caught on a broken tree branch. I wasn’t just caught, the branch was digging into my flesh and at the angle it was stabbing me, if I dropped to the ground it’d likely go through skin. I tried moving horizontally with the hope that the branch would pull free, but my feet didn’t have great purchase with the links as small as they were, so I attempted to wiggle my butt to loosen the hold the branch had on me, but it wouldn’t budge.
    Loki started barking again, which was totally okay with me since I was close to doing my own yelling. The metal started cutting into my fingers; the sharp branch was stabbing me in the ass and my arms were beginning to tremble from trying to hold myself up.
    And then I heard the back door slam shut, the sound of heavy footsteps, as if someone was running. Of course, because why wouldn’t Rafe witness this humiliation?
    “What the hell are you doing?” For obvious reasons, he sounded annoyed.
    It was clear what I was doing, I was spying on the neighbors, but since he asked a stupid question, I gave him a stupid answer.
    Turning my head, I was greeted to the sight