Meeting His Match (A Match Me Novel) (Entangled Lovestruck) by Katee Robert

three, four, five.”
    “Stop it!” She slapped his wrist.
    “Six, seven.” He moved to her hip. “Eight. Nine.”
    “Oh my God.” She flopped back to the bed. “This is humiliating.”
    “I disagree.” He kissed her thigh. “Ten.”
    “What happened to my being in charge?”
    “That was then. Eleven.” He kissed her other thigh. “This is now. Twelve. Thirteen.” He moved higher, licking the spot where thigh met hip. “Oh look—”
    A howling echoed through the house. Caine glared at the door. “That damn dog is a nuisance.”
    “Something’s wrong. She wouldn’t freak out over nothing.” Addison wiggled out of his grip and grabbed his dress shirt. Before he got his boxers on, she had the damn thing mostly buttoned up and her panties back in place. He wanted to enjoy the view of her in his shirt, her pale skin wonderfully contrasted with the dark blue fabric, but she was already out the door and gone. He cursed and yanked on his pants. If there was something wrong, the idiot woman was rushing headlong into trouble.
    He heard her talking and picked up his pace, hurrying down the stairs, and broke into a run when a male voice spoke, too. He skidded around the corner and nearly hit the wall. When he saw the scene in the formal living room, he kind of wished he had. He scrubbed his hand over his face, but it didn’t change.
    There was his father on the floor, pinned in place by the giant mop dog, with four puppies in his face, yipping. And there was a half-naked Addison, trying to reason with the dog. Caine took a deep breath and marched into the room. “Dad, I’m sorry.”
    Addison whipped around so fast, she almost fell. “Did you just say dad ?”
    “Get this beast off me this instant.”
    She spun back around. “I’m so sorry! Gollum, get off of him. This is your grandpa, not a bad man.” Gollum didn’t look too impressed, but when Addison snagged her collar, she let herself be urged off her prey. Caine didn’t think he’d seen his old man quite so out of sorts in his entire life. His father struggled to his feet, his black suit rumpled beyond repair. He glared at Addison, but she was too busy ushering the parade of dogs out the back door to notice.
    When he turned that look on Caine, he knew he was in trouble. “What’s going on here?”
    A thousand excuses and plausible reasons for this tripped over themselves to get out of his throat. It had been like this ever since he could remember. His father would pin him with one of those looks, and he’d do whatever it took to make things right, no matter who was at fault. It had gotten to the point where all he did was make his father happy, no matter the cost. It’s how he had ended up in the position he was now, CEO of McNeill Enterprises. He didn’t necessarily regret that decision, but it was hard to love it when he hadn’t really had a choice.
    His father looked at Addison again. “Who is that?”
    Before he could think up a good response to that—telling his father that she was his matchmaker would just open up a can of worms he wasn’t ready to deal with—she smiled and offered her hand. “I’m Addison St. Claire. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Trust her to handle the situation as if his father hadn’t just basically caught them in bed together.
    He looked at her outstretched hand like it was covered in muck, but he had too much of the South in him to ignore the courtesy of a handshake. He let go as soon as politely possible, and Caine didn’t miss the way he wiped his hand on his pants. Christ. He stepped between them before his father said something unforgivable. “What can I help you with, Dad?”
    “Your secretary said you were on a date.” He didn’t quite peer around Caine, but he looked like he wanted to. “I thought for sure you’d be home by now. I didn’t expect you to have company .” The way he said it made it sound like she was a two-bit hooker.
    He had to get him out of here—the sooner the better.