Beware of Dog most definitely brings the Fearless vibes. In fact, in the early stages, before I'd even started writing Lord Have Mercy, I decided I wanted it to be a new, and unique spin on the original. There's an age gap. There's a bodyguard/charge dynamic. It's friends to lovers, and soulmates, and presents the sort of relationship that looks odd from the outside, but which makes total sense to the two participants.
There are plenty of differences, though, to make this its own, standalone story. Shep and Cass's age different is actually larger than Mercy and Ava's, but Shep didn't meet her when she was eight and he certainly doesn't have any sense of having helped "raise" her, like Mercy did with Ava. Mercy and Ava work so well because Ava was mature for her age, and Mercy had a certain level of immaturity thanks to his situation. Shep's immature in a different way; he's an asshole, to be honest, but as the book unfolds, it starts to become clear that he is very badly starved of love, and that his sibling-like banter and no-boundaries friendship with Cass is the only way he can accept that love.
Like Ava, Cass is struggling with living in two worlds. One of the key differences here, and which is something Shep expresses to her, is that Shep isn't, in his own words, a martyr. He's not going to walk away just because he thinks she'd be better off without him.
This has turned into a very fun project. Easily my favorite Dartmoor romance. I can't wait to share it soon!
Lost in her own spiral, she didn’t notice at first that Shep was studying the page with great concentration, squinting a little in a way that pressed lines at the outer corners of her eyes. He needed to start using reading glasses, she thought.
“This is really good,” he said, after a beat. Straightened the board with a careful touch at the very corner. “Like…really good.”
“Thanks,” she said, feeling awkward.
“It looks realistic, you know? Not like that normal comic book shit.”
“Aaaand, you ruined it.” She sighed, and returned to the edge of the bed. “Why are you here, Shep? I’m not supposed to have boys in my dorm.”
“You don’t,” he said, easily, and dragged out the desk chair to sit facing her, closer than he would have been than if he’d sat on Jamie’s bed. He kicked out his leg and thumped the toe of his boot into hers. Grinned. “You have a man in your dorm.”
