Page 3
Author: Bella Andre
How, she wondered, did he manage to make her job sound quite so filthy? Deciding not to dignify his obnoxious comment with a reply, she didn’t even break stride.
At least until he said, “Forget something?”
Darn it. She’d been hoping to make a quick getaway while he was distracted by tiny bikinis and spray-on tans.
Steeling herself for the confrontation—and for looking at him again without reacting like a teenage girl hit with her first burst of hormones—Heather turned around slowly. “I heard you yelling earlier. We both know you’re not interested in having a puppy. ” She looked down at the fluff in her arms, deceptively innocent as it snored softly. “Especially one that can be so playful. ”
He crossed the distance between them and she had to fight the urge to take a step back. “I’ll get one of those crates for it for the next couple of weeks. ”
Heather didn’t stop the snarl from erupting from her lips. “You use a crate for specific training purposes, not to imprison a dog all day. ” She should have just turned and walked away from him, but she had to know. “Why would you get a puppy if you don’t even want one?”
“My seven-year-old niece-to-be dumped her on me this morning, to take care of while she’s on vacation. She’ll crucify me if anything happens to it. ” She was surprised to see a hint of fear hit his eyes. “I remember just how vicious my little sisters could be when I made them mad. ”
Even as she tried to steel herself against liking anything about this man, she couldn’t miss the deep affection in his voice as he spoke about the women in his life. She shouldn’t care how good-looking he was, or how electric it had felt when he’d taken her hand or held her to keep her from falling.
And she certainly shouldn’t care if he had a soft spot for seven-year-old girls and little sisters.
Still, it explained why he wasn’t the least bit equipped to deal with a puppy. Heather sighed as she realized that perhaps walking away from him with his puppy in tow wasn’t going to be quite as easy as she’d thought.
“Damn it,” he said, his eyes darkening as he suddenly squatted down and ran one hand over her thigh.
She jumped back. “What are you doing?”
“You’re bleeding. ” He looked incredibly pissed off by this fact. “What the hell were you doing crawling in there in shorts?”
“Saving the dog you lost,” she shot back at him, even as a part way down deep inside warmed at the fact that he even cared about her skinned knees. . . not to mention the shockingly seductive feel of his hands on her skin.
She’d been taking care of herself for so long that she couldn’t remember the last time someone had worried about her.
“Come inside the shop and I’ll clean you up. ”
The thought of him touching her again had her swallowing hard. She’d always thought there was something so sexy about a mechanic’s hands. The fact that they were so skilled at building and fixing things made it difficult not to wonder what else those hands were good at.
No!
She knew better than to wonder something like that about this mechanic. Talented hands did not make the man, unfortunately.
“You should get back to the models. I can take care of it myself. ”
But judging by the look on his face, for a moment she thought he was going to pick her up and carry her over to the garage against her will. Instead, he said, “You hurt yourself saving my dog. It’s my fault you’re bleeding. Let me take care of you—” He stopped, cursing softly. “You saved my dog and I don’t even know your name. ”
“Heather. ”
“Heather. ” He held the seven letters on his tongue as if he was savoring them, and she was held spellbound despite herself. “That’s a pretty name. I’m Zach. ”
It shouldn’t have felt so intimate just to tell him her name. But when he’d repeated it in a low, husky tone, just hearing it fall from his gorgeous lips had been practically better than full-blown sex with any other man. And she definitely shouldn’t want to savor his name on her tongue, too.
“What’s the puppy’s name?”
He winced, giving her another flash of normal that was so unexpected given the perfect package it was in. “Do you really need to know?”
“Trust me, I’ve heard a lot of crazy dog names over the years. ” But something told her this one was going to take the cake. At least she hoped it would. “And you know, she might have actually come back to you if you’d called for her by name instead of ‘Dog. ’”
A muscle jumped in his jaw right before he muttered, “Cuddles. ”
Heather pressed her lips together to try to keep her giggles from erupting, but she couldn’t stop the laughter from shaking her shoulders.
* * *
There were half a dozen girls in bikinis waiting in Zach’s garage, but the woman laughing with his dog in her arms, wearing a sweaty, long-sleeved T-shirt and muddy shorts, with a messy braid trailing down her back, put them all to shame.
He couldn’t think of a time he’d ever seen eyes that color, brown with so many flecks of gold that he couldn’t look away. And, Jesus, that mouth of hers, rosy and full, made a man want to do crazy things. . . like grab the puppy and kiss it all over its drooly, disgusting little face for bringing Heather here today.
He’d been pissed off at Gabe and Summer for dumping the dog on him for two weeks. Now he realized he should thank them, instead.
Unlike most women, however, he could tell Heather wanted nothing to do with him. Fortunately, her dog didn’t seem to have any of the same qualms, especially when he sniffed the glazed sugar on Zach’s fingers from the donut he’d been eating for breakfast.
“Hey, mutt,” Zach said, thinking fast, “I left the rest of my donut on the counter inside. You want it?”
The huge dog’s ears twitched as if he understood, but he didn’t move. Instead, he looked up at Heather for approval.
Clearly, she was gearing up to refuse. But, man, that huge dog could play up the puppy dog eyes when he wanted to. Zach was impressed. He’d have to remember how to do that in the future.
Her dog let out a low whine and Heather finally sighed and said, “Okay, fine. Go. ” As she let go of his leash and the enormous dog loped off toward the garage, she followed him, still carrying Cuddles.
“I get that you weren’t prepared for a puppy, but I can’t leave her with you if you’re going to put her in a crate all day. She needs to understand how to stay with you so she doesn’t get hurt by something in the garage. You’re going to need to work on training her to understand your commands. And you’re going to have to do it without yelling at her. ” She shot him a hard look. “Ever again. ”
He would agree with whatever Heather said just as long as she stayed long enough for him to convince her to give him a chance. He couldn’t remember ever wanting a woman this bad, this fast.
“Hey Chase,” he told his brother, “I’ve got to call off the shoot. ”
The models looked at his brother in confusion and Chase told them to take five before saying, “Chloe is going to have the baby any day now, and then I’m out of commission for a while. You sure you want to reschedule?”
Despite her ongoing protests that she was fine, Zach was already kneeling in front of Heather and gently wiping at the open skin on her knee with an antiseptic wipe from a nearby First Aid kit.
“I’ve got to clear my schedule for puppy training. ”
“Seriously?” Heather blinked at him like he was driving on three wheels. “That’s why you’re sending everyone home? Isn’t your boss going to be mad?”
“Agnes didn’t mention my last name, did she?”
Her eyes widened with disbelief as she looked from him to the sign on the wall, then back again. “You’re the Sullivan in Sullivan Autos? This is your garage?”
“Don’t worry, I know cars a lot better than I know dogs. ”
But he knew women best of all. And, he thought as he slid a Band-Aid strip over her left knee, he couldn’t wait to get his hands on more than Heather’s knees. Because even as he cleaned and bandaged her cuts, her skin was so warm, so soft, so responsive to his touch.
After he slid another Band-Aid strip over her silky smooth skin, he held out his arms. “Now that the shoot’s off, I’m all yours to train. ”
Most women would have been pleased by the sensual undertones in his words, or would at least have blushed, but she simply glared at him with icy cool eyes.
Cuddles yawned and curled closer into her chest. What Zach wouldn’t do to be where the puppy was.
She shifted her legs out of his reach. “You can’t cancel your photo shoot. You’ll lose too much money. ” She stood up and grabbed her dog’s leash again. “Atlas, it’s time to go. ”
Damn it, she was going to leave. Panic gripped him, even though he’d only just met her, even though he could easily find another woman to have sex with. “Heather—”
She frowned as she looked down at where he was still kneeling on the cement floor. “Since you can’t keep Cuddles here while you’re—” She paused to look at the models chain smoking and talking on their cell phones in the parking lot. “—working, I’ll take her to my office. When she wakes up, she can play with Atlas until you get there for our first session. ”
She told him the address, then made a clicking sound that had her huge dog following her out of the garage with an adoring look on his furry face.
Zach understood exactly how the dog felt. One sign from her and he’d happily do the same thing.
His brother moved beside him and, together, they watched Heather leave, her long braid swinging behind her, her legs strong and tanned in her shorts.
“Who’s that?”
Zach grinned. “My new dog trainer. ”
And, hopefully, a hell of a lot more than that real soon.
Chapter Three
The afternoon sun was streaming in through Heather’s office window as she finally hung up her phone. Rubbing the back of her neck with both hands, she stretched the tight muscles. If she’d known it was going to be this much work to head up the fundraising committee for the San Francisco animal shelter or just how hard it would be to convince potential donors to give to their worthy cause. . .
Well, she would have signed up for the job anyway. But at least she might have been better prepared for it. Fortunately, the big fundraising events were both this weekend, and then she could lie in a bath with her eyes closed and a very big glass of wine as long as she wanted to.
But for right now, coffee would make everything better. And maybe a couple of those chocolate truffles she had told her assistant Tina to throw away.
She got up from behind her computer and Atlas and Cuddles both yawned as she walked past. “Don’t let me interrupt your naps,” she told them.
They’d played together all day and she was impressed that Zach’s dog had only had a couple of accidents, more from the excitement of playing with a big dog than anything else.
Atlas immediately plopped his big head back on his huge dog pillow and she shot him a mock scowl as she opened the door. “Keep rubbing it in how awesome your relaxed schedule is and next time I’ll send you out to deal with every one of those companies I just called. ”
Her final words landed in a thud against a hard, male wall. “Talking to the dogs, huh?”
Heat seared her hands as she pressed them against the chest of the ridiculously gorgeous man whose low voice had just rumbled through her.
“Zach. ”
“Heather. ”
He smiled down at her, his dark eyes full of so much sensuality that she almost felt singed by nothing more than his gaze. One that seemed to promise more pleasure than she’d ever imagined.