by Lori Wilde
“So you just like tough he-man types, then?”
“No.”
He chuckled, the sound deep and masculine. “I’m confused, Erin. You don’t like strong Alpha guys. You don’t like tender Beta guys. What else is left?”
“No guys.” When he raised one eyebrow, she hurriedly added, “I mean, I like men. I’m just not interested in men at the moment.”
“Ah.” He glanced over at Brutus, who was happily chasing his tail, then looked back at her. “That whole ‘left at the altar thing,’ right?”
“Yes.”
He nodded, then slowly smiled. “Tell me, when you are interested in men, which kind do you prefer?”
They were on dangerous ground, and she knew it. Flirting with Trent wasn’t smart, but she didn’t seem to be able to stop herself. The man had charm to spare.
“I’m not sure. I don’t think I have a preference,” she said, her gaze tangled up with his.
“Sure you do. Alpha guys are way different from Beta guys. They talk differently. Act differently.” His gaze dropped to her lips. “Kiss differently.”
Uh-oh. Danger. Warning. Erin sternly told herself to tell Trent this conversation was over. She needed to head home and was through flirting with him.
Unfortunately, even though that was what she told herself to say, what she actually said was, “They do?”
He nodded. “Oh, yeah.” Before she could react, he slipped his arms around her waist. “Alpha guys just go for it. Like this.”
Even though she was braced for the kiss, she was in no way prepared for it. Because this was one heck of a kiss. Firm, thorough, and completely devastating. Erin quickly found herself slipping her arms around Trent’s neck and kissing him back.
When he finally shifted his lips away from hers, she barely resisted the impulse to protest.
“Now see a Beta guy wouldn’t act like that,” he said, and Erin was thrilled to note his voice was raspy with desire.
“He wouldn’t?”
“No. He’d ask first. Something like, ‘mind if I kiss you?’”
“Not at all,” she said, even though his question hadn’t truly been directed to her. But Trent didn’t quibble. Instead, he kissed her. Slowly. Gently. Tenderly.
It was every bit as amazing as the first kiss had been, and once again, Erin slipped her arms around his neck and kissed him back.
This time, when he ended the kiss, they were both breathless. He leaned his forehead against hers.
“So which did you like better?” he asked.
She no more could choose than she could say which leg she liked better. And speaking of legs, both of hers were more than a little wobbly at the moment.
“They were both...” Amazing. Wonderful. Arousing.
She cleared her throat. “Fine.”
He chuckled again, obviously knowing she was lying. But he didn’t call her on the lie. Instead, he said, “Glad you liked them.”
Then before she could muster even a faint argument about how they shouldn’t have kissed at all, Trent dropped his arms and stepped back.
He whistled, and Brutus slowly trotted over to join them. “Guess it’s getting late.”
“It is?” She blinked, mentally shook herself, then said firmly, “It is. I need to head home.” She took a couple of steps toward the house, then reality forced her to turn to face him. “I guess we should talk about those kisses.”
“Decided which one you liked best?” He grinned. “Personally, I thought they both had their own advantages.”
“That’s not what I mean,” she said. “I mean we should talk about why we shouldn’t have kissed at all, not which kiss was the best.”
“Oh, that. Yeah, well, since our kissing this time was simply a research project, I wouldn’t worry about it. There was nothing personal involved.”
He was so full of hooey Erin didn’t know how he could stand himself. But then, his plan of calling the kisses a research project offered her the perfect out. They could skip the whole “you shouldn’t have kissed me” thing and go on with their lives.
Worked for her.
“Fine. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow night at Brutus’ lesson.”
He nodded. “You bet.”
Figuring there wasn’t a thing left to say, she opened the back door and was all set to go inside to get her purse when Trent said, “Hey, Erin.”
She stopped but didn’t look at him. “Yes?”
“Whoever said research is tedious never met you.”
Erin laughed and kept on walking. The sooner she put some distance between herself and Trent Barrett, the better. She was not going to fall for that flirt no matter what he did.
Trent glanced around the Wednesday night dog obedience class. Man, these pups had come a long way. Almost all of them were sitting nicely in front of their owners, patiently waiting for the class to begin. Even Delia’s dog, who was one of Brutus’ sisters, was acting like an absolute angel for the older woman and her grandson.
All the dogs were well behaved. Except Brutus. As usual, he was flopped half on one of Trent’s shoes, chomping away at the laces.
Dang furball. For the record, he was not Trent’s best friend.
“Cut it out,” Trent growled at the dog, nudging him with his foot. Brutus wagged his tail and went back to chewing.
“Good behavior is about a lot more than knowing what to do when,” Erin told the class as she walked by each dog and rewarded them with a pat on the head. “Good behavior is also about withstanding temptation.”
She stopped in front of Brutus, and Trent couldn’t help smiling. Yeah, neither he nor his dog seemed any good at withstanding temptation. Brutus couldn’t give up chewing shoelaces, and he couldn’t give up kissing Erin.
“Brutus, no,” Erin said in a firm, no-nonsense voice. “Sit and be still.”
To Trent’s amazement, Brutus did what she asked. He stopped chewing on the shoelace and sat.
“Well, I’ll be,” Trent said, and then without thinking, he let out a whistle.
Pandemonium broke out. All of the dogs responded to the whistle by yapping and yipping and chasing each other. Erin shot him a look of pure frustration before clapping her hands and saying, “Sit.”
All the puppies settled down. Except for Brutus, who once more returned to eating Trent’s shoelaces.
“Guess it was a short-lived victory,” Trent said.
“You shouldn’t whistle when you’re in dog school,” Delia’s nine-year-old grandson, Zach, said in that stern tone kids loved to use when correcting an adult. “Whistling makes the dogs go crazy.”
Trent winked at the kid. “Thanks for the tip.”
After first frowning at Trent, Erin smiled at Zach. “You’re right. Whistling does get the dogs riled up. I’m sure Chief Barrett won’t do it again.”
Zach beamed at her compliment, and Trent bit back a chuckle. Fine, the kid was right, and he was wrong. He was man enough to own up to his mistakes, even if they were dumb ones.
“Yeah, I’ve learned my lesson. No more whistling in class.”
This time, he was the one rewarded with one of Erin’s smiles. Man, it felt like a punch to the solar plexus. As soon as she smiled at him, the air seemed to whoosh from his lungs, and he found himself unable to look away. She must have felt the same wallop of attraction because she simply stood still, looking at him.
The memory of the kisses they’d shared the night before burned between them. Both kisses had been amazing. Trent couldn’t ever remember kissing a woman who got his blood as fired up as Erin did. Moreover, not only did he have the major hots for her, but he liked her. She was a blast to talk to, lots of fun to share a joke with, and a good sport when it came to taking guff from his family.
Yep, Erin Weber was one special lady.
“So is class over? Can we leave?”
The question came from Delia and made Erin blink and look away from Trent.
“The class?” She blinked again. “Oh, no. Class isn’t over. No
t at all. As I mentioned before, tonight we’re going to work with training your dogs to resist temptation. Your puppies will see a lot of things in life that they’ll want but cannot have. You need to train them to bypass the things that are bad for them.”
“For instance?” Zach asked.
Erin glanced at Trent, and he knew without a doubt she’d just put him in the category of things she wanted but shouldn’t have. Hey, how fair was that? He wasn’t a bad guy. He worked a regular job. Knew how to make spaghetti. Why couldn’t she have him if she wanted to?
Someone needed to have a talk with her.
Almost as if she heard him, she frowned and looked away from him. “Things that puppies need to resist are eating bugs, chasing cars, chewing on shoes.”
Trent glanced down. Sure enough, the furball was happily slobbering all over his shoelaces.
“Okay, so how do you teach temptation resistance? It’s difficult not to give in to the things you want.” Trent waited until Erin looked at him, then he added, “And sometimes, things that may seem bad aren’t at all. Sometimes they’re good. Very, very good.”
A light flush colored Erin’s face as she stared at him. He knew she completely understood what he was talking about.
“Sometimes things that seem good turn out to be very, very bad,” she countered slowly, her words heavy with meaning.
“Sometimes you don’t know what’s good or bad until you try it.” Trent knew the entire class was baffled by their conversation, but he couldn’t help using this chance to try to change her mind. Erin couldn’t simply blow him off when she had a room full of students. And he was absolutely certain that was what she intended on doing. She intended on telling him that the kisses shouldn’t have happened and that they were all wrong for each other.
His way of looking at the situation was a lot simpler—what was the harm in having a little fun? They were adults. No one would get hurt. Why make this complicated?
More importantly, why not give in to temptation?
Erin obviously didn’t share his sentiment. She took a step closer to him and said slowly, “I don’t need to get hit by a freight train to know it would hurt. Therefore, I avoid things I know are dangerous for me.”
“So we also need to teach our dogs to avoid trains, right?” Delia asked. “I think that’s a good idea. The train comes fairly close to my house, and I couldn’t stand for a tragedy to happen.”
“Yes.” Erin’s gaze never moved from Trent. “Definitely avoid trains. And anything else that might cause serious harm. Better safe than sorry is a great motto to live by.”
“But a very boring way to live,” Trent couldn’t help pointing out. “Very, very boring.”
“But a whole lot less messy,” Erin countered.
He chuckled. “Yeah, but messy done right can be a whole lot of fun.”
7
Erin smiled at Delia as she and her grandson said goodnight. They were the last to leave following the lesson. Well, almost the last. Trent and Brutus had stayed behind, which didn’t surprise Erin. She and Trent needed to talk, not only about the kisses last night, but also his “a mess done right can be fun” attitude.
As soon as she shut the door to the shop, she turned to face him. “I don’t agree with your opinion when it comes to messes.”
He tipped his head. “Sure? I think the two of us messing around would be a lot of fun.”
“Very cute.” She started to walk closer to him, and then thought better of the idea. Every time she got too close to Trent, she ended up in his arms. So in an attempt to resist temptation, she decided to keep the distance of the room between them.
Seeing no reason not to be honest, she said, “I don’t want to end up hurt.”
“Then I’m the perfect guy for you. No one gets hurt in my love life ’cause no one takes it seriously. Life’s short, Erin. Why not let yourself have a little fun?” He took a couple of steps closer, so Erin moved back two steps.
“I’m not sure I can have a relationship where—”
He held up both hands. “Whoa. See that’s your first mistake. It wouldn’t be a relationship. I don’t do relationships. I was talking about dating.”
“Dating?” Had she really misunderstood his intentions that much? “Oh. I thought you were interested in...” She shrugged, feeling very self-conscious. “Other things than dating.”
He chuckled, and once again took two steps forward. Again, she took two steps back. Actually, one and a half because she bumped into the front door. Still, she was far away from him.
“Erin, hon, if the dating goes well, then those other things happen, too. But no one gets all weepy and clingy. And no one leaves the other one standing in front of the altar holding a broken heart.” He grinned and looked like the perfect picture of a lady-killer. “See how much nicer my way is? No promises. No heartaches. Clean. Simple.”
The most ridiculous thing suddenly happened to Erin. She agreed with Trent. To her complete and absolute amazement, she saw his point. She didn’t want to date a man who made her promises, ones she’d take seriously. Her heart was still healing and needed more time.
In which case, Trent really was the right guy for her at this point in her life.
What a wonderful discovery.
“I agree,” she said, returning his grin. “I can’t believe it, but you’re right. If I don’t want a man who will break my heart, then you’re perfect for me. You keep your dealings with women strictly on a shallow level. There’s no love involved. No emotion.”
“I don’t know if I’d call it shallow so much as uncomplicated. If you dated me, you’d know from the get-go that we weren’t heading to the chapel. That way you wouldn’t get all wrapped up in the why-isn’t-he-calling-me syndrome. My way is simple. We’d date for however long the two of us agreed it was fun, then we’d say adios and still remain friends.”
Erin felt like laughing. She couldn’t believe she was actually contemplating having a no-strings relationship—oops, make that a non-relationship—with Trent. But she couldn’t see the downside. They were both incredibly attracted to each other, while at the same time, they had absolutely no intention of spending the rest of their lives together. No strings definitely seemed the way to go.
“Sounds good to me,” Erin said.
This time when he took two deliberate steps forward, so did she. Grinning at each other, they each took two more steps closer. Finally, they took two more, and ended up standing toe-to-toe.
“Why, Ms. Weber, I’m so glad I bumped into you,” he said in that deep, silky voice she loved so much. “I’ve been wanting to ask you to dinner. Are you free tomorrow night?”
Anticipation hummed through Erin’s veins. “We could consider the dinner we shared last night to be our first date,” she pointed out.
His grin turned wicked. “I’m shocked. Here I thought you were the shy, retiring type when all along, you’ve been plotting to take advantage of me.”
His silliness made her smile as she slipped her arms around his shoulders. “Do you mind?”
“Not one bit,” he said. “You take advantage of me whenever you want.”
“Good. Because now seems like the perfect time.”
Trent must have agreed because he leaned down and kissed her.
Trent hadn’t expected Erin to come around to his way of thinking, but hey, he was downright thrilled. He kissed her again and again until she practically hopped on him.
“Let’s go upstairs,” she said. “Right now.” Looked like once the lady made up her mind, she saw no reason to waste time.
He was all set to follow her upstairs to her apartment when he realized he’d forgotten something. He nodded toward Brutus. “What do I do with the furball? I can’t tell him to leave us alone for a few hours.”
Erin turned to look at the puppy. “Good point. Oh, I know. He stayed with me for a couple of weeks before you adopted him—”
“Technically, I didn’t adopt him. The furball was forced on me.”
“Hey, I’m not pouting. Just pointing out a fact.”
She tipped her head. “Do you want to debate how you came to own Brutus, or do you want to go upstairs to my apartment?”
“I definitely want to go upstairs,” he told her. “I only hope you’re right about him remembering being here before. The furball likes company and is apt to drive us crazy all night if he’s unhappy.” The dimpled smile she gave him made it clear he’d divulged too much.
“Trent Barrett, do you let this puppy sleep with you?”
“Of course not. He sleeps...”
“In your room,” she said, finishing the sentence for him.
“No. He doesn’t.”
“Right outside your room, then,” she teased.
Actually, that was what he and Brutus had finally settled on. The furball had first jumped up on Trent’s bed and made himself comfy. He’d vetoed that idea, setting the pup up on a doggy bed in the family room instead. But as soon as he’d walked away, Brutus had calmly picked up his mattress and carried it into the master bedroom.
No matter how many times he’d moved the puppy out, Brutus had come trotting back. Finally, they’d settled on Brutus sleeping by the door to his room.
“To quote you, do you really want to spend any more time talking about Brutus?” Trent asked, trailing one hand from her waist to her shoulder.
Erin gave him a quick kiss, then scooped up Brutus and headed toward the stairway. “Good point. But just so you know, I think it’s adorable how much you care for this little guy. You can grumble and growl all you want, but I know you love Brutus.”
Adorable? Dang. What guy wanted the woman he could hardly wait to sleep with to find him adorable? Irresistible, sure. Sexy-as-sin, absolutely. But not adorable. He was going to have to do his best over the next few hours to get Erin to rethink her image of him.
But first, they needed to deal with the furball. Erin had a doggy bed set up in the spare bedroom, and because it hadn’t been that long since he’d slept in it, Brutus thankfully settled right down.
