My smile got even wider when the door swung open. Heath looked absolutely edible in a pair of navy blue track pants and a white wife beater. His feet were bare, something I hadn’t seen before. Like the rest of him, they were big, and I had to suppress the urge to giggle as I thought about that old saying about guys with big feet.
Heath’s expression mirrored mine. “Hey, baby, I’m glad you’re here.”
When he leaned forward, I thought he was going for one of the coffee cups perched in the cardboard tray I held. Instead, he brushed a gentle kiss over my lips.
“Come on in, and I’ll introduce you to the mutt.”
As if she took exception to that, the dog in question let out a bark.
Heath smirked. “Guess she doesn’t like that.”
I looked down at the dog. She was definitely a mutt, but she was also cute. Her coat was a warm honey color that made her brown eyes seem almost black. While she had the long body and short legs of a wiener dog, her head reminded me more of what you would see on a Chihuahua.
The dog looked back at me as though she was cataloging my features the same as I had done to her. Thankfully, she seemed to like me. I mean, she wasn’t barking or growling or anything aggressive like that.
“I’ll take our breakfast and you can say hello to Daisy.” This time, Heath did pluck the drink tray and bag of bagels from my hands. “Daisy, this is Ned. I expect you to be nice to him.”
Even though I was supposed to be making nice with his dog, I took a moment to admire the way the muscles of Heath’s ass flexed as he moved toward the kitchen. When I returned my attention to the dog, she was staring up at me. Thank God dogs couldn’t talk. I could just imagine what she would tell Heath about me.
Kneeling down, I held my hand in her direction. After taking a quick sniff, she licked my fingers and wagged her tail. I smiled, happy that I’d made a friend.
“Hey, Daisy,” I cooed, running my hand down her smooth yet wiry fur.
As I petted the dog, I looked around. It was a standard apartment with a large living room and a small kitchen/dining room combo. In the living room, a couch and matching recliner faced a large screen television that was mounted on the wall. A glance at the media cabinet showed an extensive selection of action movies.
Like most apartments, the walls were white and the carpet was beige. Pictures hung on the walls to break up the lack of color.
“You are just the cutest thing ever,” I told Daisy as she nuzzled my hand. “Did you know that? Because you are.”
Heath laughed. “Don’t tell her that. She’ll be impossible to live with.”
Smiling, I continued to pet the dog. “Don’t listen to him, Daisy. You’re perfect, and he knows it.”
Daisy wagged her tail even harder as she soaked up my affection.
“Now you’ve done it,” Heath warned. “She’ll never leave you alone.”
I didn’t take my attention from the dog. “That’s okay because you’re a good girl aren’t you? Yes you are. You’re the best.”
“Does that mean you’d rather hang out with my dog than have breakfast with me?”
“Sorry, Daisy, but nobody gets between me and my coffee.”
The dog didn’t seem to mind how quickly I shot to my feet, but Heath laughed.
“By the way,” he said, stepping closer to me. “I should have said this sooner, but you look amazing.”
I didn’t. I looked average in my jeans and T-shirt and Nike tennis shoes, but I thanked him anyway. Having a guy look at me like I was the answer to every question in the universe did wonders for my ego.
The next kiss Heath took was on my lips, though it was just as gentle as the first. Wrapping his arms around my back, he drew me close, and I melted into the embrace. It had been a long time since I had allowed myself to be held like this, but it felt good. So good that I never wanted him to let go, and I almost whimpered when he broke the hold.
“You ready to eat and then we can take Daisy for a walk?” Heath asked.
I blinked up at him. “Um, yeah, that sounds good.”
Heath pressed one more kiss to my lips, this one a quick peck, before he took a step back.
I wasn’t the only one to follow him to the kitchen. Daisy did as well, but she didn’t venture beyond the carpet. Instead, she sat where the carpet of the living room transitioned to the linoleum of the kitchen. I thought she might be waiting until we were seated before she joined us, but even then she stayed put.
“Does she always do that?” I nodded toward Daisy as I opened the bag of bagels.
Along with the bagels, they’d given me cream cheese and a couple of plastic knives and a wad of napkins.
Heath glanced at the dog and then looked back at me. “Yeah, it took a bit of training, but she stays out of the kitchen when I’m eating.”
“Is that so she doesn’t get in your way?”
“It’s more because I don’t want her begging. Not that it stops her when I eat in the living room.”
“How long did it take to get her trained to stay there?”
“A few weeks, I think.”
“That’s pretty cool.”
“Yeah, except now, every time I eat in here, the little shit just sits there and watches me with those big puppy dog eyes like I’m starving her or something,” Heath said with a fond smile in the dog’s direction.
My eyes skipped over to her as well, and sure enough, she was giving us a pleading look. “How can you say no to that face?”
Heath snorted. “Easy, I just think about her being even more spoiled than she is now.”
I’m not sure that would have been enough incentive for me, but I admired him for being able to stick to his guns. That wasn’t all I admired about him though. There was his blond haired, blue eyed good looks. Those full lips. The miles of inked skin over hard muscles. The broad chest with its pierced nipples that I was dying to see up close.
Were those nipple piercings rings or barbells? Did he have anything else pierced? I wasn’t sure if the idea of a pierced penis scared me or turned me on. Maybe a little of both.
Growing up, my brothers and I had pulled some pretty outrageous stunts and kept our parents on their toes, but we’d mostly walked the straight and narrow. Sure, there had been a few instances of underage drinking and some occasional pot smoking and a missed class or two, but we weren’t what anyone would call bad boys.
Not like Heath. The term bad boy had probably been created with him in mind. Well, minus the motorcycle, though he did drive one of those big trucks. You know the kind, the ones where some obnoxious twenty-something guy hung a pair of rubber testicles underneath or from the trailer hitch. Thank God I hadn’t spotted those on Heath’s truck. They weren’t a deal breaker, but they were pretty juvenile.
“What are you thinking so hard about?”
I managed to keep my groan in, but still. Why did he have to ask? It’s not like I could admit I was admiring his finer points.
“Not much,” I said and then took a drink of my coffee. “What time do you have to work today?”
“Why? Are you anxious to get rid of me?” Heath teased.
“Yes, that’s exactly it,” I said, rolling my eyes.
Heath chuckled. “Have I mentioned that as the boss I can work any days or hours I want so you might not be able to get rid of me that easily?”
“You did, but I have to leave by eleven thirty. I’m having lunch with Oliver.”
“Where are you guys going?”
“Olive Garden.”
Heath smiled as he shook his head. “You and your Italian food.”
“What? Italian food is good.”
“Yeah, it is. Those spaghetti and meatballs you made last night were pretty good.”
“Thanks, I’m glad you think so.”
“That reminds me. I need to give you back your lasagna pan.”
“That would be good since it’s my mom’s.”
“Remind me to do that before you leave.”
“Thinking about getting rid of me already?” I joked.
Instead of laughing, Heath pinned me with an intense gaze. “I can promise you that thought would never cross my mind.”
I didn’t know what to do with myself when he said things like that so I took a hard swallow of my bagel and chased it with a swig of coffee.
“These are pretty good,” Heath said, holding up his half-eaten bagel. “I’ve never been to More than Lox. I usually get my bagels from the grocery store.”
Grateful for his change of subject, I rested my hand over my heart, pretending to be horrified. “You can’t eat bagels from the grocery store. That’s sacrilegious.”
Heath let out a hearty laugh. “It is, huh?”
“Yes, it is.” I gave a solemn nod. “There’s a special place in bagel hell for people like you.”
“Bagel hell, huh?”
“Yep, it’s real and they make you eat stale store bought bagels for every meal and they don’t give you any cream cheese.”
“That does sound pretty bad. Is there anything I can do to save myself from such a horrible afterlife?”
“Yes, you can never eat another store bought bagel ever again.”
“Can I only buy my bagels from More than Lox, or is it okay to go to another bagel shop?”
“You can go to another bagel shop, but More than Lox is the best so I wouldn’t recommend it.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Heath said and took another large bite of his bagel. “It’s funny, but until a few years ago, I didn’t even know I liked bagels.”
“How is that even possible? Everyone likes bagels, and anyone who doesn’t is just wrong.”
Heath flashed me a smile. “We couldn’t afford them growing up. Hell, most days we were lucky to eat, especially since Marjorie had a habit of trading our food stamps for drugs.”
My heart sank. I felt awful. There I was teasing him for not eating bagels from an upscale shop when he had been lucky to eat at all. God, I felt like such a snob.
“Hey, none of that,” Heath said and reached for my hand. “I didn’t say that to make you feel bad. I just want you to know me.”
“I know, but I hate what you went through. It breaks my heart.”
“It wasn’t easy, but it did make me stronger.”
“Something tells me you would have been plenty strong without having to suffer so much.”
“Maybe, but we’ll never know.” Heath shrugged and then gave me a speculative look. “Would it be better if I didn’t talk about my shitty childhood?”
I tightened my hold on his hand. “I may not like everything that happened to you, but I still want you to trust me enough to tell me about it.”
“I do trust you.”
“Good, because I want to know everything there is to know about you, the good and the bad.”
“That goes both ways, baby.”
“I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”
I meant it too. For the first time in a long time, maybe even in my entire adult life, I wanted to take a chance on another man. It was a little scary, but it felt good. Heath made it feel good.
I was definitely going to have to buy Derek an amazing Christmas present this year.
“His dog is the cutest thing ever, and she’s so well behaved. Heath trained her to stay out of the kitchen while he’s eating. I didn’t even know you could get a dog to do that, but she does and…” I trailed off when I caught sight of Oliver’s big grin. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Because you’re so cute it’s funny,” Oliver answered, and I frowned.
“What are you talking about?”
“You’ve been talking about Heath and his dog for ten minutes, and I swear you haven’t taken a breath.”
“That’s not physically possible.”
Not to mention the fact that he was wrong. I wasn’t one of those guys who would wax poetic about the man he was seeing. I also wasn’t that selfish. I had asked him how he was doing when we arrived at the restaurant within minutes of each other.
“Then you must be some kind of medical miracle because you did it.”
“Fuck you,” I said, though there wasn’t any heat.
“Did you not hear the part where I said it was cute?”
“I heard it, but it wasn’t genuine. It was condescending.”
“Excuse you, it was not condescending. I meant it. In fact, I’m ecstatic.”
I furrowed my brow. “You’re ecstatic?”
“Yes, I am. I’ve never seen you this excited about a man, a real one anyway.”
“I guess I haven’t been. I like him, though, Ollie.”
“I can’t blame you. He’s hot.”
“Yeah, but that’s not why.”
Oliver gave me a skeptical look.
“Okay, that’s not the only reason I like him,” I conceded with a sly smile. “He’s kind and smart and you should see how he is with his dog. It’s the sweetest thing ever, and you can tell she adores him.”
“That’s good. You can tell a lot about people by how animals behave around them.”
“Animals are smarter than people sometimes,” I agreed and Oliver nodded. “I’m just lucky he still wants anything to do with me after what Gerry and Kiel did.”
“What did they do?”
“They didn’t tell you?”
“I wouldn’t have asked if they had.”
“I don’t know why that surprises me. Those dicks know they were wrong.”
“What exactly did they do?”
In between bites of my pasta, I filled Oliver in on the antics of Dumb and Dumber. Oliver’s facial expressions went from concerned to horrified to amused in the span of a few minutes. By the time I was finished, he was laughing so hard, he was wheezing. A few people at nearby tables cast us concerned looks but turned back to their own plates after seeing my lack of alarm.
“I can’t believe they still have their balls,” Oliver said when he’d finally caught his breath.
“It was a close thing,” I muttered.
Oliver’s expression sobered. “You know they didn’t mean to interfere in your life though, right.”
“I don’t think so,” I scoffed. “That is the very definition of interfering.”
“Okay, maybe, but they didn’t do it to be mean. They just wanted to look out for you.”
“I know, but I don’t need anyone to look out for me.”
“Maybe not, but it makes them feel better.”
“I get it, which is why they still have their balls.”
“Good point.” Oliver nodded. “So, when are you going to introduce him to Mom and Dad?”
“We just started dating for God’s sake. I can’t do that to the poor guy yet.”
“The longer you put it off, the more Mom and Dad are going to push, especially Mom. You know how long she’s been trying to marry us off.”
“Again, we just started dating. Let’s leave the marriage train in the station for now.”
Oliver gave me one of his knowing smiles.
“What?”
“What, what?”
“Why are you smiling at me like that? That’s what.”
“I’m not allowed to smile at you now?”
“You can smile at me. Just not like that.” I waved my hand in his general direction.
“Like what?” Oliver asked, though the dick kept up that smile.
“That evil I-know-something-you-don’t-know smile makes me nervous.”
“Probably because I do know something you don’t know.”
“And I suppose you’re going to tell me?”
“If you want me to.”
“Of course I do,” I shrieked. “If you don’t, it’s going to drive me bat shit crazy for the rest of my fabulous life.”
Once again, several diners turned our way, this time because of my dramatics.
“Ignore him, folks,” Oliver told them. “Our mom dropped him on his head a few times when we were little. Obviously it’s
done more damage than we thought.”
Shaking their heads at us, the other patrons went back to their meals.
“Okay, so what do you know that I don’t?”
“You want to marry Heath.”
“The hell you say.”
“I do say, and so did you.”
“I did not. You take that back, or I’m going to give your next book a one star review on Amazon.”
Oliver laughed. “Yes, you did. You said we should leave the marriage train in the station for now. The ‘for now’ part implies that at some point, you’ll be ready for it to depart, with you and Heath happily on it.”
I opened my mouth to argue before I realized I couldn’t. Knowing I was screwed, I said, “If you tell anyone I said that, especially Mom, I will give your next book a one star review on Amazon.”
“They’d just take it down when they realized you were related to me.”
“Oliver, I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
“Okay, if you don’t tell anyone what I said, especially Mom, I will buy one hundred copies of your next book.”
“You don’t have to do that, and I’m not going to say anything,” Oliver assured me, and I exhaled. “And for the record, I’m happy for you. You deserve it, Neddie.”
I couldn’t help smiling. “Thank you.”
Damn it. Now I was going to owe Derek and Oliver both an amazing and probably budget breaking Christmas present. At least I could count on Roger and Kiel to save me some money. Those fuckers were getting an honest to God lump of coal.
I could probably find one online. You could find anything online.
Chapter Fifteen
Heath
“Can we please change the station?” X demanded. “This shit is giving me a headache which is fucking with my work.”
The girl he was currently tattooing gave him a startled look.
Going Inksane (Nice Ink Book 1) Page 17
