Paws Up for Love

by Stephanie Rowe

  Josie closed one eye and lifted the dart. Today, nothing less than a bull's-eye would do, even if she had to stand here for two hours until she made it.

  Ready...aim...release.

  The dart hummed through the air at a crooked angle, thudding to a stop in Buddy's kneecap. She paused to imagine him howling in pain, hobbling around her apartment, the feathered dart impaled in his knee. Ah, how soothing.

  Even the misses were still satisfying.

  She readied the next dart, this time taking a moment to spin the dart until the missing feather was positioned correctly. Now...aim slightly above and to the right to account for the missing feather...release!

  The dart wobbled toward the wall, careening with a wonderful thud right between Buddy's legs. Bull's-eye!

  Josie raised her arms over her head in a victory sigh, dropping her head back and closing her eyes. Woman wins! There was hope for her yet.

  "Interesting shot." A melodic yet very intrusive male voice interrupted her victory celebration.

  Awareness shot through her and she whipped around.

  Standing in the doorway she'd left open for moving was Evan Dorsett. Sporting a very expensive suit and clean shaven, he was just as ruggedly masculine as he had been when he was half naked and sweaty. He raised one eyebrow. "Should I be wearing a cup?"

  Chapter 6

  Josie immediately engaged in a violent coughing spasm to buy time while she tried to figure out how in the world to extricate herself from this completely embarrassing situation.

  She'd had absolutely no life experience to prepare herself for being caught by the brother of the man whose genitals she was throwing darts at.

  Evan looked skeptical that she was really coughing, so she hunched over to make it look like she was on the verge of passing out.

  Think quickly, Josie.

  Choice #1: babble incessantly while toddling sideways, claiming an inner ear infection that had temporarily made her insane.

  Choice #2: fabricate some random and ridiculous excuse to show she wasn't actually throwing steel darts at his brother's genitals. The success of that option would be greatly improved if Evan didn't have a functioning brain.

  "You need some water or something?" Evan finally appeared a little concerned that she might cough up all her internal organs.

  She nodded and waved her hand in the direction of the kitchen, giving another good hack.

  Choice #3: fly into an outrage that he had appeared in her apartment without an invitation and put him on the defensive. Make him fear for the safety of his own family jewels.

  He shoved a glass under her nose. "Drink."

  She took the glass and pretended to sip the lukewarm, opaque tap water that was one of the perks of living in her fine establishment.

  Choice #4: create the illusion that she was calm, cool, and collected by pretending there was nothing remotely depraved about throwing darts at a man's genitals. Definitely the warrior's choice.

  So, she forced herself to swallow the swamp water and donned a welcoming smile. "You should have a go. It's quite therapeutic."

  She strolled over to the poster and pulled out the two darts, successfully managing not to give the poster an evil glare. No need to really make Evan even more concerned about her violent and aggressive tendencies.

  Evan walked across the room toward her, like a predator stalking his prey. A wave of excitement washed over her, and she lifted her chin as he neared, steeling herself.

  She'd forgotten just how powerful his presence was. She could easily imagine him sliding along like a wildcat, his muscles rippling, his senses alert for the perfect opportunity to leap and have his way with her... Wait a sec. She wasn't interested in him. Forgot that for a moment.

  He was Buddy's brother.

  He thought she was a conniving liar.

  He had Dorsett genes.

  Three strikes.

  Out.

  He lifted the darts out of her hand, his fingers brushing against her palm. Little shivers scampered up her arm and settled in her belly.

  Phew.

  Evan paced off the distance, inspected the darts for missing feathers, and then threw two shots. The first landed next to Buddy's right ear. The second landed next to his left.

  "You missed."

  "On the contrary. I would never aim for my brother."

  Oh, great. Nothing like a little dig to make her feel like a degenerate lunatic. "My friend Monica gave me the poster and darts after Buddy took off. For therapy. It's...um...a widely recognized technique in the psychiatric industry."

  Evan grunted and gazed at the poster. "Where was that picture taken?"

  Josie pointed. "He was standing by my couch."

  He glanced at her tangerine couch, then back at the picture, then back at her furniture again, then back at the picture. "Huh."

  "Huh, what?"

  "Any other pictures of him?"

  "You mean, that I haven't burned?"

  The corner of his mouth twitched.

  "You still think I'm lying?" Okay, she was officially offended. "Listen, Dorsett, I've had enough of your smug attitude."

  He lifted his eyebrows in visible surprise, but she wasn't finished.

  She marched over to him and poked him in the chest...ah, what a fine chest...and craned her neck to peer up at him. "I just got fired because your blasted brother stole stuff from my work, and now I don't even have a car to drive around to find another job. And I can't even make waffles. And you already know what he did to my bank account." He started to speak but she slapped her hand over his mouth and kept talking. No one was going to shut her up now that she'd uncorked the plug. She was just damn tired of taking it all. "And the police won't do anything because who wants to chase down a junker car? As for the money, they actually accused me of fraud! Can you believe that? Do I look like a crook?"

  She spun away, grabbed the darts and slung them ferociously at the poster. One careened to the right and impaled itself in a box, and the other one hit the wall sideways and ended up jabbed into the floor. "Argh!" She flung up her hands. "I can't even take my aggressions out successfully!"

  Evan was quiet, watching her.

  Never had she realized the strong, silent type was quite so annoying. She needed some feedback! Some positive reinforcement! Some validation! Not silence.

  "And now you show up, still accusing me of lying to extort money from you." She flapped her hands at the room. "Look around. If I was the type to extort money from people, would I still live in this gross place? No, I'd be living in a house like yours, having cajoled some rich man into putting me up."

  One eyebrow twitched, and she flung a pillow at him. "And it would absolutely not be for sexual favors, so don't even look at me like that. I didn't even sleep with your brother, so back off!"

  "I'm not saying anything."

  "Oh, nice excuse. Just because you're being silent doesn't mean you aren't insulting me." She marched away from him and grabbed a black trash bag from the corner. She dumped it at his feet. "You want evidence I had the misfortune to actually know your despicable brother? Well, there you go. Dirty, smelly clothes, terrible poetry and other pond-scum-worthy items. I was going to have it incinerated so it couldn’t contaminate the rest of Boston and cause some epidemic, but then I thought maybe he'd want something in there, so I could hold it for ransom in case he ever showed up and wanted it back. His junk for my ninety grand. Take it and leave me alone."

  She whirled away and stomped across the floor, getting some minor satisfaction from the thought that her nasty neighbor downstairs might be trying to take an afternoon nap right now. She slammed her feet down harder, then stopped when a thudding painful ache began working its way up her legs

  Couldn't even throw a temper tantrum without hurting herself. Was she a loser or what?

  Maybe she should become a yeller. Yell at everyone and everything that made her mad. Since she was tone deaf, it wasn't exactly like she'd be sacrificing her gorgeous singing voice in e
xchange for some release.

  Zeus jumped up on the kitchen counter, her tail puffed out. "Oh, cut it out. I'm not mad at you." Josie tried to scratch Zeus's head, but all she got was a whack with that nasty left hook. "Not that you couldn't have kept your claws in for that one. One little break, it's all I need, and I can't even get it from my cat." She jammed her bleeding fingers into her mouth and glared at Zeus, who now looked perfectly calm. "See if I ever rescue you from a shelter again."

  No need to look over her shoulder and see if Evan was watching her talk to her cat. Granted, he was the enemy, but he was the first attractive man she'd ever had in her apartment and it wouldn't have been a bad thing for him to actually spend a few moments yearning for her love and her body, instead of wondering if he could get to the phone and call 911 without her noticing.

  She removed her damaged fingers from her mouth with as much dignity as she could, eyeing them subtly for an injury assessment, but they were trembling so much she could only see a vague blur. Okay, so maybe the outburst had been a little rattling to her system.

  Staying in a controlled, positive mindset on an even keel was probably much better in the long term.

  That was fine. She was entirely capable of acting like a mature adult whose life was perfect. Just weave a few delusions into her reality and she was all set.

  She wiped her hand off on her leg, donned a serene smile, smoothed the wrinkles from her forehead, and turned to face Evan.

  He had his head buried in the trash bag and wasn't paying the slightest notice to her.

  Great. She was so meaningless to him that gross deviation from acceptable standards of human behavior hadn't even drawn his attention. Not that she cared. It was merely an observation.

  "You can leave now," Josie suggested. "Unless you have Buddy in the trunk of your car downstairs for me to interrogate."

  "Haven't seen him." He didn't even look up, just kept rattling around in that stupid trash bag.

  "Figures."

  "Josie!" Monica burst through the open door. "We might have a problem..." She caught sight of Evan's backside. "Well, hello-o-o-o-o there. Who do you have here?"

  Evan turned around, his mouth opening to respond, but Josie interrupted. "Ignore him. He's related to Buddy and came here to harass me."

  He lifted his eyebrow and gave Josie a long stare. Probing. Assessing. Challenging. Unsettling.

  Okay, enough of that. She definitely didn't like his ability to make her insides churn.

  "Oh-h-h-h. So this is Evan," Monica said.

  He caught the intonation and looked at Josie. "Been discussing me?"

  "No. Lucky guess by her." Josie glared at Monica, who was too interested in checking out Evan to notice.

  Evan was studying her with a very probing expression. The heated strength emanating from Evan was downright intimidating. At the same time, it dug deep inside her and made her want to rush toward him, tearing off her clothes as she ran.

  Ahem. No need for that image.

  She dragged her eyes haughtily away from Evan and focused on her friend. "What problem were you going to mention?" Anything to get off the topic of the older Dorsett brother.

  "The problem?" Monica stared at her. "Oh, right. The problem." She walked over to the fridge and pulled it open. "Just a bit of a problem, really."

  "Spill it."

  Monica took a diet soda out of the fridge. "Mr. Bailey saw me moving one of your boxes into my apartment." She cracked the lid and took a long drink.

  "And?" With the way her life had been going, she didn't want time for her imagination to start working. "What happened?"

  "When I told him you were moving in, he said he'd raise the rent because two people would use more utilities. That's cool with you, right? You'll have money by the time the next rent is due."

  Josie stared at her friend, the image of Monica's couch fading in her mind, replaced by a cardboard box in a rat-infested alley. She slumped against the cabinets and let herself slide down to the floor. "You're kidding."

  "I know we were hoping for a cut on the rent, but it's not as much as if you were still living on your own, you know?"

  She moaned and covered her face with her hands. "I got fired today because Buddy stole from the clinic."

  "Oh, no!" Monica flopped down next to Josie. "What are you going to do?"

  For an instant, a lump arose in Josie's throat, but she willed it away almost immediately. "Sell my internal organs for cash to needy rich people?"

  Monica chewed her lower lip. "Well, I can give my notice, and we can find a cheaper place to live."

  "If we move somewhere cheaper than this, the rats will be sharing our dinner with us." Josie shook her head. "That's not an option."

  "So I'm supposed to let you sleep on the street?"

  Josie pursed her lips. "I'll find something."

  "What are you going to find? Since all of Tom's friends have taken his side in the divorce and you never had much of a social life before that, I'm your only friend."

  So nice of her to point that out with Evan in the room. "I can move..." Where? Back in with her family, where two of her married siblings and their kids were already camping out? No way. That would be the final sign of total and utter life failure. There had to be another option.

  "Where? You have to be out of here by this afternoon and you have no money. Where are you going to sleep tonight?"

  "She can stay with me." Evan's deep voice shot into her gut like a cannon ball.

  Surely, she'd heard that wrong. "What did you just say?"

  He locked onto her face. "You can move in with me."

  Damn. What a time for her ears to be functioning.

  There was no way on this earth she'd ever move in with Evan Dorsett.

  No bloody way.

  And as soon as her mind and body recovered from the hormonal explosion at the thought of sharing a house with him, she was going to inform him of that fact very clearly.

  Chapter 7

  He'd thought she was cute when she was hating him, but it was nothing compared to his reaction to her when her face became stark white and she looked like she'd been kicked in the stomach by a bull. Shocked, panicked, and utterly unprepared, yet holding tight to her last vestiges of control.

  He could think of nothing he'd rather do than sprint across the kitchen and kiss the look of shock right off her face.

  What? No way. He had no intention of kissing her. It was just guilt because the garbage bag had held too much evidence for him to deny the truth any longer.

  She knew Buddy.

  Whether he'd stolen something from her was another story, but she definitely knew him.

  Josie's mouth opened and shut without making a sound, and, for the first time, he noticed how full and kissable her lips were. Probably because it was the first time he hadn't been distracted by the hostile words pouring out of her mouth.

  "No way in hell," she said.

  So much for the absence of insults. Had he actually expected Josie to fall at his feet declaring him a savior and a hero? "Why not?"

  "Because...you're...you." She finished her statement with an odd sort of gargling noise, as if she was being strangled by invisible hands.

  Damn, she was adorable. No wonder Buddy had written her those poems. Awful poems, on tattered scrap paper in the bottom of that trash bag. Yet they were actually complimentary and pleasant about Josie. If Buddy hadn't written porn about Josie, it could mean only one thing: Buddy had loved her.

  There was no doubt in his mind.

  Which meant his job was to keep her around until he could track Buddy down and reconcile them. Perhaps Josie could be the woman to finally straighten his brother out. For an instant, Evan felt a weird warmth in his body at the thought of his brother back in his life and living a law-abiding life. Then he thought of Josie with his brother, and the warm feeling turned into a cold prickly sensation. Get over it, Evan. "Just say yes, and we'll pack you up."

  "Why in the world would I move in with
you?" Josie struggled to her feet. "And why would you even offer? You hate me."

  A woman with Josie's spirit bolting into his life? Hardly something he'd hate. Not that that was why he was making the offer. "I don't hate you. I was simply being careful. It wouldn't have been the first time someone tried to extort something from me because of Buddy." And it wouldn't be the first time he'd had to pay.

  "So, you're saying you believe me now? Because I throw darts at his genitals?"

  "No. That just convinced me to hide all my darts before you move in."

  "A skillful dodge of my question. Do you believe me or not?"

  "I believe you knew him."

  She lifted an eyebrow. "Be still my beating heart. I feel so vindicated."

  He grinned at her spunk. "Actually, I also believe that you were dating him."

  Her lips tightened. "Dating is too generous of a word. I went on a few dates with him. We didn't 'date.'"

  "Actually, you guys were together for almost two months," Monica said. "That's pretty much dating." She immediately turned pink at Josie's glare. "I...um...guess I have to go to the bathroom." She ducked past Evan and disappeared around the corner.

  Leaving Josie and Evan alone. He felt as if the walls were closing in on him, as if the ceiling was collapsing, and the entire room was on fire. Josie was two steps away from him, her chin lifted so she could give him an offended glare. All he'd have to do was move forward and lower his head and...

  "You want to kiss me?" She sounded more than a little surprised, and Evan immediately cursed and took a step back.

  Oops. He had so not meant for her to realize that. "No. Of course not." Total lie.

  She pursed her lips. "Wow. You really were."

  "I was thinking about Buddy," he growled. It was close to the truth. He should have been thinking about Buddy, his long-lost brother who apparently loved the woman standing in front of him, despite the fact Josie was apparently more than slightly dis-enamored of Buddy. Honestly, knowing Buddy, Evan was pretty sure she had a good reason to be not-so-delighted to be associated with his brother, but that didn't change the fact that Buddy loved her, which meant hands off for Evan.