by Cerys du Lys
He pondered for the thousandth time how she managed to convince him to take on the group of animals. And as far as he was concerned she’d made him buy an obscene amount of pet food and supplies, much more than he anticipated. What dog needs a dozen toys, right? Gabriella claimed that the more toys the less chance of Oscar taking out his boredom on the furniture; Colin supposed he couldn’t argue with that theory. The last thing he wanted was a house filled with chewed-up furniture.
Once they finished unloading the supplies, he’d convinced her to stay for dinner and now for an after-dinner walk. He was enjoying her company – her feisty spirit. He wasn’t willing to let her go quite yet. Not until he knew for sure she’d be back. Usually he was pretty confident when it came to women, but he was still trying to read Gabriella – did she feel the chemistry he was, or was she a pro at flirting and getting a man to do what she pleased? Maybe both? For all he knew she was in some heavy-duty relationship.
“Colin?”
“About four months,” he answered, shaking himself from his ponderings.
They cleared the woods to come upon a small lake. The colours of the sky reflected on the water’s surface. It was beautiful here, one of his favourite places to sit and clear his head.
“This is a beautiful spot, Colin.” Gabriella said, tugging Oscar along on his leash, walking ahead and to the edge of the water. Oscar took the opportunity to get a drink of water, clumsily lapping up the refreshing liquid.
She looked over her shoulder, graced Colin with a wide smile and winked at him. “Betcha have no problem getting laid after taking a girl here.”
There it was – right there. Signals. Mixed signals. Dammit, he hated being so unsure. What he wanted to do was pull her tight into his arms, claim her moist, glossed lips with his and savour the feel of her body next to his. But, that’s only what he wanted to do.
Instead, he raked a hand through his hair and chuckled. “Nah. You’d be the first one I’m afraid.”
She looped Oscar’s lead around a pointed rock and turned to face him, a quizzical expression on her stunning features. “Really? First one?”
“Yup. Really.”
She took a couple of steps toward him, stopping a few feet from him. “How come?”
Because some secrets you don’t share. Because I haven’t found anyone I found interesting enough to open myself to. I haven’t found someone I trusted enough…
He shrugged. “Just haven’t. I’ve dated a bit since getting here, but nothing seemed to take.”
She chewed at her lower lip, forcing his eyes to lower once more to her lips, and a surge of desire coursed through him.
“Nothing seemed to take… Interesting way of putting it.”
“And you? Have you met someone to share your special places with?” As he said the words he cringed. God, was she causing him to resort to tacky lines.
Keep this up Agent Almond and you’ll eventually be turned into a blabbering idiot. You’ve dealt with far more dangerous and cunning than the cute blonde kitten and puppy pusher in front of you, he chastised himself.
Stepping up to him, Gabriella stopped less than two feet from him. Cocking her head to the side, eyeing him, the corners of her lips curling into a sassy little grin. He could almost see the wheels in her mind turning.
There it was again. The tension. Building and growing more intense with each passing moment that she looked up at him; the tension causing his dick to begin to harden. He thrust his hands into his pants pockets to keep from grabbing her and pulling her into him.
She closed the remaining distance between them, pressing herself against him and brushing her lips along his neck to his ear. Or at least he thought he felt her lips, the contact was so feather-light it could very well have just been the breeze.
Her body felt so nice against him, so soft and perfect. And her perfume – lavender. Sweet and delectable. He groaned softly, his hands fisting in his pockets. He waited for her lips to meet his, he willed it to happen, but he refused to make it happen himself. No. It was a matter of principle. She’d been toying with him all evening and he’d be damned if he was going to be the one to make the first move.
Her lips didn’t move across and along his jaw, like expected, instead they hovered next to his ear, the warmth of her breath sending chills through him, testing his restraint.
“It takes a whole lot more than good looks and charm to get anywhere near my special places.” Without another word she turned her back to him and walked back over to the water’s edge.
Without having to see her face, he knew she had a huge grin of self-satisfaction on it.
Chapter 4
“Gotta tell ya, girl. I really didn’t think you could pull it off.” Tonya gave her head a shake as she pulled on a pair of yellow plastic gloves, preparing to tackle the dozens of litter boxes in the cat room.
“Ye of little faith. It was like taking candy from a baby.”
Tonya gave Gabriella a once-over. “Uh-huh. What did you do to get him to take it?”
Planting her hands on her hips, Gabriella huffed. “I would never fuck a guy to get him to take an animal. I do have limits. Geez.”
“But…”
“No. No but. He’s hot. I’ll give you that much. And maybe... I mean, wow,” she began to frantically fan herself. “He. Is. Incredible. He actually has a sense of humour too.”
“You got him to take Oscar and didn’t put out? That man’s more gullible than I would have thought,” Kent commented as he entered the back room with a severely malnourished pitbull mix dog trailing behind him on a leash. Kent was assigned to check out reported cases of abuse and was coming in from one suspected case. The pitbull mix was the evidence of the complaint.
“Hey buddy.” Ignoring Kent, Gabriella bent down and waited for the timid dog to approach her.
“Did he at least get some boobage gropage?” Kent made groping motions with his hands as he wiggled his eyebrows at her.
Rolling her eyes, Gabby glanced up to see Kent smirking down at her. “If you mean, did I allow him to fondle my breasts, then no. He didn’t get any boobage gropage, as you so vulgarly refer to it as. He didn’t even kiss me.” She’d thought he was going to numerous times over the course of the evening; most men would at least try, but not him. It baffled her. Made her second guess her appeal. Even when she’d pushed him, practically thrown herself at him to see if she could get a rise, still nothing. The man seemed to have the restraint of a saint.
“Bet he’s gay,” Kent offered.
“He’s not gay.” The dog approached Gabby and plunked itself in front of her. She began to pat him lightly on the top of the head and his tail began to wag happily. If only people were as easy to read as animals. Part of the reason why she loved animals was that their needs were pretty basic: food, water, love and discipline. Once their needs were met they were easy to read, easy to anticipate. People, not so much.
“I saw how the pretty boy was dressed. Men aren’t that neat unless they’re gay.”
Gabby let out a sigh of exasperation and stood. “He’s not gay.” A faint smile touched her lips. Despite his restraint she’d felt him begin to harden when she’d pressed herself against him. No, he was definitely not gay. Cocky and a controlling neat freak perhaps. Gay? Definitely not.
“Did he ask you out?” Tonya butt in.
Thrusting her hands into the front pockets of her jeans, she grinned and rocked back on her heels. “As a matter of fact – he did. Tonight.”
“I’m warning ya. If you don’t give him action tonight he’ll be moving on.” Kent turned his attention to the dog and gave its leash a light tug. “Come on buddy. Time to get you checked out.”
“You’re nasty, Kent.”
He gave her a wink and turned away from her, heading for the examination room with the dog in tow. “I’m just being straight with ya, baby,” he called over his shoulder, exiting the room.
~*~*~*~*~
“What did I tell ya? They seem settled in a
lready,” Gabriella commented as she entered the kitchen where Colin was preparing supper, after checking on the kittens. Spaghetti and meatballs. He’d been forced to work late and to avoid rescheduling he’d asked her to meet him at his place for supper. He claimed he was a great cook; she had yet to make that determination, but it sure smelled good. Apparently Oscar thought so as well since he hadn’t left the kitchen or Colin’s side since he put the meatballs in the frying pan.
“You know, I woke up in the middle of the night and instead of being in their basket, the kittens had me surrounded in bed – two on either side.”
“Awwwww.”
He turned and raised an eyebrow at her, his expression scolding. “If you say so. Needless to say, I chucked them out and had to close the door to keep them out. They’re relentless when they want something.”
As if sensing they were being talked about, two of the kittens appeared around the corner and entered the kitchen. They both began to meow softly, ignoring Gabby and focusing their bright blue eyes on Colin.
“Kittens are like that.”
They meowed a little louder, but Colin continued to ignore them, focusing instead on the meatballs.
“Yeah well… AUGH!!!!!!”
Tired of being ignored, both kittens made a run for him, leaping onto the back of his legs, their nails piercing the faded blue jeans covering his legs and embedding themselves in the skin of his back upper thigh. Mouth dropping, Gabriella watched in both shock and awe as they began to make their way over his ass and to his back.
“Get ‘em off! Get the little fuckers off!” he screamed, attempting to pry them from his lower back, but his effort was in vain.
Springing into action, Gabriella grabbed first the long-haired calico and then the pure black one, pulling them off him as if she were pulling a strip of Velcro from a sheet of felt. Once Colin was free of the confused kittens she quickly made her way into the spare room that Colin had set up for them and deposited them onto the bed. Running from the room, she closed the door securing it behind her, to avoid an encore of their body-climbing attempt.
Returning to the kitchen, she skidded to a stop as she eyed Colin, who had removed his black button-down shirt and undershirt and was standing by the kitchen sink bare-chested and attempting to apply peroxide to the numerous puncture wounds littering his back. His upper body was even more beautiful than she’d envisioned, every exposed inch tight, lean muscle as if sculpted from marble.
“I told you I didn’t want those hell beasts,” he grumbled, taking another swipe at the puncture wounds. “I might have rabies for all I know.”
His words broke her from her trance and she laughed as she walked up to him and took the cloth and peroxide from his grasp. “Big baby.”
“Am not.”
Dousing the cloth with peroxide, she began to swipe at his wounds, her fingers taking liberties and tracing the contours of gorgeous muscle. His body tightened and tensed at her fingers’ caress. She forced down her desire and finished the task at hand. A pair of odd scars caught her attention, making her frown: one circular scar up by his shoulder and another long, angry scar that ran roughly four inches along his left side. She’d have to ask him about them at a later time – when she knew him better.
“Mmmm. You’re pretty good at that.”
She ignored his comment, and continued with her disinfecting task. “Drop your pants.”
He did a partial turn and raised a brow at her, a cocky grin touching his lips.
“Oh, stop it!” She swatted at his shoulder and then squatted behind him – waiting. “Are you going to drop your pants or not?”
He heaved a loud sigh, as if she were inconveniencing him, but quickly obliged. There was a clink of his belt being undone, a soft unzipping sound and then his jeans slid down his hips to puddle at his feet.
She inhaled sharply as she looked up and caught sight of his tight, muscled ass under his black boxer briefs and then her gaze lowered down the back of his thighs. Like his back, his legs were littered with little puncture wounds and several scratches, which were turning an angry shade of red. There was also another round scar just above his knee on the right hand side and several ominous-looking scars of various lengths. Perhaps he played hockey or football in high school or college? She shrugged off the ponderings. She’d learn in time.
Feeling she was being watched, Gabby looked up to see him staring down at her, his dark eyes filled with amusement.
“Something you see back there you like?”
Pompous ass! She growled inwardly. Instead, she rolled her eyes at him as she stood. Without thinking, she rolled up the cloth and whipped his ass with it. It made contact with a sharp smack sound.
Colin grunted, but his smile widened. “So is that your idea of foreplay? I never took you as one to be into the kinky stuff, but…” he shrugged. “I’m an open-minded kinda guy. Aim to please and all that.”
“Just pull up your pants.”
Chuckling softly, he bent down and pulled up his jeans, quickly doing them up.
Leaning back against the kitchen counter, her arms crossed over her chest, Gabriella watched him finish doing up his pants and then slip into his shirt. Once he was dressed he proceeded to check on dinner.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Yeah, fire away.” Taking the skillet off of the heat, and then grabbing the pot with the cooked spaghetti he walked over to the sink and proceeded to drain the noodles.
“Does having such a cocky attitude usually snag the women?”
His entire body froze for a fraction of a second before he set the drained pot of spaghetti on the countertop and turned to face her. While his expression was blank, there was amusement shining in his eyes.
“You think I’m cocky?”
Gabriella nodded. “Damn right.”
He pointed at her and then back to himself. “You think I’m… I repeat this because it seems like a very hypocritical statement.”
Their eyes locked. He was calling her out and it wasn’t as though she had much of a defence. The spaghetti forgotten, he pushed himself off of the counter and crossed the room over to her. He stopped less than a foot from her and leaned down, bracing his hands on the counter behind her and boxing her in.
His nearness made her heart rate accelerate and his cologne drifted to her nose again, begging her to get closer and bask in the manly scent. She swallowed the lump forming in her throat as she opened her mouth to speak, but was at a loss for words so snapped it shut again.
Colin leaned in further and brushed his lips along the side of her neck. She moaned softly, which caused a soft chuckle to come from him. Damn, why did she have to let him know the effect he had on her?
“I seem to recall yesterday you did exactly what I’m doing now,” his words in her ear came out deep, husky. They sent a shiver through her. She had to grasp the side of the countertop behind her to keep from grabbing hold of him.
“And I seem to recall you teasing on a number of occasions. Both last night and today.” His lips moved down to her shoulder, lightly grazing the sensitive flesh of her exposed neck. His lips followed the sweetheart neckline of her shirt to the opposite side of her neck and Gabriella found herself instinctively arching her back to him and tilting her head back slightly.
“Just giving you a taste of your own medicine,” she gasped as his lips and teeth kissed and nipped at her partially uncovered shoulder. He was so arrogant, self-assured, demanding, and so many other things, but God help her she was helpless to resist him. She imagined it would be difficult for most women, especially when his lips were teasing so beautifully. His lips hadn’t even touched hers and the anticipation was making her wet, the pressure building between her legs for him.
“Alas, Gabriella, there’s only so much teasing a man can take before he breaks.”
Gabriella… Dammit even the way he said her name, with a slight New York accent, made her tremble inside. His lips grazed her jawline and just as they were about to cove
r hers, he pulled away and straightened up. Disappointment filled her upon realizing the moment was over before it had really begun. Their eyes locked, his hungry dark eyes meeting her equally hungry blue ones, which begged him to kiss her.
“Does that answer your question?”
Gabriella blinked as she wondered what in the hell he was talking about. Question? There was a question?
Chapter 5
Colin loved the look of desire in her eyes. It had taken every ounce of restraint he had left in him to resist her full lips, lightly dusted with pink gloss. His body was a tight coil of lust and need for her. This holding off bullshit was ridiculous and had it not been for her arrogant little remark about him being cocky he would have taken what he’d been yearning for since the previous morning.
Nope, he was going to make her make the first move. It had been a few months since he’d last gotten laid so he had more than his fair share of pent-up sexual frustration, but the conquest would be all the more satisfying if he won this little battle of egos and self-denial they seemed to have going between them.
“So? You up for an after-dinner walk before I head home?” Gabriella asked as she stood, grabbed her plate and placed it into the sink.
He paused a moment watching her back, his eyes lowering to her tight, round ass covered in jeans that hugged her bottom and legs beautifully. He could think of things he’d prefer to a walk, but he supposed a walk would do. A smile emerged on his lips as he stood and walked up behind her, reached around and placed his plate in the sink in front of her.
Her body stiffened as his pressed up against hers. “I think I could go for some exercise.” He didn’t wait for a response, but turned and walked over to the door leading to the front yard. After pulling on his shoes, he grabbed Oscar’s leash from the hook by the door. The jingle of the metal of Oscar’s choke collar alerted the slobbering beast, who came running into the kitchen and skidding to a stop several feet from Colin.
