by Bella Andre
“Mmm. Doesn’t this smell yummy?”
She’d thought the puppy was trembling in the bushes, but now that she was closer, she realized it wasn’t scared.
It was playing.
And, clearly, the way its whole body was vibrating with glee, the puppy thought her little predicament of being stuck in the bushes with it was hilarious.
Despite her jammed-in position between a bunch of sword-sharp sticks and branches, she had to agree that it kind of was.
Knowing at this point that it was a matter of waiting for the little guy or girl to get tired of the game, she sat back on her heels and looked up through the branches and leaves. The clouds slowly changed shape above her in the blue sky. Huddled in a bush might not be the standard place in the world for a breather from her often hectic workday, but she found she was glad for a moment’s respite.
Unfortunately, she could still hear the owner yelling for the dog and vowed to deal with him appropriately once she had the puppy.
“I wouldn’t want to come out either, if I were you,” she told the puppy in a soft voice. “But don’t worry, Atlas and I won’t let anything happen to you.”
She ran a training business, not a rescue, but if she found that an owner and a dog weren’t compatible, she did any and everything she could to take care of the dog.
“Doing okay out there, big guy?” she asked Atlas.
She heard the loud thump of his tail on the pavement in response.
“Quite the little adventure Agnes sent us on, isn’t it?”
Which didn’t make sense. How could the man who was yelling and cursing at the puppy be a close friend of a lovely woman like Agnes? Having seen the woman interact with the dog she adored, Heather had thought her training client was more perceptive than that.
Suddenly, a wet tongue pressed into Heather’s palm and she looked down to see the puppy trying to climb onto her lap as it munched on the treat.
“Well, hello there,” she said to the very cute Yorkie.
Gently, she laid one hand on the puppy’s back and a happy sound came from its throat as it tried to burrow closer to her fingertips. Heather spent a few moments massaging the incredibly soft fur, but with the owner still yelling for his dog, she knew they couldn’t stay in here forever.
“How about we go find you a nice full water bowl?” And a much nicer owner, too, while we’re at it.
She cradled the dog in her arms to shield it from the branches and slowly began the backward procession out of the brambles. She laughed as the puppy licked her chin, even though the scrapes on her legs were going deeper on the way out than they had when she’d dived into the bush.
Heather was still in the process of awkwardly crawling out of the dirt on her hands and knees while holding on to the wriggling puppy, when she heard footsteps behind her, along with the renewed thumping of Atlas’s tail.
Turning her head as far as she could to try and look over her shoulder, she spotted a pair of large brown boots on the pavement beside her dog.
“Did you find the little bugger?”
Gritting her teeth, she replied, “If you’re talking about the puppy, yes, I found her stuck in this bush.”
Okay, so maybe stuck wasn’t precisely the truth, given that the dog had clearly been playing hide-and-seek, but what the owner didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. Besides, her allegiance was to the puppy in her arms, not to a man who clearly had no business owning it.
Heather continued to work on getting out of the bush, which, unfortunately, seemed intent on keeping her prisoner forever. Just a couple more feet and she’d be free to give the man in the brown boots a piece of her mind.
She felt a bead of sweat slide between her shoulder blades as she tried to lift her torso, but no matter how she tugged, she couldn’t move more than an inch in any direction. Frustrated with being on her hands and knees in front of a stranger, with her scratched-up kneecaps stinging like crazy, she yanked herself back. But apart from her shirt ripping at the side of her ribs, she wasn’t any closer to being free.
“Hold up, you’re caught on a branch.”
The man’s voice, when he wasn’t yelling at innocent puppies, had a rich, deep timbre that moved through her veins like potent red wine on an empty stomach.
She felt the stranger reach across her back to thread her T-shirt back through the branch that had taken hold of her. Did he mean for his fingertips to skim her spine? she wondered as she held her breath until he was done.
But whether he did or not had nothing to do with her reaction.
She shouldn’t have felt like a lover had just caressed her.
Heather waited for Atlas to growl at the man for daring to touch her, but instead, he just kept wagging his tail.
She couldn’t believe it. After a lifetime of distrusting all men everywhere, Atlas hadn’t decided to take an instant liking to this one, had he?
“All clear,” the man finally said. “Here, reach back for my hand and I’ll help you up.”
He didn’t give her time to agree or evade, he simply slid his calloused palm against her softer one, and pulled her to her feet. Her legs had been cramped into the tight position for long enough that blood rushed too fast to her calves and feet. Unsteady, she swayed against him, her shoulder pressing against his chest.
Her hand still in his, he said, “I’ve got you,” as he brought his other arm around her waist to keep her from tumbling with the dog in her arms.
She was shocked by how good it felt to have his arms around her. So stunned, in fact, that when he said, “I’ll take her off your hands now,” she almost let him take the puppy from her.
But despite how topsy-turvy her body was behaving, she hadn’t forgotten the way he’d yelled for the puppy, or how angry he’d seemed.
Heather took a step back out of his arms, finally pulling her hand free to hold the dog closer to her chest to protect it. “No,” she said as she finally looked up at his face, “I don’t think that’s a good id—”
Oh my God.
She took another step back, but this time it had nothing to do with the dog in her arms. Heather had never understood her friends who drooled over pictures of good-looking men, had always figured she wasn’t particularly visually oriented.
Now she realized it was simply that her gaze hadn’t landed on the right man.
Within five seconds of taking in his dark hair, his perfectly chiseled face, his blue eyes and broad shoulders, her heart started to pound too fast, her mouth dried out, her palms grew damp, and her breath quickened. Not to mention the fact that all of her girly parts were actually growing hot and tingly.
Not once in twenty-seven years had she ever been struck with such a visceral, physical reaction to a man.
What was wrong with her?
Forcing her synapses to refire, she said, “Is this your puppy?”
He lowered his gaze to the puppy’s cute face. “Unfortunately.”
Jerk.
“I know you’re interested in my dog training services,” she told him, “but I’m afraid—”
“You’re a dog trainer?” he asked, cutting her off before she could tell him that not only was she not going to work with him, but she also thought it best that she find the puppy a new home right away. One that would appreciate the little dog in all her mischievous glory. “You’re not one of the girls for the ad?”
He gestured over his shoulder and she looked to see a half-dozen women in bikinis standing around waiting for a photographer to finish setting up lights.
She blinked at him, unable to believe he could possibly have thought that. “God, no,” she said, and then, “You asked Agnes Mackelroy to call me about some special training sessions.” She paused before asking, “Didn’t you?”
He shook his head. “I always knew I loved that woman for more than just her killer Aston Martin collection.” The smile he gave her was clearly intended to melt her into a puddle of lust at his feet. “Trust Agnes to also send the prettiest dog trainer on t
he planet my way.”
Absolutely, positively refusing to melt for him, she arched her eyebrow. “Excuse me?”
Atlas reacted to the icy tone of her voice by letting out a low whine. She couldn’t believe this man was talking to her like this, trying to flirt with her by saying she could be one of the models. Especially when she knew exactly what she looked like in her ripped, sweaty shirt, muddy shorts, and skinned knees.
If only she’d trained Atlas to be an attack dog...
A man holding a large camera called out to them. “Hey Zach, the models need to know how you want them on the cars?”
“Don’t let us stop you from your important work. Atlas, let’s go.” She picked up his leash as her big dog rose to his feet beside her.
She was heading to her car when Zach said, “Hey, I thought you were going to stay to train me?”
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.
