by Isabel North
“I’m not a cat person. I’ve never been a cat person.” Nora said. “My spirit animal is a wolf.”
Okay, that was a weird thing to say. She felt the disapproving press of a hundred cat eyes. She’d insulted every being in the room. Good start. Her shoulders hunched up around her ears.
Kim hitched a thumb at herself. “Tiger,” she said. “Come on, pooches are this way.”
The dogs were housed in a room three times the size of the cats’, with a central walkway and cages running along the sides. Nora bit her lip at the sight of all the bars. When the dogs saw her and Kim, most of them danced with joyful welcome, barking to catch their attention.
Nora gripped her hands together over her stomach and pressed, hard.
“Don’t get suckered by the cages and do anything rash.” Kim said. “Folk do it all the time. No one likes to see a puppy behind bars, and they always get carried away. Three weeks later, the puppy’s chewed everything in sight and crapped in their shoes. Suddenly they don’t have such a problem with the bars, and they end up bringing the puppy back because it wasn’t a good fit.”
“I’m not going to be rash. I’ve thought about this a lot.” At Kim’s side-eye, she added, “I’m just browsing.”
She’d meant it as a joke. Kim didn’t seem to find it entertaining.
“I take this very seriously,” Nora told her.
“All right, then,” Kim said, relaxing her disapproving stance. “Browse on.”
Nora surveyed the cages, heart squeezing at all the bright eyes and sweet, hopeful faces. There was a wide variety of dogs, the full range of sizes and ages. The squeeze in her heart rolled over to hard pumps of anger at the callous bastards who’d mistreated or thrown these souls away, abandoned them, or got bored of them, or what the fuck ever.
Bastards.
“You okay?” Kim’s voice broke in. “Need a tissue?” She sounded resigned.
“No, why?”
Kim gestured at Nora’s face.
Nora touched her cheeks, felt them wet. For God’s sake. “PMS,” she said.
“Yeah. Lot of people get PMS when they come back here. Especially dudes.” Kim tucked the clipboard under her arm and slipped the pen into her pocket. “Look.” She hooked Nora’s elbow, leading her down to the far end. “Puppies!”
Nora stopped and gazed in delight at the fat creatures scrambling over each other and batting their paws at the clear plastic screen they had instead of bars, high puppy barks demanding her attention.
“They came in yesterday,” Kim said. “Found in an alley. Mom was dead and the little ones were all crawling…”
Nora turned to her with horror.
Kim took in her expression, and directed Nora back to the cage. “Puppies!”
“What are they?” Nora crouched, and laughed as one of the pups stretched its fat belly against the screen only to be knocked sideways by a sibling. “Spaniels?”
“Could be.”
Their coats were black and white, gleaming under the lights. The pads of their tiny paws were a fragile shell pink. Nora reached out to place her hands against the screen. Before she made contact, she clenched them into fists and pulled back.
“Yeah,” Kim said, “one of these would be a real troublemaker.” She paused for a delicate moment. “Rethinking the cat?”
Did the woman get a commission for every cat she rehomed? “Nope. These guys are gorgeous, but I didn’t come here for a puppy,” Nora said. “I’m looking for an older dog, one who would be happy alone for a few hours a day. I had a puppy when I was ten. I know how much supervision they need.”
Kim nodded. “The old ones are over this side.”
At the fourth cage, Nora fell in love. Unlike the others, this dog didn’t prance up to the bars in greeting. This dog crept up, sat its butt down a good two feet away, and smiled at Nora.
Nora looked at Kim, back at the dog. “She’s smiling at me.”
“Uh-huh.” Kim didn’t quite roll her eyes, but she sounded indulgent.
The dog shuffled forward another cautious inch, and swiped a hot pink tongue over her nose.
“Hi,” Nora said softly. The dog wagged her tail. “It’s a she, right?”
“Yes.”
“Hi, pretty girl.” Nora sank to her knees and the dog shuffled an inch closer. “What’s your na—” Her cell phone rang.
“Oh,” Kim said.
Nora fumbled in her pocket. The dog retreated. Nora met her wistful brown gaze for a second, but the phone kept ringing, and—
“We don’t allow phones back here,” Kim said. “Didn’t you read the sign coming in? All cell phones should be switched off. It disturbs the animals.”
“No problem.” Nora cancelled it.
It rang again at once. If it was her mother, so help her, she was going to drop the phone on the floor and jump up and down on it. No. It was Anna. Shit.
“I have to take this,” she said to Kim, straightening and casting a last glance at the dog. She’d returned to the blanket she’d twisted into a doughnut, and lay with her eyes closed. She kept them shut.
Great timing, Anna.
Nora followed Kim back to Reception and, when the phone rang again, accepted the call. She opened her mouth to speak, and caught Kim’s disapproving glare. Ducking out the door and down the steps to the tiny parking lot, she snapped at Anna, “What?”
“Take your time, why don’t you?” Anna snapped back. “I’ve been calling and calling! Listen, you’ve got to run over to Gabe Sterling’s warehouse, I need you to take some photos and measurements. I want to start placing orders.”
The sun beat down on the top of Nora’s head. “I can’t go over there right now, I’m in the middle of something.”
“What is more important than the job?”
“The dog.”
“What?”
“Item two. Get dog. I’m making an important life decision here. I’m at the animal shelter, choosing a dog.”
“Nora, I support you one hundred percent in this special new life you’re working out and yes, I hear myself, I sound like a bitch. Let me try again. Dog! Yay! Support! But right now, you have to go to the warehouse. I’m stuck at a restaurant romancing a prospective client, and as soon as I’ve done that I need to make progress on the Sterling project. I can’t make progress with the tiny peek at his place I had, and I don’t have time to schedule another meeting or get my own ass over there until next week. I’m sending your ass instead. The key’s at the office. Stop taking the longest lunch break known to man, swing by and pick it up, and the camera and tape measure, and get to work.”
Nora sighed. “You want me to let myself in again?”
“Yes.”
“May I remind you that my streak of bad luck letting myself in to places continues unbroken? Last time, I walked in on him in a towel.”
And she still couldn’t get the image out of her head.
To be fair, she hadn’t tried all that hard. She was keeping it fresh for when she got up the nerve to buy item number three on her list, when a good mental picture would come in handy.
“He won’t be there,” Anna said. “You think tech millionaires hang out at home at lunchtime on a Tuesday? He knows we have the key. The whole point of us having the key is so we can go in during office hours and do this shit.”
“Fine, but—”
“Got to go, the prospect is coming back from the bathroom. Thanks, Nora. See you later!”
Great. She was supposed to go over to his apartment and what, take photos? Measure? Measure what?
“Everything okay?” Kim asked back in Reception.
“Yep. I have to leave, but I’ll come back as soon as I can fit it in.” As soon as.
“No problem. If there’s any particular dog you’re considering, you can register interest before you go. It’s a good idea. The cute ones get snatched up quick.”
“I don’t need to register interest, I’ve already chosen. I know the one I want. Can I reserve her now?”
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“Yep.” Kim pulled the clipboard toward her, and clicked the pen. “Which one was it?”
“The last one.”
“Ah.” Kim rolled her lips, and pushed the clipboard away.
“The one who smiled at me.”
Kim set the pen down next to the clipboard. “Yeah, she didn’t smile at you.”
“Okay, I know dogs don’t smile, but she did this cute thing that I swear… Never mind. The last one, she’s the one I want.”
“I can’t reserve her for you.”
“What? Why not? Oh. She’s already reserved, isn’t she?” Figured.
“Her? No. She’s been here eight months, is the problem. If someone else comes in and wants her, I’m not risking putting them off, and then you call to say you’ve changed your mind, or you don’t even bother to call, and she ends up dying here, never knowing the warm embrace of her own forever home.”
Nora thought about the dog’s gentle eyes, timid approach, and beautiful smile.
It was a smile.
“If I swear I won’t change my mind, will you please reserve her for me?”
Kim shook her head. “I’m sorry. I can’t.” She angled the clipboard toward Nora. “Fill this out, register interest. It’s the next best thing. It’s no guarantee you’ll be picked if someone else wants her, but we’ll call and let you know you have competition.”
Nora leafed through the multi-page form. “Wow. You really go into detail.” Her apartment lease had less pages.
“Saves time-wasters.”
Nora checked her watch and gave an awkward laugh. “Funny you should say that, but—”
“Yep.” Face blank, Kim stretched out to take the clipboard.
Nora snatched it against her chest. “But,” she said, “I’ll take it with me and drop the forms off tomorrow.”
“Can’t let you do that.” Kim made a gimme gesture. “It’s my favorite clipboard.”
Nora slapped it down on the counter. “Fine.”
“Here.” Kim unclipped the forms, folded them, and passed them over.
“Oh. Thanks. I’ll come back tomorrow.”
“We’ll see.”
Nora stuffed the forms into her purse. Halfway to the door, she stopped and said, “If I swear—”
“No. I mean, you seem like a real safe bet and all, but if I take a chance on you and you let us down, she’ll never get out from behind those bars. It’s in her best interests, you know?”
CHAPTER NINE
Gabe liked the industrial feel of his warehouse. He liked the massive windows and the light they let in, the cavernous space stretching around and above him. Enough that he could breathe. The thing Gabe liked most about his latest property, though, was that no one knew he’d bought it.
Technically some people knew. He hadn’t hidden the paperwork, but no one had connected the dots yet, which meant no one had come here looking for him.
Earlier that morning he’d stormed out of a board meeting, having lost all patience and every trace of good humor in a scary rush of anger. His board members had been left gaping. It had surprised even him.
In an attempt to work through the restlessness that plagued him, he’d gone to the gym and put himself through a grueling workout. Even that once-reliable fallback had failed.
He’d returned to the warehouse on shaking legs and had spent the last twenty minutes in the shower. He ran the water as hot as he could stand, letting it pound on his shoulders, his back, his bowed head.
Couldn’t switch off.
Everyone was still on his case about the Nebula project, and he didn’t know what to do. Things had gotten worse in the last couple of months. For the first time ever, he didn’t have a solution.
Okay, he had a solution, but he didn’t think it would make the rest of the board happy.
He could cancel Nebula, and walk away.
Disappear.
Some days, it took all the discipline he had not to do it.
Gabe toweled off his aching body and scrubbed half-heartedly at his hair. He tossed the towel in the direction of the laundry hamper and, naked, wandered off to the kitchen to rehydrate.
At the gym during his workout he’d downed a bottle of water. He drank another on the walk to the warehouse, and he was still thirsty. He couldn’t seem to drink enough. Or eat enough.
All he wanted to do was consume.
He burned through everything he put in his body, and he couldn’t find any satisfaction.
Gabe stood at the sink and gulped a glass of water.
Maybe he should go out and get laid.
A no-holds-barred wrestle with a woman who went at him as hard as he went at her, that’s what he needed. Hours and hours of it, getting lost in each other. Going for it until… He glanced down, and grimaced.
Nothing. Not even a twitch of interest.
Fuck. It was worse than he’d thought.
Gabe rinsed the glass and set it beside the sink to drain. He leaned back against the cabinet, arms outstretched and ankles crossed. He dug his fingers into the sharp edge of the countertop and his biceps flexed.
He’d tried hard not to think about her. He didn’t have room to think about her, since he had so many other things to be thinking about. Not to mention, it scared the shit out of him that conjuring up the feel of Nora Bowman squirming on his lap flipped him like a switch and brought the laser focus that even a workout no longer could. The kind of focus that also brought on … Yep.
Gabe looked down. There it was. He was interested in having sex.
Just not with anyone.
All he wanted was Nora.
At the thought, keys scraped in the lock, the front door opened, and in she walked.
It was a sign.
Nora would think it was more like bad luck, since last time she’d caught him in a towel and this time he was buck naked and half-erect. But he was definitely thinking it was a sign.
Waiting for her to notice him, Gabe wondered if he should at least make an attempt to cover himself. What the hell. This was too entertaining.
Nora had closed the door and made it halfway across the room before she saw him.
He heard the air whoosh out of her. The purse she’d been digging around in slid off her shoulder and thudded to the floor.
Her big blue eyes hit his face and then, as if she couldn’t help herself but was trying really, really hard not to let it happen, her gaze tracked down his body and…
She made a little noise.
“Hello,” Gabe said.
Nora sucked in air, clapped her hands over her eyes and spun so her back was to him. “What are you doing here? And why are you always naked?”
“I’m not always naked.”
“Why are you naked now? It’s two o’clock on a Tuesday!”
“Are there laws about being naked on Tuesdays where you come from?”
“No. I—” she cut herself off and whirled back to face him. “Oh, no. Tell me you’re alone. There isn’t anyone else here, is there?”
“Nope. I’m having naked alone time. Well. I was. Then you showed up.”
“Thank God.”
“I’m glad that you’re glad about me being naked and alone.” Gabe hid his amusement as her eyes began to drift downward again.
“I’m not glad about you being naked. It was bad enough with the towel, how am I supposed to get over…forget that. Uh. I meant, I’m glad you’re alone while being naked, doing…whatever it is you do while you’re naked…” She trailed off into thoughtful silence.
“Showering? Browsing the internet? Cleaning the oven?”
“Yes,” she said. “That’s what I was imagining. Wait, no. I wasn’t imagining anything. The relevant point here is, I’m glad you’re alone, and I didn’t walk in on a lunchtime tryst.”
He laughed. “A tryst? Is that what they call sex back wherever you’re from, where you’re not allowed to be naked on Tuesdays?”
“You know what I mean,” she said, gathering herself.
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nbsp; “Rest assured the only people here are you and me.”
“Last time this happened… He wasn’t naked, but…” Nora tipped her head back to stare up at him.
Crap. When had he crossed the room? He’d intended to hold still because he didn’t want to spook her. Apparently, his body had other plans.
As did hers. She’d moved, too, drifting toward him. They’d met in the middle and now stood mere inches apart.
Gabe watched the awareness dawn. She didn’t run, though. Instead, she locked gazes with him.
“Wow,” he said softly, after a good minute had passed. “I don’t think I have ever maintained such intense eye contact with anyone for this long. Are we having a staring competition? Because I know I can make you break first.”
She made a strangled noise and shook her head.
“Don’t look down,” he whispered.
Aaaand she did.
“Nora,” he said after another long, agonizing moment. He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and used his thumb to nudge her chin up. Her eyes remained fixed.
“Hmm?”
“Stop looking, honey.” Or he was going to lose his cool.
If he lost his cool, he was going to grab her. While Gabe knew what he wanted, in graphic detail, he wasn’t yet sure what Nora wanted. He’d find out. Soon. Until then, he refused to be the jerk who thought he could grab a woman just because she was staring at his junk like the meaning of life was being revealed to her.
“Sorry.” She jumped back.
Gabe growled. “You do not have to apologize to me.”
“No. Sorry.”
“Okay. Two ways this can go. Either you join me in naked Tuesday, or I have to go put some clothes on.”
She was thinking about it. He grinned. Good. Let her keep thinking.
He headed for the bedroom, aware of her gaze on his ass. “You should consider going professional with the staring competition thing,” he called over his shoulder. “Once you lock on, woman? Damn.”
When Gabe came back out, she was sitting on the couch and fidgeting with a huge tape measure.
“I can save you the time,” he said. “Nine inches.”
