Authors: Bella Andre
al but hurling himself toward her, the toy instantly forgotten. Stil,
he was careful not to step on the puppy.
“Good boy.”
As she gave him the signal to sit and then held out a treat,
Cuddles finaly reached the toy, faling onto it and causing a faint
squeak. Atlas’s ears went up, but he didn’t move from where he
was sitting in front of her.
“Your turn,” she said to Zach, knowing just how badly this
was going to go with such a rambunctious puppy and a
temporary owner whom she very much doubted was taking any
of this seriously. She handed him a tiny doggie treat. “If she
comes, give her this.”
He raised his eyebrows at her use of the word
if
. Without
her teling him what to do, he knelt on the grass, held his arms
out wide and said in a firm voice, “Cuddles, come!”
out wide and said in a firm voice, “Cuddles, come!”
The rambunctious puppy looked up from the oversized
plastic toy she’d been trying to gnaw on. As if she’d been merely
trying to find a way to kil time before Zach needed her to come
be with him, she flew across the grass.
“Good girl,” he said as he stroked her fur and fed her the
smal dog treat. He looked up at Heather. “How was that?”
Grudgingly, she admitted, “Good.”
Really good.
And the worst part of it al was that she knew exactly why
the puppy had come running. Zach wasn’t just a magnet for
women.
It seemed he was able to exert a near gravitational pul over
al living things.
She refused to let herself be charmed, though. Especialy
when every second around Zach forced her to grab on tighter to
her self-control to keep from smiling at one of his lines...or being
overly impressed at how good he was with both his puppy and
Atlas.
“Walk with me to the other side of the grass and we’l do it
again.”
For the next fifteen minutes, Zach Sulivan demonstrated a
surprising affinity for commanding the attention of the puppy. She
knew she should be happy about the fact that he was a natural,
rather than letting it grate on her. And yet, instead of praising
Zach, she gathered up the puppy and kissed its soft nose.
“Great work, Cuddles. Did you have fun in class today?”
The dog licked her, then wriggled until she let her back
The dog licked her, then wriggled until she let her back
down to continue tormenting a happily bothered Atlas.
“We’re done already?” Zach sounded disappointed.
“Puppies tire easily.” When he pointedly looked down at
Cuddles, who was now trying to dig a hole to China in the grass,
she clarified, “What I mean is that they don’t have very long
attention spans. Fifteen minutes is long enough for them to learn a
little more each day without either of you getting frustrated. In
any case, today was a great start. And hopefuly, if she does
manage to run off again, now you’l be able to get her to come
back on your own.”
“We’re both realy glad you were there to find her in the
bushes this morning.” He looked down at Heather’s legs and she
almost shivered as she remembered the feel of his big, warm
hands on her skin. “How are your knees?”
“They’re fine,” she said briskly, wanting to turn his attention
back to his dog...not the fact that she was way too aware of how
good he smeled, or that even as she worked to keep her gaze
from straying to his big, strong hands, she was getting lost in his
far-too-mesmerizing eyes. “Tonight is going to be realy
important. You should set up a smal room or section of a room
to be hers for the two weeks. Put paper on the floor and her
food, water bowls, and bed in one corner. Put her toys
throughout the area. And whatever you do, unless she’s sleeping,
I don’t recommend leaving her alone outside of the gated area
for more than fifteen minutes.”
He frowned. “What if I have plans?”
She could quite easily guess the kind of “plans” he had.
She could quite easily guess the kind of “plans” he had.
“You’l have to break them, unless you can bring her along and
pay close attention to her the entire time.” She smiled at his
disconcerted expression. “Would you like to schedule another
fifteen-minute training session for tomorrow?”
“When are you free?”
She shook her head. “I only met with you today as a favor
to Agnes. Now that I can see you’l do fine with the proper
instruction, you can work with any of my trainers.”
“I don’t want anyone else, Heather.” He made sure she
was looking back at him as he said, “I only want you.”
He might as wel have puled her against him and kissed her
for the effect his words had on her, and Heather quickly realized
that within the few minutes she’d spent with Zach Sulivan, she
was already too close to the edge of wanting something she
could never make the mistake of letting herself have.
Until she was seventeen, she’d believed in love. She’d
thought her parents had the most wonderful marriage, had
prayed she’d find a man to love her the way her father so clearly
loved her mother. And then she’d found out the truth...that her
father had been cheating on her mother for practicaly their entire
marriage. Al that time, he’d been lying to her mother. And to
her. Because every time he came home from one of his business
trips saying how much he loved them, how much he missed
them, how they meant everything to him
—
it had al been a lie.
Heather slipped a finger beneath the sleeve of her long-
sleeved shirt and traced over the fine lines of her old scars from
sleeved shirt and traced over the fine lines of her old scars from
cuts she’d put there herself night after night, when she hadn’t
known how to deal with her swirling, dark emotions. When al
she’d wanted was to feel control over something. Over anything
at al.
She hadn’t known at the time just how many teenage girls
and boys cut themselves like that. It wasn’t until later, when she
went away to colege and the nurse at the student medical center
had seen the cuts during a gyno exam when Heather was
wearing a cloth gown, that she’d been given a pamphlet on
cutting. She’d already begun to get past it by then, but knowing
she wasn’t the only girl in the world doing it did help some. Stil,
even though she hadn’t cut herself in nearly ten years, the scars
had never quite disappeared, both inside and out.
Fortunately, she wasn’t that lost girl anymore. She was a
strong, capable woman who enjoyed channeling her energy into
work, friends, and dogs. She was happy. She had everything she
wanted.
A man like Zach was exactly what she didn’t need to get
entangled with. Not when he was too charismatic for his own
good...and hers, too.
Heeding the warning bels going off al throughout her brain
and her body, she held her ground and told him, “You can’t have
me.”
It wasn’t until she saw determination flare in his eyes that
she realized she’d just issued a chalenge
—
a realy big one
—
to
the wrong man.
“Another trainer wil be waiting here for you at five p.m.”
“Another trainer wil be waiting here for you at five p.m.”
And she’d make certain it was a completely heterosexual male
trainer that Zach couldn’t sweet talk into doing whatever he
wanted. The most important thing was that she put an end to
their connection. “It was nice meeting you.”
She doubted the wisdom of holding out her hand to shake
his, but it was the only way to make sure he knew they were
done, that whatever sparks had been jumping between them
were officialy going to be extinguished today at the close of
business.
He moved nearer and wrapped his fingers around hers. “I
owe you for saving Cuddles today.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head, as his warmth enveloped
her head to toe, “you don’t owe me anything.”
“We both know I do. And I always pay my debts.”
Oh God, why couldn’t she breathe?
She wasn’t a virgin, wasn’t some young girl easily dazzled
by a man just because he looked in her direction. On the
contrary, she was a pragmatic woman who knew only too wel
just how false a pretty facade could be.
“Take good care of Cuddles.” She slid her hand from his.
“That’s al the thanks you owe me.”
Before she could walk away, however, her stomach
growled and she snarkily muttered, “Agnes’s cal came just as I
was about to grab something to eat.”
Again, she didn’t realize her misplaying of the situation until
he said, “Let me make it up to you by buying you dinner.
Somewhere we can sit outside so the dogs can play.”
Somewhere we can sit outside so the dogs can play.”
Did he think she’d just falen off the turnip truck yesterday?
She knew exactly how he expected a
make it up to you
dinner
to play out. He’d ply her with a few glasses of wine and then the
next thing she knew, she’d be flat on her back, begging for him
to take her.
It wasn’t that she was a prude. On the contrary, just
because Heather had always carefuly guarded her heart with
men, didn’t mean she’d foolishly given up the pleasure of being a
woman. She’d just always made sure that her partners weren’t
any more interested in her heart that she was in theirs, and that
there was no chance of anything ever going deeper than the
physical.
But with Zach...
Daring to give in to the shockingly strong urge to kiss him
would be the stupidest thing she ever did. Even from a distance,
being near him made her feel completely out of control. If he
were to put his mouth, his hands, on her naked skin
—
Just the thought of that had her senses reeling.
She took another step back from him. “I’m stil playing
catch-up from being puled out of the office for so long this
morning, so I’l have to pass on dinner.”
She told herself she wasn’t being a coward. On the
contrary, she was being smart, protecting herself from the exact
kind of man that could destroy her.
“Remember what I said about tonight,” she told him before
he could press her on dinner again. “Don’t make the mistake of
letting Cuddles get away with anything because she’s cute.
You’l only confuse her.”
“What if I’ve got a thing for cute?”
This time, he very clearly wasn’t talking about the dog.
Evidently she hadn’t been direct enough with him thus far. It was
long past time to put him in his place.
“Then you’d better get over it real fast. Atlas, time to say
goodbye to your friend.”
Heather made a low clicking sound, then turned her back
on Zach and walked away from temptation.
Zach wanted Heather with a hunger he’d never felt before.
His fascination with girls had started early and he’d been kissing
in school halways way back in middle school, going a heck of a
lot further than that by high school. But for al the playing he’d
done during his thirty years, he’d never felt such a strong need,
especialy so quickly.
Had this been the way his father had felt about his
mother when he’d met her?
Suddenly realizing the crazy direction his brain was going,
he almost lost his hold on Cuddles. She gave a little squeak as he
tightened his grip on her.
What was wrong with him, thinking about Heather that
way?
Ever since he was seven and his father died unexpectedly
of an aneurism, leaving his mother behind to mourn him at the
same time that she had to keep raising eight kids, Zach had
known that he could never let himself form that strong a bond
with a woman. He was too much like his father. Looked like
him, acted like him, had al the same interests. He even got the
same headaches his father used to get, ones that would come on
like a bulet train one minute, and be gone the next. They’d been
so much alike that Zach’s uncles had barely been able to be
around him after his father’s death because he reminded them
too much of Jack Sulivan. Even now, whenever he saw his
father’s brothers, he could tel how hard it was for them to be
around him.
Al his life, Zach had been careful to keep the boundaries
clear with women. He was al for great sex until they made the
mistake of trying to stick emotions on it, at which point he always
got the heck out. He couldn’t stand the thought of a woman
faling in love with him, planning her life around him, only to have