Tallulah Trouble

by Casey Hagen

  Their gazes locked on the object at the same time.

  Teeth marks marred the pink silicone, leaving it gouged and scratched.

  The silicone of her vibrator.

  Isaac’s eyes widened. “Uh—”

  “That’s it! Say goodbye. Hank is about to become a really cozy pair of slippers,” she said as she ran for the dog.

  Isaac shot his arm out, hooking it around her waist. “Oh no, you don’t. You’re staying right here.”

  She tried to pry his hand from around her, but he just tossed the vibrator on the counter and spun her in his arms, holding her to him.

  She pushed against his chest. “He’s a dead dog.”

  He cupped her chin and turned her to face him. “Not on my watch, and if you keep it up, I might just plant myself here for the duration to keep Hank safe.”

  His hand slid from her chin, grazing her cheek, then hooking around the back of her neck.

  She forgot to breathe. Her heart seized in her chest.

  “Actually, that’s an interesting idea,” he murmured, his focus on her lips. “Think of all the… training we can get done.”

  “That menace ate my vibrator,” she said. She craned her neck, searching for the little shit.

  “You’re not going to need it,” he said.

  She snapped back around and narrowed her eyes. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Oh, I think you know exactly what it means,” he said, biting his bottom lip, his gaze roaming her face.

  “What are you doing?”

  The pad of his thumb hooked on her bottom lip, and her tongue reached out, sliding against it.

  “Hell if I know,” he said quietly before capturing her lips with his.

  A groan vibrated from deep inside her. Her traitorous arms wrapped around his neck, and her back arched, pressing her breasts against his hard chest.

  God damn, where had this man’s soft lips been her whole life? His strong hands gripped and kneaded her flesh as his fingers roamed down her spine to her ass. Tension seeped from her to be filled by a burning need to strip off her clothes and grind up against him until her body exploded with blinding lust.

  A hint of lemon clung to his mouth, the taste lingering between them when he caressed her tongue with his. Curling her fists in his shirt, she anchored herself to him, seeking more, craving everything.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Training

  GRAZIELLA’S KISS REACHED RIGHT into the bottom of his feet and turned him inside out. Never in his life had he taken a hit like that, much like getting annihilated with a wrecking ball in the solar plexus, only in this case, he wished for another.

  He certainly had a knack for picking the wrong women. He deserved a damn award.

  For the first time since the disaster with Amy, interest burned deep in his gut, which was about as stupid as it got considering in just over a week, Graziella would roll out of Tallulah Cove and return to a life completely across the country.

  And wasn’t that just a kick in the balls.

  “Way to pick ‘em, Isaac,” he muttered, taking a seat in the dining room and scratching Hank behind his damp ears.

  He’d rode one sweet wave of success with his practice in San Jose. He had patients he loved, a dedicated staff, and he’d proven that investing his savings hadn’t been just throwing money into the wind as his dad liked to say. He’d done everything right to put him on the trajectory he imagined for himself. A wife, kids, a comfortable home, and a successful business that focused not only on pet care, but educating owners.

  Instead, all he had were memories of a business he put his blood, sweat, and tears into, a tattered reputation in the city, and an ex that still called every once in a while hoping—despite the fact that she didn’t want him—that he still pined for her.

  He’d been blind to what she was, and a part of him still blamed himself for not being able to see it.

  They didn’t share a family. They really had no reason to be connected anymore, at all. Maybe the time had come for him to change his phone number and make it clear that he’d had enough and had moved on.

  Hank’s head shot up, and Isaac followed his gaze to find Graziella standing in the doorway biting her bottom lip.

  A rare show of insecurity for her. And she let him see it.

  Not that she’d appreciate him pointing it out.

  The woman had no shortage of athletic shorts and tank tops showing the expanse of glowing skin that inspired him to drop to his knees and thank the man upstairs for creating women.

  And those thick, dark waves that she constantly tied back—he wanted nothing more than to sink his fingers into the shoulder-length sea of soft strands, tip her head back, and taste that slim neck of hers.

  He shook his head and cleared his throat, ordering the guy in his jeans to heel. “You ready for your first lesson?”

  She shot a look at the dog. “I guess.”

  “Perk up, Graziella. This is going to be easier than you think,” he said, handing her Hank’s leash.

  He led them to the front walk. Hank strained against her hold the entire way, his attention shooting to everything that moved. With storms building in the distance, the breeze rustled the trees and sent birds whizzing through the air, distracting him.

  “We don’t need to wear him out today. I think the backyard is evidence enough of the energy he’s burned. But tomorrow and the next day, I want you to take him outside and play fetch with him for half an hour before trying to work with him.”

  “You won’t be here?” she said with a tight grip on Hank’s leash as he hopped around in place, thrashing his head back and forth, trying to reach her hand with his mouth.

  “I’ll check in, but I’ve got clients I have to look in on, and you’ll be working on one skill for now anyway,” he said, laying a hand on Hank to calm him.

  “Walking on the leash?” she asked.

  He grinned down at the hopeful look on her face. “Nope, teaching him to pay attention to you.”

  Her eyebrows ducked low over her copper eyes. Shimmering in the sun like spears of light dancing over a highball of fine whiskey, they shot a look of irritation straight at him. “You don’t think feeling me up is enough attention?”

  “Well, it’s not the kind of attention you want. At least, not from Hank,” he said, dropping to his haunches and petting the guy who’d managed to get a whole lot further with Graziella than Isaac had.

  Of course, he had kissed her.

  But his hands hadn’t wandered near her breasts. He’d have to fix that.

  “No truer words have been spoken,” Grazi said.

  “Okay, so this one is going to be easy. I want you to call Hank’s name and while you do that, motion with your middle and index fingers to the bridge of your nose between your eyes. Like this,” he said, gesturing with his hand.

  “Okay, but does he know hand signals?”

  “No, he’s going to learn this one, and fast. Every time he gives you his attention, you reward him with one of these,” he said, snagging a bag of small, chewy treats from his pocket.

  “That’s a lot of treats. Isn’t it bad to feed him so many?”

  “It looks like it, but it’s really just three broken into small pieces. It’s better to give him more treats now to train than to have him run in the road and get hit by a car because he doesn’t listen.”

  “Well, when you put it like that…” She dropped a hand to Hank’s head and frowned down at him.

  He smiled.

  She didn’t even realize what she had done with her gesture. Despite her blustering, she’d grown protective of the giant mutt and shown him a softer side she likely kept hidden from the world.

  “This is an interesting side of you,” he said.

  “What side?” she asked, squinting against the sun.

  “You’re softer. Less guarded,” he said.

  “My line of work doesn’t allow me to be soft, so don’t get used to it. I’m in vacation mode.”
/>   “And what line is that?”

  “I’m a chief warrant officer in the Army’s aviation division.”

  Okay, he didn’t see that coming. “Whoa. So that means what exactly when it comes to your day in, day out work life?”

  “I’m a pilot. I fly helicopters.” She shrugged, then jerked back when Hank dropped his butt down on her feet and heaved a sigh like a child that had waited too long for his parent’s attention.

  “Would it make me a pig if I found that hot?”

  She grinned and a laugh escaped. “I won’t hold it against you. Most men I’ve encountered are more put out by it. Especially when my flight record is better than theirs.”

  “Graziella?” He waited for her to meet his eyes. They’d lost their spark from just a few minutes before, and he desperately wanted to put that light back in them. “Those weren’t men.”

  Knowing it was about the dumbest thing he could do, he hooked his finger in her tank top and pulled her lips under his, the neighbors be damned. They already talked about him, anyway. Might as well give them some new material.

  Her lips softened under his, and her mouth parted on a lustful sigh. He took advantage and slid his tongue against hers for a taste.

  Just one taste.

  He pulled back a fraction, breaking their connection. It lasted for only a handful of seconds, but the heat of arousal between them had his chest swelling as he sucked in large gulps of air.

  He figured that maybe she worked as security at a prison, a cop, hell, even a fitness instructor like those ones on TV that were more drill sergeant than actual teachers, or something along those lines, but a soldier?

  Nope.

  But it fit. She’d gone through basic training. Lived her life according to rigid rules.

  And although men and women were supposed to be treated equally, he knew damn well that they weren’t which likely left Graziella fighting harder and enduring longer than her male counterparts for every ounce of respect.

  A gust of humid air swooped through and peeled a few strands of hair from her ponytail, whipping them between their faces. He snagged the waves and tucked them behind her ear.

  He could easily envision doing the same thing every day for the next fifty years.

  Which meant he was in some real trouble here.

  And he needed to get the lesson done and get out.

  She had a life elsewhere and a military career. Even if their attraction was enough to make her want to pursue something with him, Tallulah Cove had nothing for her. The nearest military bases were hours away.

  They could scratch the itch, but only if they acknowledged that they’d be more apt to see Bigfoot in broad daylight than find a way to have anything more.

  He needed time to come to terms with that.

  She’d just give her heart the order. She looked like the kind of woman with enough will to make a round peg fit neatly into a square hole.

  His heart didn’t work that way. It never had.

  Which is why he couldn’t leave Tallulah Cove. The people here believed in him after Amy had convinced so many not to. He loved their animals, and with their support, losing his practice hadn’t torn his heart out of his chest. It squeezed it a little, misshapened it so it fit better in the dented can bin than featured on the endcap display.

  The people here had resurrected his dream when it lay atrophied and on life support.

  If he wanted Graziella—ha! When he finally had Graziella, because he had every intention of having her, he needed to be able to enjoy her with his body and mind while keeping his heart tucked safely away.

  He scratched the back of his head. “Uh, okay. Where were we?”

  “Kissing.”

  He laughed. “No, before that.”

  “I don’t know; I kind of liked that part of the lesson. Do you give the same attention to all of your subjects?” she said, aiming her gaze at the dog asleep at her feet.

  The tricky, tricky woman was fishing for information.

  “Sure. Since this morning, I’ve kissed a rabbit, a cat, and a St. Bernard. It’s all part of my dedication to personal attention. I’m the Jerry Maguire of pet doctors.”

  “Funny. Are you ever serious?”

  He raised his chin and nodded at her. “You want serious?”

  “I can handle serious.”

  “Fine. I’ve never kissed a client or patient in my life. I have a strict policy against it. Then I spotted you toppling over on one very fine ass. I heard the hard edge buried in the musical lilt to your voice. Then I watched the way you reset yourself and pulled those shoulders back, ready to do the hard work no matter what it took, and my boundaries went up in flames. I want you. Not just kisses, but stripped bare, coming on me, and crying out my name.”

  Her mouth fell open, and her eyebrows shot up toward her hairline.

  He hooked a finger under her chin and lifted her jaw until it shut. Leaning in, he whispered in her ear, “Now, do you mind if we get back to the lesson, Chief?”

  “I, uh—sure, yeah, um yeah, good, the lesson,” she said, fumbling like a kid scrambling to make a coherent sentence out of alphabet soup.

  “Good. Now, by the end of today, he should focus on you after just saying his name once and gesturing. If he can do that, I want you to take him for his walks, but while you do, stop every few feet and make him turn his attention to you. Keep him focused.”

  She met his eyes with a searching gaze and flaming-red cheeks.

  Good, he wasn’t the only one affected.

  “And if he can’t focus on me after I work with him today?”

  He backed up a step, needing to get far enough away from her that he couldn’t smell the lasting scent of almond soap lingering on her skin. “Don’t take him on the leash. Run him in the backyard where he’s safe.”

  “I don’t know if he’s safe back there. If he digs one more hole…” she said, trailing off.

  “Then you’ll fill one more hole. That backyard is just as much your fault as it is his. Maybe even more so,” he said.

  She opened her mouth, glared, then snapped it shut.

  He roused Hank who hopped to his feet, eager to see what life had in store for him.

  “Go ahead and give it a try while he’s focused on me,” he said.

  “Hank?” she called, but he didn’t turn.

  “Don’t forget the gesture.”

  “But he’s not looking.”

  “No, but on the off chance he does, you need to do it. The minute he looks at you, tap those fingers to the bridge of your nose and say, ‘right here.’”

  “Hank?” she called again, this time making the motion.

  “Okay, try doing it a bit sharper now so he gets the difference in the sound.”

  “Hank?” she called one more time, complete with the arm motion.

  His head whipped around.

  “Right here,” she said, making the motion he’d shown her.

  “Oh! He did it! He did it! Did you see that?”

  Isaac shook his head on a laugh. “Yeah, now give him a treat.”

  She fished the biggest piece from the bag and handed it right over.

  Isaac watched the pure elation on Graziella’s face. She didn’t realize it yet, but the woman was about to fall in love with the dog.

  “Hank?” she said again when he turned away from her.

  His head whipped toward her.

  She motioned.

  “Right here!” she said before hopping with glee when he complied.

  Isaac backed away as the hardened Army pilot’s heart cracked open and let the furry beast in.

  And Isaac’s heart curled its fingers around the bars he’d erected around it, shaking with all its might, begging to be set free.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Putting Out Fires

  ISAAC HAD BEEN GONE FOR two days.

  Okay, so he’d warned her about that, but still. Two whole days went by and only a two-minute phone call to make sure things hadn’t gotten out of co
ntrol.

  Well, no dammit, they hadn’t gotten out of control.

  Why was that?

  Because she’d kept her nose right up Hank’s ass 24/7 to make sure he stayed out of trouble.

  She expected after the kisses they shared, that maybe he’d stop to see her, training aside.

  But nothing.

  Nada.

  He wooed her with hot kisses, his sexual desires, and even called her chief, which yeah, she didn’t hate, and then poof! Gone.

  Well, maybe she didn’t want to share her body with a guy who could just flake out.

  “Who am I kidding? The man talked about wanting me coming on him. I’d share my body even if I hadn’t had a chance to shave my legs in three days,” she whined with no one around to hear her but Hank. And hell, as long as she had treats in her pocket, Hank was her bitch, keeping those doggie lips zipped.

  Isaac was not the kind of guy you let a chance go with.

  It was not okay for Isaac to heat her up after Hank destroyed her vibrator.

  And when he didn’t call, she’d gone and turned into a big, mushy girl. Next thing she knew she’d be doodling their names on a piece of paper.

  She froze.

  The pen fell from her hands and clattered against the granite.

  She glanced down and sure enough, there was her name.

  Next to it?

  Isaac.

  In between?

  Her pride in the form of a fat heart connecting the two.

  She needed her ass kicked in another round of boot camp.

  She jumped at the peal of the phone. Leaping off the stool, she lunged for it like a lifeline from the Coast Guard while she floundered in the chaos of the high seas just before a hurricane tore through.

  “Hello?”

  “Grazi? Hey, how’s everything going?” Sebastian asked.

  Her eyes snapped to the backyard where the now fixed holes had been filled and the grass lay like stitched-together, war-torn skin on a wounded soldier. It wasn’t pretty, but it would heal.

  “Uh, good. Things are okay, actually.”

  “You don’t sound so sure,” he said with a laugh.

  “Well, I’m not used to dogs, and Hank is a handful, but we’re muddling through.”