Hounded (Going to the Dogs)

by Dawson, Zoe

  More than one of the men on the opposing team gave her a lingering look before they dispersed. The three with Jared were facing her way and it was clear they were talking about her. There was that schoolboy pushing and shoving. Did they ever grow out of it?

  She rose, smoothing out the full skirt of the apple motif dress she wore. The rows of different apples made her feel like a demented Snow White. She was sure Snow never wore razor blade earrings and a red leather, spiked dog collar, though. One of the guys punched him in the shoulder and he gave him a smug look before heading her way.

  “Hey,” he said as he approached, sweat running down over the tantalizing planes of his cheekbones to his hard jaw. Normally she wouldn’t find that intriguing, but it slipped down his strong neck and rode along his clavicle, soaking into his t-shirt.

  “Did you know the clavicle is the only bone in the human body that lies horizontally?”

  “Huh?”

  Oh, God. Had she said that out loud? “The…clavicle…um…collarbone.” She reached up and slid her fingertips along the ridge of bone, discovering his skin was moist, warm, and soft. Then she wanted to smack herself in the head. She jerked her hand away. What possessed her to touch him? Compulsion. Sheer stupidity. Her awkward social skills?

  “I like your clavicle, too,” he said softly, and there went her lungs again, compressing from his g-force-impact voice.

  “In that dress and those kick-ass heels, you look like a lethal Betty Boop. Makes a man want to know if one bad apple spoils the whole bunch.”

  Pi woof. One big, infinite woof!

  She focused on his lips, and he stepped closer, smelling earthy and musky. She really liked cerebral guys, she told herself to stave off more tingles, but it was like trying to stop a raging flood with a bucket. No barrier at all. And all that testosterone was going to be releasing in her apartment every day for three weeks. She hoped she could keep her hands off him.

  “I should get my shower,” he said absently, now looking at her lips.

  She nodded and waited a heartbeat too long for him to move first. He didn’t.

  So they were officially staring at each other now. The sudden silence of the Y, devoid of the raucous sounds of men grunting and sweating, made the cavernous gym seem intimate. There was nothing but silence until the next pick-up game.

  A silence that swelled in a way that boosted the potency in the very air between them. Heat radiated off his moist skin.

  “Later, Taylor!”

  Jared jerked and turned around and waved as Poe took a step back.

  “Shower,” he grunted, pointing towards the locker room as if words were beyond his ability right now.

  She nodded.

  And she plopped down onto the bench because her wobbly knees just couldn’t hold her upright any longer.

  Would it be immature and totally geeky if she bolted right now? Wait, no, she couldn’t. The whole reason she was here was to help her mom. That was her mission and should be the only thing she was focusing on. So no more touching clavicles—or anything else for that matter—even if they were a fine specimen of a horizontal bone.

  Oh shit! She was doing it again. Shaking herself, she spent five minutes trying to eradicate the effect Jared had on her. Then bam, Jared came though the locker room door and all her composure went flying out the proverbial window.

  Seeing him with his hair wet, his gym bag slung over his shoulder and the biceps on that arm pronounced, it took her a full minute to move. But she shook it off like a fighter with a near-miss KO and did her best to look nonchalant and cool as she walked toward him.

  Outside, she directed him to her car and they settled inside.

  “I hate to do this to you, but I’m so hungry I could eat the north end of a cow goin’ south.”

  She laughed. “You’re in luck, then. There’s a burger place across from Callie’s doggie playground.”

  “I thought she trained dogs.”

  “Don’t let that fool you. Gives her the excuse to play with them. I wish you could meet her.”

  “She won’t be there?”

  “No, she and Owen are going out with Brooke and Drew for dinner.”

  “That is too bad. All your friends sound like pistols.”

  “If you mean they’re pains in the asses, you’d be right.” She drove with the very distinct awareness of Jared beside her. “I take it that hungry saying is a Royism?”

  “It is.”

  “Did you, like, ride the range and rope cattle and stuff like that?” She parked in Callie’s parking lot and turned off the ignition.

  “Yup.”

  “Can you do that rope thing?” she asked pantomiming a circle with her hand.

  “What rope thang, darlin’? He nudged her with his shoulder.

  She nudged him back. “You know the twirling thing with the rope.” He grinned and her heart fluttered.

  “It’s called a lariat and, yes, I can do that. My father was a natural at it and he taught me tricks every night after supper.”

  “Would you show me sometime?”

  “On one condition.”

  “What’s that?”

  “You show me one of your dance routines.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes.” His eyes twinkled.

  “Okay.”

  They ordered and found a table. Unwrapping her burger, she bit into it with gusto. She was hungry, too.

  “So why did you become a vet instead of a dancer?”

  She finished chewing and swallowed. “So I could help animals. I loved dancing, but it paled in comparison to having the ability to heal. Saving helpless animals is more tangible, has more impact than me making up movements and then performing them. It didn’t seem a contest after I…saw where dogs went after my father caught and took them off the street.”

  “Your father was a dogcatcher? There isn’t anything about you that’s conventional.”

  “With a mother who goes by the name of Hummingbird? No, there isn’t. Anyway, he was my hero when I was young. I’m the baby of the family, so you can imagine.”

  “I’m the oldest, but I’m sure my younger brother Nate could relate. How many siblings?”

  “Two. Austen and Wilde.”

  “I see the literary references don’t just stop with your name.”

  “My parents were hippies. Love children. My mother stayed at home and my dad got a job. After all, free love and flower power are all well and good, but you can’t live off flowers, you know, unless you own a flower shop.”

  Just when she thought she had everything under control, his rich laughter generated those damn zingy tingles all over again. “Austen is my older sister, and she’s named after Jane Austen, of course. My mother loved books, especially Pride and Prejudice. Anyway, Austen is a prep school administrator in the City. Westbrooke Academy.

  He shrugged.

  “Well, I can tell you it’s one of the premiere schools in New York. She’s single and kinda full of herself. And she’s drop-dead gorgeous.”

  “She’s got nothing on you.”

  Poe flushed and gave him one of those rare, totally spontaneous smiles. “Yes, she does, but you haven’t seen her, so you can’t judge. Anyway, she thinks most of what I do is nonsense, and if she knew about the dog dancing competition, she’d say,” Poe adopted her sister’s snooty voice. “This Fur Ball business is ludicrous.”

  “She does sound a bit pompous.”

  “Wilde is my witty brother, born in the middle but way, way far from middling. He loves to play the odds. Very much like Oscar Wilde, for whom he’s named.”

  “And what does he think of ‘this Fur Ball business’?”

  “He doesn’t know. No one does.”

  He scrutinized her and she shifted and looked away.

  “I thought you were doing this competition for fun.”

  “I-I-I am, but my family thinks I can’t handle things just because I was born last and my mom and dad were overprotective.” She had no doubt if she m
entioned her mother’s mortgage woe, Jared would want to help. He wouldn’t be able to stop himself. She didn’t want any help, except for him to get the dance routine down. This was about overcoming the odds of a man with two left feet and a cute, but very lazy, hound.

  “You said your father was your hero. Did that change?”

  She set down her half-eaten burger, losing her appetite. “Yes. It’s hard to admit that out loud. I don’t think I have before, actually. I’ve thought it, and my father knew our relationship wasn’t the same, but he never said anything. He died three years ago.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

  “It’s all right. The realities of the dog pound made me determined to become someone who could help them. My two Jack Russells are rescues. People think little terriers are adorable as puppies, and they are, but they’re unruly, rambunctious and need a lot of stimulation. When I saw them, it was love at first sight.”

  A brief smiled played across his face. And a mouth she really had to stop noticing. And looking at. And wondering about.

  “That little brown and white one. I bet he’s a rascal.”

  “Allan. He is quite the scamp. Yesterday, he used some woman in the dog park as a ramp to get to her son’s big red balloon and pop it in mid-air.”

  “Shoot! Sounds like he belongs in the movies.”

  “I have no doubt. He’s the instigator and Edgar just follows his lead.”

  “Maybe your dad was just trying to shelter you from the realities of life, Poe.”

  “I’m sure he was, but even though I was the baby of the family, I hated being treated like spun glass. I didn’t need to be coddled and I resented it. It’s hard to go back after a picture you thought was indestructible shatters. Kind of difficult to put the pieces back together. I still loved my dad. I just lost those rose-colored glasses.”

  “My father seemed that way to me as a child. Indestructible, but when I went back to Texas, to the ranch, he looked fragile.”

  “It’s a shock to see your parents as vulnerable.”

  He nodded. “You ready to go?”

  She nodded and they left the food joint and headed across the street. Once inside, Daisy made the cutest baying sound when she saw Jared.

  “Oh, my God. That is adorable.”

  “I guess she’s happy to see me.”

  “Did you get her to walk today?”

  “I listened to you and applied the power of bacon.”

  “What? What did you do?”

  “Apparently more than zombies are attracted to it. I crumpled it up and left her a trail. When she started following it, I kept on walking and it worked.”

  “That was pretty resourceful.”

  Poe walked into the back room and set her CD into the player.

  “Are you ready for this?”

  “Ah, no, but let’s start.”

  “Okay, so since we’ve been working on the steps for the past week, and you seem to have those down.

  “And what about the dogs?”

  “Let’s work on finessing the moves. I think we should start at the top and work our way through it. It will be really important to get the steps down before I show you where the dogs come in.”

  “Sounds good.

  “Let’s work on the signature John Travolta moves.”

  He nodded. “We’ll see how that goes.”

  “Now, I’ve been thinking about Daisy. I can see she has some training. She sits and stays. We’ll want to get her used to hand signals instead of voice. The way to do this is to add hand signals to your vocal commands, then slowly switch to just hand signals, then reward her with small treats when she does it, as usual. I’ll show you the moves we want her to learn at the end of practice.”

  “I trained my Blue Lacy hounds to fetch, sit, roll over, that kind of thing, so I’m aware of what you’re talking about.”

  “Good. Find something she loves as a reward…maybe bacon,” she added to see if she could get that twinkle back in his eyes, “since she seems shy and uninterested in performing right now.”

  He nodded.

  “All right, let’s start.”

  For the next couple of minutes, Poe and Jared worked through the moves. When she put on the music, she watched him. “That was pretty good, but you’re a bit stiff. Still something to work on. Now we’re going to add in the Travolta moves. So our routine basically will consist of four hustles in a circle, then the Travolta moves, then four more hustles.”

  “What will the dogs be doing?”

  “My terriers know their part. They will spin when we spin, then on the part where we do the roll with our hands, they’ll sit on their hind legs and put their paws together.”

  “I’ll need to teach Daisy that move, forward and back, and then spin?”

  “That’s about it. When you do the Travolta moves, I’ll dance around you, and The Terrible Two will alternate jumping in the air. We can have Daisy roll over.”

  “What Travolta moves do you want me to do?”

  “Roll your hands, then point to the right and roll your hips, then to the left. Legs open to shoulder width, point to the right, then left, then right, touch your foot. Do that twice, then once more, but instead of touching your foot, turn to the left point and move your hips forward. All this is done on the eight count. That’s it.”

  He practiced it through a couple of times.

  “Move your hips, Jared.”

  “I am.”

  “Well more thrust and more roll. You look awkward and stiff again.”

  “I feel awkward. This is not something I do every day.”

  “Well, don’t try it in a public place, you might get arrested.”

  He laughed.

  “You’re not entirely comfortable, which is understandable. The more you practice and get used to the moves, the more comfortable you’ll be with them. I want you to really sell it, like Travolta. He always had that cocky look on his face. There will be three female judges, so you could win them over with these moves.”

  He started again and, though he might think he was moving his hips, he wasn’t.

  “No, Jared,” she said. “More hip action.”

  She walked up to him and watched him struggle through the pitiful movements. “You’ve got nice hips and a really nice ass.”

  “Huh?”

  “Oh, crap, did I say it out loud again?”

  He chuckled. “Don’t make me laugh, and don’t distract me,” he groaned.

  She watched him again, then couldn’t stand it. She marched over there and, standing at his side, she put her hands on his lower stomach and the top of his butt and pushed his hips forward and then rolled them back.

  He had ripped abs. She could feel the ridges beneath his clothes.

  “Do you feel that? Make it natural, like when you’re with a woman.”

  When there was no answer, she said, “Oh, for Pete’s sake.” She moved around in front of him and backed her butt flush to his groin. She grabbed his wrists and settled his hands on her hips. “This is what I’m talking about. Move with me.” She thrust and rolled her hips a few times. “See?”

  All she got was a strangled gasp.

  She looked at him over her shoulder, and when she met those thickly-lashed moss-green eyes, she froze. In the depths was a raw, primal look that sent shivers over her skin. And, like the idiot she was, she only just now thought about possible consequences of the fact that she had put her hands on him, her butt against his groin, and made him put his hands on her.

  She turned, but his hands and arms acted like a cage, his palms sliding across her firm butt. She was trapped, close to him, her hips squared to his. She tried to backpedal away, embarrassed at her awkward and inept behavior. But his hands tightened on her hips, burning hot through the fabric.

  She held his gaze, caught in the dizzying hold he had over her. His eyes spoke volumes, and just as he let the warrior free the first time she saw him, now he let her see the longing in his eyes, the eyes of a
man who wanted her. A man like him, a man who wasn’t really her type. But that longing in his expression, with that glimpse of such tangible emotion, was nearly her undoing. Her heart fluttered.

  “Did you know that each of the suits on a deck of cards represents the four major pillars of the economy in the middle ages? Hearts represented the church, spades represented the military, clubs represented agriculture, and diamonds represented the merchant class.” Air seemed to disappear and she whispered. “The king of hearts is the only king without a moustache.”

  Jared smiled and held her gaze for what felt like an eternity, then his head dipped toward her, his eyes focused on her mouth.

  Poe stopped talking…stopped breathing. Her gaze riveted to his handsome face. Her body was very aware of his nearness, responding to it in ways that were instinctive and fundamentally feminine—warming, melting. She shivered.

  He was almost there. Her eyes drifted closed. She could feel the powerful energy of his mouth so close to hers, a whisper away. Then he backed up, released her hips and swore.

  Poe opened her eyes as Jared stepped away. She felt dizzy, weak, as shaken as she had been when that mugger had punched her in the face. Like a woman in a daze, she lifted a hand and touched her fingers to her lips, lips that felt hot and swollen as if she’d been thoroughly and soundly kissed. Her plan was to just step away, but when she moved, she didn’t realize how close his foot was to hers. She lost her balance. When he swooped in to try to save her from a fall, she accidentally elbowed him really hard in the jaw, then fell flat on her ass.

  Chapter Six

  Poe didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or throw up. Her stomach was still in knots, her emotions were all over the map…and her body had responded to Jared’s like never before. Was still vibrating with need. Maybe she needed to Google ‘how to find a hole to crawl into”.

  Thank God Brooke had called to ask her to go along to the grocery store. She needed food anyway, and she told Jared that while she whisked them both out of Callie’s place, and then dropped him, his dog, and her dogs off at her apartment.

  “I think I have blurt-itis.”

  Brooke looked at her skeptically. “Is that even a word, Poe?”