by Jill Shalvis
“Thanks.” Josh moved to the door, then turned back. “Can you call my office and tell them I’m running half an hour behind, and see if someone picked me up a replacement phone yet?”
“It’ll cost you.”
“Let me guess,” Josh said. “Chocolate cake?”
She smiled sweetly. “From the B and B, please.”
Tara, the chef at the local B&B, made the best chocolate cake on the planet. “Noted.” Josh left HSC and drove through Lucky Harbor, past the pier to Lucille’s art gallery. The place was an old Victorian, possessing 150 years of charm and character, sitting comfortably on its foundation in its old age. When he stepped inside, a bell above his head chimed, and Lucille poked her head out of a room down the hall.
She was somewhere near eighty. She favored pink polyester tracksuits and matching lipstick and was the heart and soul of Lucky Harbor—not to mention the Central Station for all things gossip. “Dr. Scott!” she said, beaming in delight at the sight of him, patting her bun as if to make sure it was still stacked on top of her head. “Are you here to join our drawing class?”
“No, I need to speak to one of your students.”
“Uh-oh. Do you think Mrs. Tyler’s having another heart attack?”
Christ, he hoped not. “Not Mrs. Tyler.”
“Whew. Don’t tell me Mrs. B’s got hemorrhoids again. I keep suggesting that she eat more prunes, but she doesn’t listen. You need to tell her.”
Mrs. Burland was one of Josh’s patients. In fact, she refused to see any doctor other than Josh—but she didn’t listen to him any more than she did Lucille. “Not Mrs. B,” he said. “I’m looking for Grace Brooks.”
Lucille blinked in surprise. “Well, honey, why didn’t you say so? Sure, you can speak to her, but she’s not one of my students. She’s our model.”
“Your model?”
“Yes, today we’re drawing the nude form.”
Not much surprised Josh. Actually, nothing surprised Josh. But this did. “Grace is the nude model?”
“Learning to sketch the nude human form is standard practice for a beginning drawing class,” she said. “We always hire a nude model. Last season I did it myself.”
While he was adjusting to the horror of that, Lucille went on. “The female form is the most beautiful form on earth. Very natural.” She pushed the studio door open, revealing Grace on a pedestal, a robe pooled at her feet, her body twisted into some ballerina pose. Her blond hair was loose, wavy to her shoulders, shining like silk, her limbs bare and toned.
She wasn’t nude. At least not completely. She was wearing one of those long gimmick T-shirts so common in beach shops, with the form of a very curvaceous woman on it in a skimpy string bikini.
Lucille grinned at him. “She was feeling a little shy.”
Holding her pose, Grace narrowed her eyes on Josh. “What are you doing here?”
“He came to see you,” Lucille said.
Grace’s eyes narrowed a little bit more. “You draw?”
“Not even a little bit,” Josh said. She should have looked ridiculous. She had a knockout body, but it was completely covered up, from chin to shin, in that oversized shirt. Her feet were bare, her toenails painted a bright pink.
She didn’t look ridiculous at all. She looked the opposite of ridiculous. In fact, she looked good enough to gobble up with a spoon. Without a spoon. He was thinking his tongue would work…
“Why are you here?” she asked.
“My dog needs a dog walker today.”
Not saying a word or moving a single muscle, she managed to say no. It was all in the eyes.
She had amazing eyes.
“You’re a dog walker?” Lucille asked Grace in surprise.
“No,” she said.
This was news to Josh. “Your flyer said you were an ‘experienced dog walker.’”
Grace winced at this, then bit her lower lip as she looked away.
“Hold still, dear,” one of the budding artists said.
“Sorry.” Grace cleared her expression and got back into her pose. “The flyer wasn’t mine,” she admitted to Josh. “You called the wrong number.”
“I called the wrong number.” He absorbed this a minute. “And yet you were willing to go work for a perfect stranger who needed his dog walked?”
“Hey, don’t blame me. You were the one willing to hire a perfect stranger.”
Unbelievable. “You had references on that flyer!”
“Did you actually call any of them?” she asked.
Suddenly, he needed Advil. “So you’d go work for anyone who called?” He hated that she needed work that badly. “Jesus, Grace, I could have been a psycho.”
“Or mean,” she pointed out.
“I wasn’t mean.”
Her expression said she thought otherwise. And then there was another thing. The T-shirt. It was hard to get past the huge cartoon breasts, stuffed into that cartoon itty-bitty bikini. And he couldn’t help but wonder.
What was she wearing beneath the T-shirt?
“Honey, you’re looking a little tense,” Lucille said to Grace. “We haven’t studied tense yet. Can you go back to serene?”
Grace did just that, and Josh dipped his head and studied his shoes for a long moment, until the desire to strangle Lucille had passed. “Fine,” he said, looking up at Grace again. “I’m sorry I didn’t keep you on as my dog walker.”
“And yet you’re not sorry for being mean.”
It wasn’t often that he didn’t know what to do. But he honest to God had no idea what to do with her.
“Look,” she said, still holding her pose. “I nearly lost your dog. You had to come into the ocean to save me, and I got you all wet. I was a mess and a terrible dog walker. I get it.”
“You weren’t that terrible.”
“Are you just saying that so I’ll come back?”
Well, yes. But even he knew that was a trick question. With a minefield all around it. “Please,” he said.
Everyone in the room was following this conversation like they were at Wimbledon in the final match, but all eyes had landed on Grace now, waiting breathlessly for her answer.
“You weren’t exactly friendly,” she finally said, noncommittal.
In unison, the heads swiveled back to Josh, eyes narrowed in censure.
He drew a breath, remembering what Mallory had told him, that he’d hurt Grace’s feelings. He hadn’t meant to, of course, but even he knew enough about women to understand that didn’t mean shit. Once feelings were hurt, it took an act of congress to reinstate status quo. Since he wasn’t used to apologizing for his actions, he kept it simple. “You’re right. I wasn’t friendly. I was overworked, stressed, and in a hurry. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry, or desperate?”
Desperate? Hell no. She was the desperate one. But if he said so, he’d lose the tentative ground he’d just made. So he pulled out his ace in the hole. “I’ll double the pay.”
This got her attention enough to make her break the pose. Hell, it got everyone’s attention.
Even Lucille set down her pencil. “What do you think, ladies?” she asked the room. “Should Grace give Dr. Scott another shot?”
They whispered among themselves like jurors debating his sentence. Josh slid Grace a look. She was looking at him right back, eyes lit with amusement, not looking particularly desperate for the job at all.
“Six to two,” Lucille announced, “in favor of Grace giving Dr. Scott another shot.”
Grace didn’t react, and Josh had the feeling the vote was actually more like six to three. “Triple the pay,” he said. No more messing around. He was already late, and he was sinking fast. The board didn’t need another excuse to get on his ass about being unable to handle the workload.
Grace smiled, and it was a really great smile. So great that he felt something twinge inside him, something he’d thought dead. “What’s so funny?” he asked.
“Triple the pay?” She was still smiling b
ut there was something in her voice that warned him he was on thin ice, but hell if he knew what he’d done now.
“Yeah. Problem?”
Several of the women behind him snorted, the rest nodded in agreement, all of it adding up to him being an idiot.
“I’d have done it for that kiss you promised me,” Grace said.
Well, now was a fine time to tell him that.
“Aw.” Lucille clapped her hands together in utter delight. “Break time, ladies! Let’s give these two a moment.” She slid a sly look in Josh’s direction. “Go ahead, then,” she whispered. “Pay her.”
Josh shook his head. “My wallet’s in the car—”
“Not money, Dr. Scott. The girl said she’d do it for a kiss.”
Josh let out a laugh. “Lucille, she was just kidding.”
Lucille studied Grace, then slowly shook her head. “No, I don’t think she was kidding. Does anyone here think Grace was only kidding?”
Everyone in the room shook their heads in unison. A room full of damn geriatric bobblehead dolls.
Grace stepped down off the pedestal. “It’s okay, Lucille,” she said, still looking at Josh, her mouth curving slow and sensuous. “We’re scaring him. Of course Dr. Scott doesn’t have to kiss me to get me to walk his dog.” She shrugged at him, like Hey, this isn’t my doing.
Bullshit it wasn’t her doing. But she had such pretty eyes, he thought insanely. Real pretty. And, hell, they were scaring him. Pride stinging just a little bit, feeling like he had something to prove—though he wasn’t quite sure what—he stepped close to Grace and bent his head low, his gaze searching hers for a sign that she was being pushed into this.
Her smile broadened.
“You could put a stop to this,” he said softly, and unbelievably, she made the sound of a chicken. He straightened and narrowed his eyes. “What does that mean?”
“You know what it means.”
She was crazy, he decided. A crazy cutie. He had way too much on his plate for this. Too many people to take care of, and she had “take care of me” written all over her. And yet she thought that he was a chicken. Interesting.
Infuriating.
And a little bit of a turn-on. But fuck it, he was done thinking. The woman wanted a kiss, and hell if he’d try to talk her out of it. So he leaned in and brushed his mouth over hers. Peach. Her lip gloss was peach, and it was more delicious than anything he could remember.
So was the kiss, chaste as it was, which rocked his socks right off.
Chapter 5
Chocolate is good for three things. Two of them can’t be mentioned in polite company.
Grace closed her eyes to enjoy the feel of a man’s mouth on hers. Yep, just as heavenly as she remembered. Maybe even more so. She definitely felt a spark.
Actually, she felt a full fireworks display.
When Josh pulled back, she opened her eyes to his dark brown ones and caught his own flash of surprise before he masked it.
“We have a deal, then,” he said. “For today.”
He hadn’t worded it as a question, of course, which was just like a man. But he looked even more exhausted today than he had yesterday, and that both intrigued and worried her. She was extremely aware of his proximity, that his big, bad self wasn’t in wet, sandy ER scrubs today. He wore cargo pants and a fisherman’s sweater, both in black, both casual but expensive-looking, like he’d walked right out of an ad.
But she was even more aware that the entire art class was watching them.
Avidly.
Her phone buzzed. The incoming text was from Lucille: Honey, I don’t mean to rush you but it’s rumored that the good doc has got the best hands in all of Lucky Harbor. Go for it.
Grace lifted her head and sent Lucille a look.
Lucille smiled innocently.
Grace rolled her eyes and nodded to Josh. “Fine. We have a deal.”
He handed her a key to his house and left.
Grace watched him go, thinking that his hands weren’t even his best part. “Excuse me a minute,” she said to the class, before running to catch up with Josh in the hall.
He turned to face her, and she shook her head, her body still humming from his kiss. “What was that?” she finally managed. “Back there.”
“You know what it was.”
Yeah. Yeah, she did. Chemistry. Holy Toledo, some damn hot chemistry. “But it shouldn’t be like this, not between us.” They were night and day. Oil and water. He might not know it, but she did. “It was a fluke.” That was all she could think, that it was a complete fluke. But his eyes darkened, and in response, her nipples got hard. “Okay, so maybe not,” she muttered, and crossed her arms over herself and her fake triple Ds.
He stepped closer, his voice low. “I’d prove it to you, but I’m not into kissing by committee.”
She looked over her shoulder and found Lucille and the entire art class leaning out the classroom door, unabashedly eavesdropping. She gave them the “shoo” signal, and they vanished.
“Impressive,” he said. “Be sure to use that level of authority on Tank today and try to avoid another swim.”
“I really thought he was in the water.”
“He likes to play hide-and-seek.”
“Good to know.” And she still had to take that crazy puppy out for another walk…
“Interesting T-shirt,” he said.
She looked down at herself, eternally grateful that she hadn’t gone the full Monty route after all. “It’s not as good as the real thing, but as it turns out, I’m pretty selective about who sees the real thing.”
His smile softened. His eyes crinkled in the corners, and the laugh lines on either side of his mouth deepened, stealing her breath. “Good to know,” he mirrored back at her.
It was a genuine smile from a man who didn’t appear to do it too often, and it left her a little dazed. Or maybe it was the crazy amount of testosterone coming off him in waves.
“Let me know if you have any trouble today,” he said.
“For what you’re paying me, there’ll be no trouble.” And if there was, he’d be the last man she’d call, amazing kisser or not, because they had a connection, and she knew the power of it now.
Grace wasn’t in Lucky Harbor to make a connection with a man she knew wasn’t her type. She was looking for fun, that was it, and in spite of Josh being sex-on-a-stick, she wasn’t sure he had a lot of fun in him. Steering clear was her smartest option here. And no matter how good he was with his hands, she was going to be smart, if it killed her.
A few hours later, Grace headed to Josh’s house. As she parked, she noticed she had an unread text from Mallory.
Hey, head’s up. The hottest doctor in town just came by and coerced me into telling him where you were. I folded like a cheap suitcase. Sorry, but he’s hard to say no to. Don’t be mad. I owe you a cupcake.
Yeah, an entire batch. Grace shook her head and let herself into Josh’s house without incident. This time, she carefully leashed Tank before she opened his baby gate, and then as a double precaution, she just as carefully picked him up and carried him outside.
She might not be a blood-born Brooks genius, but she was quick on the learning curve.
She avoided the beach entirely, instead setting Tank down to walk alongside the quiet street. Tank sniffed every single rock, every last tree, and then finally chose a spot to hunch and do his business.
“Hey!” A man stuck his head out of a window of the house. “Don’t think I don’t see that you’re not carrying a doodie bag! You come back with a doodie bag and clean that up!”
A doodie bag? Grace had seen a stack of plastic baggies by Tank’s leash. Guess she knew what they were for now. She scooped Tank back up. “I hope you’re done.”
Tank snorted and licked her chin.
“I mean it!” the man yelled at her. “Make sure you take care of that mess or I’ll call the cops on you.”
Grace took Tank back to the house, securing him in the laundry roo
m. Then she reluctantly grabbed a bag to go do her “doodie” duty. As she turned to the door, she nearly tripped over a young woman in a wheelchair. She was twentyish, petite, dark-haired, her eyes as dark and alluring as the man she had to be related to.
“Anna,” she said, introducing herself. “The crazy sister. And you must be the nude girl he kissed.”
Grace choked. “What?”
“Yeah, you haven’t seen?” Anna pulled her phone from a pocket and thumbed a few buttons, then turned the screen for Grace.
It was Lucky Harbor’s Facebook page, and a picture of Grace in the bikini T-shirt that was going to haunt her for the rest of her damn life. And her lips were indeed connected to Josh’s. The kiss had lasted only a heartbeat, but one would never know it by the picture, which had been captured at just the right nanosecond, showing Grace leaning into Josh with her entire body, both hands on his chest.
She hadn’t realized she’d touched him so intimately, but now she could remember the heat radiating through his shirt, the easy strength of him beneath. And he’d smelled delicious.
But God, had she really looked at him so adoringly?
Josh hadn’t been so innocent either. He had one big hand cupping her jaw, his thumb clearly stroking her skin in a way that seemed both tender and yet somehow outrageously sexy.
“Cozy,” Anna said dryly.
“It’s not what it looks like,” Grace said, giving her back the phone.
“No?” Anna asked, looking down at the screen again. “Because it looks like you’re kissing. You’re not kissing?”
“Okay, so we’re kissing, but that’s only because the day before he’d said he’d kiss me if I lost the dog and then…” Grace trailed off, unable to remember exactly how it was that she’d ended up with Josh’s mouth on hers.
On the Internet.
Anna arched a brow.
Grace sighed. “Well, this is embarrassing. We’re not…I mean, he and I aren’t—”
“Oh, no worries,” Anna said. “I know you’re not his girl toy. He wouldn’t have hired you if you were.”