by Bella Andre
It wasn’t that she was a prude. On the contrary, just because Heather had always carefully 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 still playing catch-up from being pulled out of the office for so long this morning, so I’ll 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’ll 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.
Chapter Four
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 hallways way back in middle school, going a heck of a lot further than that by high school. But for all the playing he’d done during his thirty years, he’d never felt such a strong need, especially 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 all the same interests. He even got the same headaches his father used to get, ones that would come on like a bullet 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 Sullivan. Even now, whenever he saw his father’s brothers, he could tell how hard it was for them to be around him.
All his life, Zach had been careful to keep the boundaries clear with women. He was all 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 falling in love with him, planning her life around him, only to have him checking out on her way too early, the way his father had his mother.
Like father, like son. It was why Zach had always gone for speed. Cars. Women. Life. He wanted to experience as much of it as he could before it ended early. Because he knew he was too much like his father for it to go any other way.
Damn it, he needed to stop wasting time analyzing this thing with Heather. She was hot. Smart. And sex with her was going to be great.
That is, if he could convince her to give him a go.
Finally, he smiled. Because if there was one thing Zach knew how to do better than any guy on earth, it was convincing women to give him a go.
A half hour later, when her employees had all gone home, he dialed her cell phone. “Pizza delivery out front.”
“I didn’t order any pizza.”
He hung up on her and waited by the locked front door. When she saw him through the long window at the side of the door, he thought he caught a flash of a small smile before she replaced it with a scowl.
“Why are you here again? And how did you get my cell number?”
“Cuddles couldn’t stop worrying about you missing meals because of us.” He leaned against the door jamb. “And Agnes checked in a little while ago to make sure we were doing all right. I told her we were, but only because of you. She thought it best if I had your direct line just in case I have another puppy emergency.”
Again, it looked like her lips wanted to curve upward, but from the way she always worked to keep her beautiful face so serious, he knew she was bound and determined to resist him.
Lord knew he’d like to have her bound and begging, instead...
Knowing there was a good chance she’d simply take the pizza from him, then lock him out on the sidewalk, he held Cuddles out so that Atlas could see his new friend from the office. The Great Dane immediately started whining.
“Really, Atlas?” Heather asked in an exasperated voice. “You’re going to pull this now?”
Her dog happily wagged his enormous tail and Zach used the opportunity to put the puppy inside, knowing she wouldn’t leave him out there if she had his dog.
Yup, he now officially loved the annoying little ball of fur, even if she had tried to use his T-shirt to sharpen her tug-of-war skills on the way back from the pizza place.
“I’m guessing you want to share the pizza.” She looked impossibly grumpy at the thought of his joining her for the dinner he’d brought over.
“I’m one of eight. We learned to eat fast as kids or go hungry. If you want some, you’d better start now.”
Her eyes grew big. “Eight? Please tell me you’re the worst of the bunch.”
He grinned. “Easily.”
She was shaking her head at the news of his big family as she headed for a table and chairs off in the corner. As she washed her hands at a nearby sink, she gave him ample time to appreciate the view of her gorgeous legs in her shorts and the way her long hair nearly brushed her hips, even in the ponytail. He couldn’t wait to find out how soft it was when his hands were tangled in it and—
The loud screech of a chair over linoleum yanked him from his hot daydream. Heather’s face looked like thunder as she sat down. “Stop looking at me like that.”
He washed his hands, then sat down across from her. “How am I looking at you?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t ask me a stupid question when you know exactly what you’re doing.”
This wasn’t usually the way it played out, with both sides flirting while no one said what they really meant. But Zach was perfectly happy to give up the game. Really happy about it, in fact, given that the game had been getting pretty old lately.
He shrugged. “Sorry, but it’s going to be pretty much impossible for me to stop looking at you like that.” He let his eyes move over her face. “You’re gorgeous, you know.”
She looked shocked by his completely honest compliment, and he knew he’d gotten one up on her. Finally. Feeling good about things, he flipped open the large cardboard box, grabbed a piece of pizza, and put it on one of the paper plates he’d picked up at the restaurant. She looked down at the slice, then back up at him.
“You like egg on your pizza?”
“Never order one without it,” he lied.
He put her piece in front of her, then picked one up for himself, taking a large bite of it, egg and all. After her assistant had spilled to him what her favorite toppings were, he had been prepared to suck it up regardless of how bad it tasted, but it was actually pretty good.
“No one likes egg on their pizza but me and people from France. You’re the first.”
“Your first, huh?”
She shook her head and sighed. “
I can’t believe I have to spell this out to you, but I obviously do.” She looked around the building as if to make absolutely certain they were the only two people in it before saying, “I’m not going to sleep with you.”
Well, then. Now they were way off the normal track.
“Why not?”
“You really want me to tell you why I find the thought of sleeping with you completely abhorrent?”
Sexy as hell and a good vocabulary. He was going to give Agnes a freebie on her tune-up next time he saw her as thanks for this introduction.
“Sure, lay it on me.” It would help a great deal, actually, if he knew why she was resisting him. Because then he could break down each of her reasons, one by one. He nodded at her pizza. “But eat first. It’s getting cold and I know you’re starved.”
When her stomach grumbled again in agreement, she finally took a bite. He handed her a cold soda to wash it down and as he watched her take a large gulp of the sweet, fizzy drink, Zach wanted her more with every passing second. Gorgeous, smart, and as a bonus, she ate and drank like a woman who enjoyed food, versus the kind of women he normally had sex with, who barely picked at it.
Lord, what he wouldn’t give to feed her pizza in bed, to have her naked and using his stomach as a plate, her tongue licking up the oil from between his abs, and then lower down...
“You’re doing it again,” she said when she caught the way he was looking at her, but her chastisement was milder this time.
He resisted the urge to do a fist pump in the air at finally making some headway. “Already told you, I can’t help myself. You’re too pretty.”
She reached for another piece of pizza. “That’s one big reason, right there. You’re way too quick with the lines.”
“It’s not a line, it’s true.”
“See?” She picked a piece of egg off the pizza and popped it into her mouth. “Way too quick.”
“Okay, you’ve got it. I won’t talk when we’re in bed.”
“I should be surprised that you just said that,” she said almost more to herself than to him, “but already I’m not.”
She ran her finger over the rim of her drink and sucked the sugar off it, which made him ache beneath the table.
“I’m also not interested in being your flavor of the week. Or night, as the case probably is.”
“Forget about a night or a week,” he told her. “A month will work just fine.” Although right now, even thirty days with Heather tied to his bedposts, her long, silky hair spread all around her, didn’t seem like it would be long enough.
She let out a long, irritated sigh as she turned to watch the dogs drinking from the big water bowl across the room. “You should have been a politician instead of a mechanic.”
He didn’t correct her by telling her he was more than a mechanic, that he owned forty Sullivan Auto franchises up and down the West Coast.
“And just to be clear,” she added, “you’re not my type.”
Now it was his turn to say, “Good thing you’re a dog trainer and not a politician. You’re a terrible liar, Heather.”
She scooted her chair back and he could tell she was angry as she chucked the rest of her pizza into the trash. “What, you think you’re so irresistible that you believe there isn’t a woman alive who doesn’t want to be with you?”
“I’m sure there is,” he said in an easy voice as he stood up, “but you’re not her.” Before she could throw something at his head, he said, “Cuddles, come!”
His smart little puppy raced over into his open arms and the two of them got the hell out of there.
Chapter Five
“Help! I’m having another puppy emergency.”
Heather held the phone to her ear as she rolled over in bed and blearily looked at the clock. “It’s five thirty in the morning.” It wouldn’t be so bad if she’d gotten more sleep, but all night long she’d watched the clock tick over from 11 p.m. to midnight to 1 a.m. and then 2 a.m. before her brain finally gave up and shut down.
Damn Zach Sullivan for not only waking her up...but for being the reason she hadn’t been able to sleep in the first place.
“Cuddles doesn’t care what time it is,” he growled into her ear.
Yesterday, she would have been in a panic over the tone of his voice, would have assumed he was going to do something horrible to the puppy. But after spending part of the evening with him, while she’d confirmed that he was full of himself, she also felt confident that he was good with animals.
Even naughty little puppies.
“That’s life with a puppy,” she informed him around a yawn as she leaned back against her pillow and watched the sun start to rise outside her bedroom window.
Strange that it should seem so easy and natural to be talking on the phone with Zach when she’d just met him. And yet, it was.
“Just clean up whatever mess she made, tell her you love her anyway, and be sure to show up for your training session this evening.”
“Cuddles!” he roared.
She heard something crash to the floor, and then a muffled string of curses, before they were disconnected.
She closed her eyes, but already she knew it was pointless. She shouldn’t go running whenever he called, especially not to a man like Zach Sullivan, who would only see it as confirmation that he was king of the world. But at the same time, she knew she’d only be distracted all day wondering if he and Cuddles were going to make it to five p.m. in one piece.
She dragged herself into the shower and ran it a bit colder than usual to try to wake herself up—and cool herself down from the very sexy dream she’d been having about the exact person she shouldn’t have been. After she dried off, she pulled up his number on her cell phone from when he’d called her the night before and left him a message telling him that she would be coming to help, after all.
It was far more tempting than it should have been to blow dry her hair and throw on some makeup, but it was bad enough she was heading to his house this morning with nothing but a phone call. If she actually dressed up for him, all chance of retaining her self-respect would disappear.
By the time she’d slid on a pair of jeans, one of a dozen long-sleeved T-shirts in her closet, and braided her hair to keep it out of the way while she was dealing with whatever puppy mayhem had descended at Zach’s house, he’d texted her with his address.
She let Atlas out into the backyard and fed him before they set out. “Guess what? We’re going to see your new best friend Cuddles.”
At the sound of the puppy’s name, her dog happily thumped his tail.
“I’m glad at least one of us is happy about this,” she muttered as she drove toward Potrero Hill, one of the most exclusive districts in San Francisco, with views to forever. Who knew auto mechanics did this well?
The thought hit her again as she pulled up to the enormous house, along with the question of how Zach could possibly afford it. But when everything inside sounded ominously quiet as she stood on the front step and knocked on the door, worry about what had happened between him and the puppy had the question moving into the background.
Because even though she had a sense that Zach probably lived to do things like wake people up out of a sound sleep at 5:30 in the morning, she now had a feeling the real reason he’d called her was out of actual desperation.
Hoping she wasn’t too late, she knocked on the door again, more loudly. Zach opened the door, saying, “Shhh.”
He looked like hell. Still far too gorgeous for a mere mortal, but definitely not his best.
No doubt, even she’d managed more sleep than he had last night. And from the looks of his half-shaven face, and the jeans pulled up over his hips, the real damage had started to go down when he was in the shower.
Okay, she firmly told herself as the muscles on his shirtless chest rippled in front of her, she could handle a nice set of abs. Heck, she’d spent time with a professional athlete for a while, so it wasn’t like she hadn’t seen a good body before.
Fortunately, Zach was so distraught by whatever Cuddles had done that he didn’t seem to notice her drooling over his bare chest. The last thing she needed was for him to know just how hard a time she was having resisting him.
He pointed down to her dog and ordered, “Don’t wake the puppy up.”
Atlas’s ears flattened and Heather rolled her eyes. Men were such babies. Zach was acting like waking up Cuddles would break him as he slowly opened the door, wincing at every creak in the frame.
Heather’s mouth fell open. “Oh my God.” She looked at Zach in shock, then back at his house. “I can’t believe Cuddles could possibly have done all this by herself.”
A muscle jumped in his clenched jaw. “Believe it. She’s the devil in a puppy disguise.”
Normally Heather would have taken offense at anyone saying that about a helpless, sweet puppy, but she was stunned by the destruction to Zach’s living room.
The puppy had not only ripped open every pillow on his couch, she had also gone to town on what Heather guessed was a really expensive rug. There were scratch marks up and down one side of the kitchen island and a half-dozen dark stain spots on the exposed parts of the hardwood floor.
Even Atlas looked alarmed by the state of the apartment, as he stood beside her at the front door like a statue of a Great Dane.
“Where is she?” Heather asked in the hushed voice Zach had wanted her to use earlier.
He pointed to a pile of feathers beside the couch. Heather had to look closely to see Cuddles curled up in the center of it, sleeping the sleep of the truly exhausted.
“I’m going to kill my brother,” he said in a low voice that told her he meant every single word.
She didn’t blame him for feeling that way. He was a bachelor who’d had a rambunctious puppy dumped on him. In truth, none of this was Zach’s fault. He was just doing the best he could. Unfortunately, it seemed he was way out of his element with this particular puppy.
Heather had worked with hundreds of dogs over the years, and she’d been able to tell right away that this one was a handful. The smart, playful ones always were.