Puppy Kisses

by Lucy Gilmore

  Dawn couldn’t decide whether she was relieved or disappointed when Sophie didn’t react. “The name is familiar, but I’m not sure why. Zeke’s the younger of the two?”

  Dawn nodded.

  “And he’s the one with the abs?”

  Dawn nodded again, this time with a soft laugh. “Yeah, he’s a competitive triathlete—and it shows. But it’s not like that between us, unfortunately. No attraction.”

  That got Sophie’s attention. The sidelong look she cast Dawn was one of pure disbelief. “You spend an awful lot of time with him for a man with no attraction.”

  Dawn dipped her head again and pretended to pick at a clump of dirt on the knee of her jeans. “He has plenty of attraction, don’t get me wrong,” she said. “He just doesn’t have any for me.”

  “Oh, Dawn.” Sophie’s hand shot out and gripped hers, giving it a meaningful squeeze. “I thought something like that must be in the air. You’ve been weirdly subdued lately. Do you want to talk about it?”

  Dawn didn’t contradict her. Sophie might have grabbed the wrong end of the Dearborn stick, but at least she had her hands on it.

  “There’s not much to talk about. I was never meant to settle down for life on a ranch.” She shrugged. “It’s for the best, really. Could you see me living it up with all those cows and chickens? I mean, I do like to start my day at the sound of a cock rising, but…”

  Sophie chuckled obligingly, but Dawn could tell that her heart wasn’t in it.

  So she put a little more cheer in her voice and tried again. “Don’t worry, Soph. I won’t break because I found the one man in the world I can’t win over with a laugh and a smile. It’ll be good for me in the end. My self-confidence was starting to get out of control, anyway.”

  It didn’t work. “Will it be okay, training out there all day every day with him?” Sophie asked.

  “So far, so good,” Dawn promised. “In fact, if I can convince them to let me keep Gigi, then I’ll be more than okay. I’ll be like Aunt Nessa, traveling the world and keeping cats in my old age. Except I’ll keep dogs instead. Speaking of…do you mind if I hop in the shower now? It’s getting kind of late, and I wasn’t kidding about those poor dears back at the kennel. By eight o’clock, they start howling.”

  “Of course. I did a load of laundry about an hour ago, so there should be plenty of hot water by now.” Sophie unfolded herself from the couch and readjusted her bandanna. “And stay as long as you want—today, tomorrow, or anytime. We can even trade, and I’ll do a few sleepovers at the kennel. I don’t mind.”

  “You’re a love.” Dawn also rose, pausing to press a kiss on her sister’s paint-speckled cheek. “But don’t worry about it. You’re busy enough around this place as it is. It’s starting to shape up really nicely, by the way.”

  Sophie perked up, her pride in her restoration efforts clear. “You think? I’ve been trying to keep it as historically accurate as possible, but…” She glanced around as her voice trailed off, glancing at the newly finished fireplace with the same adoration she lavished on their puppies.

  “It’s perfect,” Dawn said, though her knowledge of interior design was slight. “And instead of you offering to come help me around the kennel, I should be offering to help you paint. I can, you know. I’m no good with a spatula, but a paintbrush I can do.”

  “You’re going to add home renovations on top of everything else?” Sophie asked. “Between the kennel, your puppy training, and the demands of your social life, I wouldn’t know where you’d find the time.”

  Dawn laughed, grateful to find herself on familiar ground. “You know what they say—there’s no rest for the wicked.” She offered Sophie a liberal wink. “And I have yet to meet anyone quite as wicked as me.”

  Chapter 6

  “Good morning, Zeke. Hello, Phoebe. What a good boy you are, Uncle.” Dawn walked through the front door of Dearborn Ranch the following Monday without knocking. With a sweeping glance, she took in the bustle of early morning in a place like this one—Zeke and Phoebe in various states of readiness, Uncle eating his breakfast, and the scent of coffee percolating in the distance. “Where’s Gigi?”

  “You mean, where’s Adam?” Phoebe laughed and finished whipping her waist-length brown hair into a ponytail. “Don’t worry. He hasn’t run off with her just yet. They’re working together out in the barn. I think he’s hoping you’ll see what amazing leaps and bounds she’s made and have no choice but to give her up.”

  Dawn snorted. “He obviously doesn’t know me very well.”

  Phoebe glanced at her sideways. The girl’s eyes looked heavier than usual, but Dawn assumed that was because it was only eight o’clock. She was looking none too dapper herself. All these early ranch mornings were going to be the death of her.

  “You really like that puppy, don’t you?” Phoebe asked.

  “Of course I do. I’m the one who rescued her.”

  “Then why don’t you just pick her up and leave? She’s looking a lot better already. In fact, she ate, like, three of Adam’s shoes this morning.”

  Dawn was startled by the question until she noticed that Zeke, too, was watching her with interest.

  “Adam won’t really go tattling to Sheriff Jenkins,” he said. “Not now that he’s already been caught in the lie. You could, um, steal the dog and run. He’d never actually chase you down.”

  Mentioning the chase reminded her of the altercation with No-Pants. Had she and Zeke been alone, she might have mentioned it to him with a warning to tread lightly. But Phoebe was listening intently, and the last thing Dawn wanted to do was rope another poor Dearborn into her scrapes.

  “It’s the principle of the thing,” she said. “I’m not about to slink away like some criminal in the dead of night. I couldn’t, anyway. Adam has already put a down payment on my training fees. It would be a breach of contract to leave now.”

  To be fair, the agreement stated that she’d train a guide dog, not the dog she stole and forced on him, but that was mere quibbling. Besides, she really did have principles.

  With a glance down at her hippie-style sundress, which flapped playfully around the upper reaches of her thighs and was wholly inappropriate for a day of hard labor, she had to laugh. She had some principles, anyway.

  Phoebe seemed to notice her attire at the same time. “When are you supposed to go to Bea’s?” she asked.

  “Oh, sometime next week,” Dawn replied. “I warned her that I needed to make sure the puppies were settling in first. We have such a small amount of time as it is. He’s out back, you said?”

  Zeke nodded. “And he was up with the sun, so you’d better be careful. Word of warning—he’s never at his best before he’s had breakfast.”

  Dawn was never all that sprightly herself until she’d been caffeinated and fed, so she didn’t find anything strange about that. With a whistle to Uncle, who obediently rose to his feet and followed her, she headed out the back door.

  If she hadn’t already succumbed to Adam’s sexual allure, the sight that greeted her as she entered the barn would have sealed the deal right then and there. He wasn’t, as Phoebe had said, putting Gigi through her paces. On the contrary, he was lying on his back with his hands behind his head, allowing the puppy to crawl all over him. Gigi explored and licked and tugged at the buttons of his shirt, as sure of her reception as any adorable ball of fur had a right to be. And on the hay, too, straw itch mites be damned.

  Dawn paused to watch, unwilling to draw too close for fear Adam would hear her and ruin the moment.

  I want that, she thought. Not just to crawl all over Adam as her mood and desires demanded—which, admittedly, she wanted a lot—but to elicit that relaxed look on his face, the expression of easy enjoyment. They enjoyed each other’s bodies, obviously, but they were never relaxed together. Never easy. Now that she thought about it, few men were with her.

 
What is it about me that makes it so impossible?

  “I know you’re there,” he said, not bothering to raise his voice. “So you can stop plotting all the ways you plan to make my life miserable.”

  Dawn chuckled and took a step into the barn. Early-morning sunlight filtered through the weathered boards, highlighting dancing beams of dust and straw. The scent was musty but not unpleasant; this barn was used to store hay rather than animals, so it had a quiet, simple vibe that appealed to her.

  “How could you tell?” she asked. “I didn’t make a sound.”

  She fell into a crouch and extended a hand toward Gigi. Much to her dismay, the puppy showed a sudden hesitation, positioning herself behind Adam’s safe and solid body. “Gigi, love, it’s me. Remember? Your savior? The only person in the world who cared enough to rescue you in your hour of need?”

  At the sound of her voice, Gigi’s ears relaxed but she still didn’t move from her position. Matters weren’t helped any when Adam sat up and scooped the puppy into his arms, holding her against his chest.

  “I didn’t hear you,” he said. “I smelled you.”

  “You smelled me?” She gave herself a tentative sniff. She’d been careful not to wear any scent this morning—not even in her deodorant. It was one of the drawbacks of being a puppy trainer. The little guys were already bombarded with so many stimuli and instructions. To confuse them with perfume at this stage in their lives was just cruel. “Is that supposed to be a hint? I’m not the one rolling around in the hay with a puppy.”

  For the first time, Gigi noticed Uncle standing in the doorway to the barn and wriggled out of Adam’s arms. With a sprightliness that was heartening to see, she pounced over to the much larger dog and began coyly nipping at his legs.

  “Uh-oh,” Dawn said. “It seems you’ve got a troublemaker on your hands.”

  “Is she flirting with Uncle again?” Adam asked and hoisted himself to his feet. Straw clung to every part of him, dangling like rustic jewels from his rolled-up flannel. “Typical. The women in my life are fickle creatures.”

  “If this is where you declare your intention to name her Dawn again? Don’t worry—I got the message the first time around. I’m not worth the twelve hundred dollars you’ll get for me at market.”

  A shadow passed over his face, a frown that seemed more serious than the conversation warranted. “You don’t smell like anything.”

  She blinked. “What?”

  “That’s how I knew it was you. You have a very particular nonscent.”

  She wasn’t done with the other conversation—the one that implied she was fickle—but she allowed herself to be distracted. “How can someone have a nonscent? The absence of smell is just air. That doesn’t make sense.”

  “No,” he agreed and rolled his shoulders. “It doesn’t. But it’s true nonetheless. Well? What’s on the puppy-training agenda for today? I got Phoebe to clear me two hours this morning, but Zeke and I need to do a full herd check later. We’ve got a few late breeders who’ll be calving any day now.”

  “Aw. Baby cows?”

  His mouth firmed into a hard line. “Yes. They’re adorable and small and all things delightful. Well?”

  She sighed, feeling more dejected by his reaction to her arrival than she cared to admit. As usual, she was more of a burden than a benefit, a not-altogether-welcome break in the day. Adam needed her—for now—but there would soon come a time when that would no longer be the case.

  She blamed that feeling, that pang of inevitability, for what came out of her mouth next.

  “I thought we’d begin with a quick blow job in the back of the barn to get things loosened up,” she said without a trace of inflection. “Then we should probably do some basic skills training with both puppies before introducing Uncle to one or two of the cows. Just to start. We can bring in the whole herd later.”

  Adam coughed until his face began to suffuse with red. “That’s not what I had in mind.”

  “I know, but it’s best to get him used to the animals a few at a time. He’s never seen a cow before, so it’s impossible to tell how he’ll react. For all we know, he might take one look at them and think he’s at an all-you-can-eat hamburger buffet.”

  Since Uncle stood like a patient giant while Gigi pranced and nipped around him, there was little chance of him doing anything even remotely like that. Still, Dawn had a schedule and she meant to stick to it. Lila might not consider her the most professional dog trainer in the world, but she wasn’t completely unreliable. See? She could totally make plans.

  “With the exception of that first bit, it all sounds fine to me.”

  Dawn took a step toward him—close enough for him to not smell her, but not so close they were touching. “What if I told you that the first bit isn’t negotiable?”

  He cleared his throat. The slight tinge of red that had taken over his complexion hadn’t abated any, but he held his head at a dignified angle in an effort to counteract it. “I don’t remember my sexual services being a part of this bargain.”

  “Technically you aren’t serving anything. All you have to do is stand there. I’ll take care of the rest.”

  He didn’t answer, his silence making her feel as though she were six inches tall. Since it seemed she had little to lose at this point, she risked laying a hand flat on his chest. To all outward appearances, it was a sexual gesture, a symbol of intent. Her fingers curved into the plane of his pecs, reveling in the solid strength of him…not to mention everything that solid strength had to offer.

  Dawn wasn’t able to fool herself that easily. She liked placing her hand over his chest because she wanted to feel the steady thump of his heart. He was so warm and alive, so generous when he allowed himself to be.

  “You’re tense, Adam. Wound up. The puppies will be able to tell that the only thing you want to do is pin me up against the nearest barn wall, and it’ll negatively impact their training. Consider this part of the whole Dawn Vasquez training package.” Even though he couldn’t see her, she allowed her lips to curve in a smile. “Satisfaction is guaranteed.”

  He stopped breathing. The rhythmic beat under her palm gave an erratic leap, but he allowed no other outward signs of discomposure to appear. At least, not until his hand gripped her around the wrist. He didn’t pull or push her away—just stood there like a statue, holding her.

  She let him do it, her own breath caught until his tongue began a slow and tortured journey across his bottom lip. “Do all your clients get this kind of personalized treatment?” he asked, his voice hoarse.

  “Contrary to popular opinion, no. Most of my sexual partners have been accumulated the normal way.”

  “Define ‘normal.’”

  “Oh, you know. Tinder. Bars. Incredibly unsubtle dinner parties thrown by my sisters. Sometimes, I like to seduce the brothers of my friends, but that doesn’t always result in a sure thing.” She paused before adding, “It doesn’t have to be a life-or-death decision, Adam. Either you want me before we get started, or you don’t. It’s that simple.”

  He took a wide step back, severing the physical ties between them. Dawn tried not to let the rejection sting, but there was no denying the pinpricks attacking her heart. She also prepared to lead the puppies out of the barn so they could get to work. She knew from experience that when Adam said he had two hours cleared out of his schedule, two hours was exactly what he meant.

  But he didn’t follow. He was still standing there, his head tilted toward her. “Why are you doing this?” he asked.

  “Training puppies? Or trying to seduce you?”

  “Both. Neither. All of it.” The words were tumbled, rushed—both of which were wholly unlike him. He took a deep breath and began a more careful recitation of her sins. “Rescuing Methuselah, training Uncle, offering to help Bea on our behalf, all these promises of sexual escapades in inappropriate places… Why are y
ou doing it? What’s in it for you?”

  She shrugged. It wasn’t a very helpful gesture considering that Adam wasn’t close enough to feel her move, but she didn’t know what else to do, what else to say. To admit that most of her life decisions were born of impulse would only reinforce the low opinion he already had of her. He thought she was irresponsible and irreverent, that she was only interested in him because she had an itch and he was on hand to scratch it. The thing he didn’t understand though, the thing that no one understood, was that she didn’t regret her impulses.

  Yes, she got into trouble sometimes. And, yes, it wasn’t always fun to be chased by men with guns or find that she’d committed herself to rebuilding a grouchy woman’s garden from the ground up.

  But those same impulses had brought her here, hadn’t they? Standing in front of the most glorious man in the world, offering the best parts of herself to him? How could anyone who’d had Adam Dearborn inside her feel any other way?

  “You mean other than the thousands of dollars I’ve coerced you into paying my company?” she quipped.

  “Don’t.” He gripped her wrist again, this time in a quick dash that seemed awfully similar to the rope he’d hurled to capture Dawn the cow. His reflexes were incredibly quick, his aim perfect. Like her poor bovine namesake, she didn’t even have a chance to struggle. “I’m just trying to understand, that’s all. There’s a whole world outside this ranch. Places to go, people to see—”

  “People to do, you mean.”

  The circle of his fingers tightened, but he otherwise let the comment pass. “This thing between us is only fun because it’s temporary—because it doesn’t mean anything. You’re not a permanent fixture around here, so it works.”

  She was having a difficult time determining whether he was making a statement or asking a question. She didn’t like the underlying message either way, so she decided to address the few questions she had answers for.

  “I rescued Gigi because she needed to be rescued. I’m training Uncle because I believe he’ll be a real advantage to you around the ranch. I offered to help Bea because you were in a tight spot and someone had to step up.” She took a deep breath, since this last one was the most important. “And I’m offering sexual escapades in inappropriate places because I like it. I thought you did, too, but if I’m wrong, I’ll respect your wishes and back off.”