by Nicole Casey
“Rocco?” I called as his anxiety mounted.
When I entered the hallway, I peered down the staircase, where the mastiff was pawing at the front door, breathing heavily.
He looked up at me in desperation and then I knew what was causing his stress.
The doorbell rang again.
Who the hell -?
I groaned loudly and ran down the steps, cursing myself.
The dog walker.
I had forgotten to cancel the dog walker.
There was no way that Rocco would step foot outside in that weather.
For a hundred and fifty-pound beast, he was terrified of loud noises.
I threw open the front door, an apology and an excuse ready to spring from my lips but they both died there as I stared at the drenched pixie on my porch.
Her auburn hair was matted against her tiny shoulders and her inquisitive willow eyes peered up at me.
I wouldn’t have guessed her to be more than five foot three but she carried herself taller somehow, despite her tiny stature.
“Hi,” she said, and I realized I had been staring at her silently for a while. “I’m Maya, the dog walker?”
Rocco howled in protest from behind me, but I watched as she dropped down to allow him to sniff her hand.
To my shock, my cowardly werewolf ventured into the rain to feel her out.
“Oh my God,” I mumbled, realizing that she was still being rained upon while I stood in a towel, gaping. “Come inside.”
I stepped aside to let her through and Rocco’s entire disposition changed, his tail wagging happily as she entered.
“I should have called to cancel you,” I told her, my face flushing as I tried to keep the towel from slipping off my hips. “I slept in because I forgot to set the alarm and then when I woke up, I couldn’t find the towels and then Rocco started barking…”
I was babbling, and I abruptly stopped talking, shaking my head as if hoping for some sense to enter.
Maya pet Rocco, nuzzling her nose to his ecstatic face but I could see her watching me through her peripheral vision.
“Let me get some clothes on,” I muttered, turning to the stairs. “And I’ll pay you for today, but Rocco won’t go out in the rain. I’ll be lucky to get him in the backyard.”
It was another stress to worry about; my poor dog holding his bladder all day while I was at work.
I hurried toward the staircase, my pulse quickening with each step.
She must be new to the company, I thought, licking my lips as I hastily dressed in my suit.
I didn’t even bother to brush my hair, not because I was late but because I wanted to get back downstairs to the redhead in my foyer.
But you do need to hurry and get to work, I reminded myself.
Yet somehow, it didn’t seem as urgent suddenly, as if Maya’s arrival had some strange calming effect on me.
I rushed back to join her, but she wasn’t where I left her.
Glancing around, she was not in any of the front rooms and I looked outside but neither her nor my dog was anywhere in sight.
A stranger in my home should have put me on edge and taking stock of the valuables laying in plain sight but it did not and eventually I found her at the back door, trying to coax Rocco into the yard.
I stood back, watching her work her magic as the beast slowly took a tentative step outside.
“Come on, big boy,” she cajoled. “You just need to do your business and then you can come right back inside for treats.”
Rocco’s head jerked up at the word and she nodded encouragingly at him.
“Yes, treats,” she said softly. “Do you like treats?”
Rocco barked once in affirmation and to my surprise bounded suddenly into the rain.
I was dumbfounded.
The word “treats” had never had such a profound effect on him before. I had tried dragging him into the rain, coaxing, begging, threatening.
I guess there are some things which only a beautiful woman can do.
“You certainly have a way with animals,” I commented, and she turned, seeming unperturbed by my arrival.
It was like she knew I was watching her.
“I can never get him outside,” I continued, looking around the kitchen for my wallet. “It’s not good for him to hold it,” Maya replied, one eye on the canine as he sought the perfect corner to relieve himself. “Dogs and people are very much alike in that manner.”
I cocked my head to the side, vaguely aware of the headache now.
“How’s that?” I asked, pulling two twenties from my wallet and sliding them across the glass tabletop for her to take.
“We should never internalize our discomfort. It manifests in terrible ways.”
My mouth parted, and I tried to weigh what she was telling me, but I really didn’t care about her philosophical take on mind, body and soul at that moment.
My headache wouldn’t permit such conversation anyway.
“I’m sorry you came all this way for nothing,” I told her, unsure of how else to respond. “But here is payment for today.”
She smiled at me and it was as if a warm blanket covered my body.
It was a gorgeous smile, one which took her from being entrancingly cute to stunningly beautiful.
“Take you for example,” she said, and my brow furrowed, uncomprehendingly. She ignored the bills and continued to stare into my face.
“I don’t understand,” I replied. “What about me?”
She stepped away from the glass door and approached me, her hand extended.
“May I?”
I watched uncertainly as she took my hand in hers and without warning began to knead at the spot between my palm and thumb.
A flash of pain jolted through me and my instinct was to pull away, but she held me firmly.
“You’re a bundle of stress,” she announced, nodding as if whatever she felt in my hand confirmed her suspicions. “You have a headache, don’t you?”
I stared at her, open-mouthed.
“How did you know that?” I demanded, wincing as she continued to massage my hand.
“It’s all over your face. I see people like you a lot in my work,” Maya informed me. “High powered jobs, improper outlets for all the tension.”
Slowly, I felt my body begin to relax and sure enough, my headache subsided.
Rocco barked from the back door, demanding to be let inside and Maya released my hand to attend to him.
“You do reflexology for your dog walking clients, do you?” I teased but I was only half-joking. “I don’t remember that being an option on the website.”
Maya grinned serenely, crouching to wipe Rocco’s oversized paws.
“Well you already paid for a service which you aren’t getting,” she replied sweetly. “I didn’t want to leave here having you feel ripped off.”
She straightened herself to her full, non-threatening height and turned to leave.
“Wait!” I heard myself cry after her and I instantly wondered where the note of desperation had come from.
She paused to glance over her shoulder.
“Yes?”
“You really know how to do reflexology? Because my headache is gone.”
Maya shrugged and shook her damp waves.
“I dabble in it but I’m not fluent enough to give you a full session. I have a friend I can recommend –”
“No! It has to be you!”
She seemed surprised by my outburst.
“Sorry,” she answered. “I have many talents but that is not one I can claim as my own.”
The innuendo was thinly veiled, and I felt a slight stirring in my crotch as she beamed impishly.
“Fine,” I relented quickly. “What about dinner then? Can I take you out for dinner?”
She paused and stared at me for a long moment.
For a terrifying second, I thought she was going to refuse.
She exhaled slowly and turned to face me fully.
“I will go to dinner with you,” she agreed. “But you should know something first.”
I waited expectantly, somehow not even remotely aware of how late I was becoming as I lost myself in her glittering emerald eyes.
It was like she had slipped me into some unshakable trance which I couldn’t escape. I would have stood in my kitchen, gawking at Maya all day if she would have allowed it.
“I don’t date,” she replied, and I felt the bubble of security surrounding me pop.
Disappointment welled up inside me and I tried desperately not to let it show on my face.
“Ah,” I replied, shifting my blue eyes downward. “You like women.”
Maya laughed, and it was a tinkling not unlike that of a gently stirred windchime in my ears.
“I like all people,” she replied when her giggles subsided. “But that is not what I meant.”
My head rose, and I peered at her in confusion.
I felt like she only spoke in riddles and while it should have annoyed me, I only felt more intrigued with the lovely girl standing before me.
“What do you mean?” I asked, cocking my head to the side.
She opened her rosebud mouth and I could not help but wonder if she tasted like the succulence she seemed to emit.
“I don’t do relationships. I don’t date. I don’t believe in the confines of monogamy.”
I exhaled, relief flooding through me so heavily, I thought I might fall to my knees.
“Me neither!” I told her. “I’m not looking for anything serious.”
She continued to study my face and I found myself growing nervous under her scrutiny.
“Nothing will change my mind, Mr. Payne,” she said quietly, and I nodded eagerly.
“We are on the same page, Maya,” I assured her. “And please, call me Slade if we’re not going to date.”
Her face relaxed into another grin and I couldn’t remember a time when I had ever seen someone smile so much.
She located a piece of scrap paper by the landline and left her phone number on the table.
“Okay, Slade,” she replied. “I’ll be back in the morning for Rocco.”
I didn’t know who was more excited; me or the dog.
2
Maya
The storm showed no signs of letting up as Slade pulled his BMW up to the looming farmhouse on the edge of Bent Tree Road.
I could read the curiosity in his face as he studied the dilapidated structure, but I didn’t offer any explanation.
It was really none of his business…not yet anyway.
Probably not ever, I chided myself.
I don’t know why I felt such an intense attraction to a perfect stranger, but I could tell I liked Slade Payne.
It happened sometimes but I always had to remind myself not to get too invested.
That could only lead to bad things.
“Thanks for the lift,” I said, turning to him, my hand on the door handle.
“How did you get to my place?” he asked, his dark blonde eyebrows furrowing in confusion at the distance between his townhouse in the middle of Oriental and my remote location near Pierce Creek.
I grinned.
“A friend dropped me off,” I replied simply, throwing open the door with nonchalance.
I hadn’t expected the drive home.
Slade had seemed so flustered when I arrived to walk Rocco and I got the impression that he was running late but when I had gone to leave, he called out for me to wait.
He doesn’t want to let me go, I realized when I got into the car and I wondered if I had made a mistake agreeing to have dinner with him.
I had meant what I told him about dating – I was not a one-man woman.
“Maya,” he cried out as I stepped into the blowing rain and I peered at him.
“Can I call you tonight?”
A fission of alarm coursed through me, my instinct telling me to call off the date then and there, but I could read a naked plaintiveness in his startling blue eyes.
He needs someone, I thought, stifling my reservations. One dinner won’t hurt. I can’t give him what he needs but I can be his friend.
I was an empath.
It was bound to be my undoing and many times I had been sucked into an emotional vortex with people who leeched my energy, but it had never stopped me from being there for someone who needed me.
I wasn’t about to start with Slade Payne.
No matter how charming I found his smile.
“Sure,” I replied brightly. “But I’m teaching yoga tonight, so I won’t be around until after eight.”
His face grew even more perplexed, but I shut the door before he could ask me anything else.
As I had said, I had many talents.
He didn’t need to learn about them all in the same morning.
I bounced my way into the front door, stopping to shake the drops of water off in the worn but spotless entryway.
Slade was not the only client who had cancelled on me that morning.
In fact, if he had called, I would still have been in my pajamas, drinking a soy hot chocolate and relaxing by the wood burning stove in the kitchen.
“Hey, you’re home early.”
I turned my dripping locks to the side and watched as Malcolm strolled down the stairs lazily, his black hair a tousled mess.
“Just rolling out of bed?” I teased, and he grinned, shrugging.
“It’s the benefit of running your own business. I can roll out of bed anytime I please.”
I slipped off my running shoes and bounced up to meet him halfway up the steps, tossing myself into his arms playfully.
We tumbled to the floor, our butts hitting the stairs in unison.
“You’re soaked!” he squealed, and I laughed.
“You have no idea,” I replied teasingly, kissing him lightly on the cheek.
He paused and stared at me for a minute, gently removing a damp clump of hair from my face.
Slowly, he leaned in to kiss my lips gently and I parted my lips to allow his tongue to slither inside.
He gave me a shiver down my spine, even after two years and I could tell by the look in his eyes, I did the same for him.
I rose without allowing our mouths to part, straddling him as he remained on the step while he reached up to touch my back with his large, capable hands.
“Mm, I’m glad you’re home,” he told me, pulling his face slightly away. “I woke up with a huge hard on for you.”
The words, although crass, sent a spark of pleasure through my body.
I could always depend on Mal to be ready and waiting for me.
His palms made their way around the front of my sopping t-shirt and before he could replace his lips on mine, he pulled the top over my head, throwing it to the ground.
I sighed happily, rocking my hips against him gently to feel the erection he had spoken of.
Indeed, jabbing at me through my jeans was his member, growing with each flick of my tongue.
His mouth moved across my cheek to find the lobe of my ear, knowing exactly which spot to hit.
A chill tightened my small, hard nipples but Mal was waiting for them, dropping his face into my chest to manipulate them with his tongue easily.
My hands gripped his dark hair, pulling him closer to me as he sucked and caressed me, his movements tender but urgent.
I couldn’t deny the heat surging between my legs and with my breast still in his mouth, I rose again, eager to be free of my jeans.
I laughed realizing that it would not be an easy task with the dampness tying them to my long legs but Mal had no issue helping me along and in seconds, I had reclaimed my position on his lap, naked and covered in gooseflesh.
Malcolm’s hand made its way between the clef in my thighs, rubbing the pulsating button there and I moaned softly when one finger dipped inside me.
“Oh, you are soaked,” he growled. “That’s my good girl. Always ready for me.”
I stifled a smile.<
br />
It was Mal’s game to play – believing he was in control during our romantic interludes.
I allowed it, knowing that I held all the cards in the spot where his digit worked rhythmically.
My own palm freed his engorged organ and I slid myself over his shaft, sliding against him.
Our eyes locked and I bit down on my lower lip.
“May I?” I purred demurely, cocking my head to the side.
The desire in his dark eyes was vivid and I already knew the answer before he nodded reluctantly.
I pressed my tightness against him, feeling his palms grasp my small buttocks to spread my cheeks wider.
Inside me he was, and I bounced against him, tentatively to start but he grunted, wanting to fill me fully and he thrust himself upward.
I cried out, feeling him deep and I knew he wanted to cum, but I wasn’t ready; not yet.
Placing my chest at his mouth, I guided my breast into his mouth again, encouraging him to lick and suck the taut skin while I rocked against him, our hips gyrating together.
I could feel his unit rigid and wanting, adopting every inch of my drenched core.
He bit on my nipple and I felt my toes curl against the stairs, a familiar sensation growing inside my gut as my frame tensed.
“I’m cumming,” I gasped, nails digging into Mal mercilessly.
“Good, baby. Cum hard for me,” he groaned, and I could tell he was trying to hold back but it was a losing battle.
Together we exploded, a gush of juice slipping over his hardness as he poured his own hot streams against me.
I shuddered, trembling and Mal embraced me close to him as he, too, shook with his orgasm.
If I could, I would have purred with contentment.
Outside, a crash of thunder caused me to start in surprise and Mal laughed.
“Jumpy?” he asked playfully, and I sat up.
“It’s storming out there,” I replied. “It feels like a hurricane.”
Mal shook his head as we disentangled from one another.
“Not likely,” he replied but how would he know? He was from New York.
“Oh, for the love of God! You two are worse than rabbits!”
I glanced up at the second-floor landing where Chase glowered at us with his arms crossed.