Mean Machine

by Joanna Blake

  Just like that, the empty feeling disappeared.

  Kendall stood up and walked out of the room. Perry chased him out to the elevator bay.

  "Where are you going man?"

  "To the airport.”

  "Why?"

  Kendall didn’t stop walking.

  "Because I’m flying back to LA."

  "But we have a concert in three days!"

  He grinned at Perry, pressing the elevator button to go down.

  "Don't worry, Perry. I'll be there."

  Chapter 26

  Jessica

  Liquid brown eyes stared at her, full of emotion.

  "There, there Dandy. This will all be over in a few minutes."

  Jessica held the miniature pincher gently as she withdrew blood from his back leg. She pressed firmly as she withdrew the needle, handing the samples off to the waiting vet tech.

  "We'll see what the blood work shows, but judging from his lack of appetite and weight loss, I think we might want to start him on a kidney diet right away."

  Dandy's mom nodded. The poor woman looked worried sick. She was one of the people who truly treated their pets as children. Jess smiled encouragingly and handed her some free samples.

  "Here, take a few cans to try until we sort this out. Some people mix in hard boiled egg whites. They are super easy to digest but still have protein. We already have urine and blood. We should know in just a few days. Try not to worry."

  Jessica smiled as the woman collected her dog and was shown out of the examination room.

  Cathy ran down the hallway and into the examination room. She was whispering so loud the whole hospital could hear her. Jess grabbed spray and started wiping down the scale and the table, even though it was the vet tech’s job.

  They were swamped today and everybody was pitching in to keep the appointments moving. A couple of emergency visits had thrown off the whole schedule. Things were finally quieting down now, thank Goodness.

  She even had time for a quick break. Maybe even enough time to get something to eat. As usual, she was starving.

  "Jess! Oh my GOD- he's here!"

  "What are you talking about, Cathy?"

  "Kendall freaking Jackson."

  Jess stood perfectly still, blinking at her friend. Her stomach dropped out of her body and hit the floor.

  SPLOOSH.

  "What? What is he doing here?"

  "He's here to see you. I mean, his dog is. He - uh - has an appointment. Crazy, right?"

  Oh God. He was here to see her. He must be.

  "I'll be right out."

  "Take your time. We are all enjoying looking at him- he's gorgeous!"

  Jessica washed her hands and patted her face with cool water. She checked her hair and makeup. Not that she was wearing much, other than the faintest hint of lip gloss and mascara. The tint on her lips was all gone anyway. She pulled the sheer gloss out of her scrubs and dabbed a bit on. She patted down her pony tail.

  She sighed. She was definitely not looking sexy. She looked like she was at work. Which she was. Maybe he was just there in a professional capacity.

  Cathy had said he had a dog…

  Yeah right. He probably rented it.

  She walked into the lobby. There he was, standing there with a leash loosely clasped in his hands. A scruffy looking mongrel sat at his feet.

  She hadn’t believed it until she saw it. Kendall Jackson had a dog. And he was here, waiting to see her.

  She took a deep breath and walked forward.

  "Hi."

  He smiled at her and her bones turned to jello.

  "Hi."

  "If you'd come this way please."

  He followed her into the examination room. Then he just stared at her, not saying a word. She pulled on a fresh set of gloves.

  "I thought you were in New York."

  "I was. I have to go back tomorrow actually."

  She frowned. Did he come back for her? That was silly. He had a dog, and he was here to see a doctor. Any doctor would do. She knelt down in front of the dog, trying to buy time to sort out how she was feeling.

  "And who do we have here?"

  "She doesn't have a name yet actually. I just got her from the pound."

  She stared at him. She’s been right. He was playing some sort of joke on her.

  Had he adopted a stray just to- what? Get to see her? That was insane.

  "They were about to euthanize her. I couldn't let them do that."

  "So you were just hanging around the pound when this eleventh hour rescue went down?"

  He opened his mouth and shut it. Then he gave her the look. She tried to resist it but she couldn't.

  The look that said I came here to see you.

  The look that said I did it for you.

  The look that said I want you.

  "You know why I was there, Jess."

  "I do?"

  "Alright. I'll spell it out for you. I met this girl I really liked. I thought she liked me too. But for some crazy reason she ran out on me without leaving her phone number."

  "So you adopted a stray dog. Makes perfect sense."

  "It does?"

  "Yes."

  She smiled at him. She couldn’t help it. How was she supposed to resist?

  "Good. Because for a minute I thought I was going crazy."

  She laughed. She couldn't help it. He was adorable.

  "Let's see how this unnamed little lady is doing."

  She called for a vet tech and they lifted the elderly dog up onto the table for the examination. As soon as it was on the table, it slobbered it's tongue up the side of Jess's face.

  "Hey now, I just met you!"

  The dog sat back on her haunches and offered up a paw. Jess took it somberly, shaking hands.

  “Well, I guess now that we’ve been properly introduced…”

  The dog licked her again and Kendall laughed.

  “Am I allowed to do that too?”

  She gave him a stern look.

  “No, you are not.”

  Chapter 27

  Kendall

  …And she’s a doctor.

  The cutest girl he’d ever laid eyes on and she was an actual doctor. He hadn’t really believed it until that moment, but it was true.

  She was incredible. The kind of girl he could bring home to his mama and his little sister Beatrix.

  Actually, after all these years he was pretty sure his mama might faint. Bee on the other hand would make sure to get out all his awkward baby photos and regale Jess with embarrassing stories.

  Yeah, instead of sex fantasies, now he was having chick fantasies.

  Kendall watched as Jessica examined the dog. He felt so many conflicting things at the moment, it was making his head spin.

  First of all, he was impressed. He hadn't really been able to picture the adorable little sex kitten from Vegas as a real doctor. But damn if she wasn't. She was good too- he could tell she knew what she was doing.

  Not only was she putting the dog at ease, but she was putting him at ease too.

  She moved quickly, not lingering too long over any one thing that might make the dog nervous.

  So yeah, he was impressed.

  But more than anything, he wanted to kiss her.

  "Okay, so your unnamed friend here is about seven years old. Slightly malnourished but in otherwise good health for a senior. We will know more when we get the test results back."

  She was tapping away on the computer.

  "We really need a name for the animal though."

  She turned and gave him a funny look. He realized he was grinning goofily at her.

  "What?"

  "Pizza. Come have pizza with me. Or pancakes. Veggie burgers. Whatever you want."

  She sighed deeply.

  "Kendall…"

  "Come on, you can name the dog if you want. Just come out with me tonight. Now. As soon as possible."

  She chewed her lip for a minute. He just waited. Finally she rolled her eyes at him.


  "Okay, fine. I get off in a half hour."

  "Great. I'll be outside… um, loitering."

  She looked a little bit alarmed at his enthusiasm. If she had any idea what he'd gone through to get her to this point, she would probably run. He had to make sure that didn't happen.

  Not until he got a chance to work his magic on her.

  "Pepperoni."

  "What?"

  "Let's call her Pepperoni for now. Make people think twice about where their meat comes from."

  "Great. I love it. Come on Pepper, let's go for a walk."

  Chapter 28

  Jessica

  Way to go, Jess. Out of the frying pan and into…

  She chewed her lip, her leg jangling nervously.

  What the hell was she doing? She’d called things off to protect her heart, and now she was in even greater danger. Because now, he had a dog.

  The fact that he’d rescued an old dog and not a cute little puppy was only making things worse. She liked him. A lot.

  And she wasn’t going to be able to fight it this time.

  Jessica was sitting in Kendall's car again. Only this time it was an SUV and not a sports car. He had two cars apparently.

  Of course he did.

  He was a celebrity. All celebrities had two cars. He could have five cars for all she knew. Or twenty.

  They pulled to the curb in front of Mulberry Street Pizza. Jessica stared out the window, trying not to panic.

  She felt Pepperoni's cold wet snout pressed up against her ear and giggled. She sobered immediately. If she went in there with him, someone would see them.

  Besides, they couldn’t leave Pepper in the car. As a vet, she hated hearing that anyone still did that. They had no idea how dangerous it really was.

  "We can't leave her in the car."

  "It's okay. I'll just get us something to go. We can eat it at my place."

  He looked at her with his big green eyes.

  "That's okay, right?"

  She nodded and watched as he jumped out of the car. He was extremely eager to get her back to his place.

  She didn't have a hard time imagining why.

  This time she knew already she wasn't going to be able to resist him.

  He'd flown all the way back here after tracking her down. He'd gotten a dog for Christ's sake. That was hard to ignore. Besides the fact that she'd missed him horribly since she left Las Vegas.

  She groaned. That was not good. She was already attached.

  How did that happen so fast?

  She was petting Pepper when he leaned back into the car.

  "What do you think? Is she going to eat this on the way home?"

  She shook her head.

  "Put it all the way in the back. I'll keep an eye on her."

  "Oh good idea."

  He put the pizza in the cargo area and climbed back in. She stopped him before he pulled into traffic.

  "You aren't going to just take her back to the pound, are you?"

  He turned to stare at her incredulously.

  "No. Jesus, Jess what kind of person do you think I am?"

  "I don't- I mean - I didn't-"

  He ran his hands through his hair distractedly. He did that a lot when he didn't know what to say. When he looked at her again he looked almost hurt.

  "I don't know what kind of person you think I am Jess. But that's not the kind of thing I would do."

  "Okay. I'm sorry."

  He stared at her thoughtfully.

  "You have a hard time trusting people, don't you?"

  She just stared at her hands. She had a horrible feeling, like he was going to leave her. Everyone always left. Her father, whoever he was, had left. And her mother had left every time she lifted a bottle to her lips.

  But that wasn’t his fault. He didn’t even know her past.

  Jeez, she'd put her foot in her mouth again already.

  They'd been on a date for less than a half an hour. A date. This was definitely a date. And now she had ruined it, just like that.

  He reached out and took her hand, making her look up at him.

  "We're going to have to work on that. Okay?"

  She blinked at him. He didn’t want to drop her off at her car at the vets. He wasn’t running for the hills. He wanted to ‘work on’ things with her.

  She took a deep breath and smiled at him.

  "Okay. I'll try."

  She was surprised to realize how much she meant it.

  Chapter 29

  Kendall

  Pizza.

  He'd managed to get her to agree to pizza. Sure it was a disposable food. But it was something. And now they were on the way back to his place.

  Oh crap, he needed dog food!

  At the next light he pulled out his phone and typed into the Fresh Direct app. He ordered beer and dog food. And pumpernickel bread and eggs. He made a mean French toast.

  In case she stayed the night.

  Jesus Christ, he was hoping she would spend the night.

  That thing with the dog though- that had thrown him for a loop. He could tell that someone had hurt Jess. Not just a little bit either. Someone had hurt her really fucking bad.

  Thinking about it was enraging. He wanted to punch someone. Whoever had made her feel like this.

  He sounded like an over protective boyfriend already. It was only their second date. But he couldn't help it. Something about her made him want to look after her. And he wanted to do it for a long time.

  And he wanted to be her boyfriend. For real.

  Kendall never really thought long term with girls before. He'd sort of gone with the flow. If a girl liked him and she was nice he'd give it a chance. That's if he found her attractive. And in the business, just like Nick and Bruce had taught him.

  Girls in the business wouldn’t take things personally if you ditched. They knew the drill. They knew the rock star lifestyle wasn’t exactly relationship friendly.

  But Jess wasn’t in the business. And Kendall didn’t want to ditch. More than anything, he wanted her to think he was relationship material.

  Maybe even husband material.

  All of this was new to him.

  Jessica was real, but she wasn't particularly nice. She was serious and innocent and she definitely wasn’t signed up to be a groupie. She wasn't even close to being in the business and she wasn't just a girl he found attractive.

  Attractive, that was a joke. She knocked the wind out of him every time he looked at her. She wasn’t just pretty, or sexy, though she certainly was both.

  She was stunning.

  Not in a fake eyelashes, dressed up to go to the Grammy's sort of way, though he knew she could pull that off if she wanted to. No, Jess was stunning in an everyday, making the sun rise and set kind of way.

  She was beautiful.

  He glanced at her periodically while he drove. She was stroking behind Pepper's ears as the dog leaned between their seats. He felt a surge of jealousy toward the dog. Hopefully soon, she'd feel the urge to stroke him.

  Oh God… he shouldn't think about stroking right now. Not when he was so pent up that he thought he would burst. He felt blood surge into his groin.

  Down boy. Christ.

  Don’t scare her off with your hormones. The girl said she was inexperienced. Just how inexperienced, he hoped to find out.

  Tonight.

  He pulled off the freeway onto one of the winding roads that headed up towards the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

  They were almost home. He found himself wondering if she'd like the place. He hoped so. He hoped she'd want to spend a lot of time there.

  A lot.

  Like, twenty-four seven.

  He grinned and used the keypad to open the gate.

  Chapter 30

  Jessica

  Hello, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.

  Jess turned in a circle and stared around the house, wondering if Robin Leech was about to pop out from behind every door. Not that there were
that many doors, other than the doors to the deck. The main room was enormous.

  Huge windows were everywhere along the back, all of them overlooking the ocean. Yeah, he was ocean front. But up high. It was ridiculous. It didn’t seem real.

  Kendall lived in a magazine shoot.

  She inhaled deeply. She was in over her head. Really, really far over her head.

  Not only was she clearly outclassed in about fifty different categories but she was falling for him.

  Hard.

  Hook, line and sinker.

  If he’d simply been Kendall Jackson, international music star, it would have been one thing. Rich and gorgeous she could handle. But he was so sweet, and mischievous.

  And the truth was he seemed as lost as she was.

  Well, almost.

  She sighed, closing her eyes.

  There was no use in denying it. She was in deep. She felt tiny, and not just in the physical sense.

  "Want to eat on the deck?"

  She nodded.

  "Can I help?"

  “Yeah, take out some supplies.”

  He handed her some napkins and cutlery.

  "I'll be right out."

  Jess walked out to the deck. Lounge chairs were everywhere. A low sectional faced out toward the ocean with a coffee table in front of it. She sat down and wrapped her arms around herself. A long, slim lap pool was just below the main deck.

  Yeah, this was definitely a magazine shoot.

  "Cold?"

  "No. I'm good."

  She forced herself to drop her arms from the protective position she'd been in. She was well aware that she did that when she was nervous. She always had.

  It was pathetic, but she’d learned to give herself hugs when she needed them. Because nobody else was going to do it for her.

  He put down two pizza boxes and left again. This time he came back with two plates and two beers.

  Pepperoni trailed behind him, plopping down on the deck to stare at them.

  He opened the beers and handed her one.

  "Thanks."

  She flipped open the pizza lids.