They’d gone about twenty miles—running into no obstacles more problematic than a couple of fallen trees that were easily skirted or pushed out of the way—when the road crested over a small hill. When they reached the top, they saw that the road at the bottom was completely.
Allison groaned and eased the SUV to a halt.
“That doesn’t look promising,” Michael said. He’d been checking Allison’s mobile phone to see if he could get any reception, but now he put it down.
“I know you’re not supposed to drive through standing water,” Allison said, edging closer to the flooded section of the road. “But do you think it’s worth a try? Maybe it’s just this one section.”
Michael thought for a moment. Then shook his head. “I don’t think we should risk it. The water looks really deep. We don’t want to damage your car, for one thing. It’s our only way out of here. And this whole area is marsh. It’s probably like this for the next thirty miles.”
“Yeah. I guess you’re right. Shit.”
“If you don’t mind, maybe we can stop by my car so I can at least get my belongings, assuming they’re still there.”
“Sure. Why not?” She sounded disappointed, but not completely disheartened as she did a five-point turn and started driving back the way they’d come.
The region was fairly familiar to Michael, since he’d grown up in the area, but with the high water, wind-blown trees, and absence of the normal pick-up trucks and locals, the whole area looked like a strange, alien land.
Michael’s damaged SUV was still crashed into trees on the side of the road where they’d left it. It was clearly undrivable, so he just grabbed his briefcase and overnight bag, both of just where he’d left them behind the front seat.
He checked his own mobile, but it didn’t get any reception either. Signal was spotty around here normally, and with the storm damage it was hopeless.
They’d started driving back toward the house when Allison hit the brakes, slowing down abruptly. Michael immediately saw the reason.
A soaked, bedraggled dog—some sort of a lab mix—was limping down the side of the road.
“Poor bastard,” he said, feeling a brief tug of sympathy that wasn’t entirely characteristic for him. “Looks like he’s had a rough time.”
Allison didn’t answer with words. She just put the SUV into park.
Realizing what she was about to do, he began, “Allison, don’t—there’s nothing we can—”
His words were useless. She was already out of the car.
Michael had no choice but to get out too. There was no telling whether or not the dog was friendly, and he couldn’t let her go chasing it around the countryside on her own.
“Are you all right, fella?” Allison called out, in a coaxing voice. “Come here and let me check you out. We’ll see if you’re hurt.”
“Allison, we can barely take care of ourselves in this situation. You really think we need to try to cope with a stray?”
“It might not be a stray.”
“It doesn’t have a collar or tags.” The dog’s brownish fur was wet and muddy, and it looked far too skinny to have been well cared for before the storm. Michael didn’t think it was a family dog who had been tragically stranded by an evacuating family. It was probably just a stray who’d slunk its way through the wind and rain.
“Well, I’m not going to leave it on the side of the road. The poor thing looks like it’s about to drop.”
This Michael couldn’t argue with. The dog appeared to be on its last legs. He just shook his head as Allison called the animal over.
After a minute, her coaxing and extended hand appeared to reassure the nervous dog. It limped over, sniffing at her palm hopefully.
“I don’t have any food,” Allison said, stroking the wet head. “But I’ll find you something at the house. Poor little guy.”
Michael was relieved to see that the dog appeared to be friendly. At least it wasn’t openly hostile.
Allison tried to urge the dog to jump into the back of her SUV, but the animal was apparently too scared. It flattened itself on the road, looking in excited bewilderment between her and the open door.
“Michael?” Allison asked, turning pleading eyes toward him.
He’d been watching the procedures in cool silence, but now he rolled his eyes. He’d been afraid it would come to this. “You can’t be serious.”
“He needs help getting in.” She gave him a beseeching smile that would have been very effective had her eyes not glowed with ironic humor. “And you’re so much stronger than I am.”
Michael bent over and heaved the dog up, scowling as he felt mud and moisture seep onto his clothes as a result. “I hope you appreciate this,” he muttered.
The dog apparently thought he was addressing him. He lifted his pitiful head and gave Michael a few sloppy kisses on the chin.
Allison didn’t quite manage to stifle her chortle of amusement. “Look how grateful he is.”
Michael’s scowl deepened as he set the dog down in the backseat. “I’ll have you know, I’m not at all impressed by canine ingrates.”
The reward for his cool arrogance was Allison’s rippling laughter and a spray of mud on his already dirty clothes as the dog shook himself off with exuberance.
They took the dog back to the house, where Allison found him some semi-stale crackers and canned meat product to eat. Then she decided he needed a bath.
By that point, Michael didn’t even bother to object. Allison was too stubborn to listen to his reasoned comments, and he couldn’t think of any good reason not to bathe the dog anyway. It stunk, so a bath could only help.
Although he made it clear that this was Allison’s idea so she was going to have to do all the work, Michael joined the procedure in the bathroom as she lathered up the dog with shampoo. He aimed the handheld showerhead on the sudsy animal as Allison tried to rinse off the soap.
It was a messy process, made more complicated by the fact that the dog struggled against the attempts to clean it off. More than once, it tried to climb out of the tub, and soon both Michael and Allison were as wet as the dog.
In another context, Michael might have been annoyed by being wrangled into bathing a stubborn animal. Allison couldn’t stop laughing, however, and it didn’t take long before Michael saw the humor himself. He didn’t laugh—that would have been admitting defeat—but his voice was warmer than usual as he tried to give Allison sage advice on how to proceed.
“If you’re so smart,” she said, glaring up at him, “Why don’t you get down here and try it?” At this point, she was practically hugging the soaked dog to hold him in the tub.
“Don’t forget, I would have been perfectly happy to leave the ingrate on the side of the road.”
“I haven’t forgotten,” she replied. “Heartless ass.”
Michael chuckled, but he knelt down beside her and reached out to get a grip on the dog. “Take the spray and see if you can get the rest of the soap off.”
The dog must have realized that Michael’s solid grasp wasn’t as easy to squirm out of as Allison’s. After a minute of struggle, it stood pathetically in place as Allison rinsed it off. While she worked over it, the dog lifted its head and tried to lick Michael’s face again.
“That doesn’t work on me,” he said, thinking the dog really wasn’t that bad. It seemed friendly and fairly intelligent—it just needed to be cared for better. “You’re going to have to finish your bath.”
When he realized that Allison was giving him a strange look, Michael decided having conversations with dogs was better kept for private.
He lifted the dog out of the tub when they were finally finished, and Allison used three towels in her attempt to dry the ingrate off.
As she laughed at the dog’s eagerness to be dried, Michael couldn’t help but think about how different she was from Gina. At the moment, she was an absolute mess—wet, bedraggled, and sprawled on the bathroom floor. But she could hardly restrain her amusement and the delight she
took in facing the challenge of the dog's bath.
Allison didn’t care about her image or about being treated a certain way, and she was willing to work—put her whole effort into a task—when she believed it was something worth doing.
He remembered that from when he’d known her before. She’d worked so hard that summer she’d been an office intern for his father—and not just because she wanted a good recommendation at the end of the summer.
It was just who she was.
For some reason, that quality made more of an impact on him now. Maybe he’d been surrounded by cynical, entitled people for too long, but Allison seemed different—from everything he was used to.
When she finally stood up, flushed and perspiring and gorgeous in her damp, clinging clothes, she grinned at him. More sincere than any smile he’d seen from her in the last two days.
Momentarily, it took his breath away.
Rescuing and bathing a stray dog would not have been the way he would have chosen to spend the afternoon.
But it wasn’t a bad day at all.
* * *
Allison was pleased with the condition of the dog. He was a nice fellow, and he’d obviously needed rescuing.
Plus, she wouldn’t have traded the sight of Michael kneeling next to the bathtub—wet and hassled and trying not to laugh—for the world.
After she’d cleaned up and dried off, she changed into flannel pajama pants and a clean t-shirt. She was running out of clothes in her overnight bag. Since they were stuck here again for the rest of the day, she decided she might as well be comfortable.
Although it wasn’t cold out, it was damp in the house, so Michael made a fire in the second fireplace in the house—in the master bedroom upstairs. Allison made more tea and soup and grabbed the pack of chocolate cookies.
They all camped out in front of the fireplace, eating lunch and playing Monopoly.
She felt relaxed and pleased with the way they’d handled the unfortunate circumstances, even though Michael once again trounced her thoroughly at the board game. The dog curled up next to the fire to fall asleep, once all the food had been eaten.
As Michael put all of his fake-cash winnings back into the appropriate slots, Allison went to the bathroom and then stretched out on the bed. With a long groan, she said, “Is it only four o’clock? This day feels like it’s gone on forever. Maybe I’ll take a nap.”
Michael neatly folded the board into the box and pressed the lid into place. He glanced over at her. “That’s one option.”
She knew that tone of voice. Despite herself, his textured tone sent a ripple of desire through her. “You have any other ideas?”
He moved smoothly, getting to his feet and then walking over to the bed. He stood over her for a minute, looking sleek and handsome despite the fact that he was once again wearing someone else’s clothes.
A flush spread from her cheeks down her neck and even farther. Her whole body was suddenly overly warm as she stared up at his intense blue eyes. They seemed to smolder, like he might burn her alive.
Recovering her wit, she quipped, “Did you want to take a nap too?”
The corner of his mouth tilted up, making him even more irresistible, but he didn’t respond to her teasing. He just lowered himself onto the bed beside her and captured her mouth in a kiss.
She responded immediately, a wash of pleasure overwhelming her at the feel of his hungry lips and the coiled tension of his body. She stroked his neck and shoulders, shivering in delight as he moaned into the kiss in response.
She relaxed back as he slowly started to take off her clothes. She was both self-conscious and exhilarated at the way his gaze raked over the naked flesh he revealed.
But her enjoyment was suddenly lessened by an unexpected prickle of guilt. She felt friendlier with Michael today—nothing intimate, of course, but more than just a virtual stranger to jump into bed with.
The new closeness caused her to feel guilty about the way she’d lied to him the day before. So, as Michael eased down her pants, she steeled her courage and said, “Michael, I think there’s something you should know.”
He raised himself up, gazing hotly down at her face. “Is there?” He leaned down to nibble his way down her neck.
Allison arched into his touch in helpless response. “Yeah. I wanted…I wanted…” She trailed off as his mouth reached the swell of her breasts.
“What did you want?” he asked, his voice another caress.
“I wanted to…to tell you about my—” She gasped as his tongue gently flicked her tight nipple. “My—”
“About what?” Then his lips closed down around her nipple.
She moaned, low and long, as pleasure swallowed her up. She squirmed beneath his ministrations, completely distracted from her intended confession.
When he let her breast slip from his lips, she tried to catch her breath, although the kisses he trailed along her belly were just as sensual and delicious.
“About,” she tried again. “About my…”
Michael’s face moved lower, until he nuzzled between her legs.
“My—God!” she cried out, as a sudden jolt of pleasure sliced through her when she felt him tongue her intimately.
He laughed huskily, the vibrations making her shiver. “Theology? That’s a deep topic. Maybe it could wait for a more fortuitous time.”
Humor vied briefly with lust, but lust easily won out. “Yeah,” Allison breathed, wriggling her hips in her impatience to feel his mouth again.
She bucked up against his face when he began to once more pleasure her.
Her job wouldn’t matter anyway. After tomorrow, she probably would never see him again.
She might as well enjoy this while she could.
So Allison clutched at his head and let him bring her to climax with his mouth, and then they found other ways to effectively fill the rest of the afternoon.
Chapter Six
When Allison woke up the following morning, she had a heavy feeling in her gut. Even before she was fully awake, she knew something wasn’t quite right.
She recognized what prompted the feeling as she started to orient herself. She’d been sleeping on her back with the weight of something draped across her middle. Michael was still asleep beside her, his arm slung over her belly. She was comfortable, and their unconscious positions felt natural, almost intimate.
She liked the weight of his arm on her as he slept.
And that was when she realized what was wrong.
Assuming they could get through the back roads to the interstate, she and Michael would go their separate ways today. Obviously, this interlude had been intended by both of them to be simply a one-night-stand that happened to last two days. She couldn’t even consider a relationship with Michael. She wasn’t about to give her heart to someone as guarded and wary as he was, and he’d never be interested in a long-term relationship with her anyway.
He’d made that more than clear seven years ago, when she’d given him her virginity.
She’d given him more than that.
And he simply hadn’t wanted it.
Allison adjusted her position on the bed and tried to pull up the covers, feeling emotionally uncomfortable and moving around in an attempt to distract herself. Michael started to shift immediately, evidently awakened by her restless motion.
He turned his head in her direction and blinked a few times. “Good morning,” he said, his voice husky with sleep and something that sounded like fondness.
“Hi.” She smiled at him, determined to act natural around him and not reveal her anxiety or the clench of loss in her gut. “I figured you’d always wake up at the crack of dawn, ready to jump into work.”
The corner of his mouth turned up as he rolled to his side, sliding his arm off her middle. “Nothing for me to do here at dawn, and you worked me pretty hard last night.”
Allison felt her cheeks warm, partly from the erotic nature of the memories and partly from self-consciousness over how e
nthusiastic a sex partner she’d been. But she wasn’t about to admit her slight embarrassment. “I’m not easily pleased, and I'm never satisfied with second-best.”
Michael chuckled. “Evidently.” He leaned over to press a soft kiss on her mouth. “I never would have believed being stranded in an isolated house could be so intensely enjoyable.”
His words sounded like closure, like a friendly gesture pointing toward an impending parting. Ignoring the twisting of her belly, Allison replied, “Same here. Despite everything, I had a good time.”
She had. Part of her didn’t want it to end, but she wasn’t a child or a fool. They both would have to return to their lives today, and nothing about their lives would work naturally or easily together—even if other things hadn’t been standing in their way.
She groaned softly as she stretched, feeling the muscles in her thighs and abdomen ache a little from her exertions last night. When she heard some tapping on the hardwood floor, she turned to look down beside the bed.
The dog had been sleeping next to the fireplace, where it had spent most of the evening. But now it walked over and put its muzzle on the mattress, sniffing at her hand hopefully.
She couldn’t help but smile at the eager brown eyes. “Sorry. I don’t have any food right now. I’ll try to find you something when I get up.”
“What are you going to do with the dog?” Michael asked.
She frowned at him. “What do you think? We can’t leave it here on its own.”
“So we take it with us?” His voice was skeptical, but Allison couldn’t tell if he was disapproving or not.
She hoped he really wasn’t against taking the dog with them. He’d acted reluctant, but she thought he secretly kind of liked it. She wouldn’t want any man she’d slept with to act heartlessly toward a helpless animal.
“Can you think of another option?” she asked.
Michael sat up, swinging his legs over his side of the bed. “No. I can’t.”
Sighing with relief at this sign of Michael’s heart, Allison heaved herself out of the bed, smoothing down her disheveled hair. “Do you think we’ll be able to get out of here today?”
Storm Front (Reunited Hearts) Page 6