B00Z637D2Y (R) (2 page)

Feathers.

Everywhere. Like a pillow had exploded—or been ripped apart by the teeth of a wild, savage beast. “Dammit!” he said under his breath. The dog leapt off the bed and then wiggled underneath it.

In a trembling falsetto, he mimicked Dr. Whittelsey’s singsong voice. “The dog is completely housetrained and has never torn up anything.” A single feather, still airborne, landed on his suit lapel. Taking a deep, calculated, calming breath, he set his drink on the nightstand, and then gently plucked the feather from his jacket and deposited it in the trashcan next to the bed. One in the right place was better than none.

And still the booming bass from
Club House Sitter
continued its relentless attack on his already frayed nerves. One thing at a time. Dog first.

“Never torn anything up, my ass,” he grumbled, getting down on his hands and knees to peer under the bed. Big, brown eyes stared back. Then blinked, and a majority of his anger floated away like feathers.

It wasn’t the dog’s fault, really. Most likely it was as unhappy about this arrangement as he was.
No
. That wasn’t accurate. Nothing and no one could be as unhappy about this as he was. “Dog therapy,” he muttered. “Total bullshit.”

The dog stuck its tongue out and for a moment, it looked like it was smiling.

“I’m glad you agree. If I hadn’t promised her that I would take care of you personally for the three weeks she’s in Europe, you’d be at a boarding kennel,” he said, still on his hands and knees. “But I did promise because my shrink thinks you’ll break my routine and make me more flexible.”

The racket from next door continued as the dog flipped its back legs behind it and stretched out on its belly under the bed.

“Don’t get comfortable. I don’t want you in my bedroom, so come on out.” He crooked his finger like he would to an employee across the office lobby. Only, unlike his employees, the dog didn’t come running. It simply looked at him, panted, and tapped its tail on the floor.

“Now, listen, dog. Let’s get this straight. This is
my
house. You will do as I command. Now, out!”

It blinked its huge eyes while the rest of its hairy body remained motionless, except its tail, which kept wagging.

Boom, boom, boom-boom-boom
, the bass pounded.

Shit
. This was a fucking nightmare. “I said, out!”

Rolling to its side, it gave the appearance of being completely at ease and unaffected.

He reached, but couldn’t touch the animal because it had positioned itself directly under the center of the low king-sized bed.

A frustrated growl rumbled in Michael’s chest, then morphed into a defeated groan. He’d been bested by a ten-pound animal with pink nail polish and a bow in its hair. “I can’t believe I’m paying Dr. Whittelsey to torture me like this.”

The dog lowered its chin to its paws and closed its eyes.

“Okay. You win this round, but if you think you’re sleeping in here, you’ve got it wrong.”

Before he’d gotten to his feet, a relentless eardrum-piercing pulse came from the other side of the wall.

“What now?”

God, he missed the days when he could come home to a peaceful, relaxing environment to unwind. Recently, it was like a living in a nightclub or video arcade with thumping music and now a deafening alarm clock of some kind.

The music stopped, but the shrill beeping continued. It wasn’t an alarm clock, he realized. It was his neighbor’s smoke detector.

Shit.
She was going to burn the place down.

One thing at a time. Get out first, and then, if need be, call 911. That would require his keys and phone, which were on the kitchen counter. Purposefully, he strode to the kitchen, calm and level headed, as was his style. Everything had an order—evacuating a burning building included. People first. Possessions last.

On his way to the kitchen, a preliminary check-list ran through his head for a worst-case scenario: Call 911 and report the fire, call his parents and brothers to let them know he’s okay, call his insurance agent and file a loss claim, call the office and make sure things are running smoothly, and then call his tailor to order clothes to replace those lost in the fire.

First though, he needed to get out and assess the seriousness of the situation, which hopefully, was nothing more than a false alarm.

As he grabbed his phone from the counter, his foot crashed into something: the powder blue carrier. The dog was still under the bed.
Damn
. He couldn’t leave it there. People first, he reminded himself. It wasn’t a person, but it wasn’t a possession either.

Still, the shrill pulse penetrated the wall and a faint smell of smoke accompanied it now. Maybe it wasn’t a false alarm.

Shit, shit, shit.
“Come on, dog!” he called, striding back to the bedroom. “We need to get out of here. Dog! I’m serious.” When he reached the bed, he dropped to his knees and saw… nothing. It wasn’t there.

He jumped to his feet and ran his hands through his hair. Everything had an order and sequence. Even chaos.

Over the alarm, there was another sound: a loud, high-pitched
yip
.

Michael skidded into the living room to find the dog sitting patiently by the door.

“Thank God,” he said, scooping it up and tucking it against his side like a football. “Glad your survival instincts are in working order.” Well, that, or it just needed to pee. Dr. Whittelsey said it would bark at the door when it needed to go out.

When he entered the hallway, he stopped short. The neighbor’s door was standing wide-open and faint wisps of smoke drifted out. Not enough to burn down the building or even trip the central alarm or sprinklers, but evidently enough to set off a smoke detector in the unit. Stepping further in the hallway to get a better look, he froze.

Standing on a rolling desk chair immediately inside the door was a woman. He couldn’t see anything from the ribs up, but he could see her legs and belly—her exceptionally well-toned legs and belly—and her shiny, skin-tight, cobalt-blue exercise shorts adorned with hot-pink swirls.

Surely this wasn’t the house sitter from hell.

The dog barked and the woman leaned down from her perch on the chair and peeked under the door frame.

“Oh, hey,” she said with a smile. “Cute dog.”

Whoa. Cute girl.
“Uh, thanks.”

“Sorry for the scare.” She stood again, and the desk chair seat swiveled then stilled. “I’ll make this thing shut up in just a sec.”

The dog whined, then wiggled, and Michael lost his grip, barely able to control the beast’s fall before it hit the floor running. Like a furry tornado, it sped down the hall as an elderly man opened his door to check out what was going on. Since it was mid-morning, most people were at work.

Shit.
“Come here, dog!”

“Maybe if I pull here…” Before she could finish her sentence, the chair swiveled, and then tilted while she struggled to not lose her balance
. Too late
. It was obvious she was going down. Michael charged forward, wrapped his arms around her, and pulled her against him right as the chair toppled over, upended casters spinning in the air—spinning like his head as he held her tight against his body.

Convincing himself that his heart hammering a million miles a minute was solely the result of his evacuation scare, always in control Michael Anderson was stunned to find himself momentarily unable to speak…or move…or do anything but hang onto the stranger and stare. It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen an attractive woman before, but somehow this one had taken him by surprise.
Damn
, she felt good.

Reluctantly, he loosened his grip and she slid down his body, her arms looping around his neck before her feet touched the floor. “Thanks,” she said, barely above a whisper, making no effort to move away.

“My pleasure,” he replied, knowing full well that, being completely pressed up against him like that, she could tell just how true that statement was.

The dog barked from the end of the hall, and his head cleared enough to bring him back from his proximity paralysis.

“What the hell is going on here?” the man down the hall called, echoing Michael’s sentiments precisely. What
was
going on? She was the house sitter from hell, for God’s sake.

Still clinging to his neck, she answered the man back. “It’s okay. I forgot I had some bread under the broiler. Everything’s cool.” The man shook his head and closed his door. Most of the people bought into this building because they valued their privacy. It was held out as exclusive, secure, and quiet. And it lived up to its reputation… until recently.

Michael dropped his arms to his sides and she slid hers from around his neck, leaving him feeling cold somehow.

She stepped back and scanned him head-to-toe, then grinned. The dog yipped from the end of the hall, barely audible over the still-pulsing alarm.

“Hey little pup!” she called. “Come here. Want a treat?”

The dog stopped running in a circle at the stairwell door and faced her.

“Yeah,
treat,”
she called, and the beast came running, hair flying out to the sides as it bolted toward them.

Son-of-a-bitch.
There was a magic word to make the thing obey.
Treat.
Yeah, well, he might come running if she called him, too. He shook his head.
No. That’s absurd
. He had no time in his life for that kind of nonsense. He didn’t run when called.

“I’m Mia,” she said, extending her hand.

He took her hand, surprised by her firm grip. “Michael.”

“Well, Michael, I tried to remove the battery from the smoke detector, but I can’t figure out how to take the cover off,” she said, voice a bit loud in order to carry over the still-shrieking alarm. She picked the dog up and held it against her chest, which was covered by a sports bra that matched her shorts.

Lucky dog.

“Do you think you could help me out and give it a try?” she asked.

“Sure.”

She stepped back and he entered what looked more like the inside of a spin-art machine than a living room. The floor was covered with a bright blue tarp, and a large canvas, covered in brilliant splatters, sat propped up against the tarp-covered sofa. One thing at a time, he reminded himself. At least the smoke had dissipated for the most part. “Do you have a step-stool?”

“Nah.” Dog in her arm, she grabbed what appeared to be an authentic eighteenth century mahogany Hepplewhite shield chair. “Just use this,” she shouted over the alarm as she dragged it under the smoke detector above the entry door.

Grimacing, he stepped up onto the leather cushion. The Braxton woman was going to have a fit if she ever found out her fine antique had been abused like this. The smoke alarm cover slipped right off after a quarter turn, and the battery was no problem either, resulting in sweet silence.

When he stepped down, she was feeding the dog something from her hand.

“I promised a treat, and I deliver on promises.” She rubbed the dog’s head and straightened the bow holding the hair out of its eyes. “Hey, thanks for helping me out. Sorry about the noise.”

Yeah, like the noise was anything new. “No problem.” He set the battery on a display table near the door.

“He’s really cute. I love Shih Tzu’s. What’s his name?”

Shitzoo?
More like shit head. Yeah, Shit Head was the perfect name for that pillow-murdering thorn in his side. “Dog.”

“His name is Dog?” She fiddled with the heart-shaped tag on Shit Head’s collar. “No, it’s not. It’s Clancy.” Her brow furrowed. “This isn’t your dog.”

“You’re right. I’m taking care of it for a friend,” he said, not wanting to discuss dog therapy.
Clancy? Who puts bows and nail polish on a boy dog and names it Clancy?
“How did you know it was a boy before you read the tag?”

Looking up at him with her cinnamon-colored eyes, she stated very matter-of-factly, “Boys have penises.”

At that moment, Michael was very aware that he, himself, was a boy. He cleared his throat. “Good to know.” And he felt silly, which was an unfamiliar sensation. How had he not noticed the dog was male? Well, because it was covered in ridiculous hair that hung to the floor, for one thing. And when he’d picked it up, he wasn’t doing a gender check, he was getting the hell out—which brought him to the issue of why he was there in the first place. “Burned bread?” he asked.

“Yeah. I forgot to start a timer.” She set the dog aside and pushed to her feet. “I do it all the time”.

Somehow that didn’t surprise him.

She tucked some strands of shiny black hair behind her ear that had slipped from her ponytail.

Damn, she was gorgeous. And different than anyone he’d met. She wasn’t self-conscious at all and seemed so comfortable, not only about disclosing her forgetfulness, but with her own body. Hell, she was practically naked in that skin-tight outfit, but her mannerisms revealed no discomfort at all. In his years of negotiating antique deals, he’d become an expert at spotting weaknesses and hang-ups that would give him an advantage. This woman appeared hang-up free, which, by his logic, reduced his advantage and upped the challenge. And Michael Anderson loved a challenge.

“Come on, Clancy. Let’s make sure I turned the oven off,” she said. And as if he were the most obedient dog on earth and not a devil that disemboweled a completely innocent and utterly docile down pillow, Shit Head followed Mia into her kitchen, tail wagging.

Watching her very fine ass as she left the room, Michael had to acknowledge that if he’d had a tail, his would be wagging as well. “You seem to have a way with dogs,” he remarked, stepping into the kitchen.

A tray of burned rolls sat abandoned on the counter, hot pads flung nearby. Dishes tilted at precarious angles in a pile in the sink and a large amount of mail was stacked haphazardly in the corner. Messy and noisy. Two things he couldn’t abide.

But when she turned and grinned, his body, still on high alert from having her flattened against him, didn’t seem to mind messy and noisy at all.