Not That Kind of Girl (12 page)

Bea saw Rachel laugh and shake her head, then watched as she bent down and kissed her mother on the cheek. “We’ll be back to check on you in just a bit,
bubeleh.
”

Bea squeezed Gloria’s hand. She squeezed back. Hard. Her eyes looked into Bea’s with an intensity that didn’t seem right coming from a woman who’d just had a stroke.

“Yes?” Bea asked, leaning in close to hear the crucial information she was sure Gloria was about to convey.

“Have a nice time,” was all she said. Then she smiled a little, closed her eyes, and folded her hands over her chest.

Bea walked out with Rachel at her side. Gloria’s daughter was as tall as she was. She guessed that she was about her own age, as well. She looked like she could have been an athlete, too. She wondered what sport—lacrosse? Tennis? Diving? Suddenly, Bea felt there wouldn’t be enough time in the world to find out everything she wanted to know about Rachel Needleman.

The first bit of information came quickly. Bea glanced down and discovered there was no wedding ring.

It was a start. A start of what, she couldn’t say.

*   *   *

He let it unfold.

The dog rushed him, but Eli set down his duffel bag and kept walking. With his eyes on Roxie he took a few steps into the foyer. Lilith barked and nipped the air near his hip and arm, but there was no physical contact. Eli didn’t acknowledge the animal or her level of aggression.

He gently touched Roxie’s arm. He saw the fear in her eyes, and he couldn’t say he was surprised. Being calm was a lot to ask of her. He knew this was one assignment that couldn’t be rushed—it would take however long it took.

“How are you today?” he asked Roxie, paying no mind to the mixed-breed Tasmanian devil now delivering a clear warning. He heard a chest-deep growl and then the sound of his shirtsleeve being shredded as she bit the fabric.

“Shh!”
Eli hissed matter-of-factly, giving Lilith the human equivalent of a growl. At the same time, he pressed two fingers into the side of her neck, his version of a bite. With that, Eli had leveled the balance of power: her one growl and bite to his one growl and bite. They were even.

Lilith didn’t much like that arrangement. She immediately jumped up and clamped her teeth onto Eli’s forearm, ripping the fabric further and puncturing his flesh.

Roxie screamed. Not exactly the calm reaction Eli had asked for. He squatted, flipped Lilith on her side, and pressed her body into the floor, all while Roxie repeatedly gasped in shock.

“Please remain calm,” he told Roxie, his gaze soft and focused toward the kitchen at the end of the hallway. “I am not hurting her, Roxanne. I am not angry with her. I am putting her in a down position because it’s the best way to communicate the fact that biting me will not be tolerated, that I am the leader here.”

“But—” Roxie groaned. “God, she looks so upset! And you’re bleeding all over the place!”

Eli briefly noted that she was right about that last bit. It would have to wait. “Just breathe, Roxanne,” Eli said. “I’m breathing steady and deep, see? Watch me. Try to keep in rhythm with my breathing, okay?”

“Huh? What the hell good is
that
gonna do?”

From his squat, Eli slowly tipped his head and raised an eyebrow at her. Words were not needed. She got the message just fine.

“Sure. Right. Here I go. I’m breathing now.” Roxanne raised her nose toward the ceiling and inhaled loudly.

“Excellent,” Eli said, hiding a smile. “Just keep breathing. Observe what is happening. Stay detached.”

“Yeah, sure, but it looks like you’re strangling her.”

“I’m not,” he said. “This is standard. I held her collar, twisted it slightly, and pressed her head toward me and down to the floor. Then I pressed my fingers into her hip, flipped her, and pulled her so that her back is up against my legs. Now I’m keeping my fingers pressed into her neck, which is the closest thing I can do to mimic a bite to her throat.”

“How long are you going to do that?”

“Until she relaxes.”

Roxie laughed. “Seriously? But she’s stiff as a board!”

“Yes, and she’ll stay that way until she accepts my dominance. The instant she does, she’ll be allowed up.”

Just then, Lilith began to squirm and growl. Her compact and muscular body was strong, and she was nowhere ready to give up her position as top dog. “Shh!” Eli said again, pressing his two fingers deeper into her neck while adding the pressure of his other fingers to her hip.

“Maybe you should have a seat,” Eli suggested. He watched as Roxie slid down the wall and sat cross-legged about six feet from Eli and her dog. “Remember not to look at her,” he said.

Roxie nodded, closed her eyes, and let her head fall against the wall. It gave Eli a chance to study her. Such a lovely contrast between her pale skin and dark hair. A perfectly straight nose. Such a beautifully formed mouth, pouty, pink. He watched a single tear travel down the swell of her right cheekbone, and wondered why she was crying. He had a feeling it was more than Lilith’s display of one-upmanship.

About ten minutes into the hold, Eli felt Lilith’s body go from a rigid board of resistance to a soft pile of surrender. And thank God—ten minutes in a squat had Eli’s knees throbbing.

“Such a good girl,” he said, stroking Lilith’s body as he released the pressure from his fingers. As he did so he noticed that blood had coursed down his forearm and pooled between the fingers of his right hand.

Lilith jumped to all fours. She blinked. She yawned. She looked at Roxie.

“You can pet her now, too. Tell her how good she is,” Eli said.

Roxie called her dog and Lilith went right to her, burrowing her head into her owner’s side. Roxie stroked Lilith’s head, rubbed her ears, and praised her dog for her bravery, all while raising doubtful eyes toward Eli.

“She’ll be fine,” he said, offering Roxie his non-bloody hand and pulling her up to a stand. “Now I need you to tell me you’re pleased to see me, and welcome me into your space. Then lead me toward the kitchen.”

“But …” Roxie quickly glanced down at Lilith and her dog looked back at her, the sudden anxiety in the animal’s eyes a mirror reflection of her owner’s. Roxie caught her mistake and let go with a whine of regret.

“Go on as if nothing happened,” Eli coaxed her.

“All right, well, come in, then.” Roxie announced this and swept her arm up a little too wide and a little too fast. “Welcome to my space!” she shouted enthusiastically.

This startled Lilith. She growled again, but Eli kept walking. He headed into Roxanne’s kitchen, and immediately saw two steel dog bowls by the back door. He would get to them in a moment.

He started with the cabinets over the stove, and slowly, mechanically, he began to open and close every single cupboard door in the place. Lilith circled, slowly at first, then gaining momentum as her growling intensified. She wasn’t ready to give in, apparently. Of course not. Lilith was Roxie Bloom’s dog.

“Is there anything I should be doing?” Roxanne asked meekly from the kitchen doorway.

“Yes.” Eli kept his tone friendly as he crossed to the opposite bank of cupboards. “You can relax, please. Speak with a confident but calm voice.” He took out a single drinking glass.

“Okay,” she said, obviously trying hard to sound calm. “But you’re still bleeding and I don’t know what the hell you are doing going through all my cabinets. If you wanted something to drink I could have gotten it for you.”

Eli chuckled a bit, moving to the refrigerator and taking out what looked like a pitcher of iced tea. “But then Lilith wouldn’t learn anything, Roxie. This way, she’ll get to see me help myself to your food supply.”

“Hey, whatever rocks your socks,” Roxie said.

Lilith continued to growl. She paced around at Eli’s feet. Her snarling was punctuated with nasty-sounding barks. She jumped again, and her teeth sliced through his jeans and boxers and hit the flesh of his left butt cheek.

Here we go again,
Eli thought.

“Ssh!”
he hissed, returning to a squat. He gently twisted Lilith’s collar, brought her head forward and down toward the ground, and flipped her.

“God,” Roxie said, shaking her head. “I can’t believe she bit you again. She’s so incredibly stubborn.”

Eli nodded.

“So is this why you needed her shot records?” Roxanne asked, her voice quite small.

“It certainly is,” he said.

After five minutes, Eli asked Roxie to fetch his duffel from the foyer and lay out his first aid supplies—he’d need to bandage up soon.

After ten minutes, Eli had to adjust his position from squatting to kneeling, relieved when the circulation returned to his lower legs.

After fifteen minutes, Lilith let go with a great sigh and unclenched her muscles in surrender. Her head fell against the kitchen tile with a thud. Once more, Eli praised her, stroked her, and allowed her up.

While Roxie was busy loving her up, Eli returned to the refrigerator and pulled out the plastic food container of brown rice and chicken. Just as he turned to pick up the dog bowls, Lilith barked, tore across the floor, then jammed her body between Eli and her bowls.

He paid no mind. With calm, smooth movements, he reached down and gathered the empty stainless-steel food bowl and took it to the counter. He dumped about half a cup of the rice-and-chicken mixture into the bowl, then put his hands in it, mushing it all around.

Lilith was growling. The hair on her back was standing up.

“What the—” Roxanne’s mouth fell open. She scrambled to her feet. “I have spoons, you know.”

“No, thanks,” Eli said, ignoring Lilith’s frantic growling and barking as he ran his fingers through the mixture. “I am putting my scent all over her food,” he told Roxie.

“Right,” Roxie said. “But why would you want to do that?”

Eli chuckled. “This is not what I want—it’s what she
needs
. It demonstrates to the dog that she only eats after the pack leader has had his fill. I would suggest you do this at every feeding, until she understands the concept.”

“Gross, but okay,” she said.

Eli put the bowl down and walked away, heading to the kitchen sink. Lilith sniffed at the food but seemed more focused on the intruder than her snack. Eli turned on the water and waited a moment, not acknowledging the dog. But when she failed to eat any of her food, Eli promptly removed the bowl from the floor and placed it on top of the refrigerator. He returned to the sink. “How about you give me a tour of your house once I’ve patched myself up?” he asked Roxie, rinsing his hands in the water.

She laughed, walking toward him. “I don’t get it. Why would you tease a dog like you just did?”

“I never tease,” he said. “That was part of her lesson—she eats immediately after the pack leader, not at her leisure. She didn’t touch the food I gave her, so the food disappeared. It will be like that at every feeding from now on.”

Roxanne crossed her arms over her chest. “But I don’t feed her that way.”

Eli smiled as he glanced over his shoulder. “You do now.” He pointed to a ceramic dispenser on the counter. “Is this the soap?”

Roxie sighed, and joined him at the sink. He could see her try her best to smile.

“Here, let me help you.”

That’s when she touched him. She gently rolled up the sleeve of his denim shirt, sucking in her breath at the sight of the lacerations on his arm. He’d had worse. This wasn’t nearly as bad as the Saint Bernard from Spokane last year.

Roxanne squeezed out a couple drops of the soap, and worked it into bubbles in her hands. She had very pretty hands, he noticed. Slim fingers. Clean white nails kept short. He ran his arms under the warm water and looked down at her. He grinned. She frowned.

“She tore you up,” Roxie said.

“I’ll be fine.”

All the while, Lilith paced and patrolled at their feet, snarling and barking.

Roxanne placed her soft hands on his arms, spreading the soap. Her touch was quite gentle. She managed to get soap into all the places where the skin had been broken, but didn’t rough them up. The sting of the soap was already plenty bad.

“She hates men,” Roxie said suddenly. She looked sheepish. “Did I tell you that?”

He laughed. “I believe you did.”

Roxanne sighed. He almost sighed, too—the feel of her hands caressing his forearm was overtly sexual. He wondered how he could convince her to dole out the same first aid treatment to his ass. Suddenly, a vision flashed in his brain—Roxie’s hands moving on his hard cock like that, up and down, up and down.

“The girls told me a long time ago that I was the cause of Lilith’s aggression toward men,” she whispered, her hands still moving. “I didn’t want to believe them.”

She stopped her ministrations and reached for the spray attachment of the faucet. She directed a stream of water onto his flesh, dialing down the force of the spray so it wouldn’t hurt him. Then she unfolded a soft cotton towel from a drawer and patted him dry.

“You’re going to need stitches,” she said.

“Won’t be the first time. Would you mind handing me one of those bandages?” Eli nodded toward the supplies she’d placed on the counter.

Roxanne nodded, her face full of concern. She unwrapped a roll of gauze. “I see you’re prepared for everything,” she said.

“Always.”

Roxanne helped him cover the deepest cuts with square bandages, wrap gauze around his whole arm, and tape everything in place. When they were done, she raised those gorgeous dark eyes to his face. “I’m trying not to look at her, you know? But I’m really worried she’s going to bite you again.”

“No worries, right?” Eli smiled at her. “I’ll survive. Shall we?” Eli asked, gesturing for Roxie to show him around.

“She’s doing better, isn’t she?” Roxanne asked, the hope evident in her voice.

“Much,” he said, feeling the dog begin to sniff at his ankles. In fact, if she’d gone from biting to sniffing, they were definitely headed in the right direction. Sniffing was normal behavior for dogs. Biting wasn’t.

“This is the dining room,” Roxie said. “My mom gave me all her old furniture when she moved to Mexico a few years ago.”