Then she did the only thing she could think of. She ran.
SIMON STOOD IN FRONT of Montana’s door. He’d done his best to avoid her and instead had found himself missing everything about her. Being intelligent didn’t seem to play into his decision-making process. The need to see her overwhelmed everything else.
He raised his hand to knock, then heard a strange sound from inside. It was almost a cry, but one he couldn’t place. Was he interrupting something?
The thought of her with another man enraged him and he pounded his fist against the door. Who could she be with?
He waited while she called, “Just a minute.” Then the door opened.
Montana stood in front of him, wearing shorts, a cropped T-shirt and little else. Desire joined fury as he pushed past her and entered her living room.
“Where is he?”
He glanced around, expecting to see wine and candles. Instead the drapes were open, along with the windows. There was no evidence of a romantic evening. Where he thought he would find a man, he saw three black-and-white puppies fighting over a sock. One of them yipped, replicating the sound he’d heard before.
He turned back to her and saw she held another puppy in her arms.
“Where is who?” she asked, tilting her head as she stared at him.
“I… No one.” Feeling stupid, he shoved his hands into his jeans pockets. “Hi.”
“Hi, yourself. Is everything okay?”
He nodded. “Should I have called first?”
“Probably, but it’s okay that you didn’t.”
“You have puppies.”
“Four of them. Both their parents are great service dogs, and part of a breeding program. I’m keeping the puppies with me at night for a couple of weeks to help assess them. Max has them during the day.”
“He’s giving you the rough duty.”
“I’m the junior staff member. It’s part of my job.”
He tried to figure out what she was thinking. Feeling. When he’d last seen her, they’d argued. No, that wasn’t the right word. Whatever it had been, they hadn’t been getting along. Although he’d planned to spend the night with her, he’d ended up leaving.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Yes. Are you?”
Very few people asked him that. He was the one in charge—the one who made the decisions, changed the lives.
“I thought you were mad at me,” he said.
“I was never mad.”
She set down the puppy. It raced off to join the others fighting with the sock. Sounds of their happy yips and growls provided surprisingly pleasant background noise.
“I missed you,” he admitted.
“So you decided I was seeing someone else?”
“Not until I got here and heard strange sounds.”
“You don’t date much, do you?” she asked.
“I don’t date at all.”
“I know there are women. You’re too hunky for them to ignore you. So what do you do with them?”
Hunky? No one had every described him that way. The thought was distracting. He was a freak. A monster. How could she see him so differently?
“I sometimes meet women. But it’s usually…light.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Let me guess. Dinner and small talk followed by mutually satisfying sex.”
“Something like that.”
She stared at him.
“Fine,” he ground out. “Exactly that.”
“Then, you leave them.”
“Then I leave.”
“Are you ever sorry? Do you ever miss these interchangeable women?”
“No.”
“Are you going to miss me?”
Now it was his turn to stare, to take in her wide eyes, her long blond hair, the shape of her mouth. He would know her taste or scent anywhere. There could be a thousand women in a dark room and he would have no trouble finding her.
He crossed the room and kissed her, doing his best to memorize her touch. She leaned into him, her arms wrapping around him, holding him close.
Her body tempted him and he used his hands to rediscover her curves. It was only an incessant tugging on the bottom of his jeans that caused him to draw back.
He glanced down and saw one of the puppies chewing on the fabric.
“Who are you?” he asked, bending over and scooping up the dog.
The puppy was more white than black, with a happy face and floppy ears. He relaxed as Simon rolled him onto his back and held him against his chest.
“That’s Palmer,” Montana told him. “There are three boys and one girl. Palmer, Jester, Bentley and Daphne.”
“Palmer, huh? That’s a big name to live up to.” He held the dog in the air as he spoke. Palmer swiped his tongue across Simon’s chin.
“You’re a natural,” she said.
He chuckled. “So, what’s the drill?”
“I do my best to tire them out, then we have a potty break before bed. About two in the morning I get them all up for another potty break, then we sleep until about five-thirty.”
“Grueling.”
“They’re worth the trouble.”
“Want some company?”
“You mean you want to stay here tonight?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“I’m not sure.”