“What have we gotten ourselves into, Atlas?”
He raised his dark eyebrows at her question, but he didn’t look away from the puppy. She didn’t blame him for being completely wrapped up in the cute, but very naughty, little dog.
Lord knew she couldn’t seem to pull her thoughts away from Cuddles’s equally cute and naughty temporary owner.
Chapter Six
Zach still couldn’t believe the way the puppy had gone to town on every piece of furniture in his house, but it was worth it. Because Heather was here.
After the way she’d tried to blow him off last night, he doubted anything else could have gotten her to agree to come over as quickly.
His sisters, Lori and Sophie, had been itching to redecorate his place for a while, anyway. Lord knew they’d probably never stop laughing when they heard what had happened. His siblings were going to love this. Chase had probably already spread the news about Heather to everyone after yesterday’s photo shoot.
Zach put on jeans and a T-shirt to head into the living room to help Heather clean up. He stopped at the end of the hall in surprise. “You’re done already ?”
She smiled at him from the open kitchen at the other side of the living room. “I’ve participated in more than my fair share of puppy cleanups. It looked worse than it was. Although your couch is definitely a goner.”
He sniffed the air. “Are you cooking something?”
She flushed slightly. “I didn’t get a chance to eat breakfast and I figured you must be hungry, too. I hope you don’t mind that I helped myself to your fridge.”
With a kitchen towel tucked into the waistband of her jeans and her hair starting to come out of her braid as the sun rose in the kitchen window behind her, she was hands down the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen in his life. His chest clenched as he watched her stirring eggs and buttering toast.
Apart from his mother, no woman had ever made him breakfast before. Many had wanted to, but he’d never let them, had never wanted to share anything so intimate just in case they got the wrong idea. If someone had told him he’d welcome a woman in his kitchen, and that he’d be trying to find even more reasons to get her to stay with him a while longer, he’d have told them they needed psychiatric help.
The thing was, he wanted Heather bad enough that he was willing to break a few rules for her. Not the big one, of course. He wasn’t going to fall in love with her or anything.
But breakfast, and wanting to spend more time with her than he usually did with a woman, wasn’t that big a deal.
She looked over at him from around an open cupboard door, clearly surprised to see that he was still standing in the same place. “I can’t find your whisk.”
He finally got his feet moving, but when he got to the kitchen, he stood there and stared at the cabinets.
“You don’t have a clue where it is, do you?” He could tell she was laughing at him, which he’d take any day over her shutting him down the way she had last night.
“I don’t even know what a whisk looks like.”
When she started to laugh out loud, he leapt to cover her mouth with his hand. At her alarmed expression at his manhandling, he whispered, “Cuddles might wake up!”
Heather nodded her understanding, then covered his hand with hers to pull it off, but not before he felt how soft her lips were against his palm.
And not before he noted the way her eyes darkened as her hand covered his to slide it away from her mouth and cheeks.
He’d wanted her from the second he’d seen her stuck in the bush at his garage. And there was no stopping the kiss from happening anymore. Not when she was in his kitchen, and she was so close and warm and soft against him.
Her eyes went soft as he lowered his head to hers and he could already taste her. One kiss wouldn’t be nearly enough to take the edge off his desire, not when she was all he could think ab—
A high-pitched series of barks had her jumping out of his arms.
Cuddles had picked one hell of a time to wake up.
Zach and Heather turned to watch the puppy dash across the room to make a flying leap onto Atlas. The big dog remained still as the puppy rubbed and wriggled against him, but Zach could see how happy he was about the affection.
Quickly turning to action, rather than letting them get close again, Heather grabbed two plates and ladled on scrambled eggs.
“I can’t believe how fast those two bonded. It’s like they were always meant to be together and were just waiting until they could finally meet.”
Zach tried to ignore the way his chest clenched again at her words. It was just that she was so damn sexy as she sat down at his dining table, kicked off her flip-flops, and tucked one leg under her.
“It’s really amazing how good she always is around Atlas,” Heather commented. “It’s almost like she wants to impress him.”
“In that case, you guys should move in for the next two weeks.” Purposefully ignoring her as if look, he sat down and took a bite of the eggs. “These are so good, you could cook for me every morning, too.”
“Really? Could I?” Sarcasm dripped from every word.
“Sure thing,” he responded with a grin.
She shook her head, but he could see her fighting the urge to grin back at him. If only he’d been able to sneak in that kiss in the kitchen, he wouldn’t have to work so hard for her now, or keep moving so slowly.
He thought about how long it took him to rebuild a classic car from the engine out, and how satisfying it was not just to get the final product, but every minute he spent wrenching on the intake manifold or working under the rear end.