Victoria Dahl – The Guy Next Door: Ready, Set, Jett / Gail's Gone Wild / Just One Taste (страница 15)

Once outside, a cold breeze washed over Jett. For as nice as the weather had been lately, the temperature seemed to be dipping fast. At least it helped to clear his head. So much had happened in such a short time, much of it because of the dog.

“We need to come up with a name for you.”

Ears down and tail tucked, the dog didn’t react to his voice.

After setting him in the grass, Jett watched him closely, ready to grab for him if he tried to run off. He didn’t. Instead, he hunkered down and stared at Jett as if he’d just been discarded.

Again.

Between Natalie and the dog, his damn heart felt shredded.

“Not happening, buddy.” Crouching down in front of him, Jett spoke in a calm, even tone. “I won’t budge, I promise. Do what you need to do and we’ll go back in together.” He stroked the dog’s back then held himself very still.

After a few more minutes of worry, the need apparently became too great and the little dog went to a line of bushes. Jett realized he had nothing for cleanup but he didn’t feel too guilty about that. After all, the dog had been a stray only minutes ago. But first thing after they returned from vacation, he’d make a trip to a pet store for supplies.

When the dog finished, he again army-crawled over to Jett, approaching with anxiety.

Damn. “Come here, buddy.” Jett held open his arms and the dog crowded in. “Maybe Buddy works as good as any other name.” He lifted the dog. “What do you think?”

This time he got the desired response; the little dog’s whole body quivered with the furious shaking of his tail.

“Great.” Jett had to grin, and he even bent to put his face against the dog’s scruff for a moment, giving him the affection he craved. “We’ll run it by Natalie for approval.”

Jett strode into the apartment, put the dog on the floor and kicked off his shoes. Natalie stood at the small dinette table, setting out napkins and colas in a too-precise way.

It looked right, seeing her there at his table.

In his life.

Shit. Jett rubbed his face then dropped his hands and drew her attention by saying, “I think he likes the name Buddy. That okay with you?”

She looked up in time to see Buddy try to steal one of Jett’s shoes, probably for chewing. Jett retrieved it from him and, carrying both shoes, went straight into his bedroom to change his jeans. Twice he almost tripped over the dog as it stayed close underfoot.

Natalie wasn’t that far behind, either. He heard a sound and, wearing only boxers, looked up to see her standing in the doorway watching him.

Her gaze stayed south of his waist, and of course his dick made note of her heated interest.

“Something on your mind, honey?”

Her gaze shot up to his. It took her a second to regroup. “I like the name Buddy.” The dog’s ears flicked forward then back again. “Did you see that? He already knows his name.”

“Smart dog.”

“So…” Sounding cavalier, she asked, “Did you say that you have three sisters?”

“That’s right.” Her curiosity amused him. Just a few hours ago she wouldn’t have asked him anything at all of a personal nature. “If any of them knew about you, they’d be camped out here right now trying to learn all they could.”

“They’re that interested in your dates?” As soon as the words left her mouth, she faltered. “Well, not that we’re dating, but—”

“We’ll be traveling together, sleeping together all night.” He tossed his jeans into a laundry basket in the closet floor and pulled on clean ones. “I’d say that constitutes, at the very least, dating, wouldn’t you?”

She bypassed his question to say, “I don’t know if I want your family judging me.”

“They’re not like that.” But apparently her family was. Even her sister? Jett wondered. Natalie said they were close, so hopefully Molly wasn’t the critical type. “They all love me, and they’re all smart.”

“Meaning?”

“They’ll know right off that you’re different.”

She shook her head in denial and backed up out of the doorway as he approached. “I’m not.”

He wrapped a hand around her nape to keep her from retreating more. Her hair, all curly and cool, lay against the back of his hand. A flush heated her skin, amplifying her unique scent. He breathed her in and felt himself stir.

Looking at her mouth, he said, “You are very different.”

“How so?”

He coasted his thumb along the column of her throat, over a rapidly tripping pulse. “I’ve never before finagled an invite to join a woman on her vacation.” Knowing he had coerced her nettled him. If she’d had her way, she’d be in her own apartment right now, packed and ready to leave first thing in the morning—without him.

Natalie made a rude sound. “I bet it’s usually the women who are trying to finagle more time with you.”

Jett smiled. He got his fair share of play, but other women had rejected him. It had never bothered him that much, because none of them mattered the way Natalie did.

“There, you see? That proves my point of you being different, because you wanted to go off without me.” After a soft, deep kiss, he released her and started them both toward the kitchen.

“I didn’t,” she admitted. “Not really.”

His guts clenched, but he kept things light. “Could have fooled me.” Hell, she’d fought him tooth and nail at first.

“Truth is, I didn’t think you’d be interested.”

Jett shook his head. Yeah, his family would love her. “Lady, you don’t know your own appeal.”

Licking her lips, she measured her words carefully. “I do in bed.” Her cheeks reddened and she stammered, “I mean, we seem to really click there.”

“Click?” His mouth twisted. “That’s such a cold, unemotional word for how we burn up the sheets.”

Her chin lifted. “Well, I’m not as good at verbal sparring as you are. But you know what I mean.”

“Yeah, I do. You thought I wanted the convenience of regular sex with no other attachments.” Only on rare occasions had he ever had the urge to introduce a woman to his family. It usually involved unavoidable social functions like the marriage of a relative or a holiday party. He always kept things simple, and his family knew not to make too much of it. But a vacation?

Jett had a feeling that his siblings would take one look at Natalie and know she had thrown him for a loop.

“Does your family know…” She gestured lamely. “You know, that we…how we…”

“That you use me for booty calls?”

Her face flamed. “Have you felt used?”

“Wonderfully so, yeah.” Trying to hide his smile, Jett held out her chair, but she glared at him, making him laugh. “Come on, Natalie, do you really think I’d deliberately do or say anything to make you uncomfortable?”

Grudgingly, she conceded the point. “I guess not.”

“Your vote of confidence warms my heart.” After she’d taken her seat, he went to his own. The dog went under the table and rested across his foot.

It occurred to him that Natalie might not know how family stuff worked. “My sisters and I are close, but my private life is off-limits. All joking aside, what you and I share is definitely private.”

Avoiding what he’d said, Natalie picked up her pizza and asked, “Will you tell me about them?”

“Sure.” Maybe because her own family was so broken, she couldn’t quite conceive of his. He was proud of them all and didn’t mind sharing. “Connie’s thirty, married, with a four-year-old daughter. Heidi’s twenty-eight, a legal secretary, married with two daughters, a one-year-old and a three-year-old. And Betts, only a year younger than you, is a nurse, still single and no kids yet. The brothers-in-law are nice, hard-working guys, and they love my sisters.” He shrugged. “Everyone has their differences on occasion, but never anything major.”

“There are a lot of girls in your family.”

“There’s an understatement.” It accounted for part of the reason that they all doted on him so much. “The four-year-old is really prissy, and the three-year-old is a tomboy. As Uncle Jett, I get a free pass to spoil them.” Soon, he’d introduce Natalie to his boisterous clan. They’d love her and, he hoped, vice versa.

The dog let out a lusty sigh.

Natalie bent to look under the table. “The poor baby is worn out.”

Jett peered under the table too, but he paid more attention to Natalie’s small feet. They were soft and delicate and very female. She had her toenails painted a funky powder blue. Demure on the outside, a little risqué underneath—that was Natalie.

He thought of how she wrapped her legs around him, how sometimes her heels pressed into the small of his back, urging him to go deeper, harder…

“Jett?”

God, he was obsessed. “Buddy will get plenty of sleep tonight at Connie’s office. She has pens for the dogs.”

“He’d be caged up?”