Authors: Bella Andre
around each other and Marcus, Smith, Chase, Ryan, and Zach
were doing their best to hold stil for the photographer.
“If it wasn’t black and white, I would have thought the man
in the picture was you.”
“It’s what everyone says. I’m the carbon copy of my
father. When I was a kid, we would spend hours under the hood
of some junky car he was trying to put back together.”
“How old were you here?”
“Four.”
His father had died only three years after the picture had
been taken. Three years and two weeks. The anniversary of
Jack Sulivan’s death was never a good day. Zach’s crew at
work had learned to steer clear of his shitty mood once a year.
“You look like you’re dying to rip off that bow tie,”
Heather said with a smal smile. One that told him more about
the way she felt about him than she’d wilingly given up to him so
far.
far.
“You know the way the living room just looked?” He
grinned, remembering. “Multiply that carnage by five after this
picture was shot and we were let loose.”
He loved the sound of her laughter, the way it pushed away
the dark clouds that came from thinking about his father.
“I wouldn’t think a woman as beautiful as your mother
could deal with so many boys,” Heather commented.
“Even when she was yeling at us, you could have sold a
picture of her to a magazine.” He smiled down at the black and
white, keeping his focus on his mother rather than his father this
time. “Even now, after everything we’ve put her through, she’s
stil a great-looking broad.”
He looked up to see Heather staring at him as if she’d
never seen him before this very moment. Damn it, he’d never
had a problem with flapping his lips around women before. It
was usualy the other way around, when they couldn’t stop teling
him how excited they were to be with him, how much they were
hoping to meet his famous brothers.
“I thought there were eight of you?”
“Mom was pregnant with my brother Gabe in this picture.
Lori and Sophie came a couple of years later.” He decided to
break the ice for her, just in case she’d been holding out on him.
“Smith is that one. And there’s Ryan.”
She looked at the picture again. “Who are the other two?”
He frowned. Didn’t she care that Smith was one of the
biggest movie stars in the world and Ryan was the star pitcher
biggest movie stars in the world and Ryan was the star pitcher
for the Hawks?
“Marcus and Chase.” He studied her face carefuly to make
sure she wasn’t putting him on. Sure, if she wasn’t a sports fan
she might not know who Ryan was, but she’d have to live under
a rock to not know who Smith was. “You watch movies, right?”
“Of course I do.” She got up, picked up their empty plates,
and took them over to the sink. “Seen anything good lately?”
Atlas pawed at the screen door and Zach got up to let the
Great Dane go take care of business. Of course Cuddles went
with him. He hoped she’d learn something about using the grass
rather than his hardwood floor in the near future.
“You realy don’t care that Smith Sulivan is my brother?”
He didn’t know why he was pushing her so hard on it. But
he didn’t want to be disappointed later when it turned out she’d
been secretly angling for an invitation al along.
She paused with a plate in one hand and a sponge in the
other. “He is?” She laughed at herself. “I should have put two
and two together earlier, shouldn’t I? I’ve been so busy with my
business this past year that I guess I don’t get out as much as I
used to.” She shot him a look as if she was afraid she’d offended
him by not caring about Smith’s fame. “But I hear your brother
has been realy great in his recent movies. Is there one I should
make sure to see?”
He joined her at the sink, drying the dishes she’d just
washed. “Seen one, you’ve seen ’em al.”
“I can tel from the way you talk about al of them how
much your family means to you,” she said softly.
much your family means to you,” she said softly.
“I’d take a bulet for any one of them.”
“You would?”
He didn’t have to think about it. “We’re family.”
“Family.” She was silent for a long moment. “They’re lucky
to have you.”
Wanting to erase the shadows that didn’t belong in her
pretty eyes, he said, “That’s what I’m always teling them.”
She shook her head. “Go check on the dogs, would you? I
think we should get away from the scene of the crime for a bit to
do more training. I’l finish up in here.”
He was heading out of the kitchen when he realized he’d
forgotten something important. He walked back to where she
standing on her tippy-toes to put the clean plates back in his
cupboard.
Before she realized what he was doing, he kissed her on
the cheek.
“Thanks for breakfast, Heather. And for coming to help
with Cuddles. I’d have been completely lost without you.”
Her skin was so soft, and she smeled so good, he wanted
to do so much more than kiss her cheek. Instead, he forced
himself to step away and head toward the backyard. He hadn’t
given up his quest to get her into his bed, but just then it didn’t
seem right to try to seduce her the way he normaly would have.
But as he walked away, he couldn’t stop himself from
turning to look back at her.
She was standing in front of the cupboards, her hand on her
cheek where he’d kissed her...looking just as shel-shocked as
cheek where he’d kissed her...looking just as shel-shocked as
he felt.
Heather wasn’t used to people surprising her. It had taken
her a while to learn how to read people, how to separate the
honest from the deceitful, the real from the fake, but ever since
the age of seventeen, she’d made sure not to let anyone slip
through her filter.
She’d thought she had Zach Sulivan pinned from that first
moment. But the way he’d looked at the black and white photo
and talked about his family, with such deep love and affection...it
made her wonder if she’d been wrong in her first impressions of
him.
On the surface, a man like Zach didn’t seem to need
anyone else. Not when he looked so perfect, so untouchable,
and certainly not when it was obvious that he’d spent his whole
life with strangers faling al over themselves to please him just for
the barest scrap of his attention.
Standing that close to him in the kitchen, with the heat of his
palm across her lips, had her on the verge of begging him to kiss
her. No doubt she would probably have done just that and more
had it not been for Cuddles’s very wel-timed barking.
But in the end, it was the kiss he’d given her on her cheek
that had taken her aback the most.
She actualy found herself wishing he would stick to his
She actualy found herself wishing he would stick to his
original game, and be the charmer with only one thing on his
mind. Because more than anything, she needed to shut her
emotions down before things went any further inside her.
She couldn’t feel anything for the charming man with the
adorable puppy...not when she already knew how it would al
end up after she’d watched the live show between her mother
and father play out in her childhood home for seventeen years.
There was a good park that alowed dogs only a couple of
blocks from Zach’s house, close enough to walk to. Of course,
that was plenty of time for at least two dozen complete strangers
to waylay them with exclamations over the amazingly cute
puppy
—
or more specificaly, the owner and his puppy.
If she heard the words
so cute
and
adorable
one more
time she was going to make Cuddles and Zach wear masks the
next time they went out in public together.
Not, of course, that she was planning on any future public
outings. These were extenuating circumstances, after al, not the
beginning of any kind of foursome around town.
Poor Atlas, she thought as he nudged Cuddles with his
nose and the puppy let out a happy bark. He was going to be
heartbroken when she found another trainer for his new friend.
Then again, if she could be tough enough and trust herself
around Zach, then she could make some additional concessions
to her daily schedule to continue working with them directly.
Surely she had enough self-control to keep their relationship on a
professional level for the next two weeks, didn’t she?
When they’d found an empty patch of grass, she put down
her bag of training gear and said, “We’re going to work on
positive reinforcement today.”
Zach raised his eyebrows. “You want me to reward the
little punk after what she puled this morning?”
She gave Atlas a subtle signal and he stopped panting after
the squirrel climbing up the tree to train his ful attention on her
instead. “Good boy.” She smiled at him. “Down.”
She reached into the pouch she’d strapped onto her belt
loop and squatted down to hand him a treat. She scratched
between his ears and looked up at Zach. “Why do you think
Atlas wants to please me?”
His eyes sizzled. “Who wouldn’t want to please you?”
She
swalowed
hard,
not
sure
how
their
conversations
—
even about totaly unsexy things like dog
training
—
always managed to veer so quickly.
No, that wasn’t precisely the truth. She knew exactly how
it happened.
Because Zach Sulivan was walking, living, breathing sex.
And she was a sensual woman who couldn’t help but respond.
At least on a physical level.
Continuing as if he hadn’t just set the blood to racing
through her veins, she said, “It’s comforting for him to know that
I’m in charge, and that I’l always give him clear cues as to when
I’m happy or upset with him.”
Zach frowned at the puppy in his arms. She didn’t think he
was aware of it, but even though he stil claimed to be angry with
was aware of it, but even though he stil claimed to be angry with
the dog, he held her gently against his chest, her little head
leaning into his heartbeat. “Seems to me yeling is a pretty clear
cue.”
She had to smile at what an adorably cute pair they were,
even as she shook her head at the fact that she was acting just as
patheticaly as al the women they’d come across during their
walk.
“Honestly, al the yeling does is make her more anxious.
Which makes her act out more, especialy when she doesn’t
know the proper behaviors to replace the naughty ones with.”
“And here I used to think I liked my girls naughty.”
She groaned. “You’re incorrigible.”
She should be a whole lot more upset about it, but the truth
was, she kind of liked his sense of humor.
“Incorrigible enough to tel you how hot it is when you use
big words?”
She should have known better. If she gave him an inch,
he’d take a mile. Suppressing a grin, she said, “Try irritating,
instead.” She took Cuddles from him, then handed him the bag
of dog treats. “Go over to that tree and let’s work on the
come
command a few times first.”
She held her breath, waiting for him to make some off-
color play on the command they were working on, but he simply
stuck to the program and headed over to the tree. Not, of
course, that she was disappointed he hadn’t grabbed the
opportunity for a double entendre, or that she was starting to
enjoy the constant spark of being with such a magnetic man.
enjoy the constant spark of being with such a magnetic man.
But, oh, as she watched his lean, muscled body move in the
sunlight, she couldn’t hold in a sigh of pure female appreciation.
Zach Sulivan might have been irritating and incorrigible on the
inside, but on the outside he realy was a work of art.
After a few minutes of Cuddles running into Zach’s arms at
his command, the puppy’s tongue was hanging out.
“Bring her over here and you can give her some water.”
She put a smal bowl on the grass and handed Zach a water
bottle to fil it with. Cuddles immediately plopped her muzzle into
the bowl. Before Heather told him what she wanted him to do,
Zach started petting the puppy and teling her how smart she
was. Her tail wagged al the while and Heather knew there was
no point in trying to fight her smile as she watched them together.
Okay, so Zach had made a terrible first impression on her,