Phoenix (4 page)

Sydney

“Bruce!” Sydney exclaimed, exploding with laughter as her huge Rottweiler stood on Uriel’s chest, furiously licking his face.

Uriel sputtered, twisting his head left and right to avoid the slobbery tongue, but it followed him everywhere to no avail. Each time he turned his head, he got hit with another wet doggy kiss.

She watched as he sighed and gave in, scratching he dog behind the ears as he nuzzled his face against him, grinning from ear to ear at the same time.

“Hi Bruce,” he got out as the dog took a quick break from licking his face.

Then the dog was gone in a flash, back to his owner as he sat promptly at her feet, then lay down and gave her his belly. She was still howling with delight, but she bent down to rub him vigorously anyway. “Good boy,” she told him, exposing herself to a lick of his long tongue as well.

“Well,” Uriel said as he got to his feet, trying to regain his dignity.

“Do you think—” Sydney couldn’t finish her sentence as she looked at the snow falling off of Uriel. Another fit of laughter descended over her.

That is, until a snowball exploded lightly on her face.

“Oh no you didn’t!” she exclaimed in shock. “Go get him Bruce!”

The dog was expertly trained, and he launched himself at Uriel again. The shifter was ready this time however, and easily dodged to the left.

Where he took a snowball full on in the face. And it hadn’t been thrown all that lightly either. Sydney was impressed with her accuracy, though she would never admit it aloud.

“
Pleh
,” he said, spitting out the remnants of it from his mouth as he brought his hand to his face to clear the snow from his eyes.

Bruce chose that moment to jump on his chest again, when he couldn’t see it and couldn’t use his hand for balance. Uriel went down in a heap for a second time, and her laughter redoubled.

“Do you think my little dog is okay with you?” Sydney managed to finally get out.

There were tears streaming down her face she had been laughing so hard and her cheeks were likely red as well.

“I seem to have made a mistake,” he stated.

“Oh?” she said, snorting and then doing her best to cover it up. It wouldn’t do to be too ridiculous around him yet. “And what might that have been?”

“Your dog is slightly larger than anticipated,” he said matter-of-factly. “A slight miscalculation on my part, I’m sure. I was never led to believe otherwise of course.” He shot her an evil glance, promising retribution.

She just laughed at him again and went inside. Uriel started to follow her, then looked at the dog, who was happily frolicking through the deep snow out front.

“What about Bruce?” he asked.

“He’ll be fine, he’s too chicken to go far. I’m not going to be long anyway. Just changing boots and grabbing his leash.”

She saw the dog’s ears perk up as he caught the last word, and the big happy beast came running. His head slammed into Uriel’s leg, but now that he was ready for it the big bear shifter barely swayed with the impact.

“Know that word, do ya boy?” he said, crouching down and giving him a good scratch. Bruce sat obediently and allowed himself to be fawned over while they waited for Sydney. She smiled inside at how quickly the two were bonding.

“Okay Bruce, I’m ready,” she said, pulling the big door closed behind her.

Uriel took the leash from her hands and clipped the lead to the purple collar around the dog’s neck. “Very manly color,” he said, apparently noticing it for the first time.

“Thanks. Bruce picked it out. He’s very picky about stuff like that,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “Seriously, I went through three different types of food before I found one he would eat. He would take a few pieces of it, then just spit it out and refuse to eat it. It was ridiculous!” she exclaimed, shaking her hand at the dog who was happily ignoring her, walking ahead of them, though not straining at the leash.

“He’s incredibly well-trained,” Uriel observed.

She was glad for the conversation starter. Uriel had clearly come to like Bruce already and that meant a lot to her. She trusted her dog’s judgment immensely, and the way he had gone right past her to meet and greet Uriel said a lot of good things about the shifter.

There was a path two houses over that led through a maintained trail into the woodlot, and she guided them that way. Actually Bruce was the one leading the way; he knew his walking trail quite well and she didn’t have to do much more than follow where the leash tugged at her.

“I had a lot of time on my hands when I first got him,” she admitted. “Instead of wasting it, I put it into training him. He’s also very smart, so that helped.”

Uriel nodded. “Did you get him as a puppy?” he asked curiously.

“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “He was only a few months old, but he was a rescue dog. Not many people adopt his breed, and he was scheduled to be put down in a few more weeks if nobody adopted him, so I just had to take him. I’m very glad I did,” she said, and more relief than she had planned slipped into her voice. Internally she cringed, knowing what question was coming next.

“Why’s that?”

There it was. Well, she was in a better place now. No shame in talking about her bad past.

“When I first finished grad school, I had a boyfriend. He was a deadbeat and everybody told me, but I just didn’t believe them. I was in love. Anyway,” she hurried on, not wanting to talk about an ex in front of Uriel, “I didn’t get hired right away, and things got bad. There were at least two occasions where people came to the house looking for money, and Bruce scared them off.”

Uriel nodded slowly, his eyes focused on her. She met them hesitantly, uncertain of how he might react.

“And now?” he asked softly.

“Now I don’t have a deadbeat drug-addicted boyfriend, and I thankfully didn’t get too far into the junkie lifestyle before I got a job. So quitting was much easier.”

His eyes stared into hers, evaluating her statement. She could tell that he was deciding whether she was clean now. Then the serious look broke out into a smile.

“Well I guess I have Bruce to thank for that as well,” he told her.

“What else do you have him to thank for?” she said, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.

“Besides lots of snow down my clothes?” he asked, laughingly dodging the swipe of her hand as she went to gently hit him.

“Besides that,” she growled. “This is my dog, be careful what you say,” she warned with a smile.

“I have him to thank for this,” he said, spreading his hands to indicate the nature around them. “Believe it or not, I don’t get out into the wilderness as much as I wished I could. This is so nice.”

She bit her lip gently at the look of wonder on his face as he took in the landscape they were walking through. It was such an open and unguarded look. It was also incredibly hot. His day-old beard, dark brown hair, and strongly-defined jaw called to her. She wanted to run her hands along his face, to nuzzle herself against his neck.

He was tall, more so than most of the shifters she’d seen, but her own height meant that her face would fit against his neck perfectly. A soft, wistful sigh escaped her, and Uriel quickly glanced over.

Oh shit. He totally heard me!

Sydney felt her cheeks burst into fire, the heat a stark contrast between the cold breeze whistling through the bare woods. She hadn’t meant to get caught staring at him and daydreaming like a little school girl. That was embarrassing. Thankfully Uriel wasn’t saying anything. His eyes stayed focused on her for a few seconds before he looked away.

The empty branches of the trees, interspersed with the rustling pines had given way to an open field.

“Bruce,” she called, and the dog obediently returned to her side. She bent over and unclipped the leash. “Okay, go on.” The dog licked her hand and then took off into the snow-covered field. Snow flew everywhere. Bruce didn’t exactly jump over the snow. He was more like a bulldozer, ferociously plowing it out of the way.

Seconds later he was back, panting happily.

“You want to get the ball?” Uriel said from her side.

She looked over and he was dangling a compacted snowball in his hand, teasing Bruce.

“Oh he has a thing for a ball,” she said dryly. The dog was bounding back and forth, short stubby tail waving energetically.

Uriel drew back and heaved. The snowball was airborne and Bruce was off. He saw it plop into a snowbank in the distance and homed in on his target like a heat-seeking missile. A single sharp bark came back their way as he lunged into the pile of snow where he was absolutely positive the snowball was awaiting him.

“So why Genesis Valley?” came the question.

“The money,” she said bluntly. “I was working at a clinic. It paid okay, but this was almost double. Getting a PhD isn’t exactly cheap, and I had debt I needed to pay off.”

“Had?” he asked.

“Oh yes. Had. All gone now. At least the student loans, that is. I still have to finish paying for the house.”

“That’s no mean feat,” he said, nodding his head her way in admiration. “But why do I feel like the money wasn’t your only reason?” There was no accusation in his voice, nor was there any real question either, it was more of a statement.

“Things got bad,” she said at last. She may as well put it all out in the open now. It was something she regretted, but not something that she was still ashamed about. If he couldn’t handle it, then he wasn’t the man she thought him to be. “Real bad. I had a job, but all the money was going to support the habit. Mostly his, but I was definitely a part of it, I can’t lie. I tried to quit, to get him to stop. So many times.”

Bruce came trotting over, his nose covered in snow, proudly admitting that he had no idea where the ball of snow had gone. Nor did he seem to care. He just sat down and looked at them.

Still looking over at her, Uriel bent down, packed another ball together, and heaved it in another direction. She blinked and Bruce was gone, the only thing visible of him the spray, like that of a really fast boat.

“Anyway,” she continued, “I couldn’t take it any longer and one day I tried to leave. He woke up from his stupor just before I reached the front door, and he lost it. Went crazy, gave me a black eye and more.”

A deep, wordless growl erupted in the clearing, startling several black birds in the trees nearby, and causing Bruce to look up in concern from where he was digging like he was panning for gold.

Uriel’s lip had curled back and she could see the rage flare in his eyes, a bright fire of hatred like the eruption of a volcano. He had to visibly calm himself, only returning to the conversation after.

“Sorry,” he gritted out through his teeth, the anger clearly not all dissipated yet.

“It’s okay,” she told him with a smile. The protective instinct wasn’t threatening to her. She knew he hadn’t done it on purpose. “That was enough for me, and the next time I got paid, I made sure to lace his stash so that I knew he would be out cold. I packed everything into a suitcase, got in my piece of crap car, and drove to the library to search for a place to stay. I came across this job opportunity through one website or another, and drove out here. They hired me on the spot and I’ve been here ever since.” Her voice caught in her throat as she remembered breaking down outside of the office after being hired. She had stayed stoic until then, but the realization that she had done it, that she had made it work, had been too much. That was when Courtenay had found her, and the two had become fast friends.

“That’s rough, to put it mildly,” Uriel said softly, turning to face her. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

She smiled ruefully. “I think it’s made me a better person for it, but it was a living hell at the time, there’s no doubt about it.”

Against her will, tears filled her eyes, though they didn’t fall. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear her vision.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Uriel said, his voice close by.

The tears began to fall. Just one at first, a slow river of warmth down her cheek. Then another, and another, both eyes letting loose with them. She didn’t sob, but she did cry her eyes out. It had been a long time since she had thought about that hurt, and Sydney could have sworn she had gotten past it, accepted it for what it was. Apparently she was wrong.

Then he was there. His arm snaked around her shoulders, drawing her tight against his powerful frame. Her face nuzzled its way into his neck, just as she had imagined doing earlier. It felt amazing, far more perfect than she had imagined it. Their skin touched once more and she felt not only the surge of electricity that shot between them, but also his warmth.

“You’re like a furnace!” she exclaimed through the tears. He had been warm in her office, but that was
nothing
compared to the heat radiating off him now. It was like a fireplace in the middle of nowhere. “How are there not waves of heat radiating off you?” she asked, brushing away the now-forgotten tears as her face began to tingle from being pressed against his bare flesh.

“I’m not
that
warm,” he chided gently. “Don’t forget, you’re chilly because it’s cold out, so that’s going to amplify any warming effect.”