“Seriously?” Heather blinked at him like he was driving on three wheels. “That’s why you’re sending everyone home? Isn’t your boss going to be mad?”
“Agnes didn’t mention my last name, did she?”
Her eyes widened with disbelief as she looked from him to the sign on the wall, then back again. “You’re the Sullivan in Sullivan Autos? This is your garage?”
“Don’t worry, I know cars a lot better than I know dogs.”
But he knew women best of all. And, he thought as he slid a Band-Aid strip over her left knee, he couldn’t wait to get his hands on more than Heather’s knees. Because even as he cleaned and bandaged her cuts, her skin was so warm, so soft, so responsive to his touch.
After he slid another Band-Aid strip over her silky smooth skin, he held out his arms. “Now that the shoot’s off, I’m all yours to train.”
Most women would have been pleased by the sensual undertones in his words, or would at least have blushed, but she simply glared at him with icy cool eyes.
Cuddles yawned and curled closer into her chest. What Zach wouldn’t do to be where the puppy was.
She shifted her legs out of his reach. “You can’t cancel your photo shoot. You’ll lose too much money.” She stood up and grabbed her dog’s leash again. “Atlas, it’s time to go.”
Damn it, she was going to leave. Panic gripped him, even though he’d only just met her, even though he could easily find another woman to have sex with. “Heather—”
She frowned as she looked down at where he was still kneeling on the cement floor. “Since you can’t keep Cuddles here while you’re—” She paused to look at the models chain smoking and talking on their cell phones in the parking lot. “—working, I’ll take her to my office. When she wakes up, she can play with Atlas until you get there for our first session.”
She told him the address, then made a clicking sound that had her huge dog following her out of the garage with an adoring look on his furry face.
Zach understood exactly how the dog felt. One sign from her and he’d happily do the same thing.
His brother moved beside him and, together, they watched Heather leave, her long braid swinging behind her, her legs strong and tanned in her shorts.
“Who’s that?”
Zach grinned. “My new dog trainer.”
And, hopefully, a hell of a lot more than that real soon.
Chapter Three
The afternoon sun was streaming in through Heather’s office window as she finally hung up her phone. Rubbing the back of her neck with both hands, she stretched the tight muscles. If she’d known it was going to be this much work to head up the fundraising committee for the San Francisco animal shelter or just how hard it would be to convince potential donors to give to their worthy cause...
Well, she would have signed up for the job anyway. But at least she might have been better prepared for it. Fortunately, the big fundraising events were both this weekend, and then she could lie in a bath with her eyes closed and a very big glass of wine as long as she wanted to.
But for right now, coffee would make everything better. And maybe a couple of those chocolate truffles she had told her assistant Tina to throw away.
She got up from behind her computer and Atlas and Cuddles both yawned as she walked past. “Don’t let me interrupt your naps,” she told them.
They’d played together all day and she was impressed that Zach’s dog had only had a couple of accidents, more from the excitement of playing with a big dog than anything else.
Atlas immediately plopped his big head back on his huge dog pillow and she shot him a mock scowl as she opened the door. “Keep rubbing it in how awesome your relaxed schedule is and next time I’ll send you out to deal with every one of those companies I just called.”
Her final words landed in a thud against a hard, male wall. “Talking to the dogs, huh?”
Heat seared her hands as she pressed them against the chest of the ridiculously gorgeous man whose low voice had just rumbled through her.
“Zach.”
“Heather.”
He smiled down at her, his dark eyes full of so much sensuality that she almost felt singed by nothing more than his gaze. One that seemed to promise more pleasure than she’d ever imagined.
Seriously, what was wrong with her? She took a much needed step back. And why was it so difficult to pull her mind back from the gutter’s edge around this man?