many obligations would put me right back where I’d been. And I wouldn’t be able to hide it from my parents.
“Damn it,” I whispered into the pillow.
Billy Ray gave a particularly mournful howl, and my feet hit the floor. I was moving on exhausted instinct.
I opened Jonah’s door with a creak. The man was sitting, still shirtless on his bed. The puppy was biting at the blanket, snarling playfully.
Billy Ray spotted me first and gave a happy yip.
“It’s not play time,” I said sternly.
“He keeps running to the door and whining,” Jonah explained.
“Does he have to go outside?”
He shook his head, yawned. And I remembered that Jonah had a 7 a.m. boot camp class at the high school. “I took him out half an hour ago. I think he wants to go sleep in your room.”
“Nice try,” I said, flopping down on the bed next to him. “He wasn’t interested in sleeping in my room either.”
Jonah’s room was significantly bigger. There was a brass queen-size bed, a dresser next to the closet door, and a tiny seating area with two mismatched armchairs under the saltbox roof that poked out over the back porch. The window overlooked the backyard and woods.
Billy Ray gave up his war with the blanket and trotted over to me. I stroked a hand from head to tail, and he flattened himself like a pancake on the mattress.
“Is he going to sleep?” Jonah whispered.
“I can’t tell if he’s falling asleep or if he’s just gearing up for his next bed linen assault.”
The pup’s little belly rose and fell.
“You’re the damn puppy whisperer,” he said.
I yawned. “What were we thinking, rescuing a dog?” I sighed.
“It’s just temporary,” he said, returning my yawn. “We’ll find the cute little bastard a nice family he can deprive of sleep.”
I couldn’t look at him directly. Jonah’s hair was sleep-tousled. The shadow of stubble on his jaw took his sexy factor up another ten points. And those sleepy green eyes did something strange to my chest region. Sleepy, stubbly man and sweet puppy were making me feel… things. Confusing things. Twin pulls of physical attraction and now affection warred for my attention.
“I’m going to try to sneak out,” I decided. It was pure torture sitting on a bed with Jonah. Shifting on the mattress, I tried to ease away, but Billy Ray rolled to his feet with a disgruntled yip. I moved to the edge of the bed, intent on getting away from sexy, sleepy Jonah.
But the pup followed me and pawed pathetically at my leg. He cocked his head to the side and gave me the look.
“What’s happening?” I whispered.
“You’re falling in love with him,” Jonah yawned. “And he’s using it against you.”
“I don’t think he wants me to leave.” I was so tired. So very, very tired. And Jonah’s bed was so inviting. So very, very inviting.
“Just lie down for a few minutes. Maybe he’ll settle if he’s between us?”
Superb idea. I’ll just lie down in Jonah’s bed and continue not having sex with him.
I woke to the loud blaring of an alarm that wasn’t my own followed almost instantaneously by the howl of a puppy in desperate need of the bathroom.
“Shit. Don’t pee, dude.”
My eyelids sprang open, and I launched woodenly into a seated position.
I was in Jonah’s bed. I’d slept with Jonah. Also a dog.
The man was scrambling out of bed, and the warmth that was evaporating from my back? The only hypothesis that made sense was that Jonah had been spooning me. I felt my back, hoping for some kind of six-pack ab fossil.
Jonah, in a hurry and very focused on not letting Billy Ray pee in his bed, grabbed the puppy and dashed downstairs.
I flopped back on the pillow, noting that Jonah’s pillow was pushed up next to mine. I’d slept the sleep of the exhausted and missed out on waking up cuddled against my roommate’s hard body. My roommate that I wasn’t having a physical relationship with.
It was a lot of disappointments for 6 o’clock in the morning, I mused.
“Damn it, Billy Ray. You were two feet from the door,” Jonah grumbled from downstairs.
Well, since I was awake, I might as well get up and tackle that swim, that run. Get them out of the way.
When I got downstairs, Jonah had a shirt on in the backyard and there was a clump of paper towels soaking up the puppy pee on the kitchen linoleum. Like I said. A lot of disappointments.