“Jett. We’re here.”
“Mmmph,” grumbled, wrinkling her nose and snuggling deeper into the warmth she didn’t want to leave. The smell of what covered her was glorious, and she was having such an erotic dream. The deep voice trying to wake her up had a lot to do with that. The compelling vibrations she heard had been, just a few seconds earlier, tickling the most sensitive parts of her body.
“Hey. You can sleep once we’re inside,” the voice said again. “And your dogs probably need a walk by now.”
“Dogs.” Jett repeated, and her eyes flew open. “Crap. We forgot to get their food.”
“Nope. I did it while you were conked out,” Trask said with a smugness she was beginning to like. “Along with their beds, and what looked like a go-bag for you.”
Jett sat up and stretched. “Oh. Thanks.”
“Do you always sleep this hard?” he questioned.
Hah.Only when her dreams were so sexy and life-like that she didn’t want to leave them. But Jett refrained from handing over those details. She needed to get her head out from between her legs in order to buck up and meet his parents.
“Umm, not necessarily,” she answered. “I’m normally an up-and-at-em kind of girl, but that moose rescue seemed to kick my ass.”
That would make sense to him.
He took her at her word. “I get it. Let’s get the dogs taken care of, go inside, and then my mother can fuss over you. I hope you feel like eating again. She loves to cook, and there’s no way she’s going to let us disappear to our rooms until she’s fed us.”
“She sounds delightful,” Jett acknowledged. “I never had that. My mother was a wonderful woman up until she passed a few years back, but she wasnota cook. Her idea of putting food on the table was ordering pizza.”
The look on Trask’s face was priceless. He was clearly appalled.
“You’re kidding? No home-cooked meals? No baked goods?”
“Not unless I did it myself or was at a friend’s house. But what my motherdidimpart to me, was the knowledge that a woman could be a partner as well as a muse to the right man. She was an integral part of my father’s business, and an equally accomplished diver. She could fix most anything you put in front of her, and she had a zest for life and exploring things that couldn’t be matched. I wouldn’t have traded that for fettuccini alfredo, any day of the week.”
Trask actually chuckled, and that damned dimple came out again.
Jett’s new goal was to foment as many sightings of that freaking thing as she possibly could.
“Does that mean you cook?” Trask asked. She didn’t sense anything but politeness behind the question.
“Hell, yes I can,” she told him. “I can whip up an awesome gourmet dish with practically one hand tied behind my back. I taught myself at a young age. It was either that or subsist on take-out.”
The divot in his cheek popped again, and…
…the dogs began whining, which took her straight out of her insta-dimple-licking fantasy.
Crap.
“Okay boys. I get the picture.”
Jett handed the turn-out jacket back to Trask, and with her own coat on, she slipped from the truck, opening the back door for her dogs. The pair flew out, prancing and sniffing, peeing and snuffling, learning excitedly about this new environment with their sensitive noses.
After five minutes of giving them their autonomy, Jett called to get their attention. When they ignored her, Trask, who’d come up beside her, gave a sharp whistle.
Two furballs came barreling toward them to sit at his feet, tongues lolling.
“Okay. You’re going to have to teach me that,” Jett huffed. “I don’t get it. I feed them, I love them, and they choose to listen to you while they ignore me.”
“That’s because they see you as one of the pack, and not the alpha,” Trask told her smugly.
“Oh, andyou’rethe alpha I suppose?” She raised a brow at him.
“Uh, huh. Ineverysituation,” he sent back with such heavy innuendo, that her nipples perked up.
