I must miss the sign or something, but three men appear in the garage. Under normal circumstances, seeing them would freak me out, but I am armed to the hilt, and Valak said they would help. There comes a point where you have to trust, and caring for Ares is it. Watching them closely, one brings a large stretcher near, another stands by the back door, and the third stands at the passenger door looking through the window at me and Ares.
“Aware, but stay,” I murmur softly as I run my hand over my dog’s shoulder and I nod at the man waiting, letting him know he’s good to open the door.
He drops straight into a slow squat, letting Ares take the more dominant position. His subtle, deliberate move is a relief, and it reinforces the feel I get from him. It’s not hard to see he’d rather be with animals than people. He even smells faintly of them. You can also see he’s experienced working with protection dogs because he waits while I take the lead, bringing his hand close to Ares. “Scent and allow.”
Things happen quickly after that.
“I’m Luke Lombardo, the best damn vet this side of Darlington. And this guy looks like he might need an x-ray on his left paw and a couple of stitches to his jowls. What happened?” He speaks, but he stays looking at Ares.
“Ares was protecting me and got jabbed by something. I’ve got the empty syringe in my boot for you to analyse.” My words rush out. Hearing and seeing his concern is like opening the twist cap on a bottle of fizz, everything starts bubbling out of me. I hate the urgent feeling of panic, so I take a deliberate breath and slow down.
“Ares, huh? He’s a beautiful dog and sounds like he was just doing his job. How old is he?” Luke asks. His voice is soothing as you’d expect from someone who’s given his life to caring for sick and injured animals. But he also talks in a way that is soothing to me as he starts doing a prelim assessment as we sit in the car. Unsurprisingly, Luke’s scent is like the inside of a vet consulting room, a combination of antiseptic mixed with the smell of someone who has lots of pets. It’s not offensive but not something I’d want to smell all the time.
“Four. Do you want the syringe?” I offer.
He finally looks at me quickly before returning to focus on my dog. “Sure.” He holds his hand out as I pass it over. “How long ago did he get hit?”
“Under an hour.”
He shrugs, and his eyebrows pinch together. By the looks of it, he’s got a lot going on in his head. “As harsh as it sounds, if he’s still with us, it’s a good sign. I’d say it was a tranquilliser of some sort. Probably Ketamine, a horse tranquilliser that can be used on animals and humans. I’m more concerned about his paw and think we should get him out to have a look at it properly.”
I place my hand on Ares to keep him relaxed. Luke’s hand twitches at his side and you can see he wants to touch Ares himself, but he’s cautious and respectful. “Did Valak lift him before?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I think if Ares is familiar with him already, both Valak and I might lift him out to keep his stress down. How about you let him know what we’re doing and then crawl through the cargo hold so he can see you the whole time. He’ll be much calmer, hopefully less inclined to act out too.”
He handles Ares with a sweetness that is like a breath of fresh air.
Even when Noah arrives about ten minutes later, Luke maintains his entire focus on my dog.
Thankfully Ares’ x-ray doesn’t show any bone fractures or breaks. Of course, Ares makes it nearly impossible for Luke to look at a cut on the side of his mouth, but I wrestle my big guy to submission, and after a quick dab of medical glue, it’s as good as it’s going to get. Ares’ snap at Luke is too close for me to let the well-meaning vet try again.
While Luke writes out a list of what I need to do over the next couple of days to help Ares recover, Noah gets to work on my injuries. Which are not nearly as bad as expected.
Ares quickly gets irritated with Noah touching me, and we both decide it’s not worth him getting bitten. Both my head and my wrist have a couple of butterfly plasters on them, and to keep my wrist clean and to stop the bleeding, Noah wraps it in gauze. And then Valak returns to help Luke get Ares back in my car. I sit in the back with him and Noah talks at me through my open window.
“Do you have a headache?” he asks again, and I get it.
I know the danger of head injuries, since I have sports stars on my books. It’s not something you hide or lie about.
“Yeah, but if it gets worse, I’ll let someone know.”
He nods and starts to walk off before he swings back around. “No driving for twenty-four hours as a precaution, and it would be good if someone can check on you a couple of times tonight.”
I scowl at him, and Luke catches sight of it, adding as he leaves that Ares should be on bed rest for at least twelve hours too.
Closing my eyes and counting to ten, I lock up my irritation at being told what to do and focus on getting Ares better. And I don’t miss the way Noah’s peppery scent intensifies, nor the smug look on his face when I reopen my eyes.
It’s interesting to see first-hand the way Noah’s assertiveness shines through, and I can see how people would say he has a terrible bedside manner. But I also know he’s trying hard, because I actually know a lot about Noah and his moods, although he hasn’t put two and two together yet. Without a doubt, if he knew my name, things between us would be different.
When I discovered how good I was at doing my job at uncovering new talent and getting them work, our industry was defined by those who could act and sing. But I’m an overachiever, hungry for success, so my portfolio of clients includes regular tv and movie stars as well as singers, but I’ve also branched out into other areas, and one of them is medicine. How weird is that? But high profile, successful doctors are as hot as bad boy rock stars. And Dr Noah Teo is one of the leading plastic surgeons around. He’s hot as fucking Hades on bonfire night.
Show me the money—and that tight ass—is generally how I prepare myself for our conference calls. Of course, because he’s an alpha, I can feel his thundering presence even when I’m looking at his latest promotional shots. And don’t get me started about his voice—it’s like warm, gooey caramel, or maybe that’s me after listening to the low, deep cadence of his voice. And good god his laugh is so deep it vibrates through my chest.
I’m kind of impressed at how long I’m able to lock down my physical response to being in his presence, but eventually my scent is impossible to control and it sweetens the night.
“Gabriel wants to speak with you again,” he says with a final doctor-inspired look, ignoring my rising scent and instead handing my phone to me.
