Page 20 of One Kind Hand

Look away, man. Look. Away. Only his eyes weren’t getting the memo. All they wanted to do was stare, record, and remember. His hands were getting in on the action too because they itched to pet Charlie like she was petting Berto right now.

“Do you want something to drink?” he asked, his voice strained, but hopefully Berto’s little happy yips disguised that fact.

“Some water would be great,” Charlie said as she tapped her nose to Berto’s. “You’re so tiny. I know so many big dogs who would think you’re a toy, Berto.”

Berto headbutted her chin then rubbed his cheek along her jaw. Fuck. His dog was having all the fun.

Austin swiveled on his heel and headed for the suite’s kitchen. He opened the refrigerator and pulled out two bottles of mineral water. Twisting the cap off one, he didn’t bother with a glass. Instead he tipped the bottle back and chugged half of it.

Nope. Still not cooled off. He toted both bottles back to where Charlie and Berto were still pawing each other.

“Here.” He held the bottle out to Charlie.

She had to take her hands off Berto to grab it and Austin felt childish to be so happy about that. “Berto should definitely be in movies too. Look at him.” She angled the bottle toward Berto who was sniffing a line along Charlie’s toned thigh as he balanced there on his miniscule paws.

“I don’t think he’d stick to a script,” Austin said. “He tends to go rogue.”

“Ah, an improviser. That’s a skill too.” She uncapped her water and took a few swigs, her lips mesmerizing Austin as they puckered around the bottle’s opening.

He was a jumbled up mess of hormones right now and completely baffled over this woman’s effect on him. He’d been around hundreds of gorgeous women in his career in movies. Hell, he’d had on-screen love scenes with a bunch too and never had he been so turned on as he was right now with this helicopter pilot in his suite.

Berto let out a demanding bark and Austin focused on the pup. “Don’t take that tone with me.”

“I think he’s saying you haven’t properly said hello to him after being out all day.” Charlie smoothed the fur between Berto’s ears and the dog’s brown eyes squeezed shut.

“Oh, you speak crow and Chihuahua?” he asked as he lowered to his knees in front of Charlie.

“Si.” Charlie grinned at him and he chugged more water as Berto wandered from her thigh to Austin’s. “So he doesn’t mind traveling?”

“Nope. He seems to love it.” Austin set his water bottle down behind him and gave his little buddy an all-over rubbing, sending Berto’s tail into a mega spin. “Sometimes I catch him in his carrier as if he’s waiting to go somewhere.”

“It’s nice that Berto is getting to have such adventures.”

“He belonged to Summer and used to travel with her too. That’s why I figured Berto would be better off with me.” He tugged on Berto’s ear then the pup reared up on his back legs and rested his front paws on Austin’s forearm. “That and my other sisters can barely take care of themselves.” He rolled his eyes. “I love them all. Don’t get me wrong, but it’s possible I’ve made life a little too easy for them.”

“You support them?” Charlie shifted to sit on the floor and Austin had a thought he should ask her to sit on the sofa. Sitting like this, however, felt friendly and casual. As if they’d done this very thing hundreds of times before.

“Yeah. They . . . they’re sort of . . . aimless.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “That sounds mean and I don’t intend it to.” He huffed out a breath. “They don’t know what they want to do with their lives and I can’t fault them for that. Our parents died when they were fifteen. I was eighteen and old enough to be the adult in charge. We fumbled around for about a year and then I met Cody while bussing tables at a New York deli. He came in everyday for a week and then on that Friday, he called me over to his table, handed me his business card, and told me he’d make me a movie star.”

Charlie removed her baseball hat so Austin clearly saw her eyebrows raise over those truly lovely gray-blue eyes. “Austin Rayhill was discovered in a New York deli?”

“Indeed he was.”

“But you didn’t jump into movies right away, did you?”

Austin shook his head as Berto took full advantage of Charlie’s lap and circled around a few times before settling. “I did commercials first. Remember Rox Super Glue?”

She nodded. “I once glued my finger to a vase I broke with that shit. I was hoping my mother wouldn’t notice I’d broken it, but with my finger stuck to it that dream went south pretty fast.”

“That was my first commercial. From there I did others. Then I took my first martial arts class and Cody started pitching me to the action-adventure producers.”

“Then you got cast as Dex in Wolf Law.” Charlie bit her bottom lip. “Shit. That made me sound as if I have your entire film bio memorized.” She shook her head, that straight black hair shimmering as the ends coasted along her jaw. “I mean, I totally do, but you didn’t need to know that.”

He sure as hell liked knowing that. “Hmm . . . I think that means you have to catch me up. What jobs did you have before becoming a badass chopper pilot?”

Her lips twitched up. “Way worse jobs than Rox Super Glue, I’ll tell you that.” She puckered out her lips as her gaze scanned the ceiling. “Let’s see . . . there was my paper route which sucked ass during the winter and wouldn’t you know that every asshole who lived on a crappy dirt road subscribed to the newspaper.” She stroked Berto’s back and he let out a little sigh.

Austin’s jealousy of the pup’s location intensified by a million percent.