beautiful chocolate female named Sweetie. She was the most docile and loving dog I ever met. Beau still mourns for her, don’t you, big guy?”
Beau blew out a breath that made his jowls shudder.
“Did she die?” Melanie asked.
Gabe nodded, his heart constricting in his chest again. “Got tangled up with a wild hog.”
“I’m sorry, Gabe. I can tell your dogs mean a lot to you.”
“That transparent, am I?”
She smiled. “Maybe a little.”
Beau suddenly jumped to his feet and eyed the doorway intently. A moment later, the veterinarian strode into the waiting room. Her reassuring smile did amazing things to reduce Gabe’s level of anxiety.
“Lady should pull through,” Dr. Nelson said. “Her liver is swollen, so I’m going to keep her here at least overnight. We’ll see how she feels tomorrow. Her side needed stitches due to a long laceration, and her foreleg has been set. She’ll be in a cast for several weeks. I didn’t see any signs of neck or head trauma, but she will definitely be sore for a week or so.”
A week during which Gabe had to be on the road with the band, but he nodded. “Can I see her?”
“For a few minutes. She’s sedated, so she won’t know you’re there.”
Lady was asleep on the exam table, the fur shaved from her side and dozens of stitches running the length of her dark skin. The assistant was wrapping her leg in gauze for her cast. Gabe stroked Lady’s soft ears and told her to be a good dog, though he decided she could chew as many shoes and steal as much fried chicken as she wanted if she made it through her ordeal. He wouldn’t even yell at her.
Chapter Fifteen
On the way back to Gabe’s ranch, Melanie checked her phone for messages. She hadn’t received a single call, email, or text from Nikki in over twenty-four hours. Melanie would have liked to believe that her friend had finally discovered tact and had allowed Melanie to enjoy her weekend with Gabe undisturbed, but she knew Nikki better than that. Either Nikki was having too much fun to bother checking in—unlikely, because when she was having that much fun she liked to brag—or something was wrong. Very wrong. Dread settled in Melanie’s stomach, and she couldn’t shake it. She sent Nikki a text, asking her to please check in because she was starting to worry. Melanie anxiously waited for the answering smart-ass response, but seconds became minutes and her text was marked delivered, but not read. Maybe Nikki had forgotten to charge her phone. Though that wasn’t likely. Nikki might forget to pay her bills or fill up her car with gas, but she never forgot to charge her phone.
“Everything okay?” Gabe asked.
Melanie peered around Beau, who was sharing her seat. Well, sharing wasn’t really the dog’s forte. He was hogging her seat.
“I don’t know. I’m really starting to worry about Nikki. It’s not like her to not bug me about something for this length of time.”
“She’s probably just having a good time in New Orleans.” He grinned at her reassuringly. “It’s easy to lose track of time in the Big Easy.”
Melanie prayed he was right. Prayed Nikki was all right.
“We’ll be back in New Orleans day after tomorrow,” he reminded her. “I’ll show you what I mean then.”
“What are you going to do with Lady while you’re on the road?”
His brow scrunched. “I’ll think of something. The guys keep bringing their women on the bus; surely they won’t protest if I bring along my own Lady.”
“But I have to work on Monday.” Unfortunately. She’d love to spend more time with Gabe. Hell, she’d love to spend all of her time with Gabe. But she had a life in Kansas. And she wasn’t missing it at all.
“I meant the dog.”
Oh. So that was where his loyalties lay. She scowled.
“I wish you could travel with me too,” he said hastily. “Do you have any vacation time saved up?”
She felt marginally better. Very marginally. “A little.”
“Could I interest you in wasting it all on me?”
She craned her neck to try to see around the eighty-pound hairball panting and drooling all over the dashboard. Didn’t dogs like to sit by the window? Apparently this one preferred a front and center view with the air conditioning vent blowing cold air at his throat.
“You might,” she said.
“You could join the tour for a couple days, which isn’t very pleasant once the novelty wears off.”
She couldn’t tell if he was trying to dissuade her from joining the tour or sincerely thought she wouldn’t enjoy riding on the bus with him.
“Or you can visit me at my place again. It’s usually calm and peaceful. Today has just been a day from Hell.”
Despite the emergency with Lady, Melanie had to admit she liked being a part of his day-to-day life. She loved his home. Loved his dogs. Loved… Well, she didn’t want to get ahead of herself with thoughts like that.
“Or,” he said, “we can take off somewhere, just the two of us, and have a real vacation.”
“Like where?” she asked. She so rarely got out of Kansas. She’d always wanted to travel, but had never found the time or a likeminded individual who wanted to travel with her.
“Anywhere. You pick. Our last option would be hanging out at your place for a few days.”
She cringed. Now that didn’t sound like fun. “I think it would be fun to go someplace unique.”
“Are you talking The Bahamas-unique or Antarctica-unique?”
She instantly knew where she wanted to go. The place she’d been dreaming of visiting since she’d seen the movie The Gladiator.
“How about Rome-unique.”
He made a sound of interest—a short mmm. “I’ve never been to Rome,” he said. “Rome it is.”
Really? Was she really going to live her dream of seeing the coliseum at Gabe’s side? If a wall of beige fur hadn’t separated them, she would have hugged him.
“But that’ll have to wait until the tour is over,” he said. “I don’t have enough time off between gigs to do a proper vacation.”
“When is the tour over?” she asked.
“November.”
“November?” She scowled. “I won’t get to see you until November?” This dating a touring rock star thing was a challenge she hoped she’d live through. Just being away from him for five days had been torture. What would it be like to not be able to see him for weeks or months? She’d go mad.
“We’ll see each other,” he said. “Just in small bites. You might discover that’s all of me you can handle in one setting.”
“Gabriel Banner, I want to eat you whole. Trust me, I can handle being with you for extended periods of time.”
He chuckled and turned off the highway onto the gravel road that led to his home.
When they pulled into the driveway, the first thing Melanie noticed was that the beat-up pickup was no longer parked along the side of the road.
“I hope to God that little fucker didn’t find those keys and drive,” Gabe said. “I should have pocketed them instead.”
Melanie opened the door and shooed the massive form of Beau out of the truck so she could actually interact with the man who was so obviously in turmoil.
“Don’t beat yourself up, sweetheart. You had to take care of Lady first. There was no time to make sure that kid did the responsible thing. You did what you could under the circumstances. You even called the police.”
Gabe didn’t look at her. Instead he dropped his face into his hands and scrubbed at his eyes.
“I love my dog and all, she means the world to me, but…” He huffed out a heavy breath and dropped his hands to reach for the door handle.
She caught his arm before he could escape. “You can talk to me, Gabe. I want you talk to me. Whatever it is, you can tell me, okay?”
“Can I tell you that you really need a shower? You smell like dog.”
She let him off the hook—for now—by rolling her eyes and offering him a half grin. He’d tell
her when he was ready. She hoped. She really wanted to build a relationship with him and that couldn’t happen if he didn’t trust her with his baggage. Hell, she had Nikki for a best friend. If she couldn’t handle Gabe’s baggage, no one could.
“I might be tempted into taking a shower,” she said, suddenly self-conscious about the dried blood on her dress. The legs of Gabe’s jeans were covered with it as well. “If you’ll join me.”
“Melanie Anderson, I’m starting to think you only have one thing on your mind.”
“If you think it’s seeing you naked,” she said hotly and then grinned, “guilty as charged.”
She honestly didn’t want to shower with him just to see him naked; she wanted his defenses down. She wanted to get tangled up in more than his arms. Soul bared, heart exposed, she wanted all of him. He opened up when he made love; that’s what had sealed the deal for her. That’s what kept her coming back for more, those brief glimpses of what he usually tried to hide behind tattoos and a foot-high mohawk.
She hoped that one day she wouldn’t have to seduce him to lay his heart open to her, but she’d stick with what worked for now.
He leaned across the seat and claimed her mouth in a soft, loving kiss that set her heart aflutter. “Thanks for being wonderful you,” he said, lifting a hand to brush a stray curl behind her ear. She turned her face to kiss his palm and caught a strong whiff of dog on his hand. She crinkled her nose.
“About that shower” she said.
He laughed, climbed out of the truck, and grabbed her around the waist, hauling her out through the driver-side door.
He slammed the door and carried her toward the house, getting an eyeful of her stockings and thighs as her skirt slid to her waist. She didn’t bother to make herself presentable.
“Looking good, Miss Melanie.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her nose in his throat. His neck didn’t smell like dog at all. It smelled like Gabe. She nuzzled closer and breathed him in.
“Beau!” Gabe called when they reached the porch.
She lifted her head to search for the dog and saw him nosing around the spot where Lady had lay in the grass after she’d been hit.
“Come on, boy. Let’s go inside where it’s cool.”
The dog gave Gabe a morose look and flopped down in the grass, his chin resting on his large paws.
“We’ll bring her home as soon as she’s better, buddy. Come on.”
Beau ignored his master. Gabe sighed, walked to the porch, and set Melanie on her feet. “I’ll have to get him. You can get that shower going,” he suggested.
Melanie nodded, but made no move to go into the house. She watched Gabe cross the yard and drop down next to his dog. She couldn’t hear what he was saying as he stroked Beau’s velvety ears, but after a moment, the dog rose to his feet and collected Lady’s discarded ball from the ditch. Gabe stood and waited for Beau to return to him and they walked side by side to the house.
Melanie didn’t know why she found the two of them so touching. She’d never had a dog, so she found the obvious connection between man and beast hard to comprehend. Obviously Beau didn’t know what was being said to him, but the tone of Gabe’s voice and his soothing hand had somehow reached the animal. She’d probably have just grabbed the dog by the collar hand hauled him into the house. Or scolded him for disobeying. Gabe’s way was better. Lots better.
What a truly remarkable man.
His face brightened and his lips stretched into a smile when he noticed her watching him, but his eyes were hidden under the shadow of his baseball cap. She felt those eyes on hers, though. Felt some connection between them that she couldn’t explain. She was in over her head with this guy and found that realization wonderful, amazing, and scary as hell.
Chapter Sixteen
Melanie looked damned beautiful standing on his porch with the light of the setting sun making her skin glow. He doubted she realized how happy he was to have her here with him—just the two of them at home—or how much he appreciated her help with Lady. If Melanie hadn’t been there, he probably would have been too busy losing his head over the teenaged drunk driver to realize his dog needed medical attention and not a hole in the ground.
He felt bad for Beau too. The dog had never been as close to Lady as he’d been to Sweetie. It was as if Beau was afraid to get too attached to another mate. Could a dog have a broken heart? Gabe knew one could. Beau still had one. The dog cared about Lady and had sired her first batch of pups, but he had loved Sweetie. Gabe had always believed that there was one true love for everyone—even his damned dog—and that a man could love many women in his lifetime, but not the way he loved his one. As Melanie waited for him to join her on the porch, he wondered if she was his. His one. Did a man know that kind of thing right away, or did it take a while for the feeling to develop? Did a man choose his one and only or was it written in the stars? He’d never pondered those kinds of things before and wondered why this particular woman put these strange thoughts in his head. Time to get her naked, so he could think about something a less terrifyingly life-altering than Melanie as a permanent fixture in his life.
“I thought you’d be naked by now,” he said.
“Just admiring the view,” she said.
He glanced over his shoulder at the spectacular sunset behind him. A red-orange globe hovered just above the horizon and shot veins of pink, violet, and green through the clouds. The brilliant blue sky above the clouds had begun to darken to cobalt.
“That is a beautiful sunset,” he agreed.
“What sunset?” she said with a laugh. “I was ogling you.”
He took his cap off, smoothed the strip of long hair down the center of his scalp with one hand, and plopped the hat back on his head. His face felt uncharacteristically hot. Was he blushing? Dear lord, what was the world coming to? “Wouldn’t you rather ogle me naked and wet?”
She reached for his hand, grabbed it securely in hers, and tugged him toward the front door. “Good call.”
Beau followed them into the house and took his regular spot on the rug near the threshold. He gnawed on Lady’s ball and completely ignored the humans who were already pawing at each other like a couple of animals.
Gabe drew Melanie against him, pressing her soft breasts tightly to his bare chest. His emotions were a blend of joy and turmoil, hope and despair, and he couldn’t get a firm handle on any of them. Which is why he needed a distraction. He smiled when her hands found his ass and gave both cheeks a playful squeeze. She tilted her face up and trailed sweet tickling kisses under his jaw. Apparently she was ready for a distraction as well.
He lowered the zipper at the back of her dress, so sorry that it was ruined but glad that it was easy to remove so he could expose her beauty and touch the warm smooth flesh of his little Melanie. Yes, his. She had to be his.
She shrugged her dress straps off her shoulders, dropping the dress on the floor and lifting her arms to rub her hands over his bare chest.
She looked devastatingly sexy in her garters, thigh-high stockings, lacy white bra, and panties, but nothing material could match the beauty of what was hidden underneath. When she lifted her arms to remove the clip from her hair and let the glorious mass tumble down around her shoulders, Gabe groaned in approval.
He reached behind her and pinched the bra clasp at her back before brushing the straps from her shoulders to free her beautiful breasts to his eager eyes. She lowered her arms and let her bra join her dress on the floor. Her fingertips glided up his quivering belly, bumping over the hard contours of his body. She paused to rub the barbell in his nipple with one thumb, staring up into his eyes and working his sensitive flesh until it was hard and achy beneath her touch. When he groaned, she leaned forward to kiss his chest, her lips brushing over the wolf tattoo on one side and the cougar on the other. Her breath was warm and moist against the skin over his heart as she kissed between her splayed hands. She paused unexpectedly and gave her hand a hesitant sniff. She
pulled a face and stepped away abruptly.
“Oh gross, I do smell like dog,” she said. “Let’s continue this in the shower.”
She slipped her garters, lacy thong, and stockings down her legs, leaving the remainder of her clothes and her shoes in a tangle on the living room floor. Struck dumb by the sight of her glorious nude form streaking through his house toward the bedroom, Gabe didn’t blink until she was completely out of sight.
He stripped off his clothes where he stood—from ball cap to tennis shoes—and followed Melanie into his bedroom.
He heard the spray of water and Melanie’s, “What in the world?” echoing off the bathroom tiles.