Turn Up The Heat: Love Won't Wait / Beach House Beginnings / Strong Enough to Love. Victoria Dahl

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      “Names?” he asked Merrily, as if being accosted by an animal horde was just fine and dandy.

      She cleared her throat. “Dundee is the bigger dog, Dolly the smaller. That yellow fellow with the round face is Tom, better known as Union Tom because he was found by Union Terminal. That’s Stan the Man with the adorable yellow eyes. And here in my lap is Eloise.”

      “She has beautiful coloring.”

      Merrily wanted to melt. “She’s a dilute tortoiseshell, and yes, very beautiful.”

      “You said Tom was found by Union Terminal?”

      “They’ve all been adopted from shelters. Dolly was...not treated well.”

      Brows coming down, Brick reached out to the little dog again.

      “Her shaggy gray fur needs a lot of work and her previous owners just didn’t care. They kept her outside, and she was dirty, matted... I’m sure she was miserable.”

      Brick said nothing, but his jaw tightened and he cuddled Dolly a little closer.

      Well. A telling move, that. So he was breathtakingly gorgeous and kind.

      No wonder he had such an amazing reputation with the ladies.

      She swallowed back her sigh of longing. “Dundee is seven years old but still acts like a pup. As you already found out, he loves to give doggy kisses.”

      In an absurd voice, he said to Dundee, “Yes he does. Don’t you boy? You do. Lots of doggy kisses.”

      Merrily gaped at him. And wanted to melt again.

      Returning his attention to her, and his voice now normal, Brick said, “I’ll be stopping by my brother’s later. He and his wife have a dog and cat who’ll think I’ve been out cheating on them when they smell your pets on me.” He laughed. “Doug and Cate can be very possessive.”

      “Those are the pets?”

      “Yeah. Doug the dog and Cate the cat. Love the names, right? They were shelter pets, too. Evan and Cinder weren’t a couple then, just neighbors.” He smiled. “Though Evan had it for her bad, I don’t mind telling you. Anyway, they went to the shelter together. She got Doug, and he got Cate, and later they got married, and now they’re a happy family.”

      Her heart swelled. “That sounds like a lovely fairy tale.”

      Brick shot her a puzzled look. “Nah. Just real-life love. Happens all the time.” Putting the animals aside, he came back to his feet.

      He was so big that it prompted her to stand, too, so he wouldn’t be towering over her. At least not as much as when she sat. Since he stood well over six feet tall, and she was less than five and a half feet, there’d be some towering going on no matter what she did.

      But with Brick, she sort of liked it.

      The cat squirmed in her arms, so Merrily started to set her down. Eloise had other ideas. She held on while staring at Brick in something akin to challenge.

      A small, sexy smile tilted his mouth. He touched Eloise under her chin, and the cat closed her eyes in bliss. “So you’re the boss, huh?”

      How did he know that? “It seems the cats are naturally bossier than dogs. And she’s the only female cat, so...”

      “Nature’s way, I guess.” His hand went from Eloise’s chin to Merrily’s hair, tucking it behind her ear, then grazing her cheek. “You look nice with your hair loose.”

      Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth so all she could do was stare at him. The combo of a casual touch and a compliment packed a wallop to her starved senses.

      “But I like the ponytail you usually wear, too.”

      “Oh...um...”

      That knowing smile of his widened. He ran his big thumb along her jaw...then dropped his hand and looked around her home. “You have a nice place.”

      “Thank you.”

      He looked up at the cove ceiling. “There’s so much character in an old house like this.”

      “I like it.” In a very short time, it had become her home, not just her residence. “The landlord, Tonya Bloom, did a great job in dividing it up for a duplex. In most of the rooms, you can’t even tell that it used to be one house.”

      “Who lives next door?”

      “She does. The landlord, I mean.” Merrily really didn’t want to talk about Tonya.

      “She’s nice?”

      “Very nice.” As well as beautiful, incredibly built, smart and successful. The comparisons could depress her, except that Tonya was one of those people who treated everyone like a cherished friend.

      She did not want Tonya treating Brick that way.

      Time to get him thinking about a different topic. “I was hoping the doggy door could open to the backyard.” Eloise still refused to be put aside, so Merrily carried her in her arms as she went into the kitchen.

      Along the way, Brick held silent, and she assumed he was taking in the original high baseboards and the sloping wooden floors. But when she looked back, it was her behind he stared at. She faced forward again and tried not to put any more swing in her walk than necessary.

      “Right here would be the ideal spot.” She indicated the thick wooden door that opened to the small fenced yard.

      When she turned, Brick was right there, crowded in close behind her in the small confines of the galley kitchen. He was so close, in fact, that Eloise could lean out and rub her head against his shoulder.

      A little dumbfounded, Merrily stared up at him while breathing in the amazing scent of hot, hunky male. She’d been around other men and never noticed their scent. Did he smell different? Or just better?

      Brick glanced at her with a raised brow and a barely there smile.

      She had to get it together or he’d start to wonder at her motives, which, yes, included the desire for more than a doggy door to accommodate her pets.

      Sidling around him, Merrily tried to gather her wits. “Would you like anything to eat? Or drink?”

      He knelt down to examine the base of the door. His dark T-shirt stretched tight across his broad back and solid shoulders and the denim of his jeans hugged his flexed thighs. “I’ll take a drink, thanks.”

      Lord, have mercy. Stalling, Merrily lifted a hand and fanned her face, but it didn’t help with the flash flood of heat.

      Maybe she should have started this plan with someone just a little less...everything.

      Less macho, less gorgeous, less overwhelming.

      Problem was, no one else had appealed to her.

      He glanced back. “Merrily?”

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