Tailspin. Lori Foster

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СКАЧАТЬ Sadie jerked the door right out of his hand and nearly knocked him over in her haste to get inside. Her wet feet shot out from under her again when she stepped on his tile floor. Buck caught her under the arms before she hit the ground, aware of her slight weight and fragile bones. She was such a delicate woman—

      Sadie paid him no mind. Immediately she slammed the door shut again, using enough force to rattle the panes of glass. Panting, nose glued to the glass, she watched the yard as if expecting something momentous.

      Crossing his arms over his chest, Buck leaned against the wall and stared down at Sadie. At six-three, he stood taller than a lot of people. He was used to looking down. But Sadie was more petite than most, damn near a foot shorter than him.

      And she was in her nightgown. With pretty, sleep-rumpled hair. And small feminine feet, now wet and dirty with grass stains.

      He was still ogling her feet when Sadie jumped. “Ohmigod, there it is! There she is!”

      Buck looked over her shoulder—and saw another Chihuahua, way fatter than Butch but not much bigger otherwise. The poor thing was soaked from running in the grass. It was also missing some fur. It had a bald forehead with other bare patches on its belly and behind. It was about the ugliest little dog Buck had ever seen, and it charged right up to his door, then put both front paws to the glass.

      Sadie screamed. The shocking sound caused Buck to nearly jump out of his underwear. Bewildered, he caught Sadie’s upper arm and turned her toward him.

      “What in the world is wrong with you?”

      “Cicada! Cicada!”

      “No,” Buck said reasonably, “Chihuahua. Probably the homeliest Chihuahua I’ve ever seen, but you apparently agreed to take it in….”

      Sadie turned on him, stretched on her tiptoes to glare and said, “In. Her. Mouth.”

      Her snarling tone startled him. Buck glanced down at the female dog and…ewww.

      Right there between the dog’s teeth was a chubby, still screeching, red-eyed cicada. He shuddered in honest, horrified revulsion. No wonder the dog was losing fur if she kept things like that in her mouth.

      “Good God, is she going to eat it?”

      “I don’t know,” Sadie wailed while doing a little dance and flapping her hands. “She keeps getting…things, and bringing them home to me. A dead frog, a slimy night crawler, and now this.”

      The little dog whined around the pulsating bug.

      “She wants in,” Sadie gasped.

      “Over my dead body,” Buck said.

      Her expression earnest, Sadie turned to Buck. She even flattened a hand on his chest, which nearly stopped his heart.

      “Go out there and take it away from her,” she said, her tone commanding.

      Buck stiffened. Of all the things to ask, why did it have to be that? And she had asked it while touching his naked chest with her soft little hand, he in his underwear and she in her nightgown, leaving room for all sorts of possibilities.

      He hated to disappoint her, but some things were too much. “Sorry, no can do.”

      Her lips trembled. “Why?”

      “I hate cicadas.”

      Her doelike eyes widened. “But you’re a man!”

      “Last time I checked, yeah.” At least he knew she’d noticed that much. “And stop yelling. You’re upsetting the dogs.”

      Only Butch didn’t look upset. He looked…love-struck. From the moment the other Chihuahua appeared, Butch had gone stock-still, his head tilted, his bulgy little eyes wide. Deep in his throat, a low, husky rumble escaped. Close to a whimper, but Butch was all male dog, so no way would Buck accuse him of whimpering.

      Maybe Butch had bad eyesight and didn’t realize the other dog was balding. Maybe—

      Sadie’s hand, still on his chest, curled into a fist, grasping a handful of hair. “She’s leaving. You have to go get her.”

      When Buck just winced, she changed tactics. “Oh please. I can’t lose her, but I can’t go out there, either. I just can’t. Not while she has that awful thing in her mouth.”

      Buck watched the dog trot around the corner. He shook his head, denying the inevitable. “I hate cicadas. If it were a spider, no problem at all. A snake, I’m there. But cicadas—”

      Sadie jerked, nearly removing his chest hair. “She’s going to get lost!”

      Yeah, she probably would. Disgusted and feeling very put out, Buck gently untangled Sadie’s fingers from his chest hair. He leaned down till his nose almost touched hers.

      “All right. But you owe me.”

      Her lashes fluttered in incomprehension.

      “Agreed?”

      She swallowed, then gave a small nod. “All right.”

      Satisfied, Buck picked up Butch and handed him to her. “Hold him. I’ll be right back.”

      “Her name is Tish,” Sadie yelled in a belated effort to be helpful.

      Buck crept out, his eyes darting this way and that, his ears alert to the scream of the cicada. No sign of the dog. No sign of other neighbors, either, thank God, since he wore only boxers.

      In a ridiculously high voice for a man who weighed two-twenty-five, all of it muscle, he called, “Tish? Come on, sweetie pie. Heeeere, Tish…”

      He rounded the corner of the building and there she sat, her round butt almost hidden in the tall grass. She’d put down the cicada, but it wasn’t moving. It just…lay there, looking gruesome and wicked with its fiery eyes exposed. Ick. Why wouldn’t the damn thing fly away?

      Buck drew a fortifying breath. “Come here, baby,” he cajoled.

      Tish tipped her head and stared. Her ears perked up, forming a wrinkle in her bald forehead. Buck could see her belly and what looked like a scar. He frowned—until Tish put one paw on the vibrating bug.

      Buck’s stomach lurched. How could she bare to touch it? “Come on, Tish. Be a good girl, now. No reason to be afraid, baby, I promise. I just want to hold you. That’s all.”

      Behind him, Sadie whispered, “I bet you say that to a lot of girls.”

      Buck’s eyes narrowed. Slowly, so he wouldn’t startle the dog, he pivoted to face her. “I thought you were too chicken to come out.”

      The hem of Sadie’s gown was soaked and clung to her ankles. She was shivering in the brisk morning air, with Butch hugged up to her chest, shielding her breasts from view. Butch didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he looked real cozy.

      “You’re between me and the bug.” Her expression was taut. “That helps.”

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