Author: Bella Andre

Heather stiffened from head to toe. “We’re watching a Smith Sullivan movie?”

Her friend picked out seats right in the middle of the theatre and people started to fill in all around them, trapping Heather.

“Even better, I hear he has his shirt off for half of it. My husband is so going to get lucky tonight.”

Oh God. Heather had needed a night out at the movies to take her away from Zach...not to remind her for two straight hours about the man she was trying so desperately to forget.

“So,” her friend asked, right on cue, “have you been seeing anyone new lately?”

Heather choked on the popcorn and reached for the red slushie Brenda had bought for her, sucking it down so fast she got nailed with brain freeze.

“No,” she said, although Brant, a guy she’d casually dated for the past few months, had called and left her a message today about wanting to see her. She liked him well enough, but if she agreed to meet him for dinner she knew what he’d expect. And right now, she couldn’t imagine getting naked with anyone except—

Her groan of self-disgust was cut off by the start of the previews. Heather sank down in her seat and gritted her teeth. Somehow she’d make it through the movie. After all, how similar could Zach and his famous brother be?

* * *

Really freaking similar.

Brenda was still wiping away her tears as the lights came up in the theatre. “Wasn’t that an amazing love story? To have a man like that want you so badly...I can’t even imagine.”

Heather pressed her lips together. She was going to keep her mouth shut. She wasn’t going to say—

“I know his brother.”

Shoot, what was wrong with her?

Heather slung her purse over her shoulder and tried to stand up, but Brenda clamped her hand on her arm, holding her in place in her seat. “Whose brother?”

They were the only two people left in the theatre and the cleanup crew was coming in with their garbage bags.

“Smith Sullivan’s brother.”

Brenda squealed so loud that Heather winced. “Oh my God! When were you going to tell me?”

Never had been the plan, because Zach wasn’t supposed to play any kind of important—or long term—role in her life at all.

“Zach is one of my new dog training clients.”

“Does he look like Smith Sullivan?”

Heather felt her cheeks turning pink at the way her friend said his name like they were kids out on the playground and he was the popular boy they all had a crush on.

“Actually,” she admitted, “he’s even better looking.”

Her friend pinned her with a look she couldn’t escape. Brenda was the only one who knew all about Heather’s family. She’d met her father and mother and had seen their icky dynamic—the charmer and the charmed, the liar and the enabler—firsthand.

“Is he really just a client?”

Brenda’s voice had softened and Heather knew the question didn’t have anything to do with her one degree of separation from a movie star, but the fact that her friend genuinely wished for Heather to find true love one day, despite everything.

“Yes.” She stood up and went to throw away the empty popcorn box. “Seriously, I wouldn’t have mentioned him if we’d seen another movie.”

Brenda blocked her way out of the theatre. “What does Zach do? He’s not the baseball player, is he? Or the winery owner?”

Heather narrowed her eyes. “Why do you know so much about Smith Sullivan’s life?”

“I’m a fan,” Brenda said without the slightest hint of defensiveness. “So, which one is he?”

With a sigh, Heather said, “He’s the mechanic.”

Brenda’s eyes went wide. “You’re kidding, right? He’s not just a mechanic. He’s a mogul!”

“A mogul?” She shook her head. “He owns an auto shop.”

Her friend almost looked disappointed in her. “I know you’ve been really busy with your business lately, but you really should know more about one of the most famous families in San Francisco. Your new client owns a zillion auto shops. They’ve made him filthy, stinking rich.” Her friend was practically drooling. “Talk about an eligible bachelor.”

Well, it explained the big house in the pricey neighborhood, at least. Funny, though, even with all the money she now knew he had, he certainly hadn’t tried to woo her with it, the way her father had always worked to buy her and her mother’s love with lavish gifts and trips.

In fact, she found herself thinking, with a small smile she couldn’t contain, even if Zach didn’t have money, she was certain he’d be just as irritatingly sure of himself.

“Please sleep with him and tell me how it is.”

Heather had to smile. Only two people who’d known each other since college could say things like that to each other with a straight face.

“Sorry. I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

“But he wants to, doesn’t he? And don’t deny it, I can tell by the way you’ve been blushing this whole time that he’s more than just a client.”

Heather couldn’t lie to her best friend. “You’re right, I think he wants to. But I’ve already shut him down.”

“Why would you do that when you have the chance to sleep with a Sullivan?”

That one was easy. Because if keeping the walls up around her heart with Zach while they were fully clothed and training the dogs was hard...well, it would be downright impossible if she were naked and in his arms.

But all she said was, “It wouldn’t be a good idea.”

Heather could tell Brenda wanted to say something more, but she simply put her arm around her and said, “Let’s do this again soon, okay? Maybe make it a double date?”

Heather shook her head. “Ever the hopeful one, aren’t you?”

“For love,” her friend replied, “always.”

Chapter Nine

The next morning when Heather got to work, feeling cranky and tired, Tina was clearly excited about something. “A package came for you a few minutes ago.”

The sugar from last night’s slushie had given Heather a headache, which was exacerbated by the fact that every time she closed her eyes, she saw Zach and herself dressed in the period clothes from the movie acting out a scene where he pulled her into his arms and kissed her like he’d been waiting his whole life for her love.

She stopped at the threshold of her office when she saw the big red rectangular box sitting on her desk. Atlas immediately ran to it and started sniffing it, his tail wagging fast.

No one ever sent her gifts.

She had her hand over her pounding heart as she moved close enough to pick it up. Even though her assistant was clearly dying to know what it was, thankfully, Tina respected Heather’s privacy enough to give her some space.

She looked for a card, but there wasn’t anything but a huge red bow on the outside of the box. Slowly lifting the cover, she had to blink a couple of times to make sure she was seeing things right.

She couldn’t contain her smile as she lifted the huge dog bone from the soft velvet fabric it had been sitting in.

“Looks like you have a secret admirer,” she told Atlas as he sat like the very good dog he was and looked longingly at the bone. She held it out to him and he gently took it from her before trotting to his pillow bed in the corner.

That was when she saw the small card almost buried beneath the thick red velvet.

Atlas,

I missed you yesterday. Training wasn’t the same without you to play with afterward. I hope I’ll see you tonight.

Your friend,

Cuddles

Heather’s heart turned over in her chest as she carefully put the note back inside the box. She felt funny, right in the region of her chest. Her eyes felt strange too, like they had something in them.

“You just got your first love note, Atlas,” she said in a voice made raw with unwanted emotion.

Her dog’s ears perked up at his name, but he was too focused on his bone to pay much attention to his owner.

Which was a very good thing, because right then Heather didn’t want anyone to look too carefully at her reaction to the gift.

Not even her dog.

* * *

Zach nearly smashed his phone a half-dozen times throughout the day. Everyone on the goddamned planet had called him.

Except for the one person he’d wanted to hear from.

He’d been so sure the dog bone would thaw Heather’s resistance to him, that she’d call him laughing at the note, picking up where they’d left off in the park when they were laughing together on the grass.

But nothing.

Not a goddamned thing.

Rather than keep her distance due to his foul mood, Cuddles had truly lived up to her name all day long. Every time he turned around, she was rubbing up against his leg or begging to be picked up. The guys at the garage had gotten so used to seeing him haul her around with him that they’d pretty much stopped making sarcastic comments.

The puppy burrowed onto his lap as he drove over to Top Dog and he was surprised to realize he didn’t hate having a warm bundle of fur attached to him as much as he thought he would. For a couple of weeks, he supposed it wouldn’t be so bad having the furball around.

When they turned the corner and Cuddles saw Heather’s building, she stood up and pawed excitedly at the window. “Don’t worry,” he told her in a grim voice filled with purpose, “we won’t leave until you’ve had some quality time with your friend tonight.”

If Heather tried to hide from his 5 p.m. training session with a meeting or some other lame excuse, he was going to wait her out and force her to face the attraction simmering between them, no matter how long it took or what she was in the middle of.

Damn it, he wanted her. And he knew she wanted him, too. Not acting on their mutual desire was just plain stupid.

He headed straight for Heather’s office and when she looked up and saw him, he could have sworn her eyes flashed with a mixture of happiness and attraction.

Of course, she didn’t act on either of those. Instead, she pointedly looked at Cuddles in his arms and said, “She has legs, you know.”

He held the puppy closer to his chest as he walked into Heather’s office. “She likes it up here.”

Heather muttered something he couldn’t quite make out, but he didn’t need to hear it to know it wasn’t flattering. Atlas nearly tackled him to get to the puppy. Cuddles leapt out of his arms and practically landed on the Great Dane’s back.

Heather watched the two dogs tangle with one another in horror. “Please don’t tell anyone you just saw my dog do that.”

“What will you trade me for my silence?”

Because he’d sure like that kiss sooner rather than later. It was making him cranky, all this waiting. Especially when he wasn’t used to waiting for a woman.

Hell, he’d never waited for anything in his life before Heather.

She pinned him with a look that told him he wasn’t going to corner her into a kiss that easily. “I’m here tonight to work with you and Cuddles, aren’t I?”

“What changed your mind?”

She looked surprised by his question. Frankly, he was a little surprised himself.

Zach wasn’t one to spend a lot of time trying to figure women out. Apart from his sisters, who he could barely make heads or tails of, and his mother, he hadn’t had any long-running relationships with women. He hadn’t wanted one.

And even though he still never planned on making vows, or sticking a ring on someone, he wanted to know her answer anyway.

In lieu of answering, she looked over at the dogs. When he followed her gaze, he saw that Atlas and Cuddles were playing a hilariously off-balance game of tug-of-war with a rope. Atlas was patiently holding the wet, frayed rope in his mouth and Cuddles was losing her furry mind trying to shred it. Suddenly, the big dog tugged on the rope and the puppy went sprawling in a slobbery heap on the floor.