“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?”