“Have a good night, Mr. Corbett,” says the porter, barely looking back.
Rowan sighs and shakes his head. “Good help is so hard to find. But I’m about as blessed as a man can be, in the way of money, I mean. I’ll take what I can get.” I wipe tears away from my eyes from laughing so hard, and there’s a thudding and thumping directly up the stairs.
“Is there someone else here? What the—” Before I can finish my thought, a black and white flash starts down the stairs. My heart starts beating fast, but before I can leap to my feet, there’s a cold nose against my arm, followed by a few tentative licks of a warm tongue.
“Damn that porter. He must have gotten that dog stirred up when he was up there. Normally she just lies around and sleeps all day.” Rowan steps up to us and takes the dog’s collar, but she pulls against him, sniffing my arm and pressing her nose against my jeans. It looks like she’s a pit bull, her body adorned with black and white spots, her head and muscular body absolutely enormous. I freeze for a second and let her sniff me. “Eliza—you go on now—don’t bother Cadence.”
“Eliza?” The dog pulls against Rowan again, the stump of her tail wagging wildly back and forth. She presses her nose against my face and licks me once and then again.
“Yes, this is Eliza Doolittle—”
“Like My Fair Lady?” I laugh, and the black and white dog licks my face in glee, maybe from hearing her name. “Nice to meet you, I guess.” I look to Rowan.
Rowan pulls her away, and the dog looks up at him like he’s completely betrayed her. “She’s a rescue. She needed a little book-learnin’ before she could be in polite company. She’s not making a good show of it right now. But she was scared of her own shadow. She was abused, and now she’s just crazy about people.” Eliza keeps wiggling and whines like she’s about to lose her mind.
“It’s okay. I like dogs. I’m just not real used to big ones like this—”
“She won’t hurt a flea. And once we get the guest house running again, you won’t have to worry about her.”
“Seriously, it’s fine. You can let her greet me. She seems pretty well-behaved. Besides the licking.” Rowan gives me a doubtful look, but he guides Eliza Doolittle over to me again and lets her go. Her rump wiggles uncontrollably, and she puts her big white head in my lap, her deep brown eyes looking up at mine. She whines once, and I put a tentative hand to her ear and rub it. Her short hair is silky and soft under my fingers. She leans hard into my hand, and I laugh.
“You got a friend for life, there. That’s the thing about dogs, especially rescues. They’re so grateful when you give them attention, and they’re loyal as hell.” I might be imagining it, but Rowan’s voice cracks a little when he says the last part of that sentence. I look at him, but I keep my mouth closed. I’m not one to pry in someone’s personal life, but it seems like Eliza Doolittle is the only other creature who lives in this house. She snorts and presses into my hand again, wagging her stump as hard as she can.
“You’re just a big sweetheart, aren’t you?” I look down at Eliza and stroke the black spot on top of her head. Her nose is spotted pink and brown. Even if she’s big as hell, she might be the sweetest-looking dog I’ve seen in a long time.
“Oh she is. She’ll sleep next to your bed all night if you let her.” He pauses, and the silence makes me remember how tired I am. “Speaking of which, I think we’d better get you upstairs. If I were organized at all, I’d have my secretary here getting you situated in your room, but I’ll just have to trust that everything is as clean as it’s supposed to be.”
“I’m not too hard to please.” The heat rises in my cheeks when I say the words because it makes me think of Rowan’s long, muscular body. No, it wouldn’t be too hard for him to please me. The heat rises even higher at that thought, and Rowan catches my gaze. It looks like there’s a spark there too, but I know I must be imagining it. This shit doesn’t happen. The whole boy meets girl thing, the meet cute with me nearly falling down the stairs.
This isn’t real life, is it?
“Then you might like the blue guest suite. It’s my favorite one. It’s at the end of the hall, opposite end from where I sleep. So... nothing improper about that, right?” I laugh nervously, and he offers his hand, helping me up from the step. When his strong, weathered hand touches mine, a jolt of sweet, delicious heat travels through my body, pooling between my legs. Scared of what it means, I pull my hand away nonchalantly and follow him up the stairs. Eliza walks between us, her tail stump wagging the whole time. Rowan leads me down the hall, over more soft, thick oriental rugs, all in blues and reds. It’s dark, so I can’t really tell what the paintings on the walls look like, but I can feel how expensive they are. For the first time, I wonder how he picked me, and why in the hell he did. Walking behind him makes me feel hyperaware of my body, every brush of my skin against my clothing.