Chapter 5 #3
“I was worried this might happen.” Piper looked down at herself. The front of her tank top was clinging to her even more than
it had before. Her breasts were perfectly outlined. The thought of touching them raced through his head. “I’m not sure why
I bothered to shower,” she said.
Emilio wasn’t sure why he’d bothered to think he could handle this. Right now he was doing everything he could to ward off
a hard-on. He would have to start thinking about his grandmother. Something to stem the tide in his body.
Up to his chest in water, Gus looked at Emilio like he had zero regrets.
“Sorry about that,” Emilio said to Piper.
“It’s okay. Part of the process.” She grabbed a towel and dabbed at herself, then soaked up the water on the floor and kneeled
again. Emilio reluctantly rejoined her. “Take the cup I brought and start scooping water to get him wet. I’ll watch his eyes.
That’s the most important part. We don’t want to get any water or soap in his eyes. And not in his ears, either. Or his mouth.”
“There’s a lot to remember.”
“It’s like bathing a baby.”
“I haven’t bathed any babies, either.”
“How do you own a dog and don’t know how to bathe him?”
Emilio hesitated, not sure he wanted to give the real answer. Unfortunately, he wasn’t good at creating fiction. “My girlfriend
did this. My ex-girlfriend. I mean, she took him to the groomer. I can’t imagine her bathing him. She wasn’t very hands-on
with Gus.” He didn’t begrudge Victoria her pampered and privileged upbringing as the daughter of a former Formula One champion,
but it had been her idea to adopt a dog together and it was only after they got Gus that she announced she only planned to
participate when it suited her. “Unless she was posting about him on social media. Then she paid him lots of attention.”
Piper pointed to a small plastic bottle. “Hand me the dog shampoo.”
“Where did you find this?” Emilio examined the bottle before handing it over.
“I brought it with me. In my dog care case.”
“You’re prepared.”
“It’s my profession. You wouldn’t show up to the track unprepared.”
“True.”
Piper gently massaged the shampoo into Gus’s fur. Emilio could’ve sworn he saw Gus’s eyes roll up into the back of his head.
And Emilio could imagine that Piper’s hands probably felt amazing. Emilio was pretty damn jealous of Gus at the moment.
“Ah, yes. Victoria,” she said.
There was the curse of having an F1 fan in his employ—she knew about his personal life. “Yes. Victoria.”
“I’d always assumed Gus was her dog, judging by how much he was all over her social feeds when he was a puppy.”
“We adopted him together, but Gus and I were buddies from day one.”
She slowly rinsed the suds off Gus. “It must’ve been hard for Victoria to say goodbye to this guy.”
“Honestly? She just left.”
“Huh.” Piper shook her head. “I can’t even imagine that. I’m going to be a wreck when it’s time to say goodbye. But that’s
just how I am. I get attached. To everything and everybody.” She leaned forward and gave Gus a kiss on his nose, then turned
to Emilio. “I’m sorry about your breakup. I know it’s hard. I went through a bad one about a year and a half ago.”
Emilio remembered the broken engagement that came up during her conversation with her dad in the car. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“We need to clean Gus’s paws.” She raised one of his front legs. “Just gently get in between the pads on his feet to make
sure there’s no dirt or debris stuck in there.”
She demonstrated, but he wondered if she was avoiding the subject. He would if he were in her shoes. Emilio had always been
a private person. Growing up as a quiet and studious only child to two parents with big personalities had made him that way.
So he hesitated to contribute to this part of the conversation, but Piper had such a kind demeanor. She made him want to know
more about her. “If you don’t want to tell me what happened, you don’t have to.”
She blew out a breath and moved on to Gus’s other front leg. “I don’t mind. It’s pretty simple, really. I met a guy, we fell
in love, we got engaged and then his ex moved back to town while we were in the middle of planning our wedding. Next thing
I know, he’s telling me he was still in love—” Piper’s voice cut off unexpectedly. Funny, but she’d had no problem telling
the story and then, bam, she faltered. “I’m sorry. You don’t want to hear this. We barely know each other.”
He never got wrapped up in other people’s lives, but he could hear the raw emotion in her voice and it reached right into
the center of his chest, grabbed and twisted, until he felt helpless. “It’s okay. And I am sorry. I don’t know this person,
obviously, but he sounds like a real ass.”
Piper laughed quietly and gestured at Gus with a nod of her head. “You can do his back legs now.”
Emilio did as instructed. “I think we’re good.”
“One more rinse and we’ll get him dried off.”
“Okay.” They got him out of the tub much more easily than they got him into it, and once they’d toweled him dry, Emilio watched
as Piper took a dry washcloth to Gus’s ears and face.
“You’re such a handsome boy.” She smiled and gave him another kiss on his nose.
Gus had nothing but pure adoration in his eyes. I get it, buddy. Simply being around Piper for a short time let you know what a big heart she had. You could feel it. She’d only been there a week and despite his best intentions, he was getting sucked in. And now they were about to go
to Italy together, where they would have very little privacy, close proximity and some serious stretches of downtime together.
“I suppose we should talk about traveling to Imola.”