Chapter Seven #2
“Okay, that sounds like a good start to bedtime routines.” He drew in a breath as I opened the laundry room door.
Lady trotted around, wagging her tail, licking my face when I bent over to get her bed from the floor.
She followed me closely as we went back to my room.
“She seemed to rest well in the pen here, so perhaps she’s not used to being inside, and that’s causing stress.
Also, she’s had a busy week. Did you bring her home to a quiet house? ”
“Well, the homecoming was kind of…Bastian.” That made him laugh.
I liked it when he did that. “Everyone was on the porch. There was a banner. Granny made dog treats. Dahn had to be told to leave her be a dozen times, and she was really good with him being a nuisance, but I did keep the muzzle on as you suggested but saw no signs of any aggressive behavior or posturing.”
“She could just be overstimulated.” I tossed the dog cushion onto the floor and crawled back under the covers.
My head just touched the pillow, phone to my ear, when a black nose appeared over the top of the mattress.
Moonlight shone in on her red head, brown eyes finding mine as her eyebrows twitched.
I patted the bed. Up she came, no sign of discomfort in her nicely healing backside.
Soon the cone could come off—after the stitches came out in five to nine days—and she’d be ready to learn how to be a ranch dog.
I hoped. I really hoped so hard. If someone claimed her, I might lie down and die.
I wasn’t sure I could lose much more in my life.
Lady lay down beside me, her butt in my face, nose facing the door as if on watch duty.
She heaved a mighty sigh and fell silent.
“The thing with allowing a puppy or dog to get into your bed is that once you establish that behavior, it’s harder to break. ”
“I think it’s too late.” I turned the phone to snap a picture and sent it to him in our messaging app. A second later, I heard him snickering.
“Ah, well, you probably have a forever bed partner now,” he said.
“That’s okay. It’s been a long time since I shared a bed with someone.”
“Were they ginger like the dog?”
That stalled me for a second. “I…no, they weren’t ginger. They were brunette.”
“My last hookup was blond. I like blonds. With blue eyes and exceptionally large…hearts.”
I barked out a laugh. “I thought you were going to say large cocks.”
“Those are never frowned upon.”
No, no, they weren’t. But medium-sized normal dicks were nice too. My mind began to wonder about Aiden’s cock. Was it cut or uncut? Big? Short? Fat? Thin?
“Ford?”
“Sorry, I was thinking about…things.”
“Like bed partners?”
“Sort of.” That was a terribly tempting thought, so I leaped into something that would cause less brain itches and cock plumping. I was not going to beat off with the dog in the bed beside me. No way. What would Lady think of me if she saw that? “Thanks for talking me through that.”
“To be honest, you pretty much sorted the problem out all by yourself. All I did was yawn in your ear and spout some goop about infant nervous systems, but any time. I gave you my personal number for a reason. I was kind of hoping you’d call for other reasons…”
Oh. No, we couldn’t round back to this again. Man, he was a flirt. Baker was right about that. The man knew how to sweet talk.
“I’m not sure what to say to that. We kissed. And I would like to kiss you again.”
“Okay, sounds good to me so far,” he said. Something in the background sounded like running water. “I’d like that as well. Shall we set up a date for more kissing?”
Lady wrootched around on the bed, pushing her feet into my side.
I moved over a few inches, but that was all I could give her on a twin bed.
I lay there, eyes closed, working over in my mind whether kissing Aiden more would be a good thing or a bad thing.
Mostly good. I was pretty sure of that, but there were things that could make it bad.
Bella and I had agreed on no entanglements with anyone we met.
“Do you consider kissing forming an entanglement?” I asked as I moved to my side to stare at the millions of stars in the dark southwestern sky.
My hand slid into Lady’s fur, my fingers moving gently over her too easily felt ribs.
We’d get her back to a good weight. That was a promise.
Stroking her was a way of self-calming. I’d read about the good effects of petting animals.
Right now, I need to settle a little. My pulse was rising just thinking about kissing Aiden.
“Wow, uhm, no, not really.” He exhaled softly as if sitting down.
Maybe back on the couch I’d slept on, that we’d kissed on.
Damn it. My dick was getting hard. Nope, none of that with the dog pressed close.
I wiggled my lower half until my cock was pressed into the mattress.
Lady never moved. She just snored lightly, her back legs twitching slightly.
“I don’t look at any kind of physical interaction as a form of entanglement.
People can have lots of sex and not get attached. ”
Right. Yes. He was a player. “Okay.”
“Is that all you wanted to ask? It feels like there’s something you want to discuss but are too nervous to bring up?”
“No.” My fingers continued to comb through her fur.
Fur that needed a bath, but that would have to wait until her stitches were out.
She didn’t smell bad, though. Not really.
Not like the beagle that used to live next door to us when I was a kid.
Now that dog was a real stinker. Mr. Crabtree was old and rarely washed old Ralph.
“Yes.” Aiden snickered softly. “Why don’t you have a dog or a cat? ”
“Oh. That was a quick lane change.”
“Sorry. My thoughts go fast at times. Mom always said it was because I had so many wonderful things to think about that they got tangled up in my head at times. Which was a motherly way of saying my ADHD brain was working overtime. Did your mom say things like that too?”
“No, my mom…” He breathed out a long, slow breath.
“To circle back to your first question, which will lead into your second, I did have a dog. A little cocker named Julius. He was my mother’s, but she was unable to care for him properly, so I took him.
He passed about eighteen months ago from old age. His heart just gave out one night.”
“Aw, I like that name. Julius. Sounds regal and Roman. Did you know Julius Ceaser was once kidnapped by pirates? It’s true. Then he returned and executed them at a later date. This was after he told them to raise his ransom.”
“I did not know that.”