Chapter Twelve #2
“Yes?” The question was so absurd, she’d answered it with one of her own unintentionally.
“Not only is it a reward for doing the right thing, it also teaches them to trust you. That you always make good on your promises. Your relationship with your dogs going forward is going to matter, especially if you want them to make an impact on your ranch business.”
She could tell this was all new information based on the set line of his jaw, or maybe he didn’t quite get the point. Fine, he could learn it for himself over the next week.
Meanwhile, Captain Barbossa was about to come out of his skin over the lack of a treat in his mouth. She threw him one, which he nearly swallowed whole, and then she turned back to the other person in the room who needed to be trained.
“Don’t believe me?” she challenged and crossed her arms. “Try it your way. Tell Captain Barbossa to do something. Anything. And let’s see which one of our methods works better.”
“That’s an unfair test.”
He crossed his arms in kind, but she doubted he’d done it to avoid another accidental meetup of their fingers the way she had.
It confused her when those moments cropped up.
Not because she didn’t know what they signified, but because she couldn’t figure out why a cowboy-in-the-making had struck her fancy so hard.
Other than the obvious reasons, of course.
But really, he wasn’t her type at all. There was no reason her heart should get flutters when he stared at her like…
well, the way he was looking at her now.
She had his full attention. Like there wasn’t anything in the world more interesting than her.
“Unfair? How so?” she shot back. “Because you already know that it won’t work? Huh, I wonder why? Maybe because I’m the one in this situation who knows what I’m doing?”
That piqued him plenty, if she had her guess. Which had been exactly her intent.
Scowling, he stepped around her and planted his feet in front of Captain Barbossa, who definitely didn’t have the same reaction to Zero’s full attention as Delilah did. The dog glared at his owner, probably because Zero had a similar expression on his face.
“Sit,” Zero commanded the dog, who looked like he might be laughing a little.
The dog did not sit. Shocking. Delilah bit back a smile at the disaster in the making but kept her mouth shut.
Zero set his jaw and pointed to the ground. “I said sit, Captain Barbossa.”
“Oh, man,” she crooned sarcastically. “I can’t believe the name check didn’t work.”
“This is ridiculous.” Zero dragged a hand through his thick brown hair, disturbing it further into a mess ripe for a woman to rearrange.
She clenched her fists at her sides, determined not to stretch even one finger in his direction, no matter how strong the siren call was. “Maybe you should try yelling at him. That works with people, right?”
Zero shifted his glare in her direction. “Are you having fun?”
Yeah, actually. She was. More than a bit unsettled by the realization, she forced a frown and tapped her chin.
“Hmm, let’s see. My moody and difficult boss has thoroughly interrupted my training session, the dog being trained is confused and a bit frustrated, and the boss has messy hair. What’s not to like?”
“What’s wrong with my hair?” He patted it with the flat of his hand as if that might imprint the issue on his flesh.
Caught out by her big mouth, she bit her lip before she blurted out something inadvisable, namely the reason she’d noticed—because she wanted to run her fingers through it. “You look like you just came from a cow pasture.”
The look he shot her could have stripped the hide off one of his cows with no effort. “Since that’s accurate, I guess I get a pass.”
That’s why this was fun. When she poked at him, he got so animated. Normally, he walked around like he had a responsibility stick up his butt, and as far as she knew, he went to bed with his rule book to keep him warm.
This version of Zero worked way better for her.
Which wasn’t the goal at all and she should reel it back before something really bad happened…
like giving into all the sparks shooting through the air between them.
She’d get so caught up she’d blurt out the real reason Captain Barbossa wasn’t doing what Zero said—because he wanted to be a lap dog like the others while his boy fed him enough treats to sink a barge.
Then she’d be out well before the end of the week.
“Fair enough,” she said and waved off the hair issue. “But you don’t get a pass on how you work with Captain Barbossa. He’s used to getting treats, and that’s all he’s going to respond to.”
Zero, who’d obviously grown self-conscious about his hair, ran his hand over it again. “So what are you saying? I have to carry around a bunch of dog food in my pocket to get him to help herd cattle into the right pasture?”
“Yep,” she responded instantly, despite having no clue if that would actually work or not.
It was worth a try, just to see how that played out, which come to think of it, probably should have been her plan all along.
“There’s no difference in the psychology.
You want him to do something, tell him to do it, and then give him a reward. Simple.”
All at once, Zero’s attention lasered in on her again. She swallowed as he contemplated her, his expression unreadable but very, very focused. And maybe darkening by the second.
“Does that work on humans, too?” he asked, and something happened, something intangible she couldn’t put her finger on, but it felt precarious, as if she’d climbed up to the highest peak of the roof and peeked over the edge to discover how very far away the ground was.
“I’m sure it does,” she got out and resisted the urge to back up. “Maybe you could experiment with Tag?”
Zero cocked his head, the only movement he’d made, but it felt like he’d crowded her, taking up all her personal space. “I’m more interested in experimenting with you. For example, if I tell you to stop thinking of me as your boss and then reward you, would that work?”
Um…her brain literally shuddered to a halt as she searched his face, desperate to put some context around the lightning-fast shift in subjects. Especially this one. He remained maddeningly indecipherable. She licked her lips.
Say something. “It might depend on the reward. I’m not a fan of dog treats.”
Zero laughed, and the sound curled up inside her. Greedily, she soaked it up, hoarding the warmth for herself, thrilled she’d elicited such a delicious response from him.
“We’ll see what we can come up with,” he murmured, and then he did move, shrinking the void until they were no more than a hair apart.
“You, um, can’t stand there,” she said hoarsely as she scrambled to remember English. He smelled so good she wanted to bury her nose in his shirt, a reaction she actually had to fight to resist.
“Why not?”
“Because I can’t think when you do.” Oh, goody. Nothing like cluing in a man that he had you dazzled.
He tipped her chin up with his thumb, elongating the moment until it became so suspended in time her lungs forgot to function.
“I’d apologize, but I did it on purpose,” he said so silkily it took her a moment to realize he hadn’t been about to kiss her. “It’s not so fun when someone pushes your buttons, is it?”
Her smile seemed to confuse him. Good. Zero Renshaw wanted to play, did he? He’d poked the wrong dog trainer. Erm, art history doctoral candidate. And this one would give as good as she got for the next six days.