Page 37 of Puppy Love

Sophie, never adept at lying—or anatomy—twisted and began a series of leg stretches that had more to do with showing off her body than physical exertion. With one hip jutting to the side, she lifted her arms above her head and stretched as far in the opposite direction as she could go.

Harrison watched her—not as a man being wooed by a sex goddess, but as a highly skilled firefighter trained in first aid.

“Uh, I hate to break it to you, but that’s not going to help your hamstring.”

Sophie dropped her arms, disappointment rendering her movements jerkier than usual. Practical advice wasnotthe response she was going for here. “Maybe it was my deltoids?”

He released a sound halfway between a grunt and a laugh. “They’re not anywhere near your legs. Why don’t you just point to where it’s feeling tight?”

It was too late to back out now, so she turned to the side and ran a hand along the outer edge of her right thigh. Not only was it the location of the largest sheer panel on her running tights, but it was one of her favorite body parts. She might not have Lila’s tiny waist or Dawn’s great rack, but the one thing her smaller, boyish figure had going for it was a good butt.

Harrison noticed.

“Maybe we should just head back—” he began before he stopped jogging altogether.

Emboldened by his inactivity and the fact that his eyes hadn’t moved from her backside, she said, “But we’re making such good progress, Harrison. I hate to abandon everything now.”

He blinked and took a wide step back, suddenly recognizing her tactics for what they were.

“Oh no you don’t. Not now. Not like this. That’s cheating.”

A laugh bubbled to the surface. Sophie had no idea how a man could manage to look both outraged and intrigued, but that was the only way to explain Harrison’s expression right now. “How is it cheating?”

He pointed in the general direction of her ass. “Because you’re wearing.… Because you look…”

She nodded, hoping to encourage him along these promising lines. “You never said there were rules about what I could wear or how I could look. Maybe we’d better write some of them down.”

“Like hell I will. I’m not committing any of this to paper.”

Her laughter sprang free. “Are you changing your mind about this whole thing? All you have to do is say the word, Harrison, and we can get back to running. Word of a Vasquez.”

He didn’t take her up on the offer. He pointed a finger at her instead, his voice showing signs of strain. “I know what you’re trying to do. I can see right through you.”

Yes, well. That was the whole point of these pants, wasn’t it?

“And what’s that?” she asked. Her own voice was coming out none too strong. If he didn’t stop looking at her like that—like she was his tormentor, like she was hiseverything—she wouldn’t be able to speak at all. “What am I doing?”

He watched the movement of her tongue with agonizing intensity. “Tablecloths,” he said.

“Um.”

“Flowers.”

“What?”

“Bowls of goddamned fruit.”

“Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” she asked.

“No, Sophie,” he said, his voice tight. “I’m not feeling okay. I haven’t felt okay since I woke up in that hospital bed and found my entire life turned upside down.Again.”

It was the first time he’d willingly referred to the coma that had kick-started this entire puppy project. In fact, it was the first time he’d willingly admitted that he was in anything but perfect fighting condition—that he, like everyone else on this planet, needed a little help from time to time.

It just about broke her heart.

Sophie knew better than anyone how it felt to wake up to an uncertain world, to feel like the one thing everyone took for granted—their health—was so far out of reach it might as well be the moon. She also knew the surefire way to combat it. After all, she’d learned from the best.

What this man needed more than anything else was a pair of bickering sisters. Companionship.Laughter.