Page 43 of Puppy Christmas

Chapter 10

“I had the pleasure of my first kiss underneath these very bleachers.”

Ford shifted the long, coconut-scented strand of Lila’s hair from one hand to the other, making sure he twisted this time before he wove it underneath the braid.

“Of course, calling it a pleasure might be a bit of a stretch. Lord knows I enjoyed myself, but poor Katie Barnes probably tells a different story. See, I thought you were supposed to dart your tongue in and out, like a turtle poking his head out of his shell.” He sighed and worked down another row of Lila’s hair. How one person could have such shiny, unbroken strands was beyond him. It was like running his fingers through a waterfall. “Come to think of it, I used to think that was how you were supposed to do a lot of things where the fairer sex was concerned. It’s probably Tallulah Grey who deserves myrealapology.”

Lila held herself motionless, her torso barely moving—even to breathe. She’d done this the last time he braided her hair, too, only relaxing whenever he happened to touch the soft patch of skin behind her right ear.

“Tallulah Grey,” he added helpfully, “was the girl who gave me the pleasure of my first—”

“I can guess the rest, thank you,” Lila said primly. Then, with a note of suspicion in her voice, “Doesn’t this school only go up to the fifth grade?”

“Yes.”

She paused. “Don’t kids go to fifth grade when they’re ten years old?”

“Ten or eleven, thereabouts,” he confirmed. “But I was a grade ahead, so I must have been about nine.”

For the first time since they’d seated themselves near the middle of the bleachers, Lila twisted to peer up at him. All of her hair slid out of his grip as she did, the ten minutes of painstaking braiding gone in a flash.

Ford didn’t mind. He liked the way she looked like this, her long, dark hair breaking softly over her shoulders and curling enticingly around the mounds of her breasts. Her sequin-covered pink tank top was already distracting when viewed head-on, and this additional bit of elevation was nothing short of dazzling. She obviously had no idea just how much cleavage he could see from his position one bench above her.

He wasn’t about to enlighten her, though. She’d never let him keep braiding her hair if he did, and he was so close to finally figuring out that last damn twist.

“You had your first kiss at age nine?” she demanded. And then, instead of reprimanding him as he expected, “How old was poor Katie Barnes?”

“Oh, twelve, at the very least,” he said, delighted to find that Lila wasn’t following the script. He was rapidly coming to learn that she almost never did. “She didn’t go here. She was the principal’s daughter. I’ve always aimed for women who are out of my league.”

Lila’s only response to this was a slight narrowing of her eyes and a harrumph as she sat back in place. For braiding ease, he had his legs parted enough to allow her to settle between them. She wasn’tleaningon him, per se, but the space between his legs and her back was so close he could feel the heat emanating off her.

Andsense the gentle in-and-out movements of her breath.

Andsmell the delicate scent of her peach soap, which mixed with her coconut hair to make him dream of exotic cocktails on a beach somewhere.

He’d long ago forgotten all the details of that kiss under the bleachers with Katie, but he felt sure that if he repeated the performance right now with Lila Vasquez, he’d carry the memory of it to his grave. He wouldn’t bother with any of that in-and-out business, either. A kiss with a woman like this would require every ounce of finesse he had.

He blamed the thought of her mouth opening under his for the way he swept her hair up off her neck, allowing his fingers to graze that magical spot behind her ear. Although she didn’t go so far as to purr, she did release a low, throaty sound that he doubted she was aware of. She also arched just enough to grant him better access.

Taking shameful advantage of that, too, he grazed his thumb across the delicately throbbing pulse on the side of her neck. She relaxed a fraction, her shoulders down and her breath coming easily, before he set to work on the braid again.

“I’ll get it this time, I swear,” he said, his voice only slightly strained. Although Lila was losing some of her stiffness, his own, er, stiffness, was only increasing the longer they sat here. He could hardly be blamed for it. It was these damnable bleachers and all those memories of his burgeoning sexuality.

And her.There was no denying that part. He’d spent many a long hour in these seats with dozens of single, attractive school moms and felt no more than the mildest stirrings of interest.

Since it seemed prudent to keep the conversation going or risk burying his face in Lila’s hair and inhaling like a psychopath, he added, “They must be finishing up the tour soon.”

Lila, sharing none of his weird and inappropriate sexual longings, glanced casually at her watch. “They have another half hour before school starts, so we’re fine on time. It was great of your principal to take the pair of them around so early in the day. Jeeves will feel much more at home if he gets to sniff it all out before there are hordes of kids clamoring around.”

It was on the tip of Ford’s tongue to argue. What was great about this scenario wasn’t that the school administrators were willing to accommodate his daughter—they’d been doing that since the day she’d started at this school, going above and beyond to ensure her success. What floored him was the fact that Emily had accepted the mantle of responsibility Lila had thrust upon her shoulders with no more than a blink.

“School is where you spend most of your time, so it’s very important that Jeeves feels comfortable here,” Lila had said, once again crouched at Emily’s level, once again speaking to her as though Emily was a miniature adult able to tackle the problems of the world. “It’s also important that he learns to take his orders from you and not me. Do you remember them all?”

Emily had.Sitandstay.Comeandheel.Dropandgood boy.

It had been on the tip of Ford’s tongue to tell Lila that he, too, needed the occasionalgood boyto keep his spirits up, but he hadn’t dared while Principal Brown had been standing there. Lila intrigued him, but Principal Brown was much more likely to inspire feelings of terror. The woman was a sixty-year-old former drill sergeant who wasn’t afraid to tell parents exactly how horrific their precious darlings acted when freed from the parental yoke. He was sure she’d be equally up to the task of telling him she’d never seen a man make such a fool of himself before.

He didn’t need to be told that. Heknew. But he’d been playing the role for so long, he’d forgotten how else to act.