Curly (Hell's Handlers MC Florida Chapter 1)

Ray whined again.

“Seriously, buddy, chill. Don’t you know us girls like a little bit of chase? You can’t seem too eager, or she’s gonna get bored with you.”

Another whine.

She laughed as she shook the food bin to even out the kibble. “All right, all right. Geez, can’t imagine what you’d be like if you actually had your balls.”

“I imagine he’d be a whole lot happier.”

Brooke yelped and spun around to find a man standing in the open door with a bag of dog food under each arm as though they weighed five pounds instead of fifty. Ray sat at his feet whining, not in distress or because an intruder threatened her space, but because the man didn’t have a free hand to pet him.

“Us guys tend to appreciate our balls.”

“Uh, what?” Her face heated to molten hot. She could do nothing but stare at the round bulge of the man’s tanned biceps as he stood just ten feet away. A vein ran down the left one while the right had a tattoo ringing it. Some sort of saying she couldn’t make out from her distance.

“Where do you want these?”

“Huh?” She blinked. Had he asked something?

“You want this dog food over by you? I can just drop them here if you want.”

Her gaze finally went to his face—more specifically his mouth, and she sucked in a breath. Those lips. Holy crap, those lips were smooth and surrounded by a light layer of dark gray, near black stubble. Then there were his eyes, a deep mesmerizing blue. Atop his head was a mop of curly hair.

Oh, my God, that hair. People would kill for that kind of thick, natural curl.

She had a flash of sinking her fingers through those coils and yanking his head from one of her breasts to the other. He’d open his mouth wide and suck—

He cleared his throat.

The tips of her ears burned. “Oh, God. I’m sorry. Yes. Please set them over here.” She stepped to the side. Too bad she couldn’t become invisible. Then she could hide from the man who’d turned her stupid, and he wouldn’t have to see the humiliation turn her face into a tomato.

Also, she could keep staring and drooling over the sexiest man she’d seen in years, if ever, without his knowledge.

Geez. She ran a hand over her hair, wincing as she discovered much of it had fallen free of the messy bun she’d shoved it in earlier. Here she was talking to a man who was hot enough to melt iron, and she was a hot, sweaty mess.

Oh, my God. What the hell was wrong with her this morning? In the five years since her divorce, she’d never looked at a man with more than a stray thought of, huh, not bad. Her libido picked a helluva time to wake up and join the party.

The man’s perfect lips quirked as he strode toward her, still carrying those bags as though they were full of feathers. “Here?” he asked when he was so close, she had to step back to avoid bumping him.

“Yeah, that’s perfect.”

Don’t smell him. Don’t smell him.

She inhaled as he bent down to release one of the bags.

Her eyes nearly rolled back in her head as his clean, fresh, outdoorsy mixed with a bit of leather scent hit her.

“Are you Brooke?” he asked in a rough voice after setting the sacks down next to the food bin.

She’d have slapped herself to get with the program if it wouldn’t have made her look even stupider. Clearing her throat, she nodded. “I am yes. Did we have an appointment?” Trying to remember what she’d written in her planner would be pointless, seeing how her brain had left the building.

“Nah, we didn’t. Sorry to show up unannounced. I stopped by the pet store in town yesterday, and someone mentioned you were the person to see about getting a dog.”

Ray trotted over then plopped his fuzzy rump right down at the stranger’s feet. The traitor. So much for being a fearsome guard dog.

The man crouched down, stroking his large hand over her dog’s head. “Well, aren’t you a handsome boy,” he crooned to Ray, and Brooke nearly melted in a puddle as that raspy voice seduced her dog. Ray’s tongue lolled out, and he rolled to his back, presenting his belly like the attention whore he was.

In Ray’s defense, there probably wasn’t a creature out there, male or female immune to this man.

“I’ve got a few fosters right now who are ready to adopt and lots of connections with shelters in the area if I don’t have what you’re looking for.”

He glanced up at her from his low squat next to Ray. “Pretty sure you have everything I’m looking for.”

If she didn’t know, better, she’d have sworn he meant her and not a dog.