Unprotected: A Secret Baby

Maggie. A sweet name. I bet she tasted sweet too.

The elevator dinged on my floor and Bowzer stood up with a sharp bark. More doggie slobber flew everywhere. Gross. These pants were going to have to be dry cleaned stat.

“Yep, we’re here,” I grunted. They better deliver his stuff pretty quick. I didn’t want this dog to chew on my furniture, or any other shit for that matter.

Because Bowzer is seriously the worst dog ever. He snarls at babies. He likes to kill squirrels and birds. I know it’s doggy instinct, but still. It’s not like he eats them afterwards for nutrition. Instead, Bowzer drags the dying animal in his mouth, only to spit it out on my living room rug.

Fucking disgusting.

I get it. This is what dogs do. But still, fucking gross.

I wanted him out.

But he’s my sister’s baby, and there’s literally nowhere else for him to go right now. Janine trusted me, so I had to do my best to make sure he didn’t drop dead while she was hitching rides across Europe and not taking showers for days at a time.

“Come on, boy,” I said, resigned.

Why did Janine need such a big dog anyway? He would crush her while they played. And Janine doesn’t exactly live in a palatial space. Instead, she’s slumming it with three roommates in a loft downtown somewhere. I understand her bed is a mess of blankets on the floor, crowded between the bathroom and living room. Where did Bowzer fit in that tiny space?

Well, it wasn’t my problem. I dragged the dog version of King Kong into my penthouse apartment and slammed the door shut behind us.

Pausing, I took a deep breath. I bet gorgeous Maggie could get him to walk properly. Hell, she’d probably have him doing the waltz after five minutes, twirling merrily in a tutu.

Imagine the things she could have me doing.

Okay. Not the time.

Seriously though, that girl… damn. She was gorgeous. Sexy. Her face was made to be kissed and that body. Shit. She riled up the beast in my pants in about two seconds flat. The brunette had a special touch when it came to animals, Bowzer’s infatuation immediately apparent.

“Right boy?” I turned to the pit bull. “You loved that girl didn’t you?”

But he walked off to sniff the apartment. Tail wagging. Still drooling. Gross.

Ding dong! Finally. That better be the stuff I got from the pet store.

I opened the door and a kid no older than fifteen stared at me in the doorway, arms filled with packages. Bug eyes gawped, biceps straining around the bag of dog food, the doggie bed, and countless plastic totes filled with all sorts of shit. I took pity on the kid and grabbed it all from him before tipping him a fifty.

“Thanks, kid.”

His face lit up like it was Christmas. “Nice!” The boy trotted off down the hall.

Once he was gone, I set up Bowzer’s stuff around the apartment before taking a picture of it all and sending it to my sister with a text.

In case you want to know I didn’t sell your dog to the butcher. – E.

Janine would probably get it in a few days, hooked up to the free Wi-Fi at some hostel in Budapest or Madrid.

Meanwhile, I left the dog to drool all over my place in peace. Changing into sweats and a T-shirt, my big form headed to the kitchen to scrounge up some food. Oh good. Chef Davis made some good stuff, leaving it labeled and packaged in the fridge. I heaved my massive build down to sit at the kitchen table with some chicken cacciatore, barely paying attention to the food as my mind drifted back to that girl.

Maggie.

Yeah, her name tag said that much, but who was she really? The brunette calmed down my dog and rushed to save a kid like she didn’t even care about herself. So caring. So innocent. What a do-gooder.

One thing was for sure though. The female was hot. Stunningly beautiful. Because I’d had a hard day at work, only to come home to Bowzer being his usual annoying self. But after hearing the girl’s sweet voice, all I wanted to do was put my head in her lap like an obedient pet.

Hell, my dad could use calming down like that. Charles is a pit bull type of human. Worse than Bowzer, always barking at people and threatening them with one thing or another. Except in his case, his bark was just as bad as his bite.

Because my dad founded Lincoln Conglomerate way back when. We’ve done amazing in the last couple years, our valuation at over a billion now. But still, Charles runs this place like it’s a one man shop. He’s bossy, surly, and annoyingly controlling. Even with me as President, Charles still has to look over my shoulder every second, making sure things get done the way he likes it.