Sexy/Dangerous Read Free Page A

dog. It was a big rottweiler, and the sight of it standing in the open doorway where nothing had stood seconds ago rattled him so badly he almost fell off his stool. Wondering how the animal had gotten in and where it had come from took a backseat to getting the hell away from it. His heart was pounding, he was sweating, and his basic instinct was to run, but he knew better. “Go!” he yelled at it. “Get out of here!”
    The big dog raised its head and barked. Adam frantically scanned the paper-strewn office for something to throw or to threaten the canine with, then just as quickly changed his mind. Agitating the animal might provoke an attack.
    Then, suddenly, another rottweiler appeared in the doorway, and beside it stood a tall woman with skin the color of old gold in the sunshine. She was wearing jeans. The thin straps of her low-cut, green tank top showed off bare arms that were sleek and toned. Dark glasses shaded her eyes, and the permed hair showing beneath the black Stetson was short, brown, and softly spiked. Adam was six-foot-three, and she was tall enough to look him in the eyes.
    “Good job, Ossie,” she was saying to the dog, giving it a fond pat. Her soft voice was sweetened by a faint southern twang. Only after thanking the dog did she turn her attention to him. “I’m Max Blake. This is Ossie and Ruby.”
    Before the shocked Adam could recover from that bombshell, Kaitlin marched in, saying, “I told her you were working, and I told her you don’t do dogs.”
    Adam was still trying to make sense out of this. Max Blake? My security expert? Not wanting Kaitlin to know that he didn’t have a clue as to what was going on, hesaid to her, “I’ve been expecting her.” It was a lie, of course. He’d not been expecting a woman, and he certainly hadn’t been expecting dogs! He looked her up and down. Chandler’s people were supposed to be sending him a security expert, not a woman in a cowboy hat! “Get those dogs out of here,” he growled.
    “They’re clean.”
    “I don’t care.”
    Though Max hid her irritation behind her shades, she didn’t like his attitude or his tone. The angry looks he kept shooting at Ossie and Ruby made her wonder if there was more going on here than just a fear of dog germs. She held off on quizzing him, though. Instead she turned to Kaitlin and asked, “Can you walk them back out to my car, please? The doctor and I need to talk.” Max met his eyes and noted that his held not an ounce of welcome.
    Max’s request had obviously offended Kaitlin, who drawled, “Adam, tell her that I am not a dog walker.”
    “Just go, Kaitlin, so she and I can talk.”
    She huffed in response and crossed her arms.
    Max knelt next to the dogs and said, “Kaitlin’s going to take you guys back outside, so be nice to her, and I’ll see you in a bit.”
    The dogs looked up at Kaitlin with such expectant faces she seemed caught off guard for a moment. Then, with her young pretty face set tight with anger, she turned on her heels and stomped off. The dogs padded along silently in her wake.
    Once she was gone, Adam said to Max, “Nobody told me you were a woman.”
    Hoping to lighten the tension, she tossed back,“You were expecting maybe mouse and squirrel?”
    His stony face said he didn’t care that she had jokes. “Why wasn’t I told?” he asked pointedly.
    Tough crowd, she said to herself. “Because it didn’t matter.” Max took a casual look around the small wood-paneled space. Judging from the racks cut into the walls, it must have served as a wine cellar once upon a time. The space was below ground, and the bright bare bulbs strung across the ceiling for lighting made it feel like a cave. There were a couple of computer monitors, a few tables and chairs, and against one wall sat an old tan couch. Every flat surface was covered with stacks of papers and leaning piles of books.
    “And the dogs?” he asked bluntly.
    She turned back to him and the matter at hand. “What