Page 84 of Men or Paws

Rocco stood there in the flesh, the water up to his waist.

A lot of flesh, actually.

I did my best to maintain eye contact. “Hey.”

“Hey,” he said.

I blinked a couple of times. “What are you doing here?”

“The last time I checked, I lived here,” Rocco said.

“Very funny. I wasn’t expecting you for another five hours. You surprised me.”

“Good surprise or bad surprise?”

No more pretending.

I moved closer to him in the shallow end, the top of my body slowly coming out of the water to expose my black bikini top, then my stomach. “Good surprise.”

Rocco quirked an eyebrow, his lips parting slightly, his roguish grin getting wider. “Well, now you’re the one who’s surprising me at the moment.” His gaze dropped to my breasts for a brief second, then continued down to my belly button before returning to my eyes. “I like your bikini.”

“Thanks.” I smiled, even though I wanted to laugh.

He was using that bikini line as an excuse to take a peek at my body, I was sure of it. Normally, I would’ve told him to behave, or something a little stronger, but not this time. Letting him enjoy my body with his eyes was one of the most invigorating things I had ever done. I loved the way he looked at me. And fair was fair, I stared at his body with what I hoped was equal anticipation.

Houdini paced back and forth near the edge of the pool, his tail wagging, looking like he wanted to jump in and join us.

“You be a good boy. Stay,” Rocco said to Houdini, then turned back toward me and swirled his hands around in the water. “Anyway, we wrapped up the shoot sooner than anticipated since they decided to scrap one of the scenes. I called the pilot and arranged to have the jet ready to leave at six this morning. I had more reasons to come home early than to stay in New York.”

I loved the sound of that.

“One of the reasons was you missed your pool?” I teased, mimicking his movement and swirling my hands around in the water.

Rocco chuckled. “Sure, that was one of them. The hotel didn’t have a pool and I was eager to get back to doing my daily laps. I’ll admit seeing you in the water upped my motivation ten-fold.” He winked and peeked at my body again.

Had someone turned up the heat?

The pool was beginning to feel more like a Jacuzzi.

I needed to go back down under the water to cool off for a couple of days.

“Maybe I’ve found a new calling as a coach or personal trainer if I can motivate someone without saying a single word,” I finally said.

Rocco grinned. “Sign me up.”

I smirked. “You couldn’t afford my services.”

He arched an eyebrow.

“Okay, maybe you could, but I’m very discerning,” I said. “I don’t just take on anyone as a client, you know.”

“A shrewd businesswoman—I like it.”

Houdini barked three times, his tail wagging.

Rocco shook his head. “No, you can’t come in the water now.” He turned back to me. “Sometimes I let him swim with me. He loves it, but it’s kind of a pain in the butt drying him off since he has so much hair, plus he likes to go directly into the house and jump on the bed all wet.” He gestured to the other end of the pool. “Speaking of swimming, care to join me for a few laps?”

I shook my head. “You go ahead. I can supervise from the edge of the pool to make sure your form is up to snuff.”