Page 53 of Perfectly Matched: Harbor Falls Romance Collection

“Yes. I understand, Mr. Connelly. Of course, sir. We’ll get back with you ASAP.”

Resisting the urge to hit the button on the phone with his fist to end the conference call, Mack checked himself and with calm precision pressed the button with his forefinger, cursing slightly under his breath when finished. “Dammit.”

Nothing had gone right all week. Not one blasted thing.

The dogs were totally out of sync. The deal in San Diego was running south faster than a dealer moving a shitload of stolen pickup trucks over the border. And he hadn’t slept worth a damn for days.

Yawning, he punched at the speaker button on his phone again and dialed the team leader of his tech crew.

“Yeah,”

came the voice on the other end. He grimaced at the salutation. Didn’t the young man have any business etiquette about him at all?

“Craig. What the hell happened on that call?”

“I don’t know, Mack. I thought we had it in the bag. The old guy was all for the plan when we left California Tuesday morning.”

“That damned grandson of his, that’s what I think it is. Just because he’s a master of Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitters 24/7 doesn’t make him a marketing expert.”

“You could be right.”

“I am right.”

“If you say so, boss.”

“I do. Call him back. Convince the old man to sign. I’m tired of farting around. Better yet, get the grandson on the phone and see what his angle is. Seduce him with the short-term contract, if necessary. Three months, standard rate of pay. Maybe if we get the kid on board Grandpa will come around.”

Three full seconds of silence met his ear. “Craig?”

“I’m not sure including the grandson is a good idea. Grandpa seems mighty captivated with the kid. He’ll still only listen to him, and not us.”

“But if we land the contract, we can control it from there.”

“Bad idea.”

Mack’s throat tightened.

“I don’t recall asking you for your opinion, Craig. I believe I gave you an assignment.”

“You hired me for my expert opinion. I thought I’d give it.”

“I also believe I sign your paycheck.”

Damned punk know-it-all. This week might be his last.

“Do what I say. Call me back in thirty.”

This time he did end the call with a little too much force, slapping at the phone.

Leaning over his desk, he kneaded his forehead with the fingertips of both hands.

Headache. What the hell did he expect with no sleep? He contemplated whether he could sneak in a fifteen-minute power nap before Craig called back. After all, that was a perk of working at home, wasn’t it?

At once, Paws and Buttercup ripped through the house, down the hall, and into his home office. They skidded across the floors, their nails clattering against the wood. Buttercup dived face-first into his ankles as he turned toward the racket.

“What the hell?”

He glanced at his watch. Two-thirty. Forget the nap, it was an hour past their usual walk time. Maybe some fresh air would rejuvenate him anyway.

Lyssa must have walked them early in the afternoon this past week. Like clockwork, they puppy-nagged him about this time every day. Moving toward the front door, they trailed behind while nipping at his heels. He lifted their leashes off the front door handle and snapped them in place on the dogs’ collars.

Lyssa.

She invaded his head whenever he allowed it to get too empty. He’d tried every attempt to fill his brain with work, every waking minute—which was a lot of minutes. The dogs had kept him up way too late every night with their yips and whines.

He thought it would get better after a day or two.

He was wrong.

It was all Lyssa’s fault.

No. No it wasn’t. He was as stubborn as they came sometimes. He’d mulled his Monday night reaction over and over. He was tired, of course, and perhaps a little fearful of the possibility of starting a relationship. They were rushing, to be sure. Not to mention he was confused as to why she was dishonest with him about the crates.

“Shit,”

he muttered.

“Was it really that big a deal?”

I’m just a softy, Mack. I couldn’t do it.

And was there anything wrong with being a softy? There were worse things, right?

Right.

Thing was, she had turned his world on its axle, and he didn’t quite know how to right it. Or if she would let him.

Or did he?

He stared down hard at the blond monsters chomping at the bit to get out the door.

****

It’s Saturday night and I ain’t got nobody…

Lyssa crashed her hand against the dial of her radio, blasting an oldies station.

“It’s Friday night,”

she said to no one in particular.

“and who cares if I ain’t got nobody.”

Well, truth be told, she did.

But it wasn’t just nobody she was pining after. Mack was the object of her desire.

Unfortunately, she’d almost given up hope of that happening.

Once again, she’d screwed up by having to do things her way. She was certain he was still mad at her. She’d broken the puppy nanny code by getting personally involved and disregarding the owner’s wishes. She’d known what she was doing and did it anyway.

Came back to bite her in the butt. Big time.

“No matter,”

she said aloud while flipping through the pages of the latest Diva fashion magazine.

“I’m just fine alone. It’s safe. No one is going to hurt me. And I can do whatever I want, all day long, all night long.”

She batted through another dozen pages or so of the magazine.

“I can go all weekend and not take a shower. I can eat ice cream naked. I can freakin’ sit here in my pajamas, like now, and read magazines all night while watching the Food Channel. And. No. One. Cares.”

She slammed the magazine closed on her lap.

“Not even me.”

The smiling woman on the front cover mocked her. The headline next to her curvy body read, 25 New Tried and True Ways to Turn on Your Lover.

“Crap.”

Tossing the magazine on an ottoman, she rose and started for the kitchen. Candy Bar Crunch Ice Cream waited in the freezer. If she was lucky, she still had chocolate sauce, too.

The cold blast of the freezer hit her full face about the time a repeated, brisk knock sounded at her front door. She jumped a little and glanced at the kitchen clock. Almost ten-fifteen. Kind of late for visitors…

The doorbell chimed.

Another knock.

Leaving the Candy Bar Crunch behind, she padded toward her front door and peeked out one of the sidelights. Her front porch light was already on.

“Huh?”

She stepped back.

Mack?

What did he want? She was in her pajamas. Should she open the door? Get dressed first? Her brain spun and indecision raced through her chest.

Mack. It was Mack!

From her coffee table, a vibration sounded. Turning, she glanced at her phone. Then to the door. Back to the phone. Finally, she skipped to the table and picked it up, punched the text button, and read the message.

Please? May I talk with you?

With a pounding heart, she jogged back to the door, unlatched and opened it. The pups bounded forward, and Mack pulled them back with their leashes.

“Mack?”

“Hi, Lyssa.”

Paws licked her red toenails. Buttercup strained against her collar. “What…?

Damn, but he looked tired, sporting a lot more wrinkles around his eyes. His face looked drawn.

“Are you okay?”

“No.”

“What’s wrong?”

Both dogs started barking.

“Hush,”

he told them, still struggling to hold them back.

“We’ve not been invited in yet.”

“Oh. Oh!”

Lyssa stepped back and opened the door wide.

“Mack, what’s going on?”

He crossed the threshold with the animals. Paws and Buttercup skidded between them and jumped up and down on her legs. She reached to scratch both heads.

“I need help with the dogs, Lyssa.”

Oh? A business call. Her heart sank.

“I’m not sure what I can do to help, Mack. I mean, I screwed up totally last time and…”

“No. Not totally with the dogs. With me.”

What was he talking about.

“I don’t understand.”

“Well, it sort of is me. And sort of the dogs. You see, I can’t sleep.”

“I’m not sure how I can help you with that.”

“The pups don’t sleep. At night.”

Well, if you’d take them out of those cages, perhaps they might… Oh, shit. He was still mad and blaming her.

“I screwed up, Mack,”

she blurted out.

“I’m sorry I got them out of the habit of sleeping in their cages. This is my fault.”

“Then fix it.”

The abruptness of that statement took her aback.

“I…I don’t know how. I’m not sure I know what to do.”

“Well, something has to give. I put them in those damned crates and they are up all night long, whining and barking. They don’t sleep and I can’t. Damned dogs nap during the day. I have to work. You have to help me.”

Again, she perused his face, thinking. What if…?

Should I go for it?

Yes.

“All right. I can fix this.”

“Good.”

“You have to trust me.”

“All right. I’m all yours.”

You betcha, cowboy.

“Hand over the leashes.”

Eagerly, he did just that.

“Shut and lock the front door behind you.”

While he did as she asked, she reached down and unlatched first Buttercup’s, then Paws’ leashes.

Both dogs raced off in record time down her hallway and out of sight.

Mack heaved out a sigh.

“So, where did they go?”

“To bed.”

“Your bed.”

“That’s right.”

His green-eyed gaze caught hers again, steadfast. If he was going to yell at her, he might as well get it over with, but she wasn’t budging.

“You’re tired,”

she finally said.

“Yes.”

Grasping his hand, Lyssa turned and started toward the hallway herself, leading him along the way.

“Where are we going?”

“To bed.”

“Your bed?”

“Yes.”

She turned and looked straight into his eyes.

“Unless you want to sleep in the crate.”

The right side of his mouth turned up.

“No ma’am. Lead on.”

Lyssa turned out the lights along the way and when they reached her bedroom, dimmed the light on her bedside table. Without talk, she climbed into bed, scooting dead-weight puppy bodies aside while she slipped between the sheets. After Mack removed everything but his boxers, he joined her.

She turned out the light.

With a huge sigh, Mack wrapped his arms around her as she lay with her ear against his beating heart. Within seconds, his gentle snore filled the night and his arms released their grip.

Nothing, in her entire lifetime, had ever felt so wonderful.

In fact, she lay there for quite some time, simply listening to him breath and absorbing the nearness of his solid male body.

For the first time in her life, she was totally in love.

****

Mack woke slowly, realizing immediately that he wasn’t in his bed. He knew that because he couldn’t move his feet. He tried, but they were pinned to the bed. Puppies. Not only that, but something soft and silky was tickling his nose and the object he had his arms wrapped around was not a pillow.

Flesh. Woman flesh.

Lyssa.

He’d slept deep and hard. Hell, he hoped he hadn’t snored too much. As he woke little by little, he walked through the quick scenario of the prior evening and how he’d ended up in her bed.

It brought a smile to his face. Thank God he’d come to his senses.

She squirmed into him. Spooning up against her backside was a very pleasant thing. So pleasant, in fact, he realized that he was rock hard. Kind of nice, he determined, waking up with a boner and lying next to a woman. That hadn’t happened in a long, long time.

Not just any woman. This woman. Waking up next to Lyssa like this felt so damned decadent.

His hand moved to a breast and he cupped her through the thin fabric of her pajamas. She was full-breasted and offered him quite a handful. Not a problem for him. Ample breasts and hips satisfied him quite nicely. Toying with her nipple, he played until it was peaked and hard.

Then he moved to the other one and did the same.

Lyssa scooted closer, her ass cradling his erection. Sweet Mother…. He slid a hand beneath her shirt to further caress her softness.

“Mack…”

Lyssa said his name on a sweet breath.

“Good morning, sweetheart.”

She responded by turning in his arms, facing him. The palm of his hand smoothed along her tummy and hip as she moved. Perching up on an elbow, he stared down into her sleep-softened face and loved the way she looked—yes, loved—and loved how she was looking back up at him.

He could do this for a lifetime.

Crazy. He’d been in love before. He knew what it felt like.

He loved her.

Cradling her face, he leaned in and kissed her lips. She responded by hooking her hand around his neck and drawing him downward. She tasted salty and sweet, with dewy, plump lips that beckoned and promised oh-so-much more.

Mack pulled her pajama top over her head and she wriggled out of her bottoms. Their gazes kept their connection while he pushed his boxers down, kicked them off, and maneuvered around sleeping dogs.

She was beautiful. Every inch of her. Creamy skin from head to toe, soft and delicious, with rounded curves that pleased him very much. Her body felt like coming home.

He explored with a light touch, starting at her collarbone and moving downward. Her eyes closed and her breath caught in her throat, as he teased one nipple, then another, before moving his flat palm down to skim her belly, and lower.

Leaning over her, he took one breast into his mouth while his middle finger below inched between her legs and met sweet, warm, wet flesh.

“Oh, Mack…”

She arched upward.

His libido jackknifed.

****

The palm of Mack’s hand was hot on her skin. Nothing had ever felt as good.

Closing her eyes, Lyssa savored the feel of him touching her, smoothing his hand over her tummy, inching lower.

The heat of his mouth shocked her when he took first one breast, then another, into his mouth and tugged. The sensation of being drawn into his mouth caused her to involuntarily arch forward, urging him to continue.

She wanted more.

She wanted all of him.

Leaving her breasts, he angled over her, shifting covers and his body, and trailed his hot, wet lips down her body. The moistness he left on her nipples aroused her even more as the cool morning air hit them. Breathing deeply as he moved steadily southward, she anticipated his intent.

Oh, yes…

****

Sometime later, Lyssa awoke, and panicked. Something was wrong. The bed was empty. Jerking upright, she grasped the sheet around her.

The pups were gone.

Mack was gone.

Tears threatened behind her eyelids.

“No,”

she whispered.

“Please, God. No.”

At once, a clattering commotion erupted in the hallway and two fluffy bundles of joy came bounding around the corner, into her bedroom, and leapt up and on the bed. Their puppy smiles immediately melted her heart.

They were still here.

Mack followed them in with two cups of coffee, one in each hand. He sat both on the bedside table and leaned over the pups to place a quick kiss on her lips.

“Good morning, sweetheart.”

He is still here.

Thank you, God.

She smiled back.

“Good morning, my love.”

And she meant that. She did love him. With everything that was in her.

Wearing a wicked smile, Mack crawled into bed and joined her under the covers. Paws and Buttercup made places for themselves between legs and over laps. Still smiling, she looked at them, and then glanced sideways at Mack.

“I shouldn’t have let them sleep with me.”

Mack heaved in a sigh.

“Perhaps. But you did.”

“You’re not mad anymore?”

He shook his head.

“I shouldn’t have been angry in the first place.”

“I’m sorry.”

Laughing, Mack pulled her close.

“Honey, right now, I am the happiest man alive. I have a hot woman in my bed and dogs at my feet. What else does a man need?”

“Hot fudge?”

Slinking lower into the bed and pulling her with him, he replied.

“Well, there is that.”

He pulled the sheet up and scooted the dogs to the side while covering his body with hers.

“I love you, Lyssa Larkin. Marry me?”

A thrill shot through her like none she’d ever experienced. She arched a brow.

“Are you not rushing things a bit, M.?”

He leaned in and kissed her lips.

“We’ve done nothing else slow, so why not?”

Smiling, she agreed.

“Well, I’ll marry you, but I never plan to divorce you.”

“I would certainly hope not.”

“Long story.”

“We’ve got a lifetime. Right now, however, I’m not about words, just action.”

“I’m all over that.”

They shifted in the bed and something vibrated under Lyssa’s pillow. Mack pulled back and gave her an odd look.

“Your phone?”

Heat flashed over her face. “Um, no.”

Mack’s eyebrows shot up.

“A vibrator?”

He chuckled.

“What other surprises do you have up your sleeve, Alyssa Larkin?”

She shrugged.

“Not much, M. Roberts. Just the norm. Whipped cream, hot fudge, a strategically placed maraschino cherry or two…”

Mack laughed and thoroughly kissed her.

Paws and Buttercup tussled on the bed around them.