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"Did you get too bossy and Athena hid your leg so she could outrun you?"
Dale chuckled, an easy sound, though his gaze had already moved to Marius to do a quick, penetrating assessment, uncomfortably familiar. It was the way shrewder cops measured a guy, weighing his strengths and weaknesses and gauging both accurately, based on nothing more than experience and their reliance on their gut.
"I got an upgrade to the prosthesis this past week and the fit wasn't exactly right, so it gave the stump a couple blisters. It's healing up while they adjust the cuff."
"So is it a bionic leg?" Regina asked, eyes twinkling. "You'll be able to kick twenty guys' butts just by turning up the volume?"
"I can do that already, with only one leg." Dale winked at her snort. "How'd the presentation go?"
"Pretty good. Some promising t
alent in the group. Even if my teaching gig only lets me participate via videoconference, I hope I'll have the chance to rub elbows with them again when they apply what I've taught them to the new developments at their company. That's always the exciting part." Regina angled her body toward Marius.
"Dale, this is Marius, the man I told you about. He's thinking about adopting a dog." Regina shifted her attention to Marius. "Dale usually goes over a lot of background info with potential adopters before introducing them to the dogs, but I've asked him to approach things a little differently. He's going to let a couple of them out to interact with you first."
Dale nodded to Marius. "That sound good to you, son?"
Marius wondered what he and Regina had discussed about him beforehand. Dale didn't strike him as the type of guy who altered his protocol unless given a compelling reason to do so.
He should be offended or wary, but more dogs had emerged in the outdoor runs, watching the small knot of people. A couple barked. He could feel the familiar tension start in his gut, but he forced himself to sound casual.
"Yeah. Okay."
"Tempest and Shotgun are real friendly," Dale said. "The most socialized of my current group."
"Animals don't always take to me. I mean...they might see me as a threat. They usually do." This really was a mistake. He looked toward Regina, hoping the panic didn't show on his face and in his voice. "Maybe I should just go sit in the car while you guys visit. Do this another day. Or maybe not at all."
"Son." Dale shifted closer to him. Marius took a step back.
"I'm not your son," he snapped.
Dale stopped. Marius didn't look toward Regina. He was going to disappoint her, damn it. He shouldn't have suggested this, agreed to this.
"Fair enough," Dale said amiably. "But before you chalk it up as a bad deal, let's try something different. A little more manageable. All right?"
A firmness had entered his tone that was a shade different from a Dom giving orders. Maybe it was the tone Dale used when explaining things to men under his command. Regardless, it took Marius's reaction down a couple notches.
"Why don't you go sit at the picnic table with your Mistress?" Dale gestured to it.
Regina hadn't introduced him as her sub, but he guessed Dale would know that was what he was. Regina reinforced it, touching Marius's arm. "Sit down with me."
Responding to her commands was familiar footing, so it helped as well. As Marius moved toward the table with her, Dale left them, headed toward the kennel. Marius didn't want to look toward Regina. He didn't know what to say, but she put her hand on his on the table, squeezing. He looked at her then and saw she wasn't angry with him. Nor pitying, which would have been worse. She looked as calm and easy as Dale had. They were handling him, but in a way his sub nature recognized and grabbed, not allowing the other side of him to implode.
"Breathe," she said. "You'll get through this. Just wait and see." She moved her foot so the toe of her sneaker was pressed against his beneath the table.
"So did he lose his leg as a SEAL?" he ventured, looking for a safe change of topic.
"Yes, I think so. He doesn't talk about it much. The first few times I met him, I didn't even know he had a prosthesis instead of a normal limb. It really is like a bionic leg. You don't even notice a limp."
The dogs had quieted, which was surprising. He would have expected they would have been barking more, excited to see Dale coming to them. He heard Dale issuing a few commands, the clank of a gate, followed by the patter of trotting feet, the measured tread of Dale moving on the crutches over the gravel driveway. Marius saw one of the dogs dancing around and circling Dale in a ponderous prance, the other walking in a proper heel next to him.
The black and gold Rottweilers had glossy coats, their eyes bright and inquisitive. The massive heads bobbed, taking in everything around them, as alert as Dale himself.
Dale sat back down on the bench across from Marius. "Down. Rest," he said. The dogs laid down on the ground at the short end of the table, one of them within inches of Marius's foot and knee. The creature's gaze moved to him and Marius saw that watchfulness, a watchfulness that would turn warier by the second. He'd seen it happen. He shouldn't be staring right at the dog, but he couldn't seem to look away...
"Breathe," Dale said. When Regina touched Marius's hand, he realized Dale wasn't speaking to the dogs. Regina squeezed Marius's fingers. The picnic table had plastic chairs at either end of it, to allow for more visitors, and Regina moved into one of them, so now she was sitting diagonally from Marius, her on one side of him, the dog on the other.
"Look at me," she said, and Marius did, resisting the urge to shut his eyes, close things out. "I want you to listen to Dale like you listen to me. Just for the next few minutes. He's very good at this. Relax and trust him the way you would trust me."
