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They made love with sweet urgency, showered together, dried each other off and dressed for the evening.
She put on one of the two just-in-case outfits she’d packed: the black cashmere sweater and the long, embroidered denim skirt, plus the boots Nick had bought her.
He changed to more formal jeans—“No holes in the knees,” he said—and a black turtleneck topped by a black leather blazer, and a pair of well-worn but handsome Tony Lamas.
Brutus moaned piteously when Nick told him he’d have to stay home.
“Go keep Louie and Peaches company,” Lissa said, “and if you’re a really good boy, we’ll bring you a treat.”
“He’ll expect one, you know,” Nick said as they got into a truck she’d never seen before, a shiny black behemoth with glove-leather bucket seats, and headed for the main road. “He’s a smart boy. Understands every word he hears.”
“He took a cookie from me this afternoon,” Lissa said. “Without you there to say the secret word.”
Nick sighed.
“The secret word is dynamo. And I’m glad as hell he did that.” He hesitated. “Teaching him that crap, not to eat unless a special person says a special word, was not my idea.”
Lissa put her hand on his arm.
“The guy who did—I have no idea where he is right now. I can only hope he doesn’t own another dog.”
“What happened?”
A muscle knotted in Nick’s jaw.
“We were shooting a movie in Toronto. This guy came along—he was a friend of one of the grips. That’s a guy who—”
“—works with the lighting and electrical stuff. I know. You can’t survive in La La Land without picking up some of the lingo.”
“So this guy started hanging around. There was an animal trainer on the set because we were using horses. And this jerk asked the trainer if he wanted to see a really well-trained animal. The guy said sure, and the next day, he showed up with Brutus.”
“And?”
“And,” he said, his tone hardening, “Brutus was big and beautiful, smart as hell—and defeated. He kept his tail between his legs. He flinched when anybody tried to pet him. He obeyed what seemed like thousands of commands. His owner was proudest of the feeding thing. ‘He’d starve to death if I weren’t there to tell him he could eat,’ he said, and I wanted to put my fist down his throat.”
“Oh God, how horrible!”
“The SOB got busy, trying to cozy up to the trainer. I had some time alone with the dog. It took hours, but he finally let me pet him. Not pet him, exactly. He let me touch his head. The piece of shit who owned him saw it happen. He was furious. He shouted at the dog and raised his fist to him and I—I got between them and… Let’s just say I put a stop to it.”
“That bastard!”
“I called him far worse than that. Then I told him he was going to sell the dog to me, that he’d tell me the secret word and he’d see to it that the dog understood that it was going to be OK to let the eating command come from me from that day on.” Nick’s hands tightened on the wheel. “He didn’t like the idea, but I persuaded him.”
She nodded. She could imagine how persuasive Nick had been.
“It took me a long time to win Brutus’s trust.” He looked at her and smiled. “You won it in seconds. I’ve never seen him jump up and kiss anybody before. I mean, he’s great with me, but he still hangs back with other people.”
“He must have known that I fell head over heels in love with him the second I saw him.”
Nick took one hand from the wheel and reached for hers.
“You know, I never believed in that love-at-first-sight thing,” he said gruffly.
Lissa felt her heart stand still. She looked across the cab at Nick. His face was lit by the dashboard lights; he was looking at her, too.
“No?”
“No. Not until now.”
