More Than a Fling [Uniformed and Blazing Hot 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (2 page)

Across the street, Precious finally gave up on the squirrel, but not on the marathon he obviously had in mind. With a jerk of the leash, he was off again. The scotch beauty startled, let out a yelp, and nearly fell on her face before she gained her footing.

Nick snorted and pushed away from the rail as dog and woman disappeared out of sight. He turned and held out Tanner’s cell phone. “It rang a few minutes ago. Jessica. I didn’t answer it.”

Tanner cleared the screen of the missed call and pocketed the cell. “Who did she call first, me or you?”

“Me. I didn’t answer mine either.”

Tanner nodded as he polished off the remainder of his coffee. “It’s probably better that way. She’ll get tired of being ignored and move on.”

He hated to be that way to a woman, but Jessica Lofton wasn’t giving either of them much choice. They had been on two dates with her. The first one had turned out pretty nice. They took her to dinner and a movie, made out a little afterward, and told her they would see her again soon. Soon turned out to be three days later when she called Nick with tickets to the minor league baseball game in town. That date had also turned out nice, except he and Nick had seen the signs. They tried to sweetly explain to her they weren’t looking for anything serious, but she proved to be a woman that didn’t want to take “no” for an answer. Jessica Lofton was looking for forever, a word he and Nick had nixed from their vocabularies years ago.

“I hope so. I don’t mind a chase, but I would like to be the one in pursuit for a change. Lately, it’s been the other way around.”

Tanner tipped his chin down the street where the scotch beauty and Precious had disappeared. “We could’ve gotten in a pretty good chase this morning. You talked me out of it.”

Nick snorted. “Yeah, because that’s exactly what we need, to live right beside the next woman that decides we’re the perfect candidates to put a ring on her finger.”

True, but damn if there hadn’t been something about the scotch beauty that Tanner knew was going to keep her in his mind for the next twenty-four hours at best.

“We better get moving or we’re going to be late.”

Tanner nodded and gestured to the front door with his empty coffee mug. “Let me stash this in the house and I’ll meet you in the truck.”

Twenty-four hours, he mused as he double-timed it inside to put the mug in the sink. With the image of his sexy new neighbor implanted in his mind, he didn’t doubt his next shift at the firehouse would prove to be a long one.

* * * *

“If you’re worried, I don’t think he noticed.”

Alyssa Kinney looked up from the story on her computer screen about the closing of local bank branches in Cherish despite the inconvenience they were sure to cause their customers. Kristy King—Alyssa was constantly reminding herself the poor girl’s name was Kristy and not Krispy—had steered her rolling chair closer to Alyssa’s desk so she could whisper without being overheard. Not that there was anyone else in the office at the moment. The newspaper employed less than twenty reporters, all of whom were either out looking for stories, reporting on stories they had been assigned, or at home with a stomach bug that had been going around.

“Noticed what?” Alyssa whispered back dumbly.

Kristy shot a quick glance at the chief editor’s closed office door, sending her short bob of dark brown hair swinging. She reminded Alyssa a lot of Lois Lane, or rather the actress Teri Hatcher that had played the part in the series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.

“That you were late this morning and didn’t call in.”

The newspaper office opened at eight. Reporters weren’t required to show at that time if they were out working on a story, but they were supposed to phone in. Alyssa hadn’t bothered. She had been nearly a half hour late and didn’t doubt for a second her new boss, Will Jackson, had noticed. He simply hadn’t stuck his plump, balding head out of his private office long enough to call her on it yet.

Being late without a viable excuse wasn’t the best way to start her second week on the job at the Cherish Times, but she’d had to make a rash decision. Show up at work on time, half covered in mud and reeking of dog, or take a second shower before she changed and rushed, this time alone, out the door. She had gone for option number two, hoping the fact that she completed one of the stories she had been assigned last night before she turned in for bed would help mollify her new boss.

“What happened? Did you oversleep?”

Alyssa rested an elbow on the armrest of her chair and rubbed her forehead. “I probably would’ve had a less stressful morning if I had. I decided to take Precious for a leisurely stroll around the block.”

“Precious? That’s the dog you inherited from your aunt and uncles, right?”

“If you want to call him that.” What had her aunt been thinking when she had named the evil dog? “Don’t get me wrong. I like animals. But that…
thing
Aunt Vera left behind isn’t an animal. He’s a beast!”

She had gotten up a full two hours early to be sure she had enough time to take the creature for a stroll before changing for work. She had expected to return still smelling fresh from her morning shower with only the need to exchange the yoga pants and sports bra she had put on for something more sophisticated. Instead, Precious put her through the wringer. By the time she had finally coerced the beast back to the house, she needed a second shower to rid herself of the sweat from her exertion and the mud the dog had splashed on her every time he found a puddle to trample through. In a city where it had rained the last twelve days out of fourteen, there was an overabundance of mud puddles for the dog to get his kicks.

Kristy did a horrible job at stifling a giggle. “You’ve never owned a dog, have you?”

“No, and after living with him the past week, I remember why.”

That wasn’t really the truth, but the answer served her purpose well enough for now. Alyssa hadn’t ever owned a dog because her parents hadn’t allowed her to have one. They were both journalists that had always been too busy chasing after the next big story to worry about things like their child and an animal. She had spent most of her childhood being raised by nannies and housekeepers and being told that they had enough responsibilities on their hands to have to deal with a dog, too.

“Dogs require a lot of attention. They’re like having a child, only with more fur and four legs.”

“Tell me about it. He’s argumentative, disobedient, and wakes me up constantly in the middle of the night. There’s a very good reason I don’t have children.”

Kristy giggled. “You could take him back to the shelter.”

Alyssa shook her head. There was no way she could do that. Precious had spent weeks in the shelter waiting for her to come get him after her aunt and uncles died. She had been in that place, seen how overcrowded it was, and knew that a dog like Precious would be more likely put to sleep before he would be adopted by a loving family. Besides, Precious may have taken an instant dislike to her, but she had fallen in love in on sight. It was the sorrow she saw in the dog’s deep brown eyes that had done it. Precious missed her mommy and daddies. Alyssa had never gotten the chance to know any of them thanks to a feud between her mother and Vera, but after losing her mother to breast cancer three years ago, she could easily relate to the dog’s pain. Her mother may not have been around much when she was growing up, but they had somehow managed to form a solid bond that had left her with a deep empty spot when her mother passed away. Unfortunately, bonding over their losses while polishing off a pint of Ben and Jerry’s didn’t appear to be an option for her and Precious.

“We’ll get through this,” she told Kristy, wishing she felt the confidence of the words.

“What about your neighbors?

A quick flash of the man Alyssa had spotted that morning standing on the front porch of the house next door moved through her memory, sending a sizzle through her system. Their gazes had locked for only the briefest of moments before Precious gave the leash around his neck a jerk that had sent Alyssa scrambling after him. Still, that moment had been enough. So had the quick glimpse she had gotten of the other man that had stepped outside with his friend barely a minute before Precious dragged her down the block.

“What about them?” She was pretty sure, “They’re smokin’ hot,” wasn’t the answer Kristy was looking for, but damn if those quick glimpses hadn’t been enough for her to realize that was exactly what they were.

Kristy lifted a bony shoulder. “Have you talked to any of them? I’m sure they saw your aunt and uncles with Precious all the time. Maybe they can give you some insight on things they used to do to appease him.”

“I saw the two guys that live next door this morning.” She had heard them laughing, too. If Precious had stopped for even a second, she would have given the men a piece of her mind. “Considering Itchy and Scratchy seemed more content to stand on their front porch and snicker rather than give me a hand with Precious, I doubt they’ll be much help.”

“Itchy and Scratchy?” Kristy’s brown eyes twinkled. “You have two guys living next door? Surely they’re not an animated blue mouse and a black cat.”

Alyssa felt the corner of her lips twitch. “No, they’re human.”

“Are they hot?”

“Smokin’,” she admitted. Yeah, that was the answer Kristy was looking for this time.

The woman scooted to the edge of her seat as if eagerly waiting for the scoop. “As in so hot you can see steam rolling off of them?”

Alyssa barked a half laugh. “As in.”

“Oh, girl.” Kristy flung herself back in her chair. The move sent her rolling back a bit. “It’s definitely time you meet your new neighbors and Precious has given you the perfect opening line.” She batted her long lashes and dramatically splayed a hand over her heart. “I’m terribly sorry to bother you, but I inherited the house next door along with my aunt and uncles’ dog and haven’t a clue what to do with him. I would be eternally grateful if you could give me some pointers.” She dropped the act and thoughtfully pursed her glossy lips. “You should probably start with a, ‘Hello, gentleman,’ or something like that though.”

Alyssa rolled her eyes, but couldn’t stop the smile that overtook her lips. “Thanks for the advice, but I think I’ll pass. I spend enough time chasing after Precious to start a hot pursuit of two guys, even if they do live right next door.”

Cherish, Tennessee was an enigma to Alyssa. The moderately sized city was chock-full of ménage relationships. It wasn’t uncommon to walk into a place of business and find two men sitting with one woman. Many of the restaurants even catered to those sorts of guests by offering tables that sat three or six rather than the normal two or four in most establishments.

“If Precious is waking you up in the middle of the night, I’m betting he’s waking them, too. Imagine the ways the three of you could spend that time.”

Oh, Alyssa could imagine and it was the last thing she needed to do. She enjoyed her no-ties life. Although she did have ties now, to a dog and house left to her by an aunt her parents had kept her away from because of the city where she had chosen to live and the lifestyle she had chosen to lead. Still, creating more ties with a man, or in this case men, was the last thing she wanted, especially after the last debacle of a relationship she’d had. She had been engaged to one of the top freelance reporters in the country, only to discover shortly before their wedding day that he had a mistress on the side.

“We could spend the time putting a muzzle on the dog,” Alyssa suggested.

Kristy shook her head. “A muzzle is for dogs that bite. It won’t stop him from barking. But you could—” She broke off abruptly when the door to the private office behind her was wrenched open.

Will Jackson’s balding head filled the space, his beady eyes quickly darting around the nearly empty reporter room. “Where the hell is Emmerson?”

Kristy dug her heels into the tiled floor and set her chair rolling back to her desk. “He hasn’t come in yet, sir.”

Jackson scowled. Alyssa had quickly learned Ralph Emmerson was Jackson’s star reporter, a position she fully intended to claim for herself if Jackson gave her half a chance.

“Malcoff?”

“Isn’t here either, sir,” Kristy told him. “He’s down with the stomach bug, remember?”

Alyssa patiently waited, wondering if Jackson was going to go through his entire list of male reporters before he realized she was sitting right in front of his face. It was something else she had quickly learned about Jackson. He assigned his best stories to the men, despite the fact that her qualifications surpassed every reporter’s he had on his payroll.

His scowl deepened and his beady eyes filled with dread as his gaze finally landed on her. “I guess I don’t have a choice. Kinney, there’s a pileup and an overturned tanker carrying hazardous materials on Amnicola. Causalities, trapped victims…the whole nine yards. Get over there and get me a story. And don’t turn in something about how sexy all the responders look in their uniforms.”

Alyssa got to her feet, snagged her purse with her iPad inside, and shouldered the strap. “Yes, sir.”

Why in the world would she turn in a story like that? She had traveled the globe and had seen plenty of men in uniform. They were rarely the tall, dark, handsome, and supremely built hunks often portrayed in novels and by Hollywood.