Well, I don’t know if lightning struck me just then, but something did. Even the dogs sensed it. They sat patiently, looking up at both of us.
So I leaned in for a kiss and to my delight, she leaned right back toward me.
Chapter 17
Maizy
Good lord, if Von hadn’t kissed me just then in the park, in the rain, I may have just had to attack him.
But thank goodness he finally did, and damn, was it worth the wait. His lips brushed mine at first, as if in a test, and then they parted, allowing him to tickle me with his tongue. The guy left me breathless. Seriously, why had he waited so long?
Anyway.
With the dog leashes in one of my hands—the little buggers had gone completely silent as they stared up at us—I moved my other to his chest, a rock-hard prominence of muscle and hard-earned strength. The guy clearly didn’t spend all his time at his vet practice. And when I brushed over his nipples, I could have sworn I heard him suck in his breath.
Ah. I’d discovered his soft spot. Well, at least one of them.
We might have been in the middle of a chilly path in Central Park, but the heat inside me exploded like an out of control wild fire. The rain came down harder, trickling into our lips and mouths. Instead of being an annoyance, it only served to heighten the growing throb between my legs. Time stood still as I got lost in Von’s kiss. I wanted to stay lost there.
But of course, life doesn’t work that way. One of the dogs, soaked and most likely getting cold—and still having to pee—began to whimper. Another quickly followed, and pretty soon all five of them were asking if we couldn’t please cool our jets and get a move on. Who did we think we were anyway? they seemed to ask.
Panting, I pulled back from Von. The rain, having plastered his hair to his head, trickled down his face in rivulets. The dogs were equally as soggy, although they didn’t look nearly as happy about it.
“C’mon,” he said, taking my hand and pulling the dogs over to a grassy patch where they could relieve themselves. As they proceeded to sniff, as dogs did, to find the perfect spot, Von ran his hand over my matted hair and wiped a raindrop on the end of my nose with his thumb.
The dogs were gathered back at our feet, presumably done with their business.
“Let’s hit it,” he said.
We started to run back to his building, the rain pelting our faces and the dogs trotting behind us. All I could do was laugh. How lucky was I to be running in the rain with this gorgeous man and his assortment of mutts, like I didn’t have a care in the world?
We got inside his building and shook ourselves off just like the dogs did, leaving little puddles of water on the lobby floor and the elevator.
“Wait here just a sec,” he said when we reached his front door. He removed his shoes and disappeared into his apartment, returning with several towels.
“Do you mind?” he asked, bending to towel off his fur babies.
Of course I didn’t mind warming up the shivering pups. We both knelt in the hallway and rubbed all the water we could off their fur, and then let them inside where they crammed into a couple dog beds by the radiator. Von took my dripping jacket, shaking it off on the tiled floor like it was no big deal. He tilted his head in a follow me fashion. Which, of course, I did.
Aside from the kitchen, I’d not seen much of the place, so I was glad to crane my neck and snoop while I followed him down a long hallway and into a bathroom.
A bathroom?
But I wasn’t confused fo
r long. He pushed my hair back over my shoulders and slowly lifted my shirt over my head. He then reached for the fly of my jeans, making quick work of that. I kicked off my boots so my jeans would fit over my feet, and as soon as I stood there in my black bra and panties.
He was down to his skivvies in no time and reached into a huge, tiled shower stall to turn the water on full blast. As steam filled the room, he bent to kiss me again while he reached around my back to unfasten my bra.
“I’ve wanted to touch you since the first day I met you. Actually, I wanted to do more than that. A lot more,” he whispered.
“Oh, yeah? Like what? What more do you want to do with me?” I teased.
He stepped back, and with a very serious expression, ran his gaze over me from top to bottom.
“For starters, I might remove those panties,” he said.
“But they’re the only thing I’m wearing.”