Paws off the Boss - Casey Griffin (best books under 200 pages .TXT) 📗
- Author: Casey Griffin
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Book online «Paws off the Boss - Casey Griffin (best books under 200 pages .TXT) 📗». Author Casey Griffin
Aiden froze, taking a step back in surprise. After a moment, he seemed to recover and held the door open for her. “Thank you for coming … Miss Summers.”
Piper automatically reached out to shake his hand. He took it, but his grip was weak.
She waited to roll her eyes until she’d stepped outside, but whether it was at him or herself she wasn’t sure. Clenching her keys in her hand until it hurt, she fixed an I-don’t-give-a-shit look on her face—fake it till you make it, right?
The sopping clothes that clung to her body no longer felt cold. She didn’t notice the chilly breeze blowing off the ocean or the rocks under her bare feet as she carried her shoes down the driveway, past Tamara’s Prius, to her car parked on the road. She didn’t feel any of it. A numbness had settled over her.
Piper marched back to her car, determined that tomorrow would be different, that it would be just a job again, that she was done trying to figure out which Aiden was the real Aiden and if either of them liked her. It wasn’t worth dealing with a cow like Tamara. Besides, she was fine on her own. Just fine, fine, fine. Better, in fact. She didn’t need anyone. Especially a confusing man like him—no matter how handsome and thoughtful he was or how he made her skin tingle just by being in the room.
She heard the door squeak open behind her, but she kept her eyes forward until Aiden’s voice carried down to her.
“Pleasure!” he called out.
Against her will, her legs stopped moving. She eyed Colin, who seemed to shrug at her. No help there.
Unable to keep the annoyance off her face, she spun around. “Excuse me?”
“It’s pleasure,” Aiden repeated, jogging toward her. “At the center, you asked me if this was business or pleasure.”
He closed the distance between them. She knew the I-don’t-give-a-shit look was still in place, but mostly because her face didn’t know what expression to make.
Undeterred, he braved on. “It’s pleasure,” he said again. “That’s … if you want it to be. For it to be more than business, I mean. And if you don’t, I wouldn’t want you to leave this job. I know you need it until you’re done school. And it’s yours for as long as you like. I’ll understand if it’s just business for you.”
He was babbling, speaking so haltingly, the opposite of his usual confident self. Every word rang so earnest. So him. Not the world’s version of Aiden, CNN Aiden, but hers. He wasn’t hiding behind handshakes and ties.
Aiden ran a hand through his hair until it stuck up, stiff with seawater. “It’s been pleasure for me right from the start. I saw you and thought, how can I say no to that pretty face?” He paused. “Sorry, that was a reference from before. Remember? What we said at the beach? About our dogs? Not that I thought you were like a dog.” Running a hand over his face, he groaned. “That sounded a lot smoother in my head.”
And it was then that Piper knew he wouldn’t convert back to the other Aiden, not now. She wouldn’t let him. Tamara she could deal with later. She’d found her Aiden, and she wasn’t about to let him go.
“Well, Mr. Caldwell.” Piper held out her hand in front of her like she was waiting to shake his.
Aiden stared down at it, deflating a little at the sight, but he nodded and took her hand in his anyway. He shook it and drew away. But Piper didn’t let go. She tugged him closer, until their bodies were as near as they were earlier, no towel to separate them. Before he could react, she stood on her tiptoes and kissed him.
His mouth was warm and soft, and soon she forgot all about Tamara. All she could focus on were those lips and his hot hands that slid up her bare arms to cup her face. The touch was sweet and hesitant at first. Then he pushed back her wet, tangled locks and pulled her in closer, kissing her deeper, pressing himself against her.
Aiden’s body heat was much more effective than a pair of dachshunds. Soon it was more than shared heat that sent her temperature soaring. It was like lava running through her veins, warming her until she thought her clothing might dry from that kiss alone. When she finally pulled away, she half expected to see steam rising from their clothes.
Piper grinned up at him. “It’s definitely pleasure.”
Aiden returned the look. She’d never seen him smile so big. “Trust me when I say it’s all mine.”
Piper and Aiden’s relationship had been promoted from employment to dating status, and the new position came with a lot of perks. As she stared across the restaurant table at Aiden, she thought that the view from her new office had to be one of them.
He’d wasted no time booking a reservation at The Dog and Bone, San Francisco’s latest in five-star dining for both two-legged and four-legged connoisseurs. It should have been booked up for weeks, but not, it seemed, if you were Aiden Caldwell.
The server sauntered over, carrying two steaks with sides of butternut squash and blueberries. A decadent meal fit for a king and his queen—which Colin and Sophie were. She placed the dishes on the table, setting them in the depressions bored into the rich cherry wood so they wouldn’t move around the table as the customers devoured their meals.
Sophie sniffed at the food uncertainly. She glanced from the juicy slab of medium-rare to the server, wondering if the woman had made a mistake.
What cruel joke is this? Sophie seemed to huff at her. Why are you teasing me, evil servant?
The idea of sitting at an actual table set with fine china clearly threw the doxie. Her dark eyes turned to Piper and Aiden, looking for permission to eat. Colin had no such reservations. He had begun to gobble his New York strip steak before the plate was even on the table. Terrible manners for a date.
The server picked up a frosty bottle of beer. “Some specially brewed Hound Hooch for your friends?” she asked the humans.
“Is that safe?” Piper asked. “For dogs, I mean?”
“Don’t worry. There’s no alcohol. It’s supposed to taste like liquefied chicken.”
Piper wrinkled her nose. “I’ll take your word for it.”
“And for yourself?”
“I’ll go with the red wine,” she said. “Hold the chicken.”
“I’ll have the same,” Aiden said. “In fact, why don’t you bring the bottle?”
The bottle? Piper worried about the cost of the fancy restaurant, and not for the first time. She knew Aiden could afford it, but it still made her feel out of her depth.
The server nodded and headed for the Bowwow Bar, where a row of wagging tails swished back and forth through holes cut into the backs of the stools. Like any good watering hole, it took all sorts to ensure a good party; the furry customers ranged from Chihuahuas to Great Danes. A blond English cocker mix near the end of the bar barked, and the bartender put his cloth down to refill her glass.
The pooches drank from their ergonomically designed wineglasses that were tilted at the stem to make lapping easy. Next to Piper, Colin’s snout pressed into his own wineglass to sample his hooch. Between his lapping and Sophie’s eager meat chewing, they sounded like a couple of teenagers making out for the first time.
Piper turned to her own dish of baked salmon, festooned with lemons and watercress in a display worthy of the Smithsonian. She was almost afraid to ruin the masterpiece. Digging in, she took her first bite, and her mouth exploded in a savory orgasm.
“Wow. The food is amazing.”
Eyeing the room, Aiden observed the oil paintings set in gilded picture frames and the dripping crystal chandelier casting a warm, romantic light on their table. “I didn’t expect this place to be so”—he searched for the word—“decadent. I’d never heard of this restaurant before this week.”
“More and more restaurants in the city are catering to dogs. The world of doggy couture is growing.”
“Doggy couture?”
“You know, designer fashions, gourmet restaurants, puppy mansions.”
“Is that so? I wonder what kind of mortgage rates you could get for one of those.”
Piper laughed. “Addison owns her own dog spa. Business is booming. I heard about this restaurant from her after she came to the grand opening. She was promoting her business by offering complimentary pawdicures.”
“Well, I’m glad we came.”
By the way he stared at her over his filet mignon, she knew he didn’t mean because of the menu.
“Me too.”
Of course, the second Addison told Piper how high-class the joint was, she’d dug through Zoe’s closet to find something suitable. Her friend’s style fit the bill with her sleek sophistication. Zoe planned mostly weddings, so up-and-coming designers would often send her free samples of their latest bridesmaid dresses, hoping she’d recommend them to her clients.
Piper caught Aiden eyeing her plunging neckline for the eighth time that night before they quickly dropped back to his plate. The dress
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