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“Oh my god! Are you OK?”
Daisy looked down at Red, who was currently almost completely covered by her Great Dane, Vinnie. She could see the bottom of his legs, one arm and part of his head, but the rest of his body was trapped under 180 pounds of overprotective dog.
“What. Is. This. Thing?” Red gasped, his voice muffled, probably because the sheer size of her dog on his chest was preventing him from taking a deep breath.
“My dog.”
“Can you get him off of me? Please?”
“Oh. Sorry. Of course. Vinnie. Come!” she called, making her voice deep and commanding. The giant dog obediently jumped up and shuffled over to Daisy, sitting at her feet expectantly but keeping his eyes on Red.
“Good boy, Vinnie,” Daisy said in sweet voice as she rubbed his head. “You’re such a good boy.”
“Is it safe to move?” Red interrupted. “Or is he going to try to kill me again?”
“Sit up slowly and stay sitting,” Daisy instructed Red. “No sudden moves.”
Red gingerly moved to a sitting position, looking a little shellshocked. Daisy stifled the urge to laugh at his expression. She moved closer to Red and patted him on the head like he was a dog.
“What the...?”
“Shh,” Daisy shushed him, then patted him on the head again, looking at her dog. “Friend, Vinnie, friend! This is Red, he’s a good boy.”
The giant dog looked from Daisy to Red and, assured that Red was no threat, wandered off to lay on the couch as if nothing had happened.
Daisy reached down and offered her hand to him, ignoring the frisson of electricity that ran up her arm when she touched him. Red hopped up easily but kept his wary gaze on her dog.
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “Vinnie is very protective of me. It’s been a while since I had a man in the house, and I forgot that would probably make him nervous.”
Red shook his head and smiled ruefully. “I guess I should be happy you’ve got someone to protect you,” he said. “I’ve been to war, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt fear like I did when that giant bastard sent me flying and then jumped on top of me.”
Daisy could feel her cheeks turning pink with embarrassment. “Are you OK? Did he hurt you?”
“Just my manly pride.”
She laughed. “Well, you did kind of squeal a little there as you hit the floor.”
“That’s because Vinnie landed on the family jewels,” he explained.
She felt her face turn even redder and reached in her pocket for her cell phone. “I’ll call in our pizza order, then we can take him for a walk and pick up our food on the way back.”
“He’s not going to attack someone on our walk, is he?” Red asked.
“Of course not,” Daisy answered as if he was crazy. “He only freaks out if men he doesn’t know get too close to me or come into the house and I don’t prepare him first.”
When Daisy had suggested that they skip the line at the Crab Shack and instead take the dog for a walk and grab a pizza, she hadn’t thought about Vinnie’s reaction. It had been a long time since she had brought a man home, and it was only natural that Vinnie would see Red as a threat, especially since he was a big guy with tattoos.
“Did you purposely train him to be a man-hating attack dog?” he asked curiously.
“Oh no, he started acting this way after the time he saved my life,” she said. Her eyes widened and she slapped a hand over her own mouth. What was it about Red that she kept letting personal information slip out around him? She was usually very close-lipped, even with good friends.
“I’ll need to hear that story,” Red said curiously.
“Let’s take our walk first, Vinnie is eager to go outside after being alone all day,” Daisy demurred, hoping he would forget about it.
Red pointed to where the giant dog was sound asleep on the couch. “Yeah, I can see that.”
Daisy whistled and the big dog jumped off the couch, immediately awake and by her side. “Let’s take a walk baby,” she cooed as she put his leash on. “Then we’ll get pizza.”
They got back to Daisy’s house a little over an hour later. They had been mostly quiet on their walk, each lost in thought. Red has seemed surprised that Vinnie was so well-behaved on their walk. Vinnie had been like that since he was a pup, totally attuned to Daisy’s every command. He never tried to pull away from her, even when a cat went streaking by them.
After a quick stop at the pizza place they returned to her house with a large pie. Daisy gestured to the dining room table.
“Have a seat, I’ll get plates and napkins,” she said. “What can I get you to drink?”
“How about a beer?” Red asked.
“I’m sorry, I usually don’t keep any alcohol in the house. I’ve got water, soda, lemonade or kombucha.”
Red scrunched his nose. “Kombucha? Yuck. I’ll take a soda if it’s not diet.”
She returned with two Cokes. Sitting across from Red, she slid a slice of pizza onto a plate. “Mmm,” she said happily. “It smells delicious.”
Red helped himself to a couple of slices of pizza, then pinned her with a serious look. “Tell me about Vinnie saving your life,” he ordered.
Daisy flinched, but quickly schooled her expression again.
Hearing his name, Vinnie came trotting into the dining room, plopped down near the table, and stared longingly at the pizza. A long stream of drool hung from his mouth. “No begging Vinnie,” Daisy chided. “You know I’ll give you the leftovers later.”
Vinnie sighed deeply and wandered off to lay down again.
“Do you have any pets?” Daisy asked, hoping to distract him.
“Tell me the Vinnie saving your life story,” Red redirected.
“Oh it’s nothing,” she said with forced casualness. “It was a long time ago and I don’t really like to talk about it.”
“How about the Cliff Notes version?” he suggested. “You got my curiosity up.”
Clearly this guy couldn’t take a hint, which was her own fault for letting the information slip in the first place. Red stared at her expectantly. She sighed.
“When Vinnie was a puppy, someone broke into my house and attacked me,” she began in a carefully even tone, “Vinnie bit him and the guy went after him instead, which gave me enough time to neutralize the guy.”
“Was it a stranger?” Red asked, a muscle ticking in his jaw.
“No,” she said softly. Daisy willed herself not to think about that night, but the words unlocked the memories.
Coming home. Being thrown to the floor. Looking up into the face of the guy who was attacking her and realizing it was one of her father’s “lieutenants” on a mission to kill her. The look of fury on his face as Vinnie attacked him with every ounce of his puppy strength. Grabbing a frying pan and hitting the guy on the head, knocking him unconscious just after he sent Vinnie flying. The panic she felt when she saw Vinnie hit the wall and not get up. The police interview. The animal hospital. The trial.
Thankfully Vinnie had recovered from the attack, and so had she. Then they had started their new life in Diamond Bay, with Vinnie her vigilant guardian.
She took a deep breath and willed the memories away. Willed herself not to cry. She had cried enough over the things that had happened to her. She was strong. She was a survivor.
Red watched her carefully. She wasn’t sure what he saw in her face, but he backed off, changing the subject.
“We had a cat when I was a kid,” he told her, answering her earlier question. “My mom never wanted us to have a dog. They made her nervous.”
She breathed a sigh of relief.
They finished off the pizza, keeping the conversation light and avoiding any more probing questions. She really enjoyed talking to him and found that they had a lot of common interests. They both liked to read mysteries, and shared a love for skiing, running, country music and Star Trek the Next Generation.
Red got up to leave around 10:00. She walked him to the door, and he leaned in with a cocky smile.
“If I kiss you, will Vinnie tear my face off?” he asked.
She laughed. “No, now that you slipped him that slice of pizza he’ll be your friend forever.
“I’d rather be your friend forever.”
Before she could respond he moved closer. He gently put his hands on either side of her face and kissed her. His lips were softer than she would think they would be, and his beard tickled against her jaw. She could smell the pizza sauce on his breath.
Red nipped at her lower lip, and she opened for him. Their kiss turned electric as his tongue swept in to explore her mouth. Just like the first time he kissed her, the entire world seemed to narrow to the two of them. It was spontaneous combustion.
Somehow he turned her until she was backed up between him and the door. He pressed close, turning his head to deepen the kiss even more. She met him eagerly.
Her hands snuck around to his waist, and she pulled him even closer, grinding her pelvis against him through the fabric of her long skirt. He groaned against her mouth, his hands slipping down to her shoulders and pushing her sweater off.
He broke the kiss long enough to pull her tank top over her head, then he dropped down to kiss her again. It was dark in the hallway, and she felt a sense of relief that he would be able to see her tattoos clearly. She moved her hands down, sliding beneath the waistband of his jeans to cup his butt cheeks over the fabric of his briefs.
Red started kissing down her throat while reaching behind her to unfasten her bra. He moved back a couple of inches as he released her heavy breasts from their confinement.
“Oh my god, you’re beautiful,” he breathed as he stared at her breasts in the dim light. Her nipples hardened under his gaze. He leaned down to lick around one nipple, then the other, before returning his attention to her mouth.
She felt him pinch her nipple and she moaned loudly, breaking off their kiss. “Oh my god, Red,” she gasped. He dropped his head and left a trail of small bites down her neck and the top of her shoulder while still rolling her nipples between his fingers.
Daisy was grinding against his penis, hard and impossibly large against the fly of his jeans, trying to get herself off. They were dry humping like a couple of teenagers, she realized.
Finally, he broke off the kiss. “I’d better go before we get carried away,” he said quietly.
He dropped a quick kiss on her forehead and left, promising he would be in touch. She stood there in shock, still naked from the waist up.
What the hell had just happened? She wondered. She had been so far gone, ready to have sex right there against the door, when he put on the brakes. Once again she was taken aback by him not pushing to do more, especially since they had such an obvious attraction. She had certainly felt the extent of that attraction grinding against her pussy.
Apparently Red planned to take things slowly. As she calmed down she decided that was fine with her. She was conflicted about dating him, given his career. He seemed like a great guy, but she couldn’t get past their obvious differences.
It’s not his career that’s scaring you, the little voice in her head told her. He’s blowing past all your defenses. He’s getting too close. He will hurt you eventually, they all do.
The voice in her head was right. She had never had a man affect her like this and it was scaring the hell out of her. She was already telling him her secrets and thinking about him all the time like a middle school girl with a crush. It was too much, too fast.
That night the nightmares came for the first time in almost a year. She was being held down, turning blue. Vinnie was whimpering in pain. She grabbed the frying pan, heard the sickening crash of metal on bone. Suddenly her parents appeared, their eyes glowing with malice. They were after her.
She woke up shaking, drenched in sweat, tears streaming down her face. Vinnie was standing next to the bed, his giant head on her legs, trying to comfort her. She rubbed him between his ears the way he liked and told her herself she needed to keep her distance from Red. Her subconscious was sending her a message.
She had learned a long time ago that people when people got too close they would hurt her. She needed to keep her secrets. She needed to stick with the only person she could truly trust – herself. It was the only way to be sure she stayed safe.