Page 29 of Puck Yes

His running shorts hug his hips, and I try to look away. I swear I do. But it’s one thing to think a guy with a fiancée is handsome. It’s entirely another to find a single man thoroughly fuckable.

But I can’t think that. Nope. I can’t. And I won’t.

Best to deny this lust blooming inside me. “Hi. I’m here to help,” I say.

Roxy’s bushy tail goes wild, faster than a metronome set to its highest tempo.

Hayes kneels in front of my cinnamon pup with her whitening muzzle. “Hey, girl,” he says and offers her a hand for sniffing. My mutt rubs her face against his palm, then the shameless hussy stretches her paws up onto his chest.

Not satisfied saying hi to one, she scampers to Stefan next, looking up at him, and barks her hello bark. Herlook at mebark.

He must speak Dog, since he’s kneeling too, offering her a hand.

“Well, hello there,” Stefan says, and that only makes my girl waggle her butt more. “Who’s a good girl? You are.”

Dammit. My chest tingles at those words. Can he please say them to me?

Wait. Do I want Stefan to say that to me, or Hayes?

Hayes is the guy I’m resisting, right? Stefan is just a handsome afterthought.

But am I his certain someone? The one he mentioned in his comment on my post?There’s a certain someone I might run into today.

Has he been into me since before I showed up at work the other day?

I don’t even know what to think as Roxy taunts me, stretching against Stefan, getting a double pawful of his pecs before sliding her greedy mitts down his bare stomach.

“Sorry,” I say. “I hope she doesn’t scratch you.”

Stefan lifts his face, his eyes locking with mine. “I don’t mind a few scratches.” Heat flickers in his eyes, and I swallow roughly.

Hayes drags a hand through his thick, dark hair. “Yeah, nothing wrong with a scratch mark here or there,” he says in that sexy voice before he joins Stefan in the kitchen.

“Such a good girl,” Hayes says to Roxy, and yes. That sounds delicious too.

The double good girl.

My stomach flips, and my mind goes fuzzy. I can barely think straight as Hayes rewards the pup with more pets and chin rubs.

And she takes them all.

Hayes gestures to the bandana she’s sporting, black lined with chili peppers. “Fashion statement or a warning she’s spicy?”

Huh? Did he ask me something?

Oh, right. A dog question.

“Both,” I say. I try to clear my head and focus on my visit, not the view of two men lavishing praise on the little dog I rescued so she could have a home in her final years. So she could experience love. So she could be adored.

My stupid throat catches.

“Is that why you adopted her? Because she’s fiery?” Stefan asks.

It’s so seamless the way the guys trade off. And it’s good, too, that they’re asking about Roxy. Dog talk makes me emotional, but surely that’s safer than desire.

I head into the kitchen where Roxy is bounding back and forth between the two guys. Yes, better to focus on my shameless girl.

“She is fiery, but mostly I got her because I felt like she needed me. Trina told me about her,” I say, talking over this erratic beating of my heart, this quickening of my pulse. “Trina is Ryker’s girlfriend, and also Chase Weston’s from the Sea Dogs,” I explain to Hayes, but he nods right away. Maybe he’s heard about the throuple. “She volunteers at the shelter where I got Roxy from—Little Friends. But Roxy’s a Florida girl.”

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