“I’m a dog walker,” I replied pleasantly before taking a sip of my fourth—fifth—cosmo.

  “No, I mean for a living.” His voice was deep, rumbling, and did naughty things to my groin. Nope. Not again. Wow, he had nice lips. And his hair was just long enough to curl behind his ear. It was thick, wavy, and looked soft. I wondered how soft it would feel between my fingers. Oh my God, stop. Stop it.

  “That is what I do for a living.” I suddenly wished my drink was stronger. Much stronger. Like his arms. Oh, fuck me. Yes, please! Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. “I’m a professional dog walker.”

  Lymond blinked at me. “That’s a real job? Since when?”

  I almost choked on my “I wish this was a shot of vodka” cosmo. Wiping my mouth with my napkin, I cleared my throat. “Yes, it’s a real job. I’ve been doing it for ten years.” I somehow managed to keep smiling when what I really wanted was to throw my drink in his face, but that would be a waste of perfectly wonderful alcohol. “And what do you do?”

  Lymond’s eyes never left mine, his expression impassive. “I’m a professional assassin.”

  I couldn’t help my snort. “Well, that explains a lot.” The food arrived, and I perked up. I might not be leaving with my future husband, but I’d be damned if I didn’t leave with a belly full of delicious food.

  “Wait. What’s that supposed to mean?”

  I stuffed my mouth full of mouthwatering filet mignon, the flavor exploding on my taste buds as the steak all but melted on my tongue. I couldn’t help my groan. Damn, this was good.

  “You didn’t answer my question,” Lymond said, brows furrowed as he glowered at me. The man certainly had a mean glower, not that I was afraid of him. I probably should have been, considering his size alone, but nope. It was most likely the cosmos catching up with me.

  “Sorry. I was too busy having a foodgasm to remember you were there.”

  Lymond stared at me in disbelief. What? Did he think I was just going to sit here taking his crap and not give it back? Pfft. Oh, honey, you are so pretty and so very mistaken.

  I shrugged at him. “It explains a lot because you’re obviously not a people person.”

  Lymond narrowed his eyes at me before stabbing his steak. “Do you insult all your dates?”

  I batted my lashes at him and gave him my most dazzling smile. “No, only the ones who show up late, don’t apologize, insult my profession, and then tell me he’s an assassin when I ask him what he does for a living.” Well, if looks could kill, he was certainly in the right profession. “Why are you here? You clearly don’t want to be.”

  “My brother signed me up without telling me,” Lymond grumbled, grabbing his beer and gulping it down. I did my best to ignore the way his throat moved as he swallowed.

  “So why did you show up?” I asked, tearing my gaze away before I embarrassed myself. What did it say about me that I wanted to do wicked things to him despite his being a jerk?

  “Because if some poor sap was desperate enough to sign up for this, who am I to crush his hopes?”

  My jaw dropped. “Desperate?”

  Lymond shrugged. “Why else would you do this?”

  Desperate? “Fuck you,” I hissed quietly, throwing my napkin on the table. “This may come as a surprise to you, but you are not God’s gift to gay men. Wanting to find love doesn’t make me desperate; it makes me human. Thanks for your charitable effort not to crush my hopes. You failed spectacularly, by the way. Clearly we were mismatched. I just feel sorry for the guy who was supposed to be my date and the masochist he most likely got stuck with who should have been here with you instead of me.” I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been this pissed off. Screw him. I made to get up, but he grabbed my wrist. Oh, hell no.

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “Unless you’re looking to lose that hand, you’d best let go.”

  His lips quirked up in the corner, and his eyes darkened. Was he… smiling? What was happening right now?

  “How about we skip the chitchat and go straight to dessert?”

  I blinked at him, completely lost. Was he saying what I thought he was? “I’m sorry. It must be the cosmos. For a second, it sounded like you were suggesting we have sex.”

  “I was.” He released my wrist and ran his tongue over his bottom lip as he raked his darkened gaze over me.

  I wasn’t sure if I shivered out of sheer anger or the heat in his eyes. “Are you kidding me?”

  He moved his eyes back up to mine. “Why not? We don’t have to like each other to have hot, mind-blowing sex.”

  I snorted. “Arrogant much? You’re a real charmer, aren’t you?”

  “I’m an asshole actually, but you’ve probably figured that out. So how about it?”

  Holy crap, he was serious.

  He leaned forward, took hold of my wrist again, and caressed my skin with his thumb. His voice was low and gravelly when he spoke. “How about it, Daniel. Let me fuck you into the mattress. After that, you’ll never have to see me again.”

  This wasn’t how this evening was supposed to go. I was supposed to be having a romantic dinner with my dream guy, not hooking up with yet another self-absorbed, muscle-bound jerk who wanted nothing more than a place to park his dick for one night. The only difference between Lymond and every guy who’d come before him was the brutal honesty. No games. No pretending this would be more than what it was. No false promises. Just a night of hot sex.

  Was I really going to do this to myself again?

  Chapter Three

  LYMOND

  This was a mistake.

  The moment I saw him, I told myself to walk away. I’d been early to our date, standing across the street in front of the furniture store, waiting for him to arrive. I never showed up somewhere without knowing what—or who—I was dealing with. The moment I saw him step out of the cab, I knew it was him because fate just loved to fuck with me. He was everything I’d been dreading, so of course he’d end up being my date. Perfect match my fucking ass. The man had stood nervously outside the restaurant, as if he was trying to gather up the nerve to go inside. It was adorable.

  Daniel was mouthwatering, from the preppy clothes that molded to his slender, toned frame to the plump, pink lips sporting lip gloss that made my dick jump up and take notice. He was fucking beautiful, and when I’d finally found my balls and joined him for dinner, I knew what I had to do. I insulted him.

  Instead of walking out, he kept making the effort to be nice to me, and when I kept being an asshole in the hopes he’d leave, he gave it right back. When I suggested we skip the niceties, and go straight to the fucking, I’d expected him to tell me to fuck off, but he surprised me yet again. I’d never been so turned on in my life, and against my better judgement, I followed him home.

  The moment we were out of the cab, I was all over him. His sinewy body fit perfectly against mine, his ass nestled against the erection straining against my dress slacks as he tried to get the front door to his place open. I thrust my hips into him, my hands sliding over his torso beneath the coat I’d unbuttoned on the way up the stairs to his front door. He was breathless as I trailed kisses up his neck before taking his earlobe between my teeth.

  “Fuck,” he groaned, finally getting the door open.

  I followed him in without letting go, turning with him as he closed the door behind us. I pushed him up against the door, my thigh between his legs and my lips on his. A groan tore through me, and I thought I was going to come just from the taste of his strawberry lip gloss. The whimpering noises he made were driving me out of my mind, and when I cupped him through his pants, he gasped, allowing me to slip my tongue through those plump lips. His mouth was hot, his taste sweet, and he shivered in my arms as I explored every inch of his mouth. He sucked on my tongue in what I prayed was a preview of what he intended to do to my dick.

  His fingers dug into my sleeves, and he began dragging me down the narrow hallway, his lips never leaving mine. We fumbled along the way, divesting each other of our coats, and I opened my eyes as we made it into the living room so I wouldn’t bump into anything. From the corner of my eye, I caught the sudden movement of something round and furry, and I’m man enough to admit it scared the shit out of me.

  “Holy fuck, what is that?” I ignored Daniel’s soft laugh as he picked up the round hairball.

  “This is Elton,” Daniel said, hugging it to him. To my horror, a tiny pink tongue darted out and licked Daniel’s cheek.

  “It has a name?”

  Daniel shook his head in amusement. “Of course, he has a name.”

  “I thought it was a decorative pillow.” I wasn’t entirely sure I was wrong.

  “He is a Pomeranian,” Daniel said, holding Elton out to me.

  Was I supposed to hold it or powder my face with it? Pretty sure I saw something similar dangling from my mother’s key ring the other day. “He is a puffball with eyes.” I ducked to look under what I was being told was a dog. “Where are his legs?” Seriously, the thing was just hair and eyes and a tiny black nose. It stared at me, and I was pretty sure it was pure evil. It had to be.

  Daniel put Elton on the floor, and it bounced excitedly. It squeaked in place of what I assumed should have been a bark, prompting more barking from somewhere else in the apartment. The sound of clinking metal and nails tapping against the wood floors filled the air, and I’m not proud of the step I took behind Daniel. Good God, there were more of them?

  “Let me introduce you to the gang.” Daniel laughed as a large black poodle with an impressive mohawk, spiked collar, painted silver nails, and a skull shaved into his flank, jumped onto its hind legs in greeting. It had a giant puff of fur around its chest, pompoms just above his paws, and his tail ended in one as well. “This is Axl. He’s a bit of a rock diva.”

  “Of course he is.” Axl spared me a glance, then turned his nose up at me before he sat at Daniel’s feet. I had been judged and found wanting. I turned my attention away from the giant cotton swab to the black-and-brown dachshund scampering over. His short legs moved furiously to get him to Daniel, and it made me smile. He was all ears with a big barrel chest, and a pointy tail that could put someone’s eye out as it whipped from side to side.

  Daniel crouched down to scratch the dog behind the ears. “This is Maverick. His person named him that because he’s always jumping off the furniture like he’s some daredevil thinking he can fly.”

  “How does he reach the furniture?” I thought it was a very valid question, but Daniel chose to ignore me. He laughed at a wiggly corgi that appeared. Jesus, they were multiplying. Where the hell were they coming from?

  “This is Princess.”

  Princess muscled her way through the other dogs to get to Daniel. Dainty she was not. “Axl, Maverick, and Princess. What happened to naming your dog Buddy or Rex?”

  Daniel looked up at me, amusement in his dazzling blue eyes. He really did have the most stunning eyes. They were a deep cobalt blue, and the color of his shirt made them pop even more.

  A white poodle-not-quite-poodle jumped at Daniel excitedly. “And this is Toby. He’s a schnoodle.”

  “Which one’s yours?” I asked when I noticed the poodle giving me the side eye. Yeah, I wouldn’t trust me either, pal.

  “None of them. I walk them and doggy sit them when their people are out of town.” Daniel shrugged, and I noticed the way his eyes went sad.

  It was ridiculous how much I wanted to take that sadness away and see the smile back on his beautiful face. “How come?” Clearly he loved dogs, spent a lot of time around them, and took care of them. It was odd he wouldn’t have his own furry friend.

  Daniel stood and shoved his hands into his pockets, his eyes on the floor. “When I was a kid, I had a golden retriever. Her name was Summer. She was my best friend.”

  I swallowed hard at the was.

  “She was hit by a car when I was in high school. My parents wanted to get me another dog, but I refused. They’d never be Summer. After a while, I thought about it, and I told myself the timing wasn’t right but in truth, I was too scared to put my heart out there again like that.” He blinked away the wetness in his eyes and laughed softly. “Sorry. I’m pretty sure this isn’t what you had in mind for tonight.”

  I ignored the warning bells in my head and brought him into my arms and held him. Closing my eyes, I put my hand to the back of his head so I could rest my cheek against his soft hair. This was the perfect opportunity to walk away. Daniel wasn’t the man for me. He had a big soft heart, one I could crush all too easily. If I spent any more time with him, it would only make things harder when it came time to leave, and I would have to leave. There was no place for a man like Daniel in my world. For fuck’s sake, the man was still mourning the loss of his dog. How the hell could I expect him to be with someone who did what I did?

  Daniel pulled back, and something changed in that moment. He bit down on his bottom lip and took hold of my tie, pulling gently. Like a man under a spell, I followed the movement and lowered my head, brushing my lips over his. I wrapped an arm around him and brought him up hard against me, my cock stiffening as his tongue darted out to lick at my lips. I parted them, inviting his tongue to slip inside. I let him lead me through the living room to his bedroom. We stood by his bed, and he kissed me feverishly before pushing my chest hard. I fell back onto the bed at the same time as I heard a pop.

  Daniel frowned, puzzled. “Did you hear that?”

  My eyes widened at the neat little hole in the wall at the same height where my shoulder would have been had Daniel not pushed me.

  “Get down!” I tackled him to the floor, and we hit the boards just as a second pop caused another neat hole in his wall.

  “What the hell is going on?” Daniel asked, gripping my arms tight. He made to push me off him when he noticed the holes. “Oh my God, are those…? Are those bullet holes?”

  “We have to get out of here.”

  Daniel’s startled eyes were back on me, and I could see the moment it sank in. He shook his head. “No. No way. You were just fucking with me.”

  I cringed.

  His eyes were huge. “Please tell me you were just fucking with me.”

  “We gotta go,” I said, grabbing his wrist and dragging him with me as I ran in a low crouch for the bedroom door. Since the shot came from behind the house, I ran for the front door. Daniel dug in his heels.

  “Wait, the dogs!”

  “The dogs will be fine,” I growled, throwing my arms around him and lifting him off his feet. I swiped his coat off the floor and shoved it at him.

  “Put me down,” he spat out, wriggling in my hold. He swung at me, and I dropped him, his fist catching me on my arm on the way down. It smarted, but not as bad as it would have had he hit the side of my head like he’d been aiming for. Daniel scrambled to his feet, the dogs whining and barking their little faces off. “I can’t leave them!”

  “Crispin won’t hurt them,” I argued, quickly getting into my coat before I snatched hold of his wrist again and ran for the door. I knew better than to leave my gun at home, and yet here I was. Fucking perfect. What the hell was Crispin doing in the city? Better yet, what was he doing in the fucking country?

  “Oh my God, you know who’s after us?” Daniel was indignant as he tried to pull out of my grip. He was so adorable when he was pissed off. I promptly reminded myself that now was not the time to admire Daniel’s blazing blue eyes or the way his smooth, fair skin flushed pink.

  I threw the door open, shoved him through, and shut it behind me before grabbing his arm again and hurrying as far away from his house as possible, my eyes scanning the upscale neighborhood lined with perfectly trimmed trees and impeccable brownstones.

  “Who the fuck is Crispin?”

  I tugged Daniel with me as I ducked behind a black Audi and braced myself for the explosion that would surely come the moment I answered his question.

  “He’s my ex-boyfriend.”

  Chapter Four

  DANIEL

  “Your ex-boyfriend? Your ex-boyfriend?”

  I’d heard the words, clearly, since I kept repeating them, but for the life of me, I couldn’t make sense of them. His ex was after us? Oh my God, the furry babies! I tried to get away from him to head back, but he grabbed me around the waist, pinning me to him. I was like a child trying to get out of a car seat, pushing, squirming, and flailing my limbs but going nowhere. The man didn’t budge. He was like fucking granite. Jesus.

  “The dogs will be fine,” he assured me.

  I stopped struggling because all I was doing was exhausting myself and becoming more annoyed than I already was. “The man just shot at us. What makes you think he won’t hurt the dogs?”

  “Because he loves dogs. He told me once that dogs were easier to love than people. So true. Dogs don’t shoot at you because you make one simple mistake. It’s not like I didn’t apologize. I was in the middle of a job. I couldn’t stop what I was doing to explain yet again why it wasn’t working out between us. Stupid Jerrott,” Lymond grumbled, removing some strange-looking tool from his coat pocket. “I told him I don’t date. I don’t do relationships, and this is why.” He opened the door with a triumphant grin and started pushing me inside the car. “Get in.”

  I scrambled over the driver’s seat to the passenger seat, making sure to stay low. When I was sitting, I glared at him and put my seat belt on. “In what world does your ex-boyfriend try to assassinate you because you break up with him? He gets pissed off, sends you some drunken texts, calls you an asshole, and then shows up at your birthday party with some skank he picked up at the bar to make you jealous because he’s a selfish prick named Blaze! Who names their kid Blaze?” I was fuming.

  He stopped whatever he was doing under the steering wheel to squint at me. “What?”

  “My point is, they act like jerks; they don’t try to put a bullet in you!”

  The car started, and next thing I knew, we were burning rubber. “He’s not going to kill us,” Lymond said, and I had the feeling he was just trying to placate me.