Bare It All

Even with the pep talk, her throat went tight and her eyes burned.

A knock on her door had her sucking up the excess of emotion real quick.

Cash did a doggy feat of launching away while barking like a crazed beast.

“Cash, behave.” Assuming Reese had forgotten something, Alice quickly wiped her cheeks and drew a cleansing breath. Going to the door, she put her eye to the peephole—and straightened with incredulity.

Taking his cue from her, Cash ramped up his barking to a berserk level.

“Shhh,” she told the frantic dog. “It’s okay.” Maybe. But why in the world would—

“Open up, Alice,” came a deep, compelling voice. “I know you’re in there. I hear Cash.”

As the dog recognized their visitor, his reaction transformed from outrage to utter elation. Giving a high-pitched whine, he turned circles and kept looking at her, waiting for her to open the door.

In a whisper, Alice reminded the dog, “You don’t know him any better than I do.”

“I can hear you, too, Alice.” The amusement came through loud and clear. “Now open up.”

She bit her lip to hold back the groan. Good grief, did he have supersonic hearing or something?

Heartbeat accelerated, Alice put a hand to her hair, but of course it was already tidy. She was always tidy. And boring. And too cautious...

Stop it.

She straightened her shirt, licked the lips that Reese had just kissed and unlocked the door.

Cash charged forward in excitement, but he didn’t get far. “Hello, Rowdy,” she said as he caught the dog’s collar. Luckily, being around Reese had gotten her somewhat used to large men.

Because Rowdy Yates was that, and then some.

He was also drop-dead gorgeous in a devilish, careless, edgy way. Where Reese tempered his sex appeal, Rowdy threw it out there without reserve, bludgeoning innocent bystanders with his raw magnetism.

“Hey, yourself.” He went down to one knee to acknowledge the dog. “What a welcome! I missed you too, bud.”

“Odd,” Alice remarked at the dog’s reaction. “He barely knows you.”

“We’re kindred souls.”

She doubted that. The dog was sweet and mostly gentle. In more ways than one, Rowdy Yates represented walking, talking trouble.

Unlike Reese, he didn’t speak in a falsetto voice to Cash. There were many, many other ways in which he differed from Reese, as well. Where Reese instilled trust and confidence, Rowdy brought out blushes and heart palpitations.

Standing there, one hand on her throat, the other crossed over her stomach, Alice wondered why in the world he’d come to visit.

His blond hair, darker than Reese’s, was a little too long and a lot too messy, as if the wind—or a woman’s hands—had recently played with it. He had beard shadow, not because he’d just awakened, but because he hadn’t bothered to shave. He wore a snowy white undershirt with jeans so ancient the denim was threadbare in places.

All in all, he made a rugged, mouth-watering package. Alice gulped and asked with some hope, “Are you looking for Reese?”

“Nope.” He scooped up the dog. “Instead of hanging out here while you analyze me, how about we take this little party inside?”

But they weren’t having a party! And how had he known she was analyzing him? “I, ah...”

As if she had no say so at all, Rowdy strode in, and she could have sworn Cash smiled at her as they went past. Alice just managed to get out of Rowdy’s way.

With the back view of him now presented to her, she couldn’t help but notice his muscled tush—and the outline of a big folding knife in his back pocket. She’d barely met him, but it didn’t surprise her that he’d armed himself. In fact, she’d bet he had another weapon or two hidden on his person.

Why was he here?

She had no reason to distrust Rowdy. But then, she had no real reason to trust him either.

Leaving the front door partially ajar, she followed him into her apartment.

They hadn’t been properly introduced, but she knew Rowdy as one of the men involved in the violence yesterday. “You’re Rowdy Yates, Pepper’s brother.”

“And you’re Alice, Reese’s neighbor.” He gave her a killer grin guaranteed to make a woman’s knees wobbly.

Alice didn’t doubt its effectiveness—but he wasted it on her. So far, only Reese had the ability to overwhelm her with his presence.

“Alice Appleton.” Given that Reese now knew her name, there didn’t seem to be much reason for the continued subterfuge—at least, not in that. Concern furrowed her brow. “Is everything okay?”

“You tell me.” Going to her couch as if he visited every day, as if they were somehow old friends instead of brand-new acquaintances, he dropped into a seat. Cash remained on his lap, a look of rapture on his dark face.

Given his exceptional good looks, it wasn’t a hardship to study Rowdy. And in that study, she saw so many emotions. Self-assurance. Even arrogance.

But she also sensed his troubled thoughts. About what? Yesterday he’d been in the middle of extreme circumstances. Reese had told her that Rowdy’s sister had been threatened. How powerless had that made him feel?

He appeared the overprotective sort. But now his sister was with Reese’s good friend, Detective Logan Riske. Did that leave Rowdy somehow displaced? Did he have any other family to turn to?

She had family, and yet, she was still...alone.