Chapter Five

Riley

I'm dying to hold her.

Yesterday, for the first time, Lena didn't flinch when I touched her. She didn't pull away. She even placed her head against me. Damn, I wanted to kiss her then. Harder than I ever have. I wanted to push her down on the dirt, tear her clothes off her and make her mine. I didn't even know there was such a beastly urge in me.

But I didn't. My sensible self prevailed over my sensual and I simply stood there holding her hand. I couldn't have her first time be on top of some dusty rocks, after all.

All the way down, I thought of all the ways to hold her, to take her, to make her moan and scream my name. But when we got back to the house, I saw her bruises and listened to her complaints of pain. I bandaged her cuts and even rubbed her sore shoulders. Then she fell asleep. I couldn't bring myself to wake her.

This morning, for sure, I'll have my chance. After all that happened yesterday, I'm sure Lena won't resist.

But when I come back to the bedroom after my swim, she's no longer in bed. Instead, I hear the shower running. The door to the bathroom is locked.

I frown as I stare at the knob. So she's still scared of me?

It doesn't matter. I sit on the bed and wait. Patiently.

After what seems like an eternity, I hear the knob turn. Lena comes out of the bathroom wearing a striped shirt and a jumper dress that reaches down to her knees. Bunches of her wet hair cascade down on the towel around her shoulders.

"Oh." She stops in her tracks when she sees me. "Did I keep you waiting? I'm sorry."

Damn right she did. But no more.

I stand in front of her and take her hand. "How are you feeling?"

To my dismay, she pulls her hand away. "Better. My muscles are still feeling a little sore, though."

She pats the sides of her thighs.

"And your wounds?" I grab her arm to take a look.

"They've healed."

She's right. The bruises have begun to fade. And the cut seems to have closed.

"What about the one on your knee?" I ask her.

Lena glances at it. "I think it's--"

"Let me check."

I pull her towards the bed so she can sit on its edge. Then I lift the hem of her dress to take a look at her scraped knee. It, too, looks better.

But then, checking her wounds was just an excuse.

I press my lips against the fresh skin.

"Riley, what are you doing?" Lena attempts to cover her knee.

But I push the denim back, brushing my lips against the inside of her thigh. She laughs.

"That tickles."

She grabs my shoulders and pushes me off. I get off my knee and lean over her. Losing her balance, she falls on top of the bed. Her wide eyes stare up at me.

"Riley?"

I can see fear in them, but I can also catch a hint of something else. Excitement? Desire?

I lower my face to hers, hoping to kiss her so I can find out. But as soon as I close my eyes, I hear a door open. Lena pushes me away.

"Seth must be here," she says, getting off the bed.

I frown. Another foiled attempt? My patience is running out.

Still, I put on a smile as I follow Lena to the living room to meet Seth. This time, I get to choose the challenge, to pick a toothbrush from a huge mug. I pick the red one and Seth reads the note attached to it.

Two become one and sometimes three

Time for something cute and cuddly.

My eyebrows crease. Cute and cuddly? A stuffed toy?

"Come to the front yard in five minutes," Seth says.

After he's gone, I look at Lena. "What does it mean?"

She just grins. "I won't tell you so it's a surprise."

Of course she knows what it is. Doesn't she know everything about this show?

As for me, it seems to be another test of patience. Really? All this suspense is killing me.

Finally, Seth calls. Lena and I go to the front yard where a large basket is waiting. Lena runs to it and opens it.

"A puppy!" She holds up the dog inside.

"This is Rufus," Seth says. "He's a three-month-old Golden Retriever and he'll be in your care until this evening."

My eyebrows rise. What?

"Good luck." Seth waves as he walks away.

I place my hands on my hips and let out a sigh.

"What's wrong?" Lena throws me a puzzled look. "Don't tell me you're more of a cat person."

"I'm not. But I'm not a dog person either."

There were several dogs at the house where I grew up, but none of them were mine.

"Really?" She cradles the puppy in her arms.

"You clearly love dogs."

"There was always one at home when I was growing up," she tells me. "My favorite was a Border Collie named Sasha, but Golden Retrievers are adorable too."

She walks towards me and offers me the puppy. "Here."

I lift my hands as I take a step back. "It's okay. You can have her."

"Him," Lena corrects me. "His name is Rufus, remember? And we're both supposed to take care of him for a day. That's the challenge. How are you supposed to help me take care of him if you won't even hold him?"

I cross my arms over my chest.

"What?" Lena brushes the puppy's paw against my arm. "Don't tell me you're scared of one cute little puppy?"

"I'm not scared."

I just don't like taking care of things.

"Come on, Riley," she speaks in a child's voice. "Don't you want to hold me?"

Oh, I do want to hold her. Not the puppy, though.

"You know you want to," she chants.

I glance at the puppy and then back at Lena. Now both of them are looking at me with the same eyes.

To hell with it.

"Fine." I stretch out my arms.

Lena puts the puppy in them. "There you go."

I lift the puppy up. "He's heavier than he looks."

"Yup. He's going to be a big boy." She pats the puppy's head. "Aren't you, Rufus?"

I frown. How can she warm up so instantly to this mutt and still feel uncomfortable around me? How come she's so nice to him when he hasn't done anything?

"Alright. Now you hold him."

I hand Rufus back to Lena, but as soon as she has her hands around him, I hear a trickling sound. Something warm hits my stomach and when I glance down, I realize the puppy has peed. On me.

Fuck.

Lena puts Rufus down on the ground and laughs.

I put my hands on my hips. "Oh, so you find this funny, do you?"

"Sorry," she says. "It's just that this is like that scene in those movies, you know, where the baby or the puppy always pees on the person it doesn't like. I didn't know it could happen in real life."

I tap my foot on the grass. "Well, now you do."

"Sorry." She straightens up. "But you're going to take a shower anyway, aren't you?"

My eyes narrow. "So you're not even going to get mad at the dog?"

"Oh, come on. He didn't mean to do that."

"Didn't you just say--?"

"It was an accident. Or maybe his way of warming up to you."

"Very funny."

She pats my shoulder. "He's just a puppy, after all."

Just a puppy, huh? I glance at Rufus, who's busy sniffing a potted plant. Something tells me this one's going to be a real troublemaker.

~

And I'm right.

All morning long, it's just been one 'accident' after another. I swear this puppy isn't house-trained. And in between, it's a string of disasters with him chewing on one thing and then another. Why, he nearly even chewed on my two-thousand-dollar goggles.

"Still think he's just a puppy?" I ask Lena as she picks up her drool-covered, tattered hair tie from the floor.

She shrugs. "What do you want me to say? That he's a monster? A pesky pest? A golden-furred devil sent to test the limits of your patience?"

"All of that sounds good to me."

Lena frowns. "He's a baby, Riley. He doesn't know what's wrong and right yet. And even if he did, he wouldn't piss you off on purpose. You know why not? Because he's a dog."

I know he's a dog. That's why it annoys me that Lena is treating him like a human. Why is she taking the dog's side and not mine? Why am I the bad guy?

"I mean look at him," Lena adds as she glances at the puppy, who's nestled between her feet.

Again.

That's the worst part of all. The dog keeps hanging around Lena. It keeps following her around, trying to get her attention--and succeeding. Even earlier, when it finally took a nap, it did it on Lena's lap. It's as if the damned mutt is trying to tell me, with that innocent, self-pitying look that he's giving me right now, that Lena belongs to him.

I meet the look with my own narrowed gaze.

Oh, those puppy dog eyes don't fool me. I know that beneath those floppy ears, you--

Suddenly, Rufus gets up. He lumbers towards the table in the corner and tries to squeeze himself beneath it. He manages it, too, so that only his tail is left sticking out. It almost looks like the table has a tail.

"Aww." Lena lets out a sigh.

I nearly laugh at the sight, but then I realize that for the first time, Rufus has left Lena alone.

Lena and I can finally be alone.

I grab her arm and lead her to the bedroom.

"Riley?" Lena questions me with wide eyes.

I hold a finger to my lips. "You don't want to wake the dog, do you?"

That puts a lid on her protests until we reach the bedroom. I close the door behind me and lift my hand to cradle her jaw.

My eyes hold hers. "Let's pick up where we left off this morning, shall we?"

Lena blinks. "What?"

I press my cheek against hers so that I can whisper into her ear. "I didn't tell you, but yesterday, when you were standing on the top of that hill with me, bathed in the glow of the sunset, you were so beautiful."

Her cheek grows warm. I brush my lips against it.

"I wanted to do this then."

I bring my mouth to hers, but her palms flatten against my chest and she pushes me away.

"You're kidding, right?" She gives a nervous laugh. "I mean, I was all a mess and covered in sweat and--"

"Which made me want to mess you up and make you sweat even more." The words go past my lips before I can think.

The blue green eyes in front of me grow wide.

They really remind me of the ocean, of the pool, of the water pulling me in.

I keep those eyes on me as my hand slides to her chin and holds it in place. I stare right into them until I get too close. By then, I can feel her hot breath on my face. My eyelids drop along with my lower lip, ready to capture hers.

But then I hear a whine behind me, followed by claws scratching the door.

Fuck.

"Rufus," Lena says as she pulls away.

She tries to go past me towards the door, but I wrap my arm around her waist.

"Lena." I pull her towards me.

"Riley?"

"Just leave him," I tell her as I plant a kiss below her ear, as I let my fingers entwine with hers.

The puppy whines louder.

"But I can't." Lena shakes her head. "We can't do that."

My patience snaps. I push her towards the bed. The edge of the mattress collides with the back of her knees and she falls on top of it. I push her shoulders down. My eyes bore into hers.

"No more buts. No more excuses."

I grip her chin and my mouth descends to muffle whatever protests she has left. Still, she pushes me away.

"We had a deal, remember?" Lena glares. "You know I didn't ask for this."

The look of disappointment in her eyes sobers me up as much as her words. I move away with a sigh.

She runs out the door. I catch a glimpse of her picking the puppy up over my shoulder before it closes.

I run my hands through my hair in frustration. What was I doing? What was I thinking? Lena's right. We had a deal. But for a moment there, I lost it. I lost control. And because of that, we're back where we started. No. We're even further back.

Maybe I should just leave her alone.

~

That is exactly what I do the rest of the day, but then, as the afternoon grows late, I hear a scream.

"Rufus!"

I run out of the house and spot Lena just as she jumps into the pool. I hold my arm over my face as the water splashes.

When I lower it, I see Lena and Rufus both in the water. Rufus seems to be doing just fine, paddling with his small paws and keeping his head above the surface. Lena, on the other hand, is frantically waving her hands around.

She said she doesn't swim, but she didn't say she didn't know how to.

Shit.

I take off my shirt and dive into the pool. I grab Lena first, wrapping my arm around her chest. Then I seize Rufus and bring them both towards the shallow end. Once there, I place the puppy on the tiles. He gives his fur a shake and drops of water fly in various directions.

I ignore that as I turn my attention to Lena. "Are you alright?"

She nods as she catches her breath.

I let out a sigh of relief. "You didn't tell me you didn't know how to swim."

"How could I? It would be like telling a world-class chef I don't know how to cook an egg."

"And you still jumped into the pool."

"Well, I had to save Rufus."

"And risk your own life?" I shake my head. "I don't know if I should call you brave or stupid. Besides, I don't think he needed saving."

I glance at the puppy, who's now rolling over the grass as if nothing happened.

"Yeah. Probably not," Lena agrees. She turns to me. "Anyway, thank you for saving my life."

I look into her eyes. "I couldn't very well let you drown."

"Yeah. That wouldn't make a very nice headline--'Olympic Swimmer Lets Wife Drown'."

I grimace. "Not nice at all."

"I guess your swimming skills aren't just for show."

My eyes narrow.

"Just kidding." Lena pats my arm. "Seriously, though, thank you for coming to my rescue. I guess I can really count on you when the going gets tough."

Her eyes glimmer as her thin lips curve into a smile. Again, they call out to me. The urge to kiss her roars in my chest.

But this time, I hold myself back. I'm not going to make the same mistake I made earlier. In fact, I'm not going to touch her or kiss her again, not even if she's willing, not even if she looks like she wants me to. I'll only do it if she asks.

"I'm sorry about earlier," I tell her. "I should have kept my end of the deal."

Lena shakes her head. "Well, you saved my life, so I think I can forgive you for that. Besides, I know you didn't mean it."

My eyebrows arch. "I didn't?"

"You haven't been yourself all day. I think it's mostly Rufus's fault."

I narrow my eyes at her. "Are you finally admitting that Rufus is guilty of something?"

"I'm only saying Rufus was driving you nuts," she says.

"I won't deny that."

"Do you really dislike dogs that much?"

Before I can answer, I feel something warm against my ear. I turn my head and feel a small tongue against my cheek.

"It seems as if Rufus likes you, though," Lena remarks.

He does seem like he can't stop licking me.

"Okay, okay. I get it." I push him gently away. "You're just a playful little puppy."

Annoying as he's been, I guess he's done something good by jumping into the pool and making Lena jump after him, which gave me a chance to save her and get back in her good graces.

She grabs Rufus. "You little rascal. Why did you have to jump into the pool, huh? You're just like Riley, aren't you? You can't resist the water."

My eyebrows rise. "Like me?"

"If you wanted a bath, you could have just told me." Lena cuddles the puppy. "But no, you had to go for a swim, didn't you? Didn't you? And look how you got us all wet."

She looks silly as she continues to talk to the puppy like a baby, and yet I can't take my eyes off her. Or keep myself from smiling.

I guess I can't leave her alone. I'll just have to make her come to me, then. I still have five more days.

I wonder what tomorrow's challenge will be. It can't be harder than taking care of a puppy, right?