Chapter 2
Robin Winters felt eyes on her and looked around to see if she could catch who was watching her. She found one guy. A tall, muscular man who didn’t even bother to cut his eyes away when she caught him.
The air was cold, but when she locked eyes with him, it seemed to plunge at least ten degrees colder. Her mind whispered, He’s dangerous.
Inclined to always believe her first instincts, Robin looked away, getting back to training the dogs. The husky, Sheba, had been a biter, and her owners begged Robin to help train her. They adored their dog, neither of them wanted to lose her due to her ill temper. They were shocked when they picked her up after her very first training session and found Robin had taken their dog’s leash off, and Sheba didn’t try to go after anyone.
The Dobie, Mr. Fox, had a bad temper along with a tendency to pee anywhere he wanted to. An older woman had inherited the dog from her brother who’d passed in an auto accident. She didn’t want to have to get rid of the dog, but she was going out of her mind with Mr. Fox’s antics. It took two training sessions with him and two with the woman to get them both on the right track.
Lancelot, the pit bull, had no real bad habits. His owner, a young teen girl, just wanted him to do things, like fetch and roll over, play dead, that kind of stuff. He wasn’t into it at first, but Lancelot came around after four training sessions. It helped to have other dogs around so he could see what Robin expected out of them and him.
Training dogs had been a passion of Robin’s since she could remember. She was that girl at the party who lost her mind when she found a dog at it. Robin would ignore the humans to play with the dogs.
So training them just kind of fell in her lap. It was friends who paid Robin to train their dogs at first, and it grew from there. At twenty-three, she already had a thriving little business, and a website helped her gain new clients all the time.
She wasn’t rolling in the dough just yet, but had aspirations of that one day. With hard work and self-discipline, Robin thought she’d be able to become the success she strove to be. Someday, anyway.
For the time being, she lived in a small apartment in town. What Robin really wanted was a home in the country. With time, she knew she’d see her dream come true.
The outdoors was a place she truly loved to be. Robin had moved to Loveland from her family’s home in Pueblo because the place called to her. The town was just so pretty, and the surrounding mountains and forest drew her in like no place else ever had.
It was tough at first, living so far away from her family. Being the youngest, not one of Robin’s three older sisters expected her to move out as early as she did, much less further away than any of them had.
They called her the wild one. They told Robin she was like some old soul who had a special knack with animals, especially dogs. Her family supported Robin’s decision to move and to train dogs for a living. She would’ve never been able to do it without their support.
The hour of training was nearly up, and Robin held up her hands to get the dogs to stand on their back feet. All three did, then they all fell back to the ground on their bellies, whimpering.
“What the hell?” Robin looked up as she saw someone coming toward them.
It was him, the guy who’d been staring at her. And for some unknown reason, he had the nerve to just come up to Robin. “I see you’ve got yourself some great dogs there,” his voice was smooth and deep.
The man looked to be about thirty. His dark hair hung in waves to his shoulders. Piercing blue eyes never left Robin. Broad shoulders, a wide chest, narrow waist… She stopped looking any further down. Robin didn’t need to look at his crotch to know he was hung like a horse.
After gulping a few times to get her head together, she said, “They’re not mine. I just train them.” Robin looked at the dogs’ demeanor. They weren’t moving, staying so still it defied imagination.
“You’ve done well.” He stepped right up on the seat of the picnic table that was behind her then took a seat on the tabletop. “I haven’t seen you around here before.”
“I haven’t been around,” Robin didn’t say anything else. Something was nagging at her to get away from the man.
Everything about the man was designed to intimidate. From his height, which was about six foot three, to his motorcycle gang clothing, and even his chiseled features told Robin that he was a man who loved to exercise his control over others.
An alpha.
And it seemed he wanted something to do with her. A thing she wasn’t about to allow.
“So, you’re not from here then.” He leaned back on his elbows, stretching out his lean, muscular body. His legs were as big as tree trunks, and the trainer in Robin had no choice but to admire his physique. “So where was home before this?”
“Pueblo,” she said then walked over to the dogs who were acting so differently. It was as if some major predator was around and they were assuming submissive positions to appease it. She looked around, thinking maybe they’d caught wind of a bear or something.
“Why’d you leave?” He looked up at the sun and took a deep breath. His dark hair fell across his massive shoulders, and Robin stifled a sigh.
Yes, he was breathtaking. But he was dangerous. She had to go with her first instinct. “I came to Loveland with a friend last year on a little vacay. I loved it and worked hard until I had saved up enough to move here.” She wasn’t sure why she was telling this stranger so much about herself. A part of her felt comfortable with the man, but the biggest part of her wanted to get the hell away from the danger.
She thought, I need to stop.
The man caught her ogling him when his head moved back down, and he smiled at the fact. “That’s pretty brave of you. A young girl.” He paused. “How old are you?”
“Twenty-three,” popped out before she could stop herself.
He licked his smiling lips. “Young.” His eyes moved away from her face to her tits. “Firm.”
Robin crossed her arms in front of her breasts and turned around so he couldn’t look at them anymore. “Jeez.”
His next word came from right behind her, “Round.” He was too close, and she stepped away from him hastily.
His proximity had the hairs on the back of her neck standing straight up. “I need to go.” She snapped her fingers. “Come on, guys. Time to go.”
After taking three steps, Robin noticed the dogs hadn’t gotten up. They lay perfectly still as the dangerously sexy man stood in front of them. “You sure you have to go already?”
She nodded. “Class is over,” then clapped her hands, “come on, guys. Let’s go. Your owners will be here soon.” She took a few more steps.
He chuckled. It was a deep sensual sound that made her tummy flip.
Okay, he’s sexy. So what? she thought.
“They don’t seem to want to go. You should stay. Talk to me. I’m not as bad as I seem.” He wiggled his finger at Robin with a come hither gesture.
She shook her head slowly. “I’ve got to go.” Their eyes were locked, and she found it hard to think.
His caramel colored lips parted. “Why?”
Why do I have to go? she thought.
Her brain kicked in, telling her, Because he’s dangerous!
Oh, yeah, Robin thought.
“Because it’s time to.” Robin leaned over and clapped her hands on her legs. “Come on, guys.” Still, they lay there. She looked over her shoulder when she heard the sound of someone honking their horn. “It’s your momma, Sheba. Come on, girl.”
“Where you going after this?” the man asked her, and it sparked something inside of her.
Robin wasn’t the kind of girl who got scared of people like him. Some switch flipped inside her. Her eyes landed on his as her inner alpha rose to the surface. “That is none of your damn business. I don’t know what made you think that you could just walk up on me and start talking.” She held her hand up, as if to stop him from moving forward. “I don’t care what made you think you could do that, so don’t bother trying to explain yourself to me. You’re in some kind of a gang; your jacket tells me that. You’re nothing but trouble, not a thing I’m interested in at all.” She clapped her hands together loudly. “Come!”
The dogs all jumped up and hauled ass to get to her and off they went. Robin wasn’t about to look back. But she felt piercing blue eyes on her the whole time.
As she walked up to the first car and opened the door to let Sheba jump inside, Robin still felt his presence. “Here’s Sheba. Same time next week?” The owner smiled and nodded as she hugged her excited dog.
Then Robin closed the door and went on to put the other dogs in their waiting owners’ cars. Finally she made her way to her car, not bothering to hurry. She didn’t want the guy to think she was afraid of him in the least little bit.
Once she got into the car, Robin put on dark sunglasses and looked to see where the man was. And there he was, sitting on the same picnic table, leaning back on his elbows with his eyes cast to the sky.
So he wasn’t looking at her the way she had thought he’d been. Well, so what, it wasn’t like she cared.
Robin drove away, and just as she pulled out of the parking lot, a shiver ran through her. She looked in her rearview mirror and saw him walking into the woods.
Why is he going into the woods all alone? she thought.