Free Sackmaster by Ann Jacobs Page A

hand then
turned and kissed his palm. “That would never do. Could I rub some of that
suntan lotion all over you, too?”
    “You mean here?” He took her hand, brushed
it over his head then laid it over his crotch. “See what it does to me, just
thinking about touching you, claiming every inch of your luscious body?”
    “I see. And I love having your huge, hard
cock inside me. Everywhere.”
    That last word, so fucking sexy sounding
when she said it, almost made him say the hell with talking and on to taking
her right here on the front seat of the Navigator. He pulled up in front of his
almost-finished house and started to reach for her. When a faint, whining sound
drew his attention to the ground below an unfinished deck, he stopped in midair
and looked for the source of the sound.
    “Oh, no. Can we help her?” Julie obviously
spotted the same thing that drew his attention, and she was out the door and
headed toward a scruffy-looking mutt huddled at the corner of the deck closest
to a steel support beam.
    “Careful, baby, it may bite.” From the
sound of its plaintive cries he guessed the dog must be in a lot of pain, and
he worried that it might attack out of fear. Jimmy opened the door and slid
out, moving fast to get in front of Julie but trying not to startle the dog
with any sudden movement. He felt Julie right behind him before he saw her out
of the corner of his eye.
    “Look. It’s hurt.”
    Jimmy saw damp blood matting the dog’s hip.
“I see.” He spoke softly, trying to reassure it as he moved closer. “It’s okay,
we just want to help you.”
    “Do you think somebody hit it with a car?”
She spoke softly and moved slowly, her gaze fixed on the muddy pooch that was
feebly trying to lift its head. When the dog looked up at them, pain evident in
its dull, brown eyes, Julie knelt before he could stop her. “It’s okay, we’re not
going to hurt you.”
    Jimmy held his breath until he was
confident the dog wasn’t about to hurt Julie. Then he moved in, got a good look
at the wound and pulled out his cell phone. “Our friend here needs a vet,
fast.”
    * * * * *
    Julie hadn’t had a dog since she was a kid,
but she loved them. From the seriousness in Jimmy’s tone when he spoke to a vet
and the care with which he lifted the dog into the back of his SUV, she
gathered he was an animal lover, too. Almost as though the dog, whom he decided
to call Missy, was a beloved family member, they waited in the vet’s waiting
room while he set her broken hind leg and checked her for internal injuries.
    “What kind of dog do you think she is?”
    Jimmy shrugged. “Part beagle, maybe. Or
Jack Russell terrier. I’m not sure. I am going to take her, though, if she
pulls through. Somebody must have dumped her on the road before she got hit by
a car. I figure since she found my place, she decided it ought to be her home.”
    “I won’t tell a soul, but for a big, bad
football player you’re a real softie.” She smiled at him, certain not just any
guy would have scrapped his plans for the day to help an animal, much less plan
to give the dog a home. “I’m glad. I’m an animal lover, too.”
    An hour or so later, when the vet came out,
Jimmy stood. “How is she?”
    “She should be fine other than a limp that
may or may not go away. I put in two pins that will need to come out in about
three weeks. If you don’t mind, I’d like to keep her here a couple of days to
be sure there are no internal injuries that haven’t shown up. Somebody dumped
her out of a moving car, looks like.”
    Poor Missy. From the way Jimmy looked, he’d
like to strangle whoever had treated a helpless animal like that. “Yeah. You
keep her as long as you need to. And do what needs doing. Don’t skimp with her.
I’ll take care of your bill.”
    When they shook hands, Julie got up. “Can
we see her?”
    “Tomorrow. If you two are going to keep
her, you should visit her while she’s here, give her the chance to get to