“Jack Daniels,” he said, holding out his hand.
She raised a finely arched brow. “For real?”
“Yeah. My parents had a weird sense of humor. My SEAL teammates call me Whiskey, if that works better for you.” A lot of people thought SEALs weren’t allowed to reveal their identity, but that wasn’t true. They just didn’t go around advertising the fact. He hoped knowing would make her feel more comfortable with him.
He smiled—impressed that he remembered how—and waited to hear her answer.
Nichole eyed the blond-haired, blue-eyed man who was apparently a dog whisperer. Wow, an honest-to-God SEAL, and he was as hot as the SEAL heroes in her romance books. Maybe even hotter. Definitely hotter.
“Nice to meet you, Jack. I’m Nichole Masters.” She held out her hand, and it disappeared inside his massive one. His touch was gentle, but she was sure he could crush her bones if he wanted. His voice sounded vaguely familiar, but she was positive she’d never met him before. Jack Daniels was not a man a girl would forget.
“And you, Nichole.” Rambo barked, and Jack let go of her hand. He smiled down at her puppy. “Yes, we haven’t forgotten about you, Rambo.” He glanced up at her. “That’s a big name for the little man to live up to.”
“I’m hoping he’ll grow into his name. He’s a rescue, part German shepherd, part anyone’s guess. The vet said maybe some sheltie.” Her hand was warm from being in his, her fingers tingling a little from his touch. The last time she’d had tingly anything from touching a man had been with Lane, before he had shown her his true self. But she wasn’t going there, not when a hotter-than-hot hero was sharing her breathing space.
He handed her the leash. “Two intelligent dog combinations and very trainable. He’ll test you, but he’ll also want to please you.”
She blinked, trying to catch up with their conversation. She ran his last words through her mind. Right. They were talking about Rambo. “Believe me, he’s doing a great job of testing me.” She’d never had a dog before, and honestly hadn’t had a clue how rambunctious or destructive a puppy could be.
He glanced around. “Maybe this isn’t the best place for him. At least not until he’s trained.”
As if to prove his point, Rambo tangled his leash around her legs again, then stuck his nose under her dress, lifting the hem halfway up her thighs. She bent over to grab the skirt before she flashed not only a hot SEAL but all the strangers around them, whose attention suddenly seemed to be on her.
Rambo dropped to his feet, gave a happy bark, and then tried to run in the opposite direction. With her legs bound together by the leash, preventing her from getting her balance, she toppled forward, her face heading directly for Jack’s crotch.
She put her hands out to keep her mouth from landing on the most private part of him, but when she realized that would result in her groping him, she panicked and ended up windmilling her arms. A mere inch before her mouth got entirely too up close and personal with a man she’d only met minutes ago, a pair of hands slid under her arms and lifted her back to her feet. That would have been great if her new position wasn’t breast to SEAL chest. An extremely hard chest. Desire spiked through her, adding to her embarrassment. Her cheeks and the back of her neck felt like they were on fire.
“Ah...ah.” She realized her arms were sticking out in a pretty good imitation of a scarecrow, so she dropped them to her sides. He kept his hands on her arms, trailed his fingers over her skin, down to her wrists, leaving goose bumps in his wake. She lifted her gaze to his. Lord have mercy, his eyes were a hundred times darker than they had been before she’d smashed her breasts into his chest. She wondered if he would mind if she climbed him like a tree.
A slow—sexy as all get-out—smile curved his lips. “Hello,” he murmured.
“Hi,” she chirped. Really, Nichole, you’ve taken to chirping? He let go of her and stepped back, then dropped to his knees. Her heart slammed into her rib cage at seeing him in that position while her mind was stuck on the breasts-to-chest thing and her skin tingling from his touch.
As if he could read her thoughts, he lifted his eyes—still a darker blue—and gave her that sexy smile again. “I’m just going to free you.”
“Oh.” That came out sounding disappointed, and he chuckled. What in the world was wrong with her? She’d never reacted to a man like this before, not this fast and this...well, tingly.
“There, all better,” he said once he had her unwrapped from the leash. He tapped the puppy’s nose. “You’re a handful of trouble, aren’t you?” Rambo tried to lick him. Jack stood and handed her the end of the leash.
“This is the first time I’ve brought him here with me. I guess I jumped the gun, but he’s learned to recognize when I’m leaving and starts to cry. I felt guilty for sticking him in his crate all day. Eventually I want to be able to bring him, but obviously I need to wait until he loses some of his puppy energy.”
“That will happen, even faster if he gets some training, but yeah, this isn’t a good place for him right now. Too many interesting things and people to check out.”
“Live and learn, right?” A couple walked up to her booth. “Um, I need to get to work.”
“You have your phone on you?”
“Yes. Do you need to make a call?” Heaven help her, the man really did have a killer smile.
“No. I was going to put my number in it. You know, in case you decide to take me up on my offer to help you train Rambo.”
“Oh. Right.” He probably thought she was a scatterbrain, but it was entirely his fault for being so sexy that it was hard to think around him.
As if to prove he needed training, her dog was straining at the end of his leash, trying to get the couple’s attention with begging yips, hoping for a little petting. “Rambo, no.” She pulled him back toward her, and of course, he planted his paws so that she ended up dragging him.
She glanced at Jack, expecting to see disapproval, but the only thing in his eyes was amusement. “Here.” She unlocked her phone and handed it to him. “You’ll definitely be hearing from me if you can teach him some manners.”
“I can.”
When he handed her phone back, their fingers brushed against each other, and there was that tingling again.
“Take care, Nichole.” He squatted in front of Rambo. “I know you have a lot of energy, buddy, but try to behave for your mistress.” Rambo tossed himself onto his back, his tail scraping across the floor.
“I don’t think behave is in his vocabulary.”
Jack glanced up at her as he gave her dog a belly rub. “Part of teaching him that word will be to teach you how to master him.”