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‘Are you sure about this?’ Laura eyed the fat black dog currently leaning against Jason’s leg with its mournful black eyes firmly fixed on his face. ‘He doesn’t smell great.’

‘So we’ll give him a bath. We couldn’t leave him behind. Bastard Bill was on his way to have him put down.’

‘Yeah…’

Further conversation had revealed that Bill’s mother had gone into a rest home recently and her dog, a six-year-old motley cross between a Labrador and a poodle, had been locked up in Bill’s garage because his wife refused to have him in the house. His messy search for food or a distraction in the rubbish bags that morning had been the last straw and Bill had been summoned home from work to deal with it. The SPCA would have been an alternative to taking the dog home, but Jason and Oscar had clearly formed a bond.

‘A dog is a big responsibility,’ Laura felt obliged to remind him. ‘Might not be easy keeping one with shift work.’

‘Be a darned sight easier than looking after a baby,’ Jason declared. ‘And kids need a dog around.’

Again, they both ignored the obvious and Jason sat in the back seat with the smelly dog while Laura drove them home. Oscar had to stay outside until later that evening, but as soon as Megan was settled Jason unearthed all the old towels he could find and ran a bath full of warm water.

‘Will dishwashing liquid be okay?’

‘I think baby shampoo might be better.’

‘Hey, good idea! I should have thought of that for your bath.’

‘You didn’t!’

‘Didn’t what?’

‘Put dishwashing liquid in my bath.’

‘It needed bubbles. Worked quite well, I thought.’

‘No wonder my skin’s been feeling so dry all week.’

‘Bet it was squeaky clean, though.’

‘You’re impossible.’ Laura laughed. ‘But never mind. Let’s see if we can get Oscar squeaky clean, shall we?’

* * *

Oscar didn’t take kindly to being bathed. He shook the offending sudsy water off frequently enough to soak the walls, floor, Jason and Laura. It took six towels to get him reasonably dry, and by then the dog was so tired out by the trauma of it all he curled up on the pile of damp towels and went very firmly to sleep.

‘I know how he feels,’ Jason groaned. ‘I’m heading for bed as soon as I’ve dried off as well.’

He stripped his soaked T-shirt off and was about to drop it on the floor when he caught Laura’s stare. She had taken her glasses off because of the rain effect of Oscar’s shaking, but even the depth of colour in her brown eyes wasn’t enough to conceal the dilation of her pupils. The sight of a pink tongue tip running over her lower lip confirmed what Jason was thinking. The heavy T-shirt slipped from his fingers, unheeded. His mates were right. Laura did fancy him.

His gaze didn’t stop at her face. Laura’s T-shirt was as wet as his had been and it clung to her breasts. Jason dragged his gaze back up to her face and the moment the eye contact was renewed he realised the truth. Any attraction here was mutual. For a long moment they simply stared at each other. And then Jason reached out.

‘You’d better get that T-shirt off,’ he murmured. ‘You’ll catch a cold.’

He helped her. It was Jason who dropped the damp garment. This time as their gazes caught Jason was much closer, and it was so easy to bend his head and kiss Laura’s upturned face.

One kiss was not enough. It could never have been enough. Jason could taste things he’d never thought it was possible to taste. All the things he liked about Laura were there – her kindness and loyalty, her intelligence and warmth. Her humour and strength. And he learned something new about Laura Green. Despite anything that appearances might have suggested, she was capable of a passion that blew his socks off.

One kiss and then another… and another. Jason’s tone when he spoke might have been cheeky but the question in his eyes was very serious.

‘I think you might catch a cold, wearing that damp bra. You’d better get it off.’

He helped her. The lacy garment went the same way as the T-shirt and this time Jason could explore the delicious softness of a body type he’d never had the pleasure of tasting before.

‘You’re gorgeous,’ he told Laura. ‘Did you know that?’

‘You’re not half bad yourself,’ she responded shyly. Then she caught her bottom lip between her teeth. ‘But I think you should get out of those damp jeans before you catch a cold.’