“You have to be charming,” he told Moe as they approached the trim brick building that he’d watched Malory enter that morning. “You act like a dog, we’ll never get through the door.”

As a precaution, Flynn wrapped the leash twice around his fist before going into the twelve-unit building.

He considered it good luck that M. Price was on the ground floor. Not only would he not have to drag Moe up steps or pull him into an elevator, but the building’s ground level had little patios.

That gave him the option of bribing Moe with the cookie he’d stuffed in his pocket and staking him outside.

“Charming,” he said again, sotto voce, giving Moe a narrow stare before he knocked on Malory’s door.

Her greeting, when she answered, wasn’t what he could call flattering.

She took one look at him and Moe. “Oh, my God. You’ve got to be kidding.”

“I can put him outside,” Flynn said quickly. “But we really need to talk.”

“He’ll dig up my flowers.”

“He doesn’t dig.” Please God, don’t dig. “I’ve got a—I can’t say the C word, or he’ll get excited. But I’ve got one in my pocket. I’ll just put him out there, out of the way.”

“I don’t—” Moe’s nose arrowed straight into her crotch. “Christ.” In defense she skipped back, which was all the invitation Moe required.

He was through the door, dragging Flynn merrily over an antique Turkish carpet, barely missing slapping his lethal tail into a Deco vase filled with late-summer lilies.

Terrified, Malory made a dash for her patio door, yanked it open. “Out, out, straight out.”

It was a word Moe knew. And he objected to going out when he’d just come in to so many fascinating scents. He simply dropped his wide butt on the floor and dug in.

With dignity no longer an option, Flynn hooked both hands in Moe’s collar and dragged him bodily across the room and out the door.

“Oh, yeah, that was charming.” Out of breath, Flynn looped the leash around the trunk of a tree. And as Moe began to howl, he dropped to his knees. “Stop it. Have you no pride? Have you no sense of masculine solidarity? How am I going to get my hands on that woman if she hates us?”

He pushed his face into Moe’s. “Lie down and be quiet. Do this for me, and the world is yours. Starting with this.”

He pulled out the cookie. The howling stopped instantly, and the tail began to thump.

“Screw this up and next time I leave you home.”

He stood up and sent what he hoped was an easy smile toward Malory, who stood warily on the other side of the door.

He figured it was a major victory when she opened it and let him in.

“Have you tried obedience school?” she demanded.

“Ah, well, yeah, but there was an incident. We don’t like to talk about it. This is a great place.”