Encrypted Connection

Blaise: Five

It was a toss-up whether the dog walked Blaise or Blaise walked the dog.

Even just getting from the underground parking lot to the entrance of the salon was a chore.

He didn't even want to think about the ride over there.

One side of his hair was spiked up, not on purpose, mind you, but because a large tongue spent most of the ride grooming him. And you don't generally get to tell an animal as large as Blue when to stop.

Blaise had tried.

He was alpha. He knew that. He'd been that guy since he was old enough to realize it. He'd commanded troops, coached teams, ran his own covert ops team, and walked into rooms of really, really bad men and took control.

Yet he couldn't seem to tell one large dog one god damn thing.

The side of his face was sticky and he smelled...well, he smelled like a dog.

Blaise pulled his earwig out, though, before they proceeded. Joey had been having too much fun at his expense, and he couldn't handle the constant chatter in his ear anymore, not while trying to deal with this behemoth.

Blue pulled him suddenly, as the elevator opened, and Blaise almost lost his balance as he fell off the lift and stumbled into a high-end dog bathhouse.

The floors were marble, swirls of sparkly black on stark white, high glossed so much so that Blaise could see his reflection before he picked himself up off the ground.

A hand appeared in front of his face, and he took it without thinking.

He wasn't above a little help.

And it put him face to face with Andrei Serkov.

"Thanks, man," he said, tugging Blue's leash and, for once, that sweet girl sat on her large ass and waited.

Guess we're getting down to business, Blaise thought.

"You looked like you could use a hand," Andrei said, his accent heavily Russian, but his comment sincere.

Blaise grinned a bit, nodding, "Yeah, this girl can be a handful. Aren't all women?"

Both men chuckled, and as if on queue, Blue decided the laughter had to mean Andrei was friendly and launched herself into the air and put both front paws on the man's shoulders.

Andrei seemed surprised, then amused, but when he fell backwards, that was Blaise's queue.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a small container with a piece of salmon, tracker embedded, and crouched before the...dog?
It was more like a teddy bear on four legs, damn near the cutest thing he'd ever seen.

The little pup tilted her head at Blaise, and when she smelled the treat, she walked right into his hand, taking it off his palm as he petted her.

"Well, aren't you a cutie, hm?" Blaise cooed, and the dog just ate it up, its little tail wagging and the salmon piece gone in a flash.

"HEY!" the other man yelled, and Blaise turned just in time to see Blue sit herself on Andrei's chest, paw in his face, getting ready to go in for a long, luxurious lick.

Blaise stood, whistling loudly, and as if that was all it took, Blue stood and trotted back to Blaise's side, sitting down again.

"Picked now to be behaved, do you?" he asked quietly, then looked up at Andrei, this time offering him a hand, "I'm so sorry about her. She gets excited when she meets new people. I should have warned you."

Andrei huffed, looked down at the dog, then reached out a hand and scratched her on the head, "It is not her fault. She is dog. They get over excited."

Blaise nodded, and just as he was about to expound, a woman walked out and called Andrei's dog's name, and just as if they hadn't met at all, he turned, picked the little teddy bear up off the floor, and walked to the back of the salon.

When another woman walked out and called Blue's name, she balked a bit when she saw the size of her, side-eyeing the receptionist and fidgeting.

Blue did almost the same.

Blaise smirked, handed the end of the leash over to the petite blonde woman, and Blue looked up at him pleadingly.

"Oh no, it's time for you to get pampered," he said, "Remember the drive here? And remember tripping me before we got to the car? Well, honey, payback's a bitch."

And he turned and walked over to the row of seats and sat down, even as Blue whined and cried till the door shut behind her.

"Would you like something to drink, Mr. Banner?" a woman asked.

Blaise noticed the full bar and nodded, "Whiskey. Neat. And you got anything to eat?"

The woman listed off their appetizer menu, and Blaise chose some meat skewers or something and sat back. He pulled out his phone, dug the earwig out of his pocket, and plopped it back in.

"You gonna shut up for two seconds or do I have to cut you off again?" he said under his breath.

The walk to the car with Blue was much more controlled this time, and she seemed...remorseful, even as her newly painted nails clicked on the concrete and her walk had a funny gait to it.

The lady that gave her back to Blaise said they had a bit of a hard time getting her to sit still so they could express her anal gland.

Blaise heard anal and that was all he needed to hear.

"Well, some people don't like things up their ass like others," he said, opening the passenger side door, watching her gingerly climb in.

When she looked back at Blaise, though, the man sighed. Those big, brown eyes and that droopy frown broke his damn heart. If he had one. He reached out and scratched her behind the ear, sighing.

"C'mon. Job well done today deserves a treat."

At the "T" word, everything about her perked up, and Blaise laughed out loud.

They went through Starbucks and Blaise got her a large puppuccino. The girl at the window changed it from a small espresso cup to a large one when she saw the size of the puppy.

Five minutes later, whipped cream all over both Blaise and Blue, he looked at her with a glare.

"You think you could have inhaled it a little faster?"

All Blue did was bark.

Using his phone, Blaise found a dog park with a really cool splash pad, and he was glad to see it wasn't that busy.

The water was shooting out of the ground at random intervals, and the dogs in the place were going crazy. Before Blaise let Blue out, he grabbed that saggy, sweet face and turned her eyes to look at him.

"No biting, no hurting any other dogs, and if one of those fuckers tries to hump you or hurts you, you come and find me, got it?"

And as if she was agreeing, she barked.

He nearly fell again before he was able to get her to the gate. The man in the booth took Blaise's information, Judy Banner--and it pissed him off all over again--the pic of Blue's shot records, and all while Blue was working on dislocating the man's arm trying to get away.

Finally, Blaise unclicked her leash, and she shot off like a rocket.

Little did he know he'd have to chase her down and tackle her to the ground just to get her to go home. And that someone would put it on YouTube.