31

~Darlina's POV~

Atlas and I first washed all of the small dogs, as they were the easiest and took the least amount of time to bathe, so I figured it'd be the best option to get them done before moving onto bathing the large dogs last. I allowed the small dogs to leave, which they very happily did, running out of the room and shaking off their furry bodies along the way.

I closed the door and looked up at Atlas, whose shirt was wet all over the front from the animals. A giggle left me as I pointed at the large wet spot, only earning a scowl from him that told me he wasn't having a good time. "What are you laughing at?" He grunted, grumpy as ever.

Grinning, I tossed out the empty dog shampoo bottle and grabbed a completely new one from the cabinet. "Absolutely nothing." I fibbed with a shrug of my shoulders, turning towards him. "But I hope you don't have anything against getting wet because you're going to need to get up in the stall with the dogs to wash certain places." I teased. He must've assumed I was joking because his face remained flat, utterly unamused by my words.

"No." He stated flatly, crossing his arms in refusal. "I'll help wash, but I'm not getting in that." He said, gesturing to the large stall I was referring to. "Hell, I wouldn't even fuckin' fit." He added.

A frown quickly took the place of my smile. "Fine, I'll do it myself." I sulked, kicking off my boots and my socks, which I stuck inside of my shoes. He smiled, clearly happy with himself for managing to avoid the role which I was now stuck with, and helped me first get Buddy into the stall. Thankfully, Buddy was one of the better dogs when it came to baths. In fact, he loved getting baths, so I didn't get wet or have him put up a struggle when he was rinsed with the detachable nozzle.

However, it was upon the time of washing the third dog, Tito, that I began to struggle.

Tito kept his big, black eyes on me as Atlas and I rubbed him down with shampoo, as if he knew what I was in here for, which he probably did. This wasn't a new routine, though I wasn't usually the one inside the stall but rather the one outside it. Still, he was being relatively good by sitting down, at least for now.

But then I picked up the detachable nozzle and Atlas' eyes widened as Tito began to back away, his muscular arms reaching down to hold him in place. "It's okay, Tito." I said softly, ignoring the wetness of the water under me when I got down on my knees in front of him in hopes to calm him. I turned the setting to as light as it went, but Tito had always disliked the nozzle so it didn't do much to settle his nerves when I turned the water on.

He jerked in Atlas' hold as I began to rinse his underbelly off, my hand which wasn't holding the nozzle smoothing over his wet head. I could feel the sleeve of my dress was now wet, but I paid it no mind because it was just water. It wasn't that big of a deal to me since it'd dry, nor would it stain.

Growing more annoyed with the water touching him, Tito whined and began to wildly shake in attempt to dry, causing me to cringe away. "Come on, we're almost done." I whispered, standing up to move around to the backside of his body. He ran to the opposite end of the stall and I quickly followed, spraying off the soap suds on his soft fur. Continuing to shake off in rebellion, I turned off the water and let go of the nozzle, finally having finished washing him.

We let him out of the stall and he immediately took the chance, almost knocking me over with how fast he ran past me. I grunted in surprise and stumbled, bumping into Atlas' broad chest as he lingered by the door to the stall. "Oof!" I huffed out upon impact, surprised. His arm wrapped loosely around my waist to steady me so I wouldn't slip, as my bare feet were wet. A blush crept up my neck from the closeness and my heart skipped a beat. "S-Sorry!" I gasped, quickly stepping away.

I then, ironically, did exactly what he had been trying to stop me from doing and slipped due to my wet feet. Alarmed, my eyes widened and a squeal slipped from my mouth as I nearly fell on my ass, but Atlas again pulled me against him. "Fuck, Darlina." He cursed with a shake of his head. "You're so clumsy." He sighed, not seeming to mind that my fingers were currently curled into the fabric of his shirt for support.

Though I was still heavily embarrassed by the fact that I had just looked like a fool in front of him not once but twice in less than twenty seconds, I tried to play it cool by clearing my throat and promptly releasing his shirt. "Um, we should finish this up..." I stated, peeking up at him.

Atlas took one look at me and shook his head, running his tattooed fingers through his hair. "I'll do it." He decided, gesturing to my clothes before he spoke again. "I didn't realize how wet you'd get and you're only in this little dress, so you should just be outside the stall instead." He remarked, eyeing the wet part of the skirt of my dress. I looked down, a slightly confused furrow between my brows as I only just noticed the dampness along the bottom of my dress, along the edges and even slightly higher in some areas.

"Oh." I frowned upon seeing it, huffing. Tito must've gotten my dress wet when he pushed past me, or perhaps when he was putting up a fight in the stall.

"You don't have to." I told him as he hunched over into the stall with Geo, barely able to fit inside due to the size of his frame. "I really don't mind doing it." I said, but he just closed the door to the walk-in stall and shook his head. "C'mon, just keep a hold on him so we can finish this shit up." He responded, already grabbing the bottle of dog shampoo.

So I did as he asked, deciding to let him do what he wanted. I pet and cooed to Geo while Atlas washed him, wanting to keep the large dog calm. My eyes flicked over to him as he gently handled Geo, not being too aggressive in his scrubbing of his fur with his soapy hands. Despite how he had claimed to not be very good with animals, he looked pretty good with them to me. None of the dogs had even so much as growled at him before, and they all liked him a lot. I wasn't sure why he thought he wasn't good with them.

A little lost in my thoughts, I jolted when Geo suddenly moved, trying to shy away from the water nozzle. "Hold him still." Atlas muttered, causing my cheeks to burn in embarrassment. "Sorry. I was thinking." I apologized softly, helping to move Geo a bit closer again so he could rinse him off.

We managed to finish up washing Geo and Atlas stayed out of the way when I opened the stall door, allowing Geo to excitedly run out as he shook off his wet fur. Atlas exited the stall, drying off his wet hands on his still damp shirt with a groan as he rose to his full height. The stall was pretty big, sure, but not very tall--at least not compared to him.

"Are you okay?" I asked, smiling slightly in amusement. He nodded, stretching his arms over his head until the bottom of his shirt lifted, exposing his tattooed abs. I glanced down without really thinking, my eyes zeroing in on the ink. "Do you have your entire torso tattooed?" I wondered, cocking my head to the side.

Atlas dropped his arms to his side, raising an eyebrow at my sudden question. "Were you just checking me out, Darlina?" He asked, gasping as if he was offended. "Scandalous!" He exclaimed, chuckling when he noticed the embarrassed look that grew on my face at his words. I huffed, not amused by his teasing. "You're such an ass." I grumbled, turning around to leave the room. Sure, I had been looking, but only because of his tattoos. Him being physically fit was just...a bonus.

Of course, he immediately came following after me as I left the room, having no reason to stick behind now that we were done bathing the dogs. "I do have my entire torso tattooed. Basically every part of me is." He responded, no longer teasing me.

My eyes flicked up to him as we walked back to the front of the building together, a little surprised. "Did that take a long time?" I questioned, curious. I didn't have any tattoos myself, but I had always liked tattoos and thought they were pretty, or cool depending on the kind. The fact that Atlas had his entire body tattooed made me wonder how long it took, but I assumed it wasn't that much time because he shrugged slightly. "Not in the long run, I suppose. I started getting tattoos when I was eighteen, and I was fully tattooed before I even went to prison. So...maybe three years in total?" He said thoughtfully, recalling it.

Surprised, my lips parted. "Wow." I said, blinking as I studied the tattoos on his arms while we reached the front desk. "Did they hurt a lot?" I asked, full of curiosity. After a moment of contemplative silence from him, he shook his head. "Most of them, no. The most painful were the ones on my chest area, actually." He murmured, running his fingers through his hair when a few loose strands fell forward into his eyes.

I pushed up onto my stool behind the front desk and snuck a glance at his arms again, quietly admiring his tattoos there. "They're cool." I complimented him slightly shyly. When I looked up at him, I noticed he seemed a little surprised by the compliment, for some reason.

And I was sure I must've been imagining it, because I almost thought I saw a tinge of pink dusting the tan skin of his cheeks.