Animal Magnetism

“Hey, I saw your Jeep. I meant to ask what happened.”

“A little fender bender,” she said, extremely aware of Brady behind her.

Brady coughed and said, “Bullshit,” softly in her ear at the same time.

Lilah gave him a little nudge with her hip, knocking him out of her personal space bubble. He might kiss like heaven, and maybe he had great taste in food, but he was far too cocky.

Nick divided a look between them, then settled on Lilah. “I’m sensing a story here.”

“No. No stories, good or otherwise, and it wasn’t my fault.” She paused and sighed. “Okay, it was totally my fault.”

“She has a parking problem,” Brady said.

Nick laughed. “She has a lot of ‘parking’ problems.”

Great. Lilah loved Nick, but he had a big mouth. “My foot slipped,” she said. “No big deal.”

“Uh-huh. Remember our senior year when your foot ‘slipped’ and you drove off the bridge in your granny’s SUV?” Nick asked.

Both men were smiling now, and Lilah took a moment for a deep breath. “We’re not discussing this.” Digging through her purse for her wallet, she turned to Dee.

From over her shoulder a ten appeared. “For both of us,” Brady said.

Dee shot Lilah a brows-up look.

Lilah ignored the unspoken question. “Thanks,” she said to Brady. “I’ll owe you.”

“Donuts,” he clarified. “Not carrots.”

Dee smiled. “So, who’s the cutie?”

Lilah very carefully didn’t look at Brady “Brady Miller. He’s come to visit Adam and Dell.”

Dee cackled. In fact she laughed so hard, she ended up doubled over. “Honey, I meant the dog.”

“Oh.” Lilah grimaced as her face heated and tried to pretend that Brady wasn’t right behind her, looking far too amused.

“You’re right, though,” Dee said, sizing up Brady. “He’s a real cutie, too.”

Lilah sighed. “The dog,” she said firmly, “is a rescue. He’s going to a good home.” And finally, as she said this, she saw Shelly pull up out front. Which made her realize she had only a few minutes left with Toby.

She was well aware that the whole point to running the humane society was to place animals in loving homes. She knew this, but her gut didn’t always get it, and both it and her heart squeezed hard as she looked down at Toby waiting patiently at her feet, so quiet and accepting of whatever fate came his way. Dammit. Every one. She mourned every single one. “I have to go.”

Dee cocked her head, then looked to the door as Shelly entered the bakery. “Aw, honey,” she murmured, covering Lilah’s hand with her own, her voice holding so much sympathy that Lilah’s throat closed. “Never gets easier for you, does it?”

“What?” Brady asked, looking into Lilah’s eyes with a frown. “What doesn’t get easier? You stay up all night studying again?”

“Studying?” Dee asked in surprise. “Studying what?”

Lilah sighed. Her studies weren’t classified information, but neither had she told anyone other than Dell and Adam. And Brady—by accident. Literally. It was just that she’d quit college and come home with her tail between her legs. This time if something happened, she’d rather be a two-time failure in private. “Nothing,” she said, grabbing a bottle of water to offset the donut calories. She fumbled through the bottom of her purse for loose change.

“Oh, don’t worry about it.” Dee patted her hand. “It’s on the house since I know you’re about to get your heart broken.” She smiled sweetly over Lilah’s head at Brady. “I adopted my own sweet Lexie from her last year. She cried for a week. Lilah, not Lexie.”

“I did not,” Lilah said. She’d cried for two weeks. She knew exactly how ridiculous that was, just as she knew how silly she was being over dreading handing Toby off. She’d only had him one night, and he was going to a woman who really wanted him.

“She still comes and visits,” Dee told Brady.

Lilah felt the weight of Brady’s gaze as he studied her thoughtfully, but she couldn’t concentrate on that with Shelly waving at her. She was midforties, with wavy brown hair piled on top of her head and a friendly, kind face. She wore jeans and a rec center sweatshirt, perfect for a day with kids at the rec center and for being a new doggy mama.

Lilah grabbed the donuts Dee had bagged, murmured “let’s go” to Toby, and walked blindly toward Shelly. The two of them moved outside for some privacy. Lilah gave Shelly both her bag of donuts—she’d lost her appetite—and an introduction to Toby. In five minutes Shelly and Toby were fast friends, walking off together into the sunset.

Okay, it was morning, and the sun was nowhere close to setting, but to Lilah it felt like an ending nevertheless. She swiped at her eyes. “Suck it up,” she whispered fiercely to herself. “It’s all good, no matter how hard it is.”

“I’m going to refrain from saying ‘That’s what she said’ since you seem to be having a moment.”

Whirling around, she glared at Brady, who was leaning against the front wall of the building. “Why do you keep sneaking up on me?”

Instead of answering, he handed her a bag.

Opening it, she found two additional old-fashioned chocolate glazes. “Since you handed yours off. Thought you could use them,” he said with a shrug.

“I gave them away so I wouldn’t eat all three. I was saving myself.”

“Okay.” He tried to take the bag back, but she slapped his hand and hugged the bag to her chest.

He appeared to fight a smile, but his voice was serious. “Are you okay?”

“Yes. Though I’d be a hell of a lot better if you hadn’t told the whole world that I have a parking problem.”

“I didn’t tell the whole world. Just what’s his name. Your friendly ex.”

She blew out a sigh. “Nick. And how do you know he’s an ex?”

“It’s either that, or he’s a prospect. Which would explain the hungry look on his face.”

“Ex,” she admitted. “And he looked hungry because he was. For donuts.”

“And for you as well.” Stepping into her personal space bubble as he had a habit of doing, Brady cupped her face and tilted it up to his, running his thumb under her eye, catching a tear she’d missed. “You don’t look like you’re okay,” he said quietly.

She sent him another glare just for the heck of it and tried to turn away, but he held her still.

And close.

And Lord, he was deadly up close. “What?” she asked, sounding testy. Because she was.

He backed her closer to the building, under the eaves and away from the window, giving them a little bit of privacy. “You look like you need . . . ” His eyes darkened a little and his thumb brushed over her bottom lip now, making it tingle and tremble open.

“What? I need what?”

“This.” Holding her gaze for as long as possible, he leaned in and lightly brushed her mouth with his warm, firm one.

She heard a sound, a whimper really, and realized it was her. He was right. She needed this. Bad. Fisting his shirt to hold him close, she heard the sound again, horrifyingly, embarrassingly needy.

“Shh,” he whispered soothingly, and then kissed her once more, not lightly this time.

She promptly forgot everything, including the fact that they were standing on the sidewalk in broad daylight, with cars going by and people moving in and out of the bakery. It all faded away behind the wild pounding of her heart.

With a hand on the nape of her neck, Brady deepened the kiss, his other hand gliding down to the small of her back to hold her against him.

On board with that, she loosened her hands from his shirt and slid them up his chest and around his neck, pressing as close as she could to his hard, warm body.

When they were both breathless, he pressed his lips to her throat and murmured something she couldn’t quite catch because her blood was still roaring through her veins. “What?” she murmured.

He rocked her against him. “No idea what I’m going to do with you.”

She didn’t know what he was going to do with her either, but she hoped it was good. She might have asked him to speak slowly and in great detail but she became aware that her hands had migrated and were now perched precariously low on what felt like perfect eight-pack abs.

Two inches south and she’d have hit the jackpot.

She glanced down and revised. One inch. He hadn’t moved so she tipped her head back up and found his eyes on hers, dark and scorching. “We seem to have a little chemistry,” she whispered.

His lips curved slightly in acknowledgment.

“I should go,” she said slowly, but her mind wasn’t on the words. Instead it was thinking, One more inch ! “Really. You’re going to need to back off a little, because I need to—”

He lifted his hands, indicating that he wasn’t holding her in any way and she felt the blush on her face. Gathering her dignity, she forced herself to back away and turned to the Jeep.

“Lilah.”

She kept her back to him and closed her eyes. “Yeah?”

When he didn’t say anything, she glanced back.

“Why do you give the animals away if you want to keep them?”

“Because that’s what I do,” she said, surprised. “It’s my job.”

He came up behind her, putting his hand on hers on the Jeep handle, preventing her from opening the door. “And what’s up with the studying all night and not telling anyone?”

“That’s . . . private.”

“A secret?”

“Sort of.” She paused. “Okay, yes, I told you a secret. I was frazzled and had just hit your truck, and you were holding the babies in the box for me, and . . . ”

And she’d been thinking he looked so cute holding them, too, looking all helpful and tough at the same time.

Oh, and that he had a nice ass, and that she hadn’t been with a man in a long time. Too long.

And that he wasn’t a fixture in this town, which made him both dangerous and safe . . . “I was momentarily distracted,” she admitted. “And it slipped out. But now that you’ve reminded me of it, you do owe me a secret in return. Make it a good one. I could use a distraction.”

“I don’t do secrets.”

Okay, then. Good to know. Drawing a deep breath, she pushed his hand out of her way and he let her. She opened the Jeep’s driver door and climbed in, taking just one more last quick glance. But only one because more than that with him tended to render her incapable of reason. “Thanks for the donuts,” she said. “Twice.”

He nodded but didn’t otherwise move. She blew out a sigh and eyed the truck parked in front of her. “You should probably go first. I’m even more distracted today than yesterday. And as you know, I tend to do stupid things when distracted.”

“Something to remember,” he said lightly.





Six




The next evening, after Dell had seen all his patients, he closed up shop and set Brady up for a website photo shoot. He showed Brady into one of the exam rooms and patted the exam table. “I was thinking we could have a series of pictures of ‘patients’ in various rooms, as if maybe animals led this place, you know?”

“That’s good,” Brady said, nodding. “Funny. Warm. Makes the place seem welcome and readily inviting. None of you?”

“Nah,” Dell said. “I like the idea of just the animals. You can put one in Jade’s reading glasses behind her desk. One with my stethoscope sitting on this table, maybe.”

Brady had spent the day cataloging all that was wrong with the Bell 47, in a hurry to get that renovation on track. He’d spent the hours alone with his own thoughts, and they hadn’t always been good ones. At least ten times he’d started to go in search of Adam and Dell to tell them he didn’t want to stay for another twenty-nine days. He couldn’t handle the thinking.

But he hadn’t.

Now all he wanted to do was grab a shower and hit the sack, but he’d promised to take these pictures. He’d been dreading this, knowing the only time he liked being behind the camera was on his own terms. It was, after all, a creative release for him, not a chore. But he found himself liking Dell’s ideas for the pictures and felt an energetic creative surge. “Yeah,” he said. “We can do that. But are you going to materialize your patients? Because you sent them all home.”

“I’ve got that handled,” Dell said, just as the sounds of a wild stampede sounded from down the hall.

Brady poked his head out of the examination room in time to see Lilah appear, both hands occupied with myriad leashes. In one hand she had one, two, three dogs. No. Two dogs and a lamb. In her other hand she held Abigail’s leash. And Brady couldn’t help it—he felt the smile crack his face.

“I’ve got two cats and a bunny available as well,” she called out, blowing a few strands of hair from her eyes. “Where do you want us?”

Brady didn’t give a shit about where the animals went, but he knew exactly where he wanted her.

Beneath him, panting his name.

A little unsettled at that thought, he shoved a hand through his hair and shrugged at Dell. “You’re the director.”

“Um,” Dell said, looking guilty as he pulled his keys out of his pocket. “Actually, you are. I’ve got a date.”

“What?”

“Now don’t let the lamb scare you. Lulu’s really very sweet. Just don’t let her get her nose in the family jewels, man. She’s been known to take an unexpected bite.”

It wasn’t Lulu he was afraid of, and something of that must have shown on his face.

Dell studied him a moment, brow drawn. “I can trust you with her, right?”

“The lamb? Sure.”

When Dell only looked at him, Brady glanced at Lilah as she moved toward them and slowly shook his head. “Definitely not.”

“Christ,” Dell muttered, and swiped a hand down his face. “I’m going to hope to God you’re kidding.” And with that, he met Lilah halfway, kissed her cheek, shot one last long warning glance in Brady’s direction, and was gone.

Lilah came to a stop before Brady. “What was that?”

“Nothing.”

“You told him you couldn’t be trusted with me.”

Brady arched a brow. “So if you overheard, why did you ask?”

“Because I wanted to see what you would say. What kind of an answer was that?”

“What did you want me to say?” Brady asked her.

“Not that.”

He shrugged. “It was the truth.”

She stared up at him, looking a little flummoxed at that. “Oh,” she breathed.

Yeah, oh. Just being near her like this—she smelled like mangoes tonight—drained some of the tension in him, in spite of himself. No matter what she thought, she was a sight for sore eyes, that was for damn sure. She wore snug, hip-hugging jeans and a lacy white T-shirt that was sheer enough to reveal the white cami beneath it and a faint hint of an equally white bra.

Which he found ridiculously, inexplicably hot. The past few nights he’d fantasized about Lilah. He’d told himself that he was an ass, but his self seemed completely unconcerned.

The lamb—Lulu, he presumed—stepped forward and tried to shove her face into his crotch, but duly warned by Dell, Brady backed up.

“Don’t be afraid. She’s sweet.”

At Lilah’s words, Lulu appeared to smile, pulling back her lips to show her teeth, which didn’t look sweet to Brady.

“She just wants to catch your scent,” Lilah assured him.

Pushing aside images of dropping to his knees and pressing his face to Lilah’s crotch to catch her scent, he grabbed the dogs’ leashes from Lilah. Given the unstableness of his brain tonight, it was best to get this over with.

Two hours later, he got the last shot of the night, a cat