Possessive Veterinarian

by Flora Ferrari

I’d been resisting naming these three guys as I didn’t want to get too attached to them.

  I grab my phone, finding a new resolve inside my belly, and hit redial.

  “Sorry for the abrupt ending last time, but can you please recommend a vet that can do the vaccinations at a fair price?”

  “At a fair price? What kind of budget do you have?”

  “I don’t have one. That’s the problem.”

  “Hmmm. Well, there is Furry Friends. They just opened up and they’ve been super busy, but I think they might work.”

  “Do you know what they charge?”

  “I’m not sure, but the team over there is very nice from what I’ve heard. The head guy is very no-nonsense, but deep down underneath those perfect pecs of his I think there lies a heart of gold. He does pro bono work most weekends. Maybe he can help you out if you decide to keep them.”

  “I am keeping them. They’re mine,” I growl. “Sorry. Do you happen to have the address?”

  “Yeah, let me grab it for you.”

  She puts the phone down and I hear a parakeet saying, “Pick me. Pick me.” I grit my teeth.

  How messed up is this? The man of my dreams is a vet, yet he just skirted town. Now three perfect puppies come into my life and I need him more than ever, if that’s even possible.

  I’m still on hold when the lady’s words run back through my brain. “Underneath his perfect pecs?” I say softly.

  “Yeah, he’s a real looker,” she replies.

  “Oh. Sorry. I didn’t know you were there.”

  “Just picked the phone back up. More power to you if you can get a date with him, let alone get him to look at you. I hear lots of women have been trying but he’s so focused on his work it’s like he’s blind to women or something.”

  “Maybe he’s gay.”

  “I don’t think so, at least I hope not. It gives us all hope that there’s still amazing single men left out there for one of us at least.”

  “Well, I don’t care about that. I just want to help these puppies.”

  “Great. Do you have a pen and paper ready?”

  I take down the address and hang up the phone after the lady reminds me that if they become “too much to handle” that the adoption clinic is always there.

  Thanks, but no thanks.

  We’re stuck to each other now. I’ll just pick up a second job or something and figure this out. Surely there’s some sort of service where I can leave them during the day. Maybe even just drop them off at a retirement home for part of the day? That would actually be pretty cool.

  “Okay, Larry, Curly, and Moe. Let’s go get you guys looked at.”

  They take a break from destroying my bed pillow, that they somehow found in the few seconds I got caught up on the phone call, and look up at me. Their too cute for words little barks immediately grant them forgiveness from their deeds.

  Now I’m going to prove that good deeds do go unpunished. Despite my backstory I refuse to believe the world is a bad place. I’m not falling into that way of thinking. No thanks.

  I grab the paper and tear the sheet from my bed so I can wrap them up again.

  I get them all situated and just their little heads are hanging out. Their tongues are wagging and they’re smiling, just like me.

  “Off we go, to see what this Furry Friends is all about. And get you guys some food and whatever else you’re going to need.”

  This is as close as I’ll ever get to having kids, more than likely, so I’m going to do it right. And that starts right now.

  CHAPTER 3

  Donovan

  “Squeeky’s gonna be okay, Mrs. Robinson.”

  “Oh, thank you so much, Doctor Donovan…”

  “Decker. Donovan Decker.”

  Mrs. Robinson carefully scoops up her guinea pig from the table and into her arms. “Did I mention my granddaughter is single?”

  “I think you may have,” I say, not calling her out on the fact that she’s been in the office five weeks straight for various “ailments’ that Squeeky’s been facing. I’d put the little guy in protective custody, wondering if she’d eventually do something to him that would require a real visit, but I know she loves her pet too much and would never harm him. His ailments usually consist of “he seems slower than usual” or “he was running around faster than normal the other day”. Luckily one of the assistants handles her and then I just have to come in and put a stethoscope up to Squeeky while I tell her he’s okay and then all is fine, until she pretends to remember that her granddaughter is single…the real reason for her visits.

  “She can cook and clean and sew and she’s very pretty.”

  “I’m sure she can, but I have my eye on someone else. I’m sure she’s a great woman and will be a great wife one day.” I put my hand out for Mrs. Robinson offering to help her out of the examination room.

  “Shew!” she says, slapping my forearm with more gumption than I thought she had in her. “You act like I’m one hundred years old or something. I’m eighty-eight years young and I’ve still got a helluva lot of fight left in me…more reason for you to know that my granddaughter comes from a strong bloodline. She can carry firewood in the winter, mind you.”

  “Incredible. Sounds like a great person. I’m really sorry, but I have a full schedule today. Good luck with everything and I’m glad Squeeky’s okay.”

  I step outside the exam room and prepare to dart into another, but my mind is off thanks to this persistent eighty-eight years young woman who reminded me why I’m here in the first place…not that I need reminding. Ever.

  She’s the reason I bailed on New York after less than a month. I thought for sure she’d take a position there so I knew it was finally my chance to make a move. Four long years had passed since that moment that everything changed.

  The thing I still don’t understand is that I’d seen her plenty of times when she was growing up. Then suddenly it was like a switch flipped when she had her going away party. It was like she developed literally overnight.

  Never in my entire life had my body, and my mind, reacted to someone so fast…or ever for that matter.

  The way that blonde ponytail bounced around as she moved through the house with ease, smiling and greeting everyone who showed up for her party.

  The way the sun shined through the windows that late afternoon, giving her an angelic glow from my seat in the corner.

  The way my groin responded, unlike it’s ever responded before.

  I was hard a hell, and a protective streak was ripping through me at the sight of that white dress she had on. It was cut a little to high for my liking. I know those things are designed to hit just above the knee, but still, it was just too damn high.

  And it was making me too damn hard, possessive, and angry.

  And when some of those boys from her school showed up I learned what it was like to experience jealousy for the first time in my life. The way they nervously tried to hug her standing straight up so their chests would touch hers made me want to jump up from my seat and jump in-between them like I was officiating a boxing match.

  But there was no need.

  Each time one of those little pricks tried to cop a feel with his chest a little too far out or his groin a little too far forward, she’d bow into their hug attempt like she was giving a Japanese bow with the utmost deference, staying a solid foot away from any real contact.

  Lucky for those little shits.

  At six foot five and two hundred and forty pounds of muscle with seven percent body fat I can push people around easily, not that I get a kick out of it. But if someone’s trying to step to something that’s mine he’s going to find out real quick what it’s like when I put a boot in his ass.

  And that day she became exactly that. Mine.

  I wanted to tell her so, but I knew it was too selfish. She needed to go, get her education, and experience the world. So I stayed back.

  I waited, counting the days until her graduation. When I overheard her da
d casually mention to one of the neighbors that she was interviewing in New York I immediately went home and Googled vet clinics there that needed help.

  I hated it.

  Alone and lonely are two very different feelings. I’ve been alone my entire life, and I relish it. It’s what I know. It’s what I thrive on, preferring to bury myself in my work. But lonely? Never.

  Not until her. Those four years she was away were torture, and then when I went to New York and found out she’d bypassed taking one of the offers there and instead took a position back home I about flipped my lid. I resigned that day. I thought about eBaying everything, but that would take too long. Instead I put everything on Craigslist at rock bottom prices, like I was a fiend who’d stole all the stuff and was pawning it for crack cocaine.

  I’ve never touched a drug in my life and never will. First of all I’ve never wanted to. Second of all because as a vet I know their effects and how addictive even the quote unquote mildest substances can be. Third, my parents overdosed in a shitty Baltimore crack house with boarded up windows which resulted in social services finding a two-year-old, who was me, two days later. I’d ate only three adult sized jars of applesauce out of the fridge. I’ve been alone, a survivor, damn near since birth.

  And fourth, and most importantly, her.

  She’s my drug. She’s my addiction. She’s the obsession I can’t quit, don’t want to quit, and never will.

  And now that I know she’s back in town somewhere I will claim her.

  There’s only one woman who’s meant for me. Only one woman in my life I’ve ever had eyes for. Her. And it was well past the time I showed her what I felt and how things were going to be. Translation…she’s mine. Always has been and always will be.

  I speed walk into the hallway and into another room, but just as I knock, and turn the knob immediately to save time…it’s not like an animal’s gonna be naked, and stick my foot in I freeze.

  My head darts to the side, to the lobby.

  There stands perfection. A woman in jeans that look like they were painted on. She’s thrown an oversized T over the top, but it caught on her belt and I can see that apple bottom ass perfectly and I want to take a bite out of it.

  Scratch that. I want to devour the whole thing.

  Because I know who that body belongs to. Even after four years and standing a good fifteen to twenty feet away I know what’s underneath those clothes.

  The most perfect creation of a woman that’s ever existed, and I want all that skin of hers against all of mine so damn close and hot with need we’re like two rats fucking in a sock out in the open in the Mojave at noon in August.

  But I’d never let her be exposed in the open. That body belongs to me.

  “Doctor Decker! My Snookums is convulsing. How many times do I have to say it?”

  I’m convulsing too. It’s why I didn’t even hear that lady here with her pet. As a matter of fact my ears are ringing like I’m in battle and someone just fired off a canon ten inches from my ear. And ten inches is at least what I’m sporting right now.

  Yeah, I’ll admit it. I’m a doctor and I measured my dick. The body is something very natural to me and when I was younger I thought something was wrong with me for being so damn big down there.

  And even from here I know that she’s natural too, and there’s never anything wrong with that. She never wears a stitch of makeup, and I’m gonna slide my ten and a quarter inches, minimum, into that stitch right between her legs. I’m a sick fuck, but I’m going to break through that hymen and yell in triumph when I see red on the sheets.

  That’s how crazy she makes me. That’s how badly I need her.

  And she’s in my office right now.

  “Snookums!”

  My head turns and I enter the room with a growl. “Don’t you worry, ma’am. No one has ever died in my office.”

  “Oh Doctor. Please help him.”

  I’m gonna help this little guy all right, but the one who really needs help is me.

  My pulse is out of control, I’m out of breath, and I know my heartbeat is at an unsafe level.

  And it wasn’t safe for Delaney to come to my office unannounced.

  I wasn’t prepared, and that means there’s no way she can be prepared for the animal that I’m sure to become.

  CHAPTER 4

  Donovan

  I get Snookems all sorted but just as quickly as I do I’ve got a fire to put out in the adjoining room.

  Ever feel like you need to clone yourself? That’s me every day.

  I get to the adjoining room and pull back the curtain, working frantically so I can get to Delaney. I need to keep my mind on this dog that’s going into labor, not trying to put my woman into labor in her own right.

  But that’s all I want. I want to fill her with my seed and make her mine in every way. I want to watch that belly grow knowing my offspring, our child, is growing inside the world’s most perfect woman.

  My woman.

  I never had time for a woman and now I’m staring at the clock, a race against time, to get to her.

  People aren’t my thing, but she’s not people. She’s the one person in this world that matters more than anyone.

  It’s crazy how life works. One minute you’re sure you’re the kind of man who will never find love…hell, you’re not even looking for it, not to mention you absolutely know you’ll never settle down.

  But that’s exactly what I want with her, although the word settling and her are two words that don’t belong anywhere near each other.

  She’s the crème de la crème, and once I make her mine she’ll see just how much energy I have for a quote unquote older guy. I have a lot naturally, but I’ve been saving something extra for her all these years, not to mention our life is going to be filled with excitement, travel, and babies.

  God, I want her to be mine in every way possible. I need to show her that despite my start in life, despite the cards that I was dealt, I’m a good man.

  The absolute best man for her.

  I get the delivery completed and hand the post-op over to a nurse.

  “Where is she?” I ask frantically as I step out into the hallway and see another nurse.

  “You’ve got—“

  I raise my hand, stopping her. “Is there anything that’s absolutely, no exaggeration, life or death right now or in the next thirty minutes?”

  “No, but—“

  “Where’s Delaney?”

  “The girl with the three Samoyeds?”

  I want to tell her she’s not a girl anymore. She’s a woman, my woman, but I don’t want to waste another second. “Yes. Where is she?”

  “Room three.”

  Usain Bolt has nothing on me as I’m at the door in record time, throwing my shoulder into it as I storm through, blown away by what I see on the patient table.

  CHAPTER 5

  Delaney

  What’s that old saying? In like a lion, out like a lamb.

  Well, Donovan completely whiffed on the whole lamb thing.

  The lamb is me, and a lion just burst into the room and is ready to feast.

  Larry, Curly, and Moe roll around on my lap as my eyes jerk to the door, taking in the sight of him.

  What did that lady at the animal adoption clinic say about him? “…underneath those perfect pecs of his I think there lies a heart of gold.”

  Well my heart is racing as his chest muscles ripple underneath a super light blue, almost gray, perforated polo shirt. I guess they don’t make smocks that fit a man with an incredible V-shape like his.

  Even without the smock he sure looks professional, and my thoughts are anything but.

  He’s big enough to start with, but with me sitting he literally towers over me, blocking the entirety of the door. I’d have to lean at least eighteen inches to either side to get a glimpse around him and catch sight of anything in the hallway.

  My cheeks heat, my panties moisten, as my eyes scan his form.

  His hair is a
dark brown, and short like a soldier on the sides. And as I work my way across those thick shoulders and down past what is surely washboard abs it’s not hard to see that this soldier is at the ready, standing at attention.

  Suddenly the thoughts I’ve always had where I tell him how I really feel and he either laughs at me or lets me down easy, out of respect for my dad, crumble like a paper bag.