Animal Attraction: Buckhorn Ever AfterImagine Me and YouGimme ShelterPartner in Crime

by Lori Foster

  After getting the idea from a woman in the veterinarian’s waiting room, Dean dropped by a local pet supply store and purchased three small harnesses and three lightweight leashes. Keeping the kittens still long enough to get them strapped up was a feat unto itself, and by the time he finished—in triplicate, no less—he felt like Siegfried & Roy. Then he had to prance them around the living room for a while, making sure they’d tolerate the harnesses without trying to make a break for it, and that he could steer all three of them at once. Give or take.

  He’d heard jokes about herding cats, but now he knew what the term truly meant. Keeping the trio of meowing, dancing, overexcited kittens in line was like trying to corral liquid mercury during an earthquake.

  Erica had said she got off work at four-thirty, so he made a point of being outside, letting Larry, Curly and Moe play in the grass in front of her place well before that. He felt a little ridiculous standing around with three kittens on leashes and figured any of his neighbors who were home probably had their noses pressed to the window glass, wondering what the heck he was up to.

  But he only cared about one person noticing him. One person he hoped would be curious enough about his little circus act to stop for five seconds and give him a chance to talk to her.

  Even as distracted as he was by keeping an eye on the kittens and constantly untangling the three leashes, he spotted Erica before she spotted him. She was coming down the walk, eyes down as she fiddled with something in her hands—he thought it might be a cell phone—her purse hanging from one shoulder, a fabric messenger bag on the other.

  She was also wearing glasses, which he’d never seen her in before, and they were kind of adorable. They, along with the upsweep of her brunette curls in a loose twist at the back of her head, made her look smart and sort of sexy librarianish.

  Tugging and nudging and shepherding the kittens in her direction as best he could, he stepped onto the sidewalk, directly in her path. She slowed when she noticed his shadow stretching in front of her, then stopped completely as she lifted her head and saw him standing there.

  Her arms fell to her sides, her eyes narrowing slightly behind the rectangular frames of her glasses. “Dean.”

  “Hey,” he greeted, ignoring the knot in his stomach and hoping he sounded less anxious than he felt. He still wasn’t sure how she was going to react to this setup of his, and he’d prefer not to go to jail if she started beating him with her messenger bag until one of their neighbors called the cops.

  When she didn’t say anything more, he glanced down at the Stooges, who were sniffing her shoes and half climbing her ankles. “I was just taking the boys for a walk. Which would be a lot easier if they were puppies instead of kittens,” he added with a wry twist of his lips.

  At that, Erica finally cracked a smile. She took off her glasses and tucked them into a pocket on her purse, then crouched down to give the kittens some attention. They meowed, pushing and shoving at each other in an attempt to get to the front of the line.

  Erica giggled at their antics, picking them up one at a time until they were all three cuddled against her chest. Of course, they didn’t stay there long. After a couple of good snuggles, they began climbing her shirt, eager to perch as high as possible—on her shoulders and nearly on top of her head.

  “Okay, okay. That’s enough, guys,” Dean chastised, going in for the rescue. “She isn’t a jungle gym.”

  Although she mumbled several times that it was all right and she didn’t mind, he disengaged their claws from her blouse and transferred them to his arms instead. They behaved themselves for all of ten seconds, then started the wiggle toward escape again. If not for the harnesses and leashes, they definitely would have been gone with the wind.

  “We had our follow-up with the vet this morning,” he told her. “Their sniffles are all cleared up, the blood tests came back negative and they’ve had their shots, so they’ve been cleared to be around other animals. Do you mind if we go to your place? I’ve been wanting to talk with you.”

  He held his breath, waiting for her response. They were standing just outside her house with the Three Stooges climbing him like little monkeys. It would be incredibly rude of her to deny him now, wouldn’t it?

  Sad but true—his future rested on the hope that this woman wouldn’t want to offend him.

  Adjusting the straps at her shoulders, she gave a reluctant nod. “All right. But I’m not sure how my cats will handle the kittens, so we may have to keep them separated for a while.”

  He followed her up the walk to her front door, struggling to keep all three kittens in his grasp as they wriggled and squirmed. Erica let them in, and they were immediately greeted by Lola and Murphy.

  “I should take them out,” she said as they hopped and danced around them. “It will just take me a minute.”

  “Take your time. I’ll keep these little monsters on their leashes until you get back.”

  True to her word, she was out and back in under five minutes. As soon as the dogs crossed the threshold, they made a beeline for the kittens, sniffing and licking and wanting to investigate the newcomers. Thankfully, the dogs seemed to like the tiny felines, maybe even remembered them from the night they’d spent here, though they were a bit bigger and a lot more active than they had been then.

  While Dean kept one eye on the animals, he kept the other on Erica. Though she was smiling, she wasn’t nearly as relaxed or animated as he knew she could be, and that bothered him. She was holding back, keeping him at arm’s length, but he didn’t know why.

  “You can take the leashes off,” she told him. “My cats are sleeping, but if you leave the kittens’ harnesses on, we can always hook them up again if things get dicey.”

  He leaned down, unsnapping the leashes from the harnesses—one, two, three. The kittens took instant advantage of their freedom by launching themselves at the two dogs. Yipping and barking and chasing ensued, but from what Dean could see, it was all good-natured, and the cats and dogs appeared to be enjoying themselves. And if Erica wasn’t panicking, neither would he.

  No more pleasantries; it was time to get down to business.

  Clearing his throat and spreading his feet another couple of inches in what was almost a military stance, he said, “Erica.”

  She turned her attention from the three-on-two wrestling match taking place behind the sofa, the amusement fading from her eyes and expression.

  Man, this might be harder than he’d thought. And he still had no idea what had thrown them so far off track to begin with.

  “Erica,” he said again, hands on hips. “I don’t know why you’ve been so distant this past week. If I did something to upset you, I’d really like to know what it was, so I don’t do it again. If I moved too fast, I’m sorry.”

  Her lashes fluttered, and she started gnawing on her bottom lip, looking decidedly uncomfortable. But he pressed on.

  “I like you, Erica. A lot. I thought we might even be on the road to something serious. And frankly, I could still use your help with those three munchkins over there.” He tipped his head toward the kittens, rolling his eyes as Curly leaped from left to right and right to left, following the swat-swat-swat of Murphy’s furry tail wagging back and forth on the carpeted floor.

  “I haven’t had a pet since I was a kid, and they’re already running me ragged. I don’t have enough toys for them or special furniture—beds, trees, whatever. I don’t know what to do as they get older or why they might need to go to the vet other than for annual shots.”

  He took a deep breath, running his palms down the sides of his jeans. “I want to keep them, but even if we can’t be involved, I’d really like it if we could at least stay friends, so I can ask you first-time pet-parent questions. But I’ve got to tell you...”

  He narrowed his eyes and lowered his voice, wanting her to know he was serious about what
he was about to say next. “I’d really like to see where things could go between us.”

  For a moment, he thought his words had fallen on deaf ears. Then her tongue darted out to lick those delectable lips, and her breasts rose as she inhaled deeply.

  “You...you’re keeping them?” she stuttered on little more than a whisper.

  That’s what she’d latched on to? He’d poured out his heart, told her he wanted to start something serious with her, and her first question was about the kittens?

  Then again, she’d been almost all about the kittens—as well as her own pets—since the moment he’d met her. It was one of the things he loved most about her.

  “Yeah, I think I will. The guys at work finally found out about them, and Frank said he’d take one of them for his daughter, but...” He glanced at the kittens in question, wandering around now, exploring their surroundings with the dogs on their heels.

  With a shrug, he said, “I don’t know. I don’t like the idea of splitting them up. And I have to admit, I’ve gotten kind of attached to them.”

  A smile wider than he’d ever seen spilled across her face. “I’m so happy to hear that. I knew you were hero material.”

  He blinked, then felt a touch of heat crawl up from his neckline.

  “I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I know I’ve been acting ten shades of crazy this week, it’s just...” She shook her head and let out a breath, dropping onto the sofa.

  She had a point about the crazy thing, but he was apparently off his own rocker enough to sit down beside her and reach for her hand. She took it, clutching his fingers as her mouth wobbled.

  Taking a deep breath, she looked him straight in the eye and said, “When you showed up with the kittens that first night, I was so impressed. I thought you were wonderful for rescuing them and bringing them to me for help and being willing to do whatever it took to nurse them back to health.”

  Well, she thought he was wonderful, that was a plus.

  “Then you started talking about giving them away or taking them to the shelter, and it sort of broke my heart.”

  Her smile slipped and darned if his own heart didn’t give a twitch.

  “I’ve seen what happens to animals at the shelter when they don’t get adopted, and I guess I got attached, too. Probably faster than you did.”

  She tipped her head to one side and sighed. “I know this probably makes me a bad person, but thinking you would be getting rid of the kittens made me feel differently about you. And I’d already let myself feel more than I should have in such a short amount of time.”

  “So this week was...?”

  “Self-preservation,” she answered. “And time to think. I didn’t know if I could be with you, if you gave the kittens away, at least not without that always being at the back of my mind.”

  Silence filled the room for a few uncomfortable ticks of the clock.

  “It really would have bothered you that much?” he murmured.

  Her gaze dropped to her lap for a second, her mouth turning down at one side. “I’m sorry. I know it sounds awful, but, yes. I would have worried about them forever, wondered if they were okay, felt guilty that you or I didn’t keep them, so I could be sure they were being well taken care of. And I was afraid that every time I looked at you, all I’d be able to think about was that you’d slipped a few notches from the hero pedestal I’d first set you on.”

  “Wow. That’s a pretty high bar to live up to.”

  She winced, nose crinkling, as she let out a self-deprecating groan. “I know. I’m—”

  “Don’t say you’re sorry,” he cut her off, holding up one hand and squeezing her fingers with the other. “You’ve said that twice already, and I accept your apology. But I wish you’d just said something, so I wouldn’t have had to spend the last week thinking I’d pushed you into sleeping with me or done something in bed you thought was kinky.”

  She made a sound in her throat that was part snort, part choking. Eyes wide, she gave her head a sharp shake. “No, that was all...fine.”

  He raised a brow. “Just fine?”

  “Better than fine,” she rushed to assure him. “Why do you think I was so crushed when I thought my feelings for you were going to change?”

  His lips quirked and he tipped his head, leaning closer. “So you have feelings for me, huh?”

  Her cheeks turned a delightful shade of pink, and she looked away. “Couldn’t you tell by the way I fell into bed with you after only a day and a half?”

  Before he had a chance to answer, her head snapped back around, brows drawn together in consternation. “Or do women do that all the time with you?”

  He chuckled. “I wish.” When she shot him an even darker glare, he altered his tone. “I mean, no, definitely not. I told you, I think what we have is special.”

  Lifting her hand, he threaded his fingers with hers. “So now that I’ve decided to keep Larry, Moe and Curly, do you think you might go out with me? You know, a real date, with dinner and a movie and everything?”

  He was aware that they’d already moved well past the first-date stage, but sometimes you had to move backward to move forward. And the smile she beamed at him—soft, but bright and filled with sweet innocence—let him know he’d made the right decision.

  “I’d like that,” she said. “Although, if you wanted to spend the night and stay for breakfast in the morning, I’d be willing to call that a date of sorts.”

  A shot of pure lust plowed into his solar plexus before spreading to each and every extremity. His blood heated and began to pound through his veins like the bass of a drum.

  “That works for me,” he said in a voice gone rough with desire. Then he leaned in, taking her mouth in a kiss he’d been fantasizing about the whole long week he’d been without her.

  She opened her mouth to his kiss, welcomed him, ran her fingers through the short strands of his hair and held him tight against her. Seconds, then minutes ticked by while they now reclined on the couch and nipped and suckled and ate at each other. His hands roamed up and down her body, stroking to life the same fire that burned in him.

  She moaned. He groaned. She moved beneath him, brushing the sensitive bulge of his erection behind the fly of his jeans, and he couldn’t take it anymore.

  With a curse, he pulled away only long enough to get to his feet. Dragging her up beside him, he swept an arm under her legs and lifted her off the ground. She gave a small yip of surprise, then settled against his chest.

  “Think everybody will be okay out here while I take you to your bedroom and fuck you silly?”

  He felt a shiver of awareness ripple through her at his coarse language, and damned if it didn’t ratchet up his arousal about ten degrees, too.

  “They should be,” she murmured breathlessly, “but we do need to listen...”

  All he needed to hear was should be. He was already around the sofa and stalking down the hall. When they got to her room, he fell on top of her on the bed, taking up where they’d left off in the living room. Their bodies melded, her leg sliding up to hitch over one of his hips.

  “This was totally worth adopting three cats,” he murmured against her mouth.

  She chuckled, the sound vibrating through him like a tuning fork.

  “So that’s all it takes to get you into bed?” he wanted to know, letting his mouth trail across her cheek, to the lobe of her ear, down her neck and along the sharp line of her collarbone.

  Her breath was coming in pants now, but she managed to mumble, “You had me at ‘I’m keeping them.’”

  He grinned against the slope of her breast. “If I’d known that, I’d have rescued a litter of kittens months ago.”

  She gripped his neck, dragging his face back up to hers a second before she shifted her weight and tossed him onto his back. Leaning ove
r him, she said, “Keep up the good deeds with animals, and I think you’ll find that I can be very...appreciative.”

  “Mmm. I’ll keep that in mind.” Though it was hard to think of much of anything while she was pressed tightly over his throbbing hard-on.

  Her fingers moved to the snap at the front of his pants, and he bucked beneath her, the air leaking from his lungs in a whoosh.

  “How do you feel about an eight-pet household?” he choked out. “Too many? Or not enough?”

  “Doable,” she muttered distractedly, her entire focus on his zipper. Not that he minded one damn bit. “We might need a bigger place, though. With a bigger yard and a couple more cat trees.”

  “And a bigger bed,” he added, noticing how little space they had to move around on her simple full-size mattress. And his place only had a queen. He was thinking something more along the lines of a California king. Or two kings put together. Nothing could be wide enough for what he wanted to do with her.

  “Whatever you want.” She popped his fly, then ran her hands under the tails of his shirt to stroke his chest, literally sending buttons flying in every direction. “You’re my hero, remember? You can have whatever you want.”

  One side of his mouth lifted as he placed his hands at her waist, feeling for the closures on her own clothing.

  “Funny,” he said, wondering how he’d gotten so lucky so damn fast. “I was just thinking the same thing about you.”

  * * * * *

  USA TODAY bestselling author Heidi Betts writes sexy, sassy, sensational romance. The recipient of several awards and stellar reviews, Heidi’s books combine believable characters with compelling plotlines, and are consistently described as “delightful,” “sizzling” and “wonderfully witty.” Look for her next release, Project: Runaway Bride, coming in January 2014 from Harlequin Desire.

  PARTNER

  IN CRIME

  Jules Bennett

  Contents

  Chapter One