by Jill Shalvis
Lilah hugged her and then she and Brady made tracks. Adam’s cell vibrated, and he excused himself out into the night as well. Dell looked at Jade, who was scrolling through her contacts. “Looks like it’s you and me. Come on, I’ll give you a ride.”
“No, it’s out of your way. I’ll call . . .”
“That guy from your line-dancing class?”
She sighed. “Okay, so I could use a ride.”
He walked her out to his truck and then had to clear her a spot in the passenger’s seat because he had a stack of work files, his hockey gear from the weekend league he played on, and some other shit he’d shoved into the truck and forgotten about. “There,” he said, tossing everything to the back.
“Thanks,” she murmured, and got in. “Your truck looks like your desk.”
True statement. “I have a little organizational problem.”
Her gaze met his. “I could help you with that.”
“Sure, if you’ll let me help you with your taboos list.”
“How do you know that you don’t have the same taboos?”
“I don’t have any.”
That shocked her into silence, and the rest of the drive to her place stayed quiet, though she was thinking so loud he could almost hear her thoughts.
The minute he pulled into her lot, her hand was on the door. She was in a hurry. He wondered which of them she didn’t trust.
“Thanks for the ride,” she said.
“Anytime, Jade.”
She glanced back at him, and in a purely feminine move, bit her lower lip, her teeth pressing into the plump curve. “So, tomorrow I thought I’d tackle your office.”
There was a light in her eyes. Lust, he thought, dazed. He nearly groaned. But the lust wasn’t for him, it was for his damn desk. She looked practically orgasmic at the thought of getting her hands on his messy office. “If only I could get you to look at me like that.”
They both smiled because they each recognized the lie. If she looked at him like that, he’d run like hell. He didn’t have anything against a good old-fashioned love affair. It was just that the love part wasn’t for him. He was missing the for-keeps gene, both the ability to love that way, and to be loved that way.
“You’re not a spreadsheet,” Jade said. “Or I would.”
“If you gave it a shot, I’d let you at my accounting system, too.”
“Don’t tease me,” she said, her eyes dilating with even more lust.
His own reaction was far more base, making him laugh, at himself. Time to call it a night before he did something really stupid. He leaned past her to open the door for her.
Jade’s eyes dropped to his mouth, lingering a moment before returning to meet his gaze.
He had the brief thought that he hadn’t called it a night fast enough because then one of them moved, he wasn’t sure who, but they were kissing. She made a soft sound of approval that went right through him, as did the hand she set on his chest, landing right over his heart as she pressed in closer. God, yeah. Closer. His hand slid around the back of her neck, over satiny soft skin, his thumb brushing the exquisite hollow behind her ear.
Her hands slid to his shoulders, his biceps, and dug in as if to hold him here, right here. But he wasn’t going anywhere. He liked her hands on him, liked her tongue in his mouth, and when she made that noise deep in her throat, the one that said she was as lost as him, he groaned, both in pleasure and with a good amount of what-the-fuckery, because he knew.
He was in trouble.
Down to the bone trouble, and he didn’t give one single shit. Knowing this was crazy, that they had no place to go with this kiss, he still slanted his mouth over hers and took more, took everything she gave, and she gave her all, her soft sigh as they pulled apart turning him on almost more than the kiss had.
Still, she didn’t move far, only a fraction of an inch, which meant that they sat there, still wrapped up in each other, noses touching, their exhales coming in fast pants on each other’s skin. One of his hands was still in her hair, his fingers brushing the nape of her neck, the other just brushing the swell of her breast. The temperature of the night had dropped considerably but here inside his truck it was at least two hundred degrees.
Sanity was painfully slow to return. It helped to remember that she was leaving in a month. Theoretically, that took him off the hook. She was going to be the one to walk away.
Pressure off.
“Okay,” she said shakily, finally pulling back.
Apparently the only one of them with a lick of sense.
“Not sure what that was,” she said. “But for now, I’m going to ignore it.”
He wasn’t sure how to do that but he kept his doubts to himself and got out with her.
She narrowed her eyes.
“Just walking you to the door,” he said.
“Fine.” She pulled out her keys. “But I’m going to still be ignoring this tomorrow.”
He’d be watching her try. “Night, Jade.”
“Night.” She didn’t go in right away.
He didn’t move, and not just because he hadn’t been inside her place and was curious.
Though he was curious, very much so.
But mostly he wanted a repeat of that holy-shit kiss. He wanted that bad. Because she was leaving. Which mean that he wouldn’t be the one to have to walk away, not this time.
The slight darkening of her eyes said she was considering the same line of thought. He looked at her mouth but the moment had passed and she was shifting back, away from him.
Already ignoring.
Thankfully Jade’s workday was predictably crazy. Thankfully, because then she couldn’t think too much about the night before.
The Kiss That Had Rocked Her World.
Dell had indeed mucked up the schedule. This demoted him from wildly sexy to downright irritating. It took her all morning and quite a bit of juggling to get it back to a manageable pace but she did it. And to be honest, nothing perked her up or kicked her brain into high gear faster than a problem that she could solve with a spreadsheet.
The phones stayed busy and the waiting room at a dull roar thanks to the patients and the owners that filled it. She knew the chaos would drive most people nuts but it was an organized chaos and she felt right at home, the noise settling over her like a security blanket.
In her not-too-distant past, her day had been filled with grumpy, sick, tired, distraught, rude people trying to get medical attention. She’d discovered that she preferred animals any day of the week. They didn’t talk back, they didn’t scream in your face if you were five minutes late getting them into their appointment.
Peanut the parrot sat in her opened cage, eyeballing the room with interest, occasionally squawking out a “mew” or “wuff wuff” because she liked to be a part of every conversation. Behind Jade’s chair lay Gertie, Dell’s ten-year-old “baby.” The St. Bernard liked the chaos as much as Jade did and had decided she liked hanging out with Jade.
Gertie was currently snoring over the din.
The stray kitten was still with her and had gotten very attached to the carrier that Jade had been using to transport her to and from the loft. Jade kept it in a position of honor on her credenza, door open.
From the carrier, the kitten loftily surveyed her kingdom, looking down her nose at the waiting patients.
Jade had named her Beans because . . . well, she wasn’t exactly sure but the kitten seemed to like it.
“She still here?” Dell asked, coming through the front room holding a chart.
“Just until she gets fattened up a little.”
Dell just smiled, sure and confident and smelling amazing, damn him. “I am going to give her up,” she said. Tomorrow.
Okay, so maybe next week. It had to be sooner than later because Jade was going back to Chicago.
At some point.
“Would it be so bad to want to keep something in your life?” he asked.
She laughed. “Okay, Mr. Pot. Meet
Kettle.”
“I have animals.”
“Just not women. At least not permanent ones.” She immediately clamped her mouth shut, with no idea where that had come from. With a shake of her head, she turned back to her computer.
Dell stepped to her side, but before he could say a word, Keith, their animal tech, squished in between them, reaching for the sign-in sheet with his usual cluelessness. He brought the patients to the exam rooms for Dell and took notes and stats. He divided a look between Dell and Jade. “What?”
“Nothing,” Jade said and nudged Dell out of the way.
When he was gone, Keith looked at her. “We in trouble?”
“No.” They weren’t in trouble. She was in trouble, all by herself.
Keith sighed in relief. He was a twenty-four-year-old mountain biker and mountain bum. He was great with the animals but more forgetful than anyone she’d ever met, and he moved slower than molasses. “Dude,” he said—just like he did every time Jade passed him in the hallway, assisting him in bringing the animals to the back. “You in a race?”
“No, but you could pretend to be.”
Keith merely grinned. “You know what you need?”
Yes. Yes, she knew exactly what she needed.
“You need yoga. Or Xanax.”
“What I need is you to move it.”
“Move it,” Peanut repeated.
Keith grinned. “I only move it on the mountain or in my bed.”
Jade sighed but kept cracking the whip. By pushing the patients along, continuing to fill and empty the exam rooms as fast as Dell worked his way through them, she made up even more lost time. This she used to help Adam as needed, who was working from the center today as well. He gave a S&R training class in the morning, and then puppy obedience classes all afternoon, and Jade helped him stay as organized as she could.
Eventually, sometime after five o’clock, the place slowed down. The last of the patients were seen. Jade was straightening up the front room when Bessie arrived from the cleaning service.
Actually, Bessie was the cleaning service. She came at the end of the day and sometimes at the lunch break as needed. “That’s my job,” she snapped at Jade, who was straightening out the waiting room.
“Move it,” Peanut said.
Bessie eyeballed the parrot. “I know how to make a mean parrot soup.”
Peanut ducked her head beneath her wing.
“I’m just trying to help,” Jade told Bessie. The benches were heavy and she knew Bessie’s back bothered her by the end of the day.
But Bessie’s eyes flared with temper as if she’d been insulted. “You think I can’t do my job?”
Bessie was somewhere between fifty and one hundred. Hard to tell exactly. Time hadn’t been kind, and neither had gravity, but Bessie had been cleaning offices in Sunshine for decades and wasn’t ready to admit defeat. “I think you do your job better than anyone I know,” Jade said.
“Then leave me to it,” Bessie said.
This was a nightly conversation. Jade lifted her hands in surrender and went back to her desk to close up.
Keith left, as did Mike, Dell’s animal nurse. Dell, done seeing patients, was holed up in his office, hopefully catching up on returning phone calls and making final notes to the animal charts and other various but necessary paperwork.
Adam came in from the outside pens, bringing a blast of autumn air in with him. He had a golden retriever puppy tucked beneath each arm. There was a woman with him. “Thanks so much for today,” she was saying as he walked her to the door. “Timmy’s already in the car, but I just wanted to confirm we’re on for this weekend, for the special-needs kids.”
“I’ll be there,” Adam said.
“It’ll mean so much to the kids. Your dogs just have such a way of reaching them. Having you bring your puppies, letting the kids see how you train and treat them, is such a wonderful experience for them. We can’t wait.”
“Looking forward to it.” Adam nudged the door open with his foot for her. He walked out with her and then surprised Jade by coming back inside, still holding two pups.
“Heading out for the night,” he said. “I’ll walk you to your car.”
One of the puppies barked happily, earning him a low, authoritative look from Adam. The puppy seemed to smile at him but obeyed and fell quiet.
“I’m not ready yet,” Jade said. “I’m backing up the files right now.”
Adam nudged his chin in the direction of Dell’s office. “Then call him when you’re ready to go.”
“Believe it or not, I think I know how to find my car.”
Adam didn’t return her teasing smile, just shook his head. “Another animal clinic was hit last night. No one walks to their car by themselves.”
“You are,” she pointed out.
That did make him smile. He was over six feet, solid muscle, and intimidating as hell. “Don’t worry about me,” he said, lifting the puppies higher. One licked his nose, the other licked his chin. “I’ve got guard dogs.”
Jade came around her desk, kissed each puppy and opened the door for them. Then she went back to her desk. “Gertie,” she said. “Go to Dell.”
Well used to the night routine, Gertie trotted off to Dell’s office, where she’d wait patiently for her master to take her home.
Jade covered up Peanut, then settled Beans in her carrier. She slung her purse over her arm, dimmed the lights, then stuck her head into Dell’s office.
He’d had a long day and was still in his scrubs and white lab coat, sprawled in his big leather office chair talking on the phone. He had his feet up on his desk, his laptop in his lap, and he was hunting and pecking keys with an impressive speed for someone using only their pointer fingers. He had his cell phone open and on speaker, and at first she thought maybe he was consulting, as he often did for the other vets in the area.
That or going over the stack of paperwork she’d left for him. They had plenty of it, the most pressing tonight being the blood drawn from a jet-setting Boston terrier heading for England on a month-long vacay with his owner. The sample needed to be sent out to a lab authorized to give a rabies-titer clearance proving the dog had an adequate level of rabies antibodies to avoid Britain’s quarantine. But . . . big surprise, a soft female voice was speaking.
“I’ve got a steak on the barbecue with your name on it, Big Guy,” that female voice said.
Big guy?
Dell’s dark eyes warmed at the sight of Jade. “Sorry, Kel. I have work.” His hair was even more disheveled than usual. He’d shoved his fingers through it. He did that a lot when he was tired or frustrated, and today he’d been both. He’d lost a very ill cancer-ridden cat on the table, not entirely unexpected but never easy.
I’m going, Jade mouthed, and waved to indicate she was heading out.
“Wait,” he said.
“I’ll wait as long as you need,” the woman said.
“Sorry,” Dell said, putting his feet down and setting his laptop on the desk. “I meant Jade.”
“Who’s Jade?”
Jade rolled her eyes at Dell and left his office. The man was gorgeous as sin, and incredible at what he did for a living, but if he couldn’t see that he went through women like other men went through socks because he insisted on choosing the wrong women, it was really none of her business.
Not that she was one to talk. She hadn’t exactly been successful in the relationship area herself, especially lately. “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones,” she murmured to Beans as they stepped outside.
It was a relatively mild night, but she could hear the rustle of the dry leaves on the trees. They were getting ready to fall. The ground crunched beneath her heels as she walked across the