Animal Magnetism

Twenty

A fter being confined to the cabin, Lilah tried to keep busy while imagining the hell that Brady was going through. By the time that Adam came by to see her, she nearly pounced on him. “Oh, thank God. Would you please go help Brady at the kennels?”

Adam laughed. “Just came from there.” He plopped next to her on the bed and grabbed the TV remote, flipping through the channels with male single-minded purpose. “Trust me, Dr. Death is doing better than Dell.”

“What does that mean?”

“Your kennels are full up, since Brady’s in the paper again-”

“Again? Why again?”

“Yeah front page this time, for being the big hero yesterday. There’s some talk of featuring him weekly.”

She choked out a laugh.

Adam grinned. “And Dell’s all butt-hurt because he didn’t make the cut. Anyway, now Brady’s got chicks from three counties over dropping off their pets. You’re making a mint.” He tossed the remote aside. “Daytime TV is shit. You need pay-per-view.”

An hour later, Jade and Dell brought Chinese for lunch. They were scowling at each other when they walked in.

“What’s wrong?” Lilah asked.

“Nothing,” Jade said in the tone that of course meant the exact opposite.

“I said I was sorry,” Dell said to Jade, tossing up his hands. “Christ, it was just a little harmless flirting. Women generally like it.”

Lilah divided a look between them. “Who was flirting?”

Jade jerked her chin in Dell’s direction. “Stud man here.”

“With whom now?” Lilah asked.

Jade snorted. “Exactly.”

Dell looked confused. “You. I was flirting with you.”

Lilah felt her brows raise at this.

Jade shook her head. “Me,” she repeated, irritated.

Which clearly didn’t help Dell’s confusion any. “I said it was harmless!” he said, the picture of male exasperation.

“That,” Jade said, poking him hard in the chest, “is the problem.” She glared at him as she sat on the bed.

Lilah decided maybe they needed a moment alone and tried to get up, but Dell sat next to her and threw a leg over hers so she couldn’t move, then carried on like she wasn’t even there.

“You don’t like when a man flirts with you?” he asked Jade over Lilah’s head.

“It’s the harmless part that chaps my ass.” Jade grabbed the food, shoved a container and chopsticks at Lilah, and grabbed the next container for herself, closing her eyes as she chewed.

Lilah glanced at Dell and was startled to see… hurt and longing? But when she blinked, it was gone. “Dell-”

He grabbed the third container. “We checked on Brady.”

Lilah recognized the subject change as a diversionary tactic and was just enough off her axis to let it go for now. “And? How bad is it?”

“He’s running the place like boot camp. Even Lulu is behaving, though it’s probably out of fear that she’ll have to run laps if she doesn’t.” He laughed at the look on her face. “He’s doing fine, Lil, stop worrying. In fact, he was telling Lorraine where to stick it,” he said. He smiled. “Best moment of my day.”

Shit. Lilah tried to get up, but Dell’s leg was still over her. “Relax. He’s got it all under control.” He had the fried rice, and Lilah knew from experience if she didn’t demand her share pronto, he’d eat it all in less than two minutes. “Gimme,” she said.

After she’d filled her belly, she felt better and tried to get up but Dell shook his head.

“I’m getting up, Dell.”

“No you’re not.”

“Yes I am.”

“Christ, what is it with all the stubborn women today?” He spared a glance at Jade, who merely narrowed her eyes at him.

“I feel just fine,” Lilah said.

“No go.” Dell held firm. “If I let you up, you’re going to go check on him.”

“Yes.”

“You’re still on bed rest.”

“Since when did you talk to my doctor?”

“Not your doctor, your keeper.”

“Yes, well if you want to keep your pretty face, get off me.”

Jade snorted and kept eating.

“Sheesh,” Dell said, moving. “You’re grumpy when you get shot. And I don’t know what your problem is,” he said to Jade.

“I’d tell you to think about it,” Jade said. “But that might be a stretch for you-” She broke off, staring at him. “Are you kidding me? What, are you twelve?”

“What?” Dell said, looking around. “I didn’t do a fucking thing.”

Jade pointed to his Levi’s, which were low slung and had sunk far enough on his hips that when he’d sat, they’d revealed the waistband of his boxers, which were pink and covered in little red lips. He looked down at himself and shrugged. “They were a gift.”

“Pig,” Jade said.

Later, when Lilah was alone again, she fought with discomfort and discontentment and told herself it was from being cooped up.

It wasn’t from wanting things she couldn’t have.

Except it was.

At eight, there was a knock at her front door, but before she could move, she heard a key in the lock.

Only three people had keys. Adam, Dell, and as of this morning, Brady. He had her set of keys, actually, so he could come and go between the kennels and the cabin. She listened as footsteps, sure and steady, came down the hall. “You’re lucky I don’t sleep with a gun beneath my pillow,” she said to the tall, dark, built shadow who appeared in her doorway.

Brady propped up the jamb with a shoulder, and a smile flashed from him in the dark. Imperturbable as usual, the bastard.

“I think we’ve had enough accidental shootings for this week.” He crossed his arms. “But out of curiosity, do you really think you could shoot me?”

She thought she could do a lot of things to him. Smack him for the smugness. Hug him for how hard he’d worked today.

Love him for exactly who and what he was…

“No,” she answered honestly. “I don’t think I could shoot you. But I could throw a gun at your head.”

He laughed. “Now that I believe.”

“Are you here with the handcuffs?” she asked hopefully.

That tugged another rough laugh out of him. “Thought I’d save that for when you’re feeling better.”

Heat slashed through her, pooling low in her belly. “You worked hard today.”

“No harder than you do every day.” There was admiration in his voice for what she did, and then there was a warmth inside her to go with the heat.

“I don’t bring in women from three counties over,” she said. “That’s new.”

Pushing off from the doorjamb, he came forward until his thighs bumped the bed. Leaning over her, a hand on either side of her head, he bent close.

It was dark, but she had enough of a glow from the moonlight outside to see his exhaustion, and concern.

For her.

“I’m okay,” she told him softly. Reaching up, she cupped his face. “Really.”

“Wanted to make sure.” He kissed her softly, tenderly, and she kissed him back. The emotion rocked him, she could feel it in the fine tremor of his body. And suddenly it was all ferocious intensity, and she wanted to show him just how okay she was. She wanted to lessen some of the tension she felt in him, wanted to help him let go. Tugging his shirt up with her good hand, she smiled when he took over and yanked the shirt off in one fluid motion.

“Pants, too,” she whispered, running her fingers down the center of his chest, past his belly button to the waistband of his cargoes.

Almost before she had the words out, he’d stripped down to skin.

And Lord, what beautiful skin.

With his careful help, she shimmied out of her pj’s, then lifted the covers to make room for him. Pulling him over the top of her, she sighed in pleasure, loving the way she felt when his weight pressed her into the mattress. Arching, she wrapped her legs around him, absorbing the groan that wrenched up from deep in his chest.

“Lilah-”

“In the bedside drawer.”

He pulled out a condom and put it on before he came back over her. She rocked again, shifted strategically, and then he was inside her, the sensation taking her breath away.

“Christ, you feel good… ” He let out a long, shaky breath and kissed her jaw, her throat. “So fucking good.”

She tried to rock her hips against him but he wasn’t budging. Not until he was ready, and as she already knew, wasting energy on pushing him was useless, his body was like steel. “Brady…”

“Shh. Give me a minute. Just feel.”

She let her hand roam, she couldn’t help it. His body was smooth and muscular. And scarred. Her fingers traced a few of those scars, memories of long-ago battles he never spoke of, and then she pulled his face to hers to nip at his bottom lip.

Growling low in his throat, he finally began to move, setting an agonizingly slow rhythm, his hips barely grinding in a circle as he did, careful not to jar or hurt her.

She heard herself whimper but not in pain. She was dying with each and every single rock of his hips. She dug her fingers into the cheeks of his perfect ass to try to speed him up, she tried words, she even bit his shoulder, nothing rushed him.

The sensations overtook her. The rush of pleasure at the top of every thrust he made had her orgasm building from her toes. Her eyes wanted to close, but she fought the urge, not wanting to tear her gaze from the look on his face. It was beautiful.

He was beautiful.

And then she was flying over the edge, coming hard. As she gasped and cried out, lost in the pleasure, his vivid blue eyes stayed locked on hers, his expression revealing every flicker of pleasure she gave him as he quietly followed her over.

The next few days were crazy for Brady, shuffling between kennel duties and the flying he did for Adam and Dell.

It was the nights, however, that stuck with him: the long, hot, steamy, tear-up-the-sheets nights.

The best nights of his life.

Three days after Lilah had been shot, he ambled over from the kennels, dirty from head to toe. He’d had a record day, including managing to be felt up by the seventy-year-old Mrs. Lyons. At the front door of the cabin he stopped to remove his boots, going still at the wild laughter from inside.

When he walked through, he found Lilah in bed, surrounded by Jade and three other women.

His gaze soaked Lilah up, the low-cut yoga pants and snug T-shirt she wore, the color on her cheeks that said she was feeling much better, the shine in her eyes that assured him she’d finally caught up on sleep and was no longer in constant pain.

Someone had brought pizza, magazines, fingernail polish, lotions, and a bunch of other frilly shit. There was so much estrogen in the room he almost couldn’t breathe. He stared at Lilah in the middle of the bed, the center of attention, wearing no bra and a bandage from getting shot-

Christ.

She smiled at him and just about melted his bones away. “Hey.”

“Hey right back atcha. Everyone out,” she said, not taking her eyes off him.

No one listened. The talking and laughing continued.

Lilah put her fingers to her mouth and whistled, loud and long. “Party’s over,” she said into the ensuing silence, snagging Brady’s hand. “Except you.”

“I need a shower,” he said inanely.

“Yeah? Well, it just so happens that I have one.”

At this, there were hoots and hollers and whistles. Brady shook his head as the women gathered their things to leave.

“Here.” Jade slapped a Cosmo up against his chest. “You might want to keep that one. Page fifty-seven, ‘Fun with Handcuffs.’”

More laughter.

He turned and met Lilah’s eyes. “Telling tales?” he asked.

She lifted a shoulder. “It might have come up in conversation is all.”

“Uh-huh.” When everyone had left, he stripped and showered until the hot water was gone. He came out of the bathroom for the duffel bag of clean clothes he’d dropped in the bedroom.

Lilah rose to her knees on the bed and gave him the “come here” finger crook.

Raising a brow, he walked forward until his legs bumped the bed.

She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Hi,” she said.

He bent his head and kissed her until they were both breathless, and then he set his forehead to hers. “Hi.”

She smiled and he got hard. Just like that. “Dinner,” he said. “Out. You up for it?”

“Another date?”

“If I say yes,” he asked cautiously, “are you going to tell me you don’t have anything to wear?”

“Hey, you’re the one nearly naked.” She ran her hands down his chest, over his abs, and then played with the edge of the towel low on his hips, the one barely covering him. “And you smell fantastic,” she murmured, and took a bite out of his shoulder. “I could eat you up.”

He was on board with that.

But she got off the bed. “I’ll get dressed. I ordered something new.” She stripped off the T-shirt and then the yoga pants as she walked to the closet in nothing but a teeny tiny black pair of bikini panties.

He groaned.

She shot him a smile over her shoulder. “You’ve seen it all before.”

Yes, up front and personal. Three nights in a row, in fact, and he couldn’t imagine ever getting tired of it. “Put clothes on,” he said in a voice so low and thick he barely recognized it as his own, “or you’ll be dinner.”

Laughing, Lilah slid a halter-style summer dress over her head and slipped her feet into sandals, then twirled for him.

“Pretty,” he said, and tugged her into him so that she fell against his chest. Sliding his hands down he cupped and squeezed her ass.

“Hmmm,” she hummed, face against his throat as she rocked her hips to his. “Either you’re happy to see me, or”-she rocked again, grinding into him, making him groan-“you’re packing again.”

Giving her a light smack on her ass, he pulled away and dressed, then carried her out the door.

“I was shot in the arm, not the leg,” she pointed out. “And I’m all better. I can walk.”

He didn’t set her down until he placed her in the passenger side of his truck.

“Where are we going?”

“State secret.”

She rolled her eyes, but she didn’t ask any more questions until he’d parked outside of a steak house in Coeur d’Alene.

“I needed red meat,” he said to her silence.

“Yes. It’s because you’re a caveman.”

Smiling, he came around for her, but she shoved him in the chest. “Don’t even think about carrying me in there.”

“Some women like to be carried.”

“I’m not some women.”

“True,” he said.

She waited until they were seated and had ordered before she asked, “Are we celebrating something?”

“Yes. The fact that I’m not wearing duck shit today and also that for the first time in days I’m done working before bedtime.”

Some of her enjoyment of the evening drained. “I know. I know and I’m so sorry. I wanted to come back to work today, but you said you’d withhold sex if I got up.”

He set his hand over hers. “I’m not complaining, Lilah. You work your ass off. I know you’re still hurting some, and I wanted you to have one more day off.”

She studied him over the candle flickering between them. “Thanks.”

“For?”

“My life, for starters. I still can’t believe you and Dell got to me so fast when I needed you.”

His eyes softened and he set down his glass and reached for her hand. “You’d have been fine.”

“It could have gone another way.” She drew a shaky breath. “I should have been more aware of my surroundings. I need to be more careful.”

“More careful would be good.”

She scrubbed her hands over her face. “I was just so damn tired, and then I got that call… ”

“So next time you’ll take one of us with you.”

“You won’t be here next time.”:,You know what I mean.

His eyes were steady on hers. “You know what I mean. You’ll take someone.”

She stared into her wineglass and nodded, trying not to think about how soon that might be. It’d already been close to a month, which meant it could conceivably be only a matter of days.

“What did you get on your test?” he asked. “Grades posted yet?”

“Got an A.” She smiled. “Only two more semesters to go.”

“And then what?”

And wasn’t that just the scary part. She didn’t know.

“You’re awfully closemouthed about your hopes and dreams,” he noted.

She raised a brow. “Recognize that, do you?”

Clearly not feeling playful, his eyes never wavered. “You must have ideas on what you want.”

“Yes.”

He waited for more, but suddenly she wasn’t feeling like sharing. Liar, said a little voice. You always feel like sharing. You’re just afraid to give it all and then lose him. And you are going to lose him. Soon.

He was looking at her, and when she remained silent, he said, “So you let me into your body but not into your head.” He nodded but didn’t look happy. “I get that.”

“You don’t want to be in my head,” she reminded him. “And hell, Brady, half the time I don’t want to be in my head.”

His eyes were stormy. Filled with censure. Feeling like a jerk, she pushed around a piece of steak on her plate. She understood why she was feeling out of sorts. She’d started this whole adventure with him for fun, but then she’d gone and gotten her heart involved. Which didn’t explain what his problem was. “Help me out here, Brady. I’m not sure exactly why we’re doing this.”

“Doing what?”

“Fighting.”

“Are we fighting?”

She shrugged. “Feels like it.”

“I’m just trying to get to know you better.”

“But why? You’re not long-term, remember?”

“Hello, pot,” he said softly. “Meet kettle.”

She stared into his eyes. “Not fair.”

“No?” He leaned forward, intent and focused on her. “Then tell me why everyone and everything else in this town is allowed to take up residence in your fold, but you keep me out.”

“You didn’t want in, remember?”

“Christ.” He sat back, his expression suggesting that maybe she was being an unfathomable pain in his ass.

Which was true. She was being a pain. It was called fear. Because she decided right then and there that she was absolutely not going to let herself ruin what very well might be one of the last few nights she had with him. No regrets, she reminded herself. Not ever again.

They left the restaurant in silence.

Normally that was Brady’s favorite state of being but not tonight. Tonight he needed more.

And it pissed him off.

He opened the door to the truck and went to help Lilah in, but she gave him a long look and he lifted his hands in surrender, backing up to watch her struggle one-handedly.

“Goddammit,” he breathed when she winced in pain from tweaking her still healing arm, and gave her a boost.

When he walked around and angled into the driver’s seat, he felt her hand settle on his arm.

“Thank you.”

Turning toward her, he stroked a strand of hair from her face. “For letting you hurt yourself trying to get into the truck?”

“For letting me be as stubborn as… well, you. Turn left,” she said when he would have turned right to take her home.

He turned left and ended up at the convenience store.

“Wait here,” she demanded.

He arched a brow.

“Please,” she added so sweetly that he shook his head and did what she asked. She vanished inside, only to come back five minutes later with a brown bag and a smile.

“Ian was inside,” she said. “He says if you strike out tonight, I’m to call him.”

“Good to know,” he said, wondering if he was going to indeed strike out. He reached for the bag.

“Nope,” she said, holding it out of his way. “Surprise. Go straight.”

He went straight.

“Now right again.”

He slid her a glance, but in the dark of the night he couldn’t see her expression. “Finally decided to take me to some remote area to off me?”

Her soft laugh was a balm to the soul he hadn’t realized was aching. “You afraid of me, Brady?”

More than you know. “Should I be?”

She was quiet a moment. Then she let out a soft “yes.”