Animal Attraction Read online

  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