His lips curved slightly in acknowledgment.

“I should go,” she said slowly, but her mind wasn’t on the words. Instead it was thinking, One more inch! “Really. You’re going to need to back off a little, because I need to-”

He lifted his hands, indicating that he wasn’t holding her in any way and she felt the blush on her face. Gathering her dignity, she forced herself to back away and turned to the Jeep.

“Lilah.”

She kept her back to him and closed her eyes. “Yeah?”

When he didn’t say anything, she glanced back.

“Why do you give the animals away if you want to keep them?”

“Because that’s what I do,” she said, surprised. “It’s my job.”

He came up behind her, putting his hand on hers on the Jeep handle, preventing her from opening the door. “And what’s up with the studying all night and not telling anyone?”

“That’s… private.”

“A secret?”

“Sort of.” She paused. “Okay, yes, I told you a secret. I was frazzled and had just hit your truck, and you were holding the babies in the box for me, and… ”

And she’d been thinking he looked so cute holding them, too, looking all helpful and tough at the same time.

Oh, and that he had a nice ass, and that she hadn’t been with a man in a long time. Too long.

And that he wasn’t a fixture in this town, which made him both dangerous and safe… “I was momentarily distracted,” she admitted. “And it slipped out. But now that you’ve reminded me of it, you do owe me a secret in return. Make it a good one. I could use a distraction.”

“I don’t do secrets.”

Okay, then. Good to know. Drawing a deep breath, she pushed his hand out of her way and he let her. She opened the Jeep’s driver door and climbed in, taking just one more last quick glance. But only one because more than that with him tended to render her incapable of reason. “Thanks for the donuts,” she said. “Twice.”

He nodded but didn’t otherwise move. She blew out a sigh and eyed the truck parked in front of her. “You should probably go first. I’m even more distracted today than yesterday. And as you know, I tend to do stupid things when distracted.”

“Something to remember,” he said lightly.

Six

T he next evening, after Dell had seen all his patients, he closed up shop and set Brady up for a website photo shoot. He showed Brady into one of the exam rooms and patted the exam table. “I was thinking we could have a series of pictures of ‘patients’ in various rooms, as if maybe animals led this place, you know?”

“That’s good,” Brady said, nodding. “Funny. Warm. Makes the place seem welcome and readily inviting. None of you?”

“Nah,” Dell said. “I like the idea of just the animals. You can put one in Jade’s reading glasses behind her desk. One with my stethoscope sitting on this table, maybe.”

Brady had spent the day cataloging all that was wrong with the Bell 47, in a hurry to get that renovation on track. He’d spent the hours alone with his own thoughts, and they hadn’t always been good ones. At least ten times he’d started to go in search of Adam and Dell to tell them he didn’t want to stay for another twenty-nine days. He couldn’t handle the thinking.

But he hadn’t.

Now all he wanted to do was grab a shower and hit the sack, but he’d promised to take these pictures. He’d been dreading this, knowing the only time he liked being behind the camera was on his own terms. It was, after all, a creative release for him, not a chore. But he found himself liking Dell’s ideas for the pictures and felt an energetic creative surge. “Yeah,” he said. “We can do that. But are you going to materialize your patients? Because you sent them all home.”

“I’ve got that handled,” Dell said, just as the sounds of a wild stampede sounded from down the hall.

Brady poked his head out of the examination room in time to see Lilah appear, both hands occupied with myriad leashes. In one hand she had one, two, three dogs. No. Two dogs and a lamb. In her other hand she held Abigail’s leash. And Brady couldn’t help it-he felt the smile crack his face.

“I’ve got two cats and a bunny available as well,” she called out, blowing a few strands of hair from her eyes. “Where do you want us?”

Brady didn’t give a shit about where the animals went, but he knew exactly where he wanted her.

Beneath him, panting his name.

A little unsettled at that thought, he shoved a hand through his hair and shrugged at Dell. “You’re the director.”

“Um,” Dell said, looking guilty as he pulled his keys out of his pocket. “Actually, you are. I’ve got a date.”

“What?”

“Now don’t let the lamb scare you. Lulu’s really very sweet. Just don’t let her get her nose in the family jewels, man. She’s been known to take an unexpected bite.”

It wasn’t Lulu he was afraid of, and something of that must have shown on his face.

Dell studied him a moment, brow drawn. “I can trust you with her, right?”

“The lamb? Sure.”

When Dell only looked at him, Brady glanced at Lilah as she moved toward them and slowly shook his head. “Definitely not.”

“Christ,” Dell muttered, and swiped a hand down his face. “I’m going to hope to God you’re kidding.” And with that, he met Lilah halfway, kissed her cheek, shot one last long warning glance in Brady’s direction, and was gone.

Lilah came to a stop before Brady. “What was that?”

“Nothing.”

“You told him you couldn’t be trusted with me.”

Brady arched a brow. “So if you overheard, why did you ask?”

“Because I wanted to see what you would say. What kind of an answer was that?”

“What did you want me to say?” Brady asked her.

“Not that.”

He shrugged. “It was the truth.”

She stared up at him, looking a little flummoxed at that. “Oh,” she breathed.

Yeah, oh. Just being near her like this-she smelled like mangoes tonight-drained some of the tension in him, in spite of himself. No matter what she thought, she was a sight for sore eyes, that was for damn sure. She wore snug, hip-hugging jeans and a lacy white T-shirt that was sheer enough to reveal the white cami beneath it and a faint hint of an equally white bra.

Which he found ridiculously, inexplicably hot. The past few nights he’d fantasized about Lilah. He’d told himself that he was an ass, but his self seemed completely unconcerned.

The lamb-Lulu, he presumed-stepped forward and tried to shove her face into his crotch, but duly warned by Dell, Brady backed up.

“Don’t be afraid. She’s sweet.”

At Lilah’s words, Lulu appeared to smile, pulling back her lips to show her teeth, which didn’t look sweet to Brady.

“She just wants to catch your scent,” Lilah assured him.

Pushing aside images of dropping to his knees and pressing his face to Lilah’s crotch to catch her scent, he grabbed the dogs’ leashes from Lilah. Given the unstableness of his brain tonight, it was best to get this over with.

Two hours later, he got the last shot of the night, a cat sitting on Jade’s desk daintily washing her face with the computer opened on the schedule behind her.

Lilah gathered up all the animals while Brady slipped his camera back into its case. “Think you have everything you need?”

He knew he didn’t. Not even close. She looked up from wrapping a leash around her wrist, caught his expression, and went still. “Are you going to kiss me again?”

“Yeah,” he said, surprising himself as he moved in. With two dogs, a duck, a lamb, and a cat between them, he cupped her face and kissed her. A brush of his lips to hers, once, twice. Unable to pull away without more, he settled in against her mouth, their lips the only points of their body touching. He’d meant it to be short and sweet, but she made a sound that went straight through him and the kiss deepened, a hot, intense tangle of tongues that ended abruptly when one of the dogs at their feet barked.