What did surprise her was how well he fit in. With the town, with Adam and Dell. With her. For all that he wanted to be the lone wolf, he’d made sure to have their backs, all of them. He had a real bond here, one that she knew startled him.

And made him uncomfortable.

Well, it startled her, too. But it didn’t make her uncomfortable. It made her feel good, feel connected. It made her feel happy.

That would change, very soon, when he left. And yes, she’d known this day would come, but she wasn’t ready. And worse, she didn’t think she ever would be.

How scary was that? The room was so noisy she had to come up very close to him to be heard. “Problem?” she asked in his ear.

He barely looked at her. “What makes you think that? The fact that my head is spinning around and around, or that there’s twelve people in the waiting room here for the same appointment block and only one doctor?”

“Ah. A scheduling snafu.”

“That, or someone’s messing with me.” He gave her a second, longer look, eyes narrowed and dark. Very dark. “It’s not you, is it?”

With a low laugh, she lifted her hands and shook her head.

“Don’t even try that look of innocence. I know better.”

“Hey. I’ve never messed with you.”

“I have one word for you.” He gestured with his chin beneath his desk. “Twinkles.”

Lilah bent low and saw Twinkles sprawled out and fast asleep on Brady’s boots. “Aw. And clearly, you’re both hating the situation.”

The phones were still ringing.

People were still glaring at him.

That’s when Brady did something Lilah knew he rarely, if ever, did. He sank to a chair, put his hands on her hips, dropped his head to her belly, and said, “Please help me.”

“Sure.” She’d have even done it without the please, but he didn’t need to know that. Because she couldn’t help herself, she stroked a hand over his hair. “Move over.”

He stood and gave her the chair. She tapped her fingers on the keyboard and pulled up the schedule. “Well, damn. You’re double-, triple-, and quadruple-booked.”

He came up behind her, a hand on either side of her, braced on the desk as he looked over her head at the computer screen. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

If she turned her head, her mouth could brush the inside of either of his biceps. His skin would be warm, and just beneath, the muscles would be taut with strength. She could smell his deodorant and, beneath that, the soap he’d used.

Hers.

Unable to stop herself, she did it, she turned her head in the pretense of trying to see his face and let her mouth brush his biceps.

And maybe the very tip of her tongue.

“Lilah,” he said warningly, his voice barely audible, rumbling from his chest through her back.

“It’s your turn to smell like a piña colada,” she whispered softly.

Bending his head, he put his mouth to her ear. “And does it make you as hungry for me as I always am for you?”

Yes. Yes, as a matter of fact, it did. “It’s the soap.”

“I love the scent of you,” he whispered. “I love the taste of you. And it has nothing to do with the soap.”

“The scheduling problem,” she said unsteadily as one of his hands dropped down to squeeze her hips.

“Uh-huh.” He made sure to brush his lips lightly against that spot just beneath her ear. The one he knew that melted her bones away. “I’ll start pulling files,” he said. “And taking the animals to an examining room. You man the desk.”

“No, we should switch that,” she said. “I can do the preliminaries in the exam room and speed things along for Dell.”

His eyes never left hers. “Yes, but that would leave me behind this desk.”

Which he was clearly hoping to avoid at all costs. “It would,” she agreed, and smiled.

He arched a brow. “You’d throw me to the wolves?”

She turned and eyed the waiting room. Mostly women, looking Brady over in various degrees of interest, from hunger to outright lust. “Poor baby. Must be tough, having all these women want you.”

“And how about you?” he murmured in her ear, taking a quick nip out of it. “You want me?”

Always…

If anyone happened to look over at them it would appear as if they were both intently studying the computer screen-which had gone into save energy mode and was running through a slide show of Belle Haven’s animal patients.

Brady’s pictures, actually, from the past month. They were great shots, but Lilah wasn’t absorbing a single one because Brady was whispering a lurid suggestion in her ear, which made her both gasp and weak at the knees.

Forcing herself out of the chair, she avoided Brady’s hot, knowing eyes. She grabbed the sign-in sheet and called the first name. “Toby?”

Shelly and Toby stood up.

Lilah turned to Brady, who wasn’t saying a word, just watching her. The lion keeping its eyes on the prize. “Pull the file and bring it into me?” she asked.

Looking both hungry and amused, he turned to the files. Her last view of him was of his fine ass when he bent to the bottom drawer.

In the exam room, Shelly fanned herself. “Damn, Dr. Death is hot.”

“That’s the general consensus,” Lilah murmured, resisting the urge to fan herself as well.

“And your consensus?” Shelly asked slyly.

Lilah sighed. “Same as yours,” she admitted, and turned to go get Dell but instead came face-to-face with Brady, who stood in the doorway, holding the file, eyes unreadable. She bit her lower lip and flashed him a quick smile.

He didn’t return it, but the very corners of his mouth quirked slightly and his eyes promised retribution. Which worked for her, because she’d learned she really liked his forms of retribution.

It was two very busy hours later before there was any sort of breather. Lilah finally dropped into a chair beside Brady at the front desk. “And I thought my life was crazy.”

“Your life is crazy.” He got to his feet.

“Where are you going?”

He gestured to the waiting room, which was blessedly empty. “Things are under control again.”

“Yes, but I have to get back to the kennels.”

“No you don’t. Cruz is there.” He let out a breath. “I have to go.”

“Seriously, you-”

“I mean I have to go, Lilah.”

Oh. Oh, damn. She’d managed to work her denial up good, almost forgetting this fact. Slowly she rose to her feet, unable to sit while facing this. “You’re leaving right now?”

His eyes said it all.

“But how can they expect you to just up and go at a phone call?”

“That’s my job, Lilah. Pilot for hire. I go when the call comes.”

Legs wobbly, she plopped back into the chair and put a hand to her aching heart. This isn’t about you, Lilah. “Tell me.”

“I’m needed in Africa by the end of the week. And I have to go to L.A. first.”

“Oh.”

“I’m sorry.”

She let out a purposeful breath and tried to shake her head, but her body felt locked up tight. “Don’t be. You were up front and honest with me. You weren’t meant for a home base or growing roots. I’ve always known that.” Listen to her, how mature. Even as she thought it, her eyes filled.

“Lilah,” he whispered softly. “Don’t.”

“I’m not.” She shook her head and was proud of her smile. She stood and went up on tiptoe to set her hand on his chest, brushing a kiss over his mouth.

His lips were set to grim, but she knew they could soften in a smile when he chose or drive her straight to heaven without passing Go!

What they couldn’t do, however, was tell her everything was going to be okay.

Because it wasn’t.

She didn’t feel like she’d ever be okay again.

Twenty-Four

S ince packing wasn’t an issue-Brady had never really unpacked-he went to Smitty’s and tuned up the Bell 47 even though it was running perfectly and didn’t need to be tuned up. He didn’t want whomever Dell and Adam hired to have any problems. He was still sitting in the pilot’s seat tinkering with the Bell’s instrument panel when he heard footsteps. Something in his chest kicked hard, but as much as he’d hoped otherwise, it wasn’t Lilah coming his way.