Animal Attraction

But Dell couldn’t fold, not yet. He wanted… Christ. He wanted so much it hurt.

And yet it had to be her move…

It was the end of a very long day. Still in scrubs, he stood at the window watching a storm move in-not nearly as nice a view as the one from his desk if he leaned forward just so to catch a glimpse of Jade-but definitely safer.

Besides, he’d watched her enough today. Just a few minutes ago she’d been checking out Ashes, an Australian blue heeler, who’d managed to stab herself on a low-lying branch in the woods. The branch had caused considerable damage to Ashes, requiring surgery, a drain, and multiple visits. Nick, Ashes’s owner, was an out-of- work construction worker who faithfully paid cash for each visit. He’d been standing there meticulously counting out money from his wallet and must have fallen short because Jade covered his hand and shook her head, sending him on his way.

Once Nick had left, she’d gotten up and added three twenties to the cash box.

From her own purse.

Behind Dell, he heard the click click clicking of heels coming down the hall toward him. Jade, of course. And given the attitude in every step she made, she’d discovered what he’d done and they were heading for their second fight in three, two, one…

She stalked into his office and stopped, hands on hips, giving him that teacher to errant pupil look that always made him so hot.

She didn’t speak.

He could appreciate the tactic but he wasn’t in the mood. Besides, there was little he could do to get on her good side now. And it wasn’t as if she cared about getting on his good side. “Problem?” he asked calmly.

“You know there is.”

Her legs looked ten miles long in the skirt she was wearing today, and her cute little boots had given him dirty thoughts all day long. He really liked watching what he’d come to think of as the Jade show. Today, for instance, after getting caught dancing-Christ, he’d loved that-she’d sat at her desk, doing that little OCD thing she did with her pencils, lining them up perfectly, making her lists.

And she was leaving…

She ran his office, she managed his life, she made things… easy for him. Easy and good.

And in return he’d thought he was giving her something. Stability. Comfort. Safety.

When he pictured his world without her in it, something funny happened inside him.

He went cold.

She held up her paycheck. “This, Dell. This is the problem. My paycheck. It isn’t right.”

“No?”

“You know it isn’t.” She set it on his desk, then stabbed at it with her finger, pushing it across the wood surface toward him. “You seem to have given me a raise.”

“Are you objecting?”

“Hell no. I’ve earned it. But double? You nearly doubled my salary?”

She was wearing peach gloss today, and he gave brief thought to yanking her onto his lap and settling this pent-up anger between them in the age-old way of the Neanderthal caveman dwellers.

He wasn’t sure why he was giving her this big push now. It felt an awful lot like desperation, a last-ditch effort to see if she’d stay.

“Dell.”

“You’re doing the work of office manager and full-charge bookkeeper,” he said. “I’m just giving you the money that goes with it. You’re getting what’s fair.”

“This is hardly fair.”

“No? Okay, how much more do you think-”

“Oh my God, you are the most stubborn-ass, confusing, arrogant man on the planet!”

“So I take it that you’re not going to thank me for the raise by having your way with me then?”

She smacked him upside the back of the head with the envelope. Figuring that fighting back was fair, he went with the caveman urge and yanked her into his lap. He slid one hand to the nape of her neck, the other to her waist and leaned in, pressing his forehead to hers. “To first blood or the death?”

“I feel like we’ve already drawn blood.” But she melted into him a little, his favorite ice princess, and for a long beat they just breathed each other’s air.

“I know what you’re doing,” she finally whispered.

“Do you?”

“Yes.” She cupped his face. “You’re woman-whispering me with the alpha-dog move, touching my neck, pretending to be trying to get lucky to throw me off, but you’re really doing the whole calm, assertive domination thing.”

“No, the domination thing would be stripping you naked and sprawling you out on my desk so I could-”

“Dell.” She shook her head but gave herself away by biting her lower lip and glancing at his desktop. “I can’t take the raise or the job.”

“You already have the job, Jade.”

“But-”

“You’re leaving,” he said. “Yeah. Believe me, I know.”

“Do you? Do you really? Then why haven’t you put out an ad for my replacement? I could train them.”

Fuck, how he hated that idea.

She sighed and dropped her head to his shoulder. With a sigh of his own, Dell slid his hand down her back for the sheer pleasure of touching her. “Just tell me this. Why are you going back? Is it for duty or because you miss your life there?”

“What’s the difference?”

“Missing your life is one thing. And a good reason to go. You tell me it’s because you miss your life and I’ll step back and be happy for you.”

“And if it’s duty?”

He gave a slow shake of his head. “I don’t see how that can be a good enough reason to give up your life.”

“And I don’t see how that’s your call,” said a male voice from the doorway.

The guy was thirtyish, leanly muscled, and dressed like he was heading to an A-list event. And he was apparently familiar to Jade because she leapt out of Dell’s arms with a surprised gasp.

“The front door was unlocked,” the guy said. “But the front desk was deserted, so…”

“You’re… here,” Jade said, and walked into his arms.

Dell couldn’t see Jade’s face, but he could see the guy’s as he squeezed Jade, his expression a grimace of relief and love, his hands fisting on her sweater as if he couldn’t get enough. Jade appeared to be doing the same and Dell stood, fighting an entirely different Neanderthal caveman dweller urge now.

Jade finally pulled back from the warm hug and smacked the man hard in the chest. “I told you not to come here,” she said.

“And I listened. For a year and a half.” He tugged on a strand of Jade’s hair. “Now introduce me to the man who just had his hands on you and is looking like maybe he wants to kill me.”

Jade looked back at Dell, not giving much away. “Dell, this is my cousin Dr. Sam Bennett. Sam, this is Dr. Dell Connelly, my… boss.”

At the slight hesitation, Sam’s mouth twisted into a wry smile. “Interesting inner-office policies,” he said directly to Dell, eyes cool in a way they hadn’t been with Jade.

“Sam,” Jade admonished, and pushed him toward the door, adding a little push. “Wait for me by the front desk.” She added a second shove, then when Sam was gone, turned back to Dell. “Sorry about that. He’s a little protective.”

Dell just looked at her, willing her to talk to him without him having to give her the inquisition, but this was Jade. The Queen of Emotional Fortress.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said. “Okay? We’ll discuss this”-she pointed to her paycheck-“further.”

“That’s not first on my list,” he said.