Animal Attraction

Dell would have argued, but it was hard to argue the truth. Jade had been keeping him on his toes since the day she’d walked into his life.

They all walked out to the parking lot together and Lilah hugged her again. And then again, until Brady pried her loose. “She’s coming back to visit,” he assured Lilah, and looked at Jade. “Right?”

Jade, eyes shimmering brilliantly with unshed tears, nodded. Brady pulled her in close, whispered something Dell couldn’t catch, and when he pulled back, Adam moved in. He didn’t speak, just hugged her, then tugged lightly on her hair, his eyes solemn but affectionate.

Dell waited until everyone pulled out and it was just him and Jade in the parking lot.

“It’s late,” she said, voice thick. “And I want to leave before dawn.”

He nodded. She didn’t want him to follow her home. Message received. “Jade-”

“I don’t know how to do this,” she whispered. “I don’t know how to say good-bye to you.”

“So don’t.”

“Dell-”

He put a finger to her lips. “I just mean that I’ll come see you.”

She closed her eyes, then nodded. Then she stepped into him and hugged him hard, eyes fierce. “Make sure that you do.”

He stood in the lot and watched her drive away. He got into his truck and turned toward home.

Except he went right instead of left, and let his heart steer him to where it thought home was.

Jade’s.

She opened the door, eyes and nose red. “This is a bad idea,” she said shakily.

“Spectacularly,” he agreed, and shut the door behind him. Then he found himself pushed up against it and she kissed him, all hot, confusing desperation, which unleashed his own.

“We shouldn’t do this,” she said against his mouth when they came up for air.

“No.” Look at him, all agreeable, as if his heart weren’t breaking in fucking two. Her body heat was seeping into him, warming the core of him with the very essence of her. Then she made a sound in the back of her throat and cuddled in, soft and pliant and willing. God, so willing.

They dove at each other. Apparently, they were doing this.

Lacing his fingers into her hair, Dell took her mouth in a drugging kiss, holding her face in one hand, sliding his other down her back to cup her ass, squeezing until she moaned. He worked his way down her body, divesting her of clothing as he went. She moaned again when he flicked his tongue over her puckered nipple and arched into him with a gasp when he dropped to his knees, pinned her hips to the door and kissed his way lower. By the time he made his way to her center she was writhing beneath his hands, the little whimpers coming from her the sexiest sounds he’d ever heard.

“Dell,” she panted. “Now. God, please. Now.”

Her face was upturned, lips parted, her eyes closed, her fingers digging into his shoulders. He’d never seen anything hotter. “Come first,” he said. “I love to watch you come.”

“Oh God. I… Don’t stop. Don’t ever stop.”

She came on his fingers, and then on his tongue, and then again when he surged upright, magically produced a condom and entered her right there, taking her against the door.

“Oh,” she cried, her fingers digging into his back. “We need to-”

“Yes.” They needed to do this. Now. He did his best to move slow, to build up the pressure for her, trying to show her a patience he didn’t feel. But she bit his neck and then sucked a patch of skin into her mouth, flicking her tongue over it, and slow went out the window. “Jade-” He wanted to tell her to relax, that this was it, their final time and he wanted-needed-to make it last.

But she wasn’t feeling the same need. She grinded against him and he closed his eyes. No, that made it even worse.

Or better…

Her hands were everywhere, grasping ahold of anything she could brace herself with, and though he tried to keep the pace steady, she wasn’t helping, moaning his name, arching against him, trying to climb inside his body. He felt her body tighten around him as she burst and he opened his eyes to watch, but that proved to be his undoing and he came with her, hard. When his knees gave out, he slid to the floor, barely managing to keep a grip on her. Not that she noticed. She was limp, content, and clearly sated, and for once he felt the same. Breathing hard, he braced them against the wall and held her close.

“Gonna miss that,” she said hoarsely against his chest.

Yeah. Big-time.

“Are we going to get up?”

No. He wanted to stay here, right here, still inside her body, in her life. “I’m not ready to let go of you.”

With a soft little hum of agreement, she cuddled in tight.

Twenty-five

Nearly a week later, Dell shut himself in his office after a long day and sank exhausted to his chair. He’d caved and called the temp agency (emphasis on temp) on the second day. He’d told Jade he wasn’t going to replace her and he wasn’t. The agency had sent a perfectly nice twenty-two- year-old receptionist from Boise, who was interested in wintering in Sunshine to ski on the weekends.

That was the same excuse Jade had given him when she’d come to Sunshine and it hadn’t escaped him, and as he thought of her, as he had for five straight days now, he felt a stab of pain in his chest.

Of course that might just be the fresh scratch from pec to pec, courtesy of one pissed-off feline from an earlier patient visit.

His day had sucked.

His life sucked.

Leaning back in his chair, he closed his eyes, wanting to snap at whoever had just opened his door and let themselves in. “It’s called a knock.”

Ignoring his scowl, Lilah sat on the corner of his desk. “You okay?”

As if he were too busy to talk, he stared at his computer-which wasn’t even booted up. “Yeah.”

“You working?”

“Yep,” he said, without taking his eyes off his blank screen.

She came around the desk and stood behind him, staring at the blank screen along with him. “Dell-”

“Look,” he said. “I know you think you’re trying to help with the phone calls, the texts, the lunches you keep bringing by, but I want to be left alone.”

“Really? Because when I was hurting, you never left me alone. You badgered, bullied, and pretty much shoved me back to the life of the living.”

“I’m not you,” he said, closing his eyes.

The next sound he heard was that of his office door shutting quietly. He dropped his head to his desk, pounding it a few times because he was a complete asshole.

When the door opened again, he didn’t lift his head. “I’m sorry. I just want to be alone.”

“Got that loud and clear. And nice job on kicking the puppy, you asshole.”

Adam. He sighed. “I meant for you all to go away.”

“Aw, and here I wanted to join your pity party.”

“Fuck you.”

Adam came around Dell’s desk and kicked Dell’s chair back from it. “You sent her away and now you’re punishing everyone that’s left. What the hell’s that?”

“I didn’t send her away. She left all on her own.”

“So ask her to come back.”

Dell shoved Adam away and stood up, stalking to the window.