“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.

“We’re not replacing you.”

He turned to face Dell and Adam, who boarded looking unusually serious. Well, Adam always looked serious, but there wasn’t so much as a glimmer of a smile on Dell’s usually good-humored, affable face.

Brady shook his head. “You spent a lot of money for me to fix up the Bell. You’ve had an average of three calls a week where it’s beneficial to take it up. Any of the pilots housed out of here or Coeur d’ Alene would be happy to hire on and fly for you.”

“Sure,” Adam said. “And we’ll use them as needed. But we’re not hiring anyone on full-time.”

“You guys want and need a third partner. You’re overworked, you need-”

“You,” Dell said.

Brady shoved his fingers through his hair and stared at them, frustrated at all the unexpected things he was feeling at leaving. “This was always going to be temporary.” How many times had he said that in the last day?

“It could stay temporary,” Dell said, “if that’s what your pansy ass needs. A word. A fucking word to make it okay for you to use this place as a home base. Let’s call it temporary, then.”

“He’s going to do what he has to do, Dell,” Adam said quietly. “He’s-”

Running footsteps sounded, and again Brady’s heart kicked. Because this time it was Lilah.

She came rushing up to the opened door of the Bell, her cheeks flushed, out of breath. When she saw Brady, she put her hand to her chest and sagged, out of breath. “I thought-I heard the engine start-I was afraid you’d left.”

“Not yet,” Adam said and turned to her, brushing a kiss to her jaw, giving her a quick squeeze. With one last long look at Brady, he left.

Dell came forward and hugged Brady, slapping him on the back. “I’ll miss you, you chickenshit bastard. Be safe up there.” Dell looked at Lilah, and then he was gone, too, leaving the two of them alone.

The silence was heavy. Not awkward, just… weighted. Unable to mistake the emotion coming from her for anything other than temper, Brady let out a breath and removed her sunglasses.

She blinked up at him from eyes that were clear and… not full of temper, as it turned out.

But sorrow.

And somehow that was worse, far worse. “I have to go,” he murmured, hating himself in that moment.

“Yes,” she said, crossing her arms. “You have to go.”

He hadn’t expected her easy agreement and didn’t believe it. “It’s my job,” he said carefully.

“I know that, too.”

“I-”

“Shut up, Brady.” She uncrossed her arms, grabbed his shirt, and yanked him in. The first brush of her lips was soft, gentle. Tender. As if she’d put her entire heart into it. Then she settled in and the kiss deepened, a hot, intense tangle of tongues that nearly brought him to his knees. Before he could recover, she gentled the connection again, retreating in slow degrees until her lips were nothing more than a barely there butterfly kiss. “Be careful with yourself,” she whispered huskily against his lips.

He didn’t move, his body still a breath from hers. She… wasn’t going to devastate him with guilt? For a moment he couldn’t quite wrap his head around that. Or the fact that she wasn’t going to even ask him to stay.

And suddenly he remembered how he’d reasoned with her when she’d had to give up Toby and then Sadie. He’d told her that if she’d found a loving place for the animals to live where they could be happy, it was okay to let them go. That haunted the hell out of him now, because apparently she’d listened and taken his words to heart.