Jill Shalvis: For The Love Of Nick

“I want to go with you to the breeder.”

“That’s not necessary.”

“I know.” He set one hand on the sill behind her, surrounding her with his body. “You’re tough,” he said gently. “Resilient and strong. You can handle whatever comes your way, I’ve seen that. I get that.” His other hand slid into her hand. “I’m staying for me, not you. I want to know that it comes out all right for you in the end.”

It rarely came out all right for her in the end, but this time…this time, she hoped, would be different.

God, please, let it be different.

He was looking at her in the way that made her insides tremble, and because she was weakening, she pushed away from him, nearly tripping over the sleeping Sadie.

“How does she sleep like that?” he asked in amazement, looking down at the dog, flat on her back, four paws straight up in the air, mouth open, emitting a soft snore every few seconds. He stepped over the comatose thing and moved through the country-casual room, past the four-poster pine bed to Danielle. “So…when do we leave?”

She searched his gaze, for what, she didn’t know. Pity? Regret? Anything that would make it easy for pride to flare, to shove him away.

But he only smiled, patient as ever.

“And after we do this last thing together?” she asked. “Then you’ll go? Back to your life?”

“You’re in an awful hurry to get rid of me.”

“You’ll go?”

His smile slowly faded. “If you get your answers, I’ll go.”

“Okay,” she said softly, grabbing her backpack. “Then now is as good a time as any.”

LAURA LYN MILLER, of Miller Show Dogs, wasn’t home. There was a clipboard attached to her front door for visitors, and given the dates of the notes left for her, she hadn’t been home all week.

“She’s at a show,” Danielle said in a neutral voice that didn’t come close to fooling Nick.

She was despondent-he could hear it, he could see it-and for the first time in a very long time, he felt completely helpless.

Because she wanted him to go, damn it, and get the hell out of her way.

But he couldn’t walk away from her until he knew she was okay. That after only a handful of days he was afraid there was far more to it than that could be his own private hell.

“All I need are her records,” Danielle said, still staring at the front door which wouldn’t be opening to her. “Proving I was in Sadie’s life from the beginning, with my own money. I paid for most of the vaccinations and food and everything else needed, and since Laura Lyn and I stayed in touch at shows, she could be a witness to that fact.”

“She’ll be back.” Nick took her back to the truck. “And so will we.”

Danielle was quiet until they were on the road, heading back to the inn. “She’ll be gone another week, if she’s on the show circuit that I think she’s on. And actually…”

He wasn’t going to like this. “And actually?”

“She’s not too far from here.”

“But Ted might go there looking for you.”

“It’s likely.” Voice tight, she stared out the window.

“So we wait.”

“I wait. You can’t just hang here for a week.”

Right. He had a life.

Cooper’s Corner came into view, the pretty little village that never failed to draw him in. Small, personal. Unique. Danielle drew him in, just as this place did, he thought, turning into Twin Oaks B &B.

Danielle got out of the truck before he could come around. “I’m going to take Sadie for a walk in the woods.”

Alone. That was crystal clear.

Well, good. He’d practice being alone again, too. He watched her go, watched her hold on to Sadie’s leash as if the dog was all she had in the entire world.

What about me, he wanted to call after her, but that was pathetic so he headed around to the back of the house, to where he could go be alone and mull. Maybe even talk to Maureen.

He’d asked her to run Ted through the system, discreetly, without explaining why he’d asked such a thing. Nick hoped like hell she came up with something. Anything. If so, combined with the threatening e-mail, Danielle’s testimony on how he’d treated Sadie, and anything else he could find, it hopefully would be enough to turn things in Danielle’s favor.

Danielle, who was currently walking away from him as fast as she could.

On the back deck, which spread the entire length of the house, sat two young, bubbly, laughing women, whom he recognized as Maureen’s cleaning crew.

They grinned at him. “On a break,” the redheaded one called out cheerfully, having unfastened all but one button of her sleeveless blouse so that she could tie it between her very generous breasts.

The other had rolled her biking shorts up to nearly pornographic heights, and since she lay on her belly in a lounge, he had an unobstructed view of a very curvy, very nearly exposed bottom. From over her shoulder, she smiled. “Care to join us?”

“Uh…” Definitely, there was something wrong with him that he hesitated, glanced back over his own shoulder for one last sight of Danielle.

But she was long gone.

And damn it, so was any libido he might have had.

That it was possible for her to have so completely stolen all his lustful urges in such a short time was truly terrifying, and he turned back to the women, staring at their bodies, determined to get his own to react.

Not a twinge.

No getting around it. What he wanted, what he craved, was one slender, sweetly sexy, misty-eyed Danielle.

Only problem was-and here was another first-she didn’t want him back.

He knew he had decent looks. That wasn’t ego talking, but fact. He also knew he hadn’t been bad in bed. The way she’d clutched at him, staring into his eyes with sweet, sexy, wondrous surprise, as if no one had ever made her feel like that before, told him that.

It hadn’t been his company, either, because no matter what she pretended, she liked him, he could see it in her eyes, taste it in her kiss.

And whether she wanted to admit it or not, she trusted him. She’d trusted him with the truth, she’d trusted him to be with her. She’d trusted him to help her.

She hadn’t let anyone else do any of those things.

But she didn’t want to trust him. Didn’t want to let him in.

And without that, they had nothing.

Little Buxom Redhead wriggled on the lounge, getting herself comfortable while watching him from beneath lowered lashes to make sure he was catching it all.

“Sorry, ladies,” he said, knowing he was truly certifiable. But the niggling in the back of his mind had turned to a full instinctive awareness of trouble, and his instincts were never wrong. Without another look at the women, he pivoted and followed Danielle.

She wasn’t on the trail. She wasn’t in the gardens. She wasn’t anywhere.

She was gone.

DANIELLE GAVE UP the walk in favor of a little ride. Maureen had been so kind, offering her anything she needed, and the fact that she’d taken advantage of that hospitality and borrowed her car felt like an overwhelming burden.

But she still drove herself and Sadie to the dog show to find Laura Lyn.

All the way there Danielle told herself she was doing the right thing, not involving Nick in this any further. He’d done enough, she owed him everything as it was, and…

And who was she fooling?

She’d needed-quite desperately it turned out-to remember what it was like to be on her own, without the incredible, dynamic presence of one Nick Cooper, the only man to ever have her fantasizing about what-ifs.

What-ifs were fruitless. What-ifs were dangerous.

She pulled up to the site of the dog show, taking a moment to look around at the controlled chaos with a sense of nostalgia. Trailers, campers and minivans dominated the parking lot. Two huge ring tents had been set up for the show itself, and surrounding those were the booths of various vendors selling everything from doggie sweaters to pooper-scoopers.