Jill Shalvis - For The Love Of Nick

The hustle and bustle of it, the friendly but stiff competitors, the general craziness had been Danielle’s life for so long. It felt like home, and yet oddly enough, also like a dream where she didn’t quite belong.

Luckily, it didn’t take long to find Laura Lyn, who’d hired Danielle on several occasions to handle her extra dogs. After a quick hello hug, Danielle pulled back and said, “You don’t see me standing here.”

“Okay.” Laura Lyn shifted her perpetual wad of gum from one cheek to the other. “I don’t see you standing here-stressed, exhausted and looking like crap. Does that have anything to do with the phone call I took from Ted several days ago?”

Danielle’s stomach sank and she gripped Sadie’s leash with tense fingers. She looked around, but didn’t see him. “This was a bad idea.”

“Was it?” Another careful shifting of the gum made Laura Lyn’s left cheek bulge. “Why?”

Danielle stopped looking for Ted long enough to look into Laura Lyn’s eyes. “I need records.”

“Ted said you might. And that I was to call him the moment I saw you.” She lifted a brow. “Hard to do that, as I’m not seeing you.”

Danielle drew a careful breath. “Laura Lyn…”

“Did you steal Sadie?”

“More like put her in protective custody.”

Laura Lyn blew a huge bubble. “Ah.”

“I want to show the court that for all intents and purposes, Sadie is mine.”

“To prove ownership.”

“Right. Then she can stay with me.”

“Because Ted broke up with you? Or because Sadie is the most amazing champion the breed has seen in decades?”

So now the story was Ted had broken up with her. Terrific. That gave him even more sympathy in the eyes of the law. “No, not because of any of that.” Danielle looked into Laura Lyn’s eyes and willed her to understand. “But because Sadie needed to get away from Ted. So did I. Laura Lyn, I left him. I had good reasons, and now I need to prove Sadie doesn’t belong with him.” She drew a deep breath and gave it her best shot. “Can you help me do that?”

“Danielle?”

Both Danielle and Laura Lyn froze as Laura Lyn’s assistant, Gail Winters, came jogging up to them. “Imagine seeing you here,” she said to Danielle, with a wealth of speculation in her gaze.

Gail was barely twenty, independently wealthy, gorgeous and far too glamorous for the dog life, but she’d proven herself a good assistant to Laura Lyn.

All that, and she also fancied herself in love with Ted. Given the predatory way she was staring at Danielle, Gail had to know too much.

Under the guise of moving out of the sun, Laura Lyn turned her back to Gail. Then she leaned close to Danielle. “Where should I send the records?”

“That’s…complicated.”

Laura Lyn looked at her for a long beat. “Gail?” she said over her shoulder. “Could you go brush Max? He’s next in the ring.”

“But-”

“Now, please, Gail.”

Only when her assistant had reluctantly moved away did Laura Lyn speak again. “Complicated?”

“I want to come get them.”

“Coming to my place would be a bad idea, Danielle.”

“Ted?”

“I think so. How about I overnight the records to you when I get back in a few days?”

Danielle hesitated, because that was a lot of trust, which she was short on at the moment.

“I can have them to you by the end of the week,” Laura Lyn promised.

The end of the week. Surely she could wait that long to start her new life. “The Twin Oaks B &B in Cooper’s Corner,” Danielle said softly.

And hoped she hadn’t just made her biggest mistake yet.

DANIELLE DROVE BACK to the inn. Inside, she could hear hammering, the whir of a saw…but saw no one as she climbed the stairs.

Maybe she hadn’t been missed.

As she entered her- their -room, she removed Sadie’s leash, giving the dog space to lie down.

Then Danielle stood still and took her first real breath since she’d left. Maybe Nick had already gone, deciding she was far too much trouble for whatever weak link they had to a past. Maybe he was at this very moment thanking his lucky stars to have gotten rid of her so easily. Maybe he-

“Hey there,” he said quietly, and she almost jerked right out of her skin.

Twirling, she saw him, sitting in the chair by the window, legs stretched out in front of him, hands resting on his thighs.

Relaxed and calm.

Except for the sparks shooting out of his eyes.

“I didn’t see you,” she said with a hand to her racing heart.

“Yeah.” He pushed to a stand. “That’s a big problem for us.”

He was not happy. In fact, he looked fairly furious.

“Nick-”

“You don’t see me.” He came close so that she could see that it wasn’t just anger in those eyes, but something else, something deeper. Fear. Concern. Tension.

All caused by her.

“First,” he said, pushing her hair from her face with a surprisingly gentle hand. “Are you all right?”

Was she? Hard to tell with her nerves so highly strung. “Yes.”

“Good.” He stared at her, then let out a disparaging breath. “Damn it. I’m so mad I forgot what the second thing was.”

“Nick-”

“You went to the dog show. Risked yourself. You did it alone because that’s the way you wanted it.”

“I had to!” she cried. “Nick, I’m going crazy just waiting for things to happen to me. I can’t do it anymore. I’m taking control. I’m taking action. I need those records from Laura Lyn, and she’s promised to get them to me.”

“There’s something I need, too, and I’m going to take it now.” Then he hauled her up to her toes and kissed her. It tasted of frustration and temper, but more than that, it tasted of affection and need. An intoxicating mix, as she began to understand something she’d missed before. Not some passing fancy, this. Not some vague attempt to bring back their high school days with a cheap thrill.

There was far more to his touch and kiss than that, and she had to admit, far more to hers. “Nick.”

“See me, Danielle. Hear me. Stop shutting me out and feel me.” His hands slid down her back to her hips, binding her to him as the kiss deepened, somehow tender despite its wild demand.

She met and matched his passion, mating her tongue to his, giving him her own affection and need and temper and frustration, as she suddenly couldn’t get close enough, feel him enough.

“You wanted me to be gone when you got back,” he said, his breath uneven, pulling back to nuzzle at her ear. “You want me gone now.”

“Nick…” How to explain when she didn’t understand herself? All she knew was that the only place she’d ever felt safe and sound and at home was here, in his arms.

How could that be?

“I know we started fast,” he murmured. “But I don’t want to finish fast.” He slid his hands up her ribs, his thumbs just brushing the undersides of her breasts.

She opened her mouth to say she liked fast, but all that came out was a groan. Encouraged, he moved his hands beneath her top, cupping her breasts, stroking her nipples until she shuddered, pressing shamelessly against him while his mouth feasted on hers. This man…no one had ever touched her like this man. Fascinated, needy, her hands explored him too, slipping beneath his shirt, feeling the muscles in his back hard and tense under her touch.

“I want more,” he said, and his fingers slid down her back and dipped under the lace of her panties. She shifted, making access easier, loving the sound that came from his throat when he found her wet for him.

“I can’t walk away,” he said hoarsely, running his busy mouth down her neck, his hands still in her panties, his hips pressing to hers. “You should know that.”