Maisey Yates - Animal Attraction

“The point could be lust, chemistry—or even good old fun.”

Oh, I bet you would be so fun. Then she caught herself. Be strong, Nadine! She picked up a few chips and tried for a casual tone. “Yeah, see, I’m not into being another conquest for the infamous Shohn Hudson.”

“Infamous?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know.” She rolled her eyes and jammed the chips in her mouth.

“Okay, you mean sex.” He slowly pushed away from his chair.

Nadine sank back in hers. Gaze watchful, she now regretted that mouthful of chips.

“Hot sex,” Shohn clarified as he stood. “With me.”

Nadine gulped down the chips, choked a little and nodded. “Yes.” She coughed, swigged down more Coke and nodded again. “Yes, that’s what I mean.”

Eyes intent, mouth barely curled in a small smile, he circled the table.

She wanted to sink under it...and maybe take him with her for a little hanky-panky.

He stopped beside her chair, right there so that her gaze was level with his abs and she got the up-close-and-personal view of that mesmerizing happy trail that disappeared into his uniform pants.

The temp in the kitchen spiked...oh, a hundred degrees or so.

Shohn brushed the back of one knuckle over her cheek. “How come we’ve never gotten together, Nadine?”

That snapped her out of the spell. In a rush, she shoved her own chair back and scrambled to her feet behind it. Finger pointing, she said, “Because you’ve always treated me like I was a relative or a guy friend or...or old or something.”

Instead of her accusation bothering him, he went all alpha sexy male on her. “So it wasn’t disinterest on your part?”

Jerk! “No, it was disinterest on your part!”

“I must’ve been blind or something.”

Yeah, right. She knew the truth: she wasn’t in his league and never would be. “As far as I’m concerned, you can just go on being disinterested.”

“No, I don’t think I can.” He stepped toward her. She backed up. He stopped. “Are you afraid of me?”

Ha! Stepping around the chair, Nadine butted up to him. “Not a chance.”

“Glad to hear it.”

Oh, her stupid pride. She tried to retreat a little. “Look, Shohn, be reasonable here. You are not, have never been, into me that way.”

He stared at her mouth. “Am now.”

“Well, tough!” It’s too late. “My life is busy enough as is without me trying to fit in a...a fling, or whatever it is you have on your mind.”

“I have all kinds of things on my mind.”

She could only imagine how wonderful those things would be. “Dial it down already, will you?” To give herself something to do other than reciprocate, she began stacking the remains of their dinner back onto the tray. “It won’t do you any good,” she lied. “I’m seduction-proof because I plain don’t have the time for it.”

“For it—or for me?”

“Take your pick.” He looked equal parts insulted and challenged by that, so she kept talking fast in the hopes they could just move past it. “Right now, I need to get out there to let my workers go home. Then I need to start moving the dogs into their beds so I can lock up. You’re right, it has been a long day and I still have a ton of things to do.”

“I offered to help.”

If he stuck around, all shirtless and sexy, she wouldn’t get anything done because she’d spend all her time staring at him. Carrying the tray to the kitchen, she said, “And I told you no, so let it go.” She would not let him bully her, make her feel guilty or cause her to cave in. She had bucketsful of pride and by God, she’d hold on to it. “I do wish Amber would call back, though.” Then he could take the dog and leave.

“She already did.”

Nadine paused in the middle of putting away their mess. In a slow simmer, she turned to Shohn. He leaned there against the fridge, one hand braced on his holster, expression taunting.

“When?”

“Right before I came in here she sent me a text saying she’d called you and left a message.”

And he’d kept that to himself! She scowled. “If you’d told me—”

“You’d have given Rookie to me and sent me away.” He gave up his casual pose and closed the space between them. “But I didn’t want to go. Still don’t.” When she started to object, he cut her off. “Thing is, I’m not into forcing my company on women.”

“You just did!”

He ignored that to suggest, “How about a compromise?”

Said the spider to the fly. She stared up at him, aware of his naked chest so close, knowing he wanted her, even if only for a lark. From the time he was eight or nine years old, Shohn had been flirting with females and winning them over. The elders thought him charming, the young girls had crushes and those his age bragged about how good he was in bed. They all adored him.

Damn it, she would not be that easy. She would not be like everyone else. She would not—

“What compromise?”

He smiled over her surrender. “Give me a kiss—just one, Nadine—and I’ll take Rookie and head out.”

She had to know. “Why?”

Ever so slowly, Shohn lifted a hand and slid his rough fingers over her cheek, around her ear and into her hair until he cupped her head. Her topknot threatened to come undone, but seriously, she just didn’t care, not with him looking at her like that, drawing her in closer, breathing in that low, husky way.

“Because I need to know how it is with you,” he whispered.

Yeah, she kind of needed to know, too. A little dizzy with the idea of tasting him, Nadine wavered on her feet, drawn to him, sinking closer...

Satisfaction put a wicked gleam in his eyes seconds before he leaned down and took her mouth. At first the kiss was gentle, warm, damp—but slowly it grew firmer, hotter, wetter as he moved his tongue over her bottom lip, just inside her lips, then he sealed their mouths together and his tongue stroked in.

His hands wrecked her hair and she didn’t care.

Her hands gripped his shoulders, but he seemed to like it.

On her tiptoes, she fit herself to his hard frame and relished the solid strength of his big body. He moved one arm to her lower back and arched her in closer, higher. His mouth ate at hers, his tongue delving, his hot breath on her cheek.

Nadine groaned with the pleasure of it. If she’d had a bed nearby, they’d have been in it.

Suddenly they heard footsteps outside along with the sound of doggy nails on her wooden front porch.

It was Shohn’s turn to groan as he released her.

Nadine knew she was busted, that even a blind man would be able to see that they’d just been making out.

Then Shohn surprised her. He put a finger to her lips and steered her to the dividing wall, out of sight of the front door. His thumbs brushed her cheeks and he bent to kiss her once more, then again, before finally stepping back.

After running both hands through his hair in palpable frustration, he grabbed up an empty Coke can and, using it as a prop, went to the door as if he hadn’t just stolen her will or her independence or her twice-cursed, stupid pride. He even pretended to drink from it.

Cowering back like a guilty college co-ed, Nadine tried to level her breathing as she listened to Shohn greet her assistant and Amber’s dog.

“Hi, there,” Roxi said. “We didn’t get a chance to meet earlier.”

“Hi, yourself,” Shohn replied.

Nadine wanted to leave her hiding place to kick him in his sexy backside. Hi, yourself, she silently mimicked. Oh, she could just imagine what Shohn was thinking while looking at Roxi. Blond hair, blue eyes, petite and—damn her—very nice, as well as good with animals.

Shoulders slumping, Nadine called herself three times a fool.