Love Bites (17 page)

VIRNA DEPAUL
was an English major in college and, despite a passion for Shakespeare, Broadway musicals, and romance novels, somehow ended up with a law degree. For ten years, she was a criminal prosecutor for the state of CA. Now, she’s thrilled to be writing stories about complex individuals (fully human or not) who are willing to overcome incredible odds for love.

A national bestselling author, Virna’s blessed to write for Harlequin HQN and Harlequin Romantic Suspense. Virna also writes paranormal romantic suspense, including her Para-Ops series. All of her books encourage individuals to “brave the darkness and discover the light.” She loves to hear from readers at www.virnadepaul.com.

Look for the first in Virna’s Special Investigations Group series,
Shades of Desire
, available now from Harlequin HQN!

By Catherine Mann

To the selfless heroes and heroines who work at the Panhandle Animal Welfare Society in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Thank you for your tireless work to help the neglected, abandoned and abused animals that come into your care. It’s an honor to know each and every one of you.

Tech Sergeant Brody Ward unlatched the gate to the white picket fence, more than ready to see his girl. After a twelve-month deployment to Kuwait, he’d been away from Penny for far too long.

But he knew without question she would be waiting for him.

The Florida sun hammered down on his head, his flight suit sticking to his back. A loadmaster on an AC-130, he hadn’t even bothered to change out of his uniform after they’d landed at Hurlburt Field. He’d sped through in-processing and driven his old truck straight across Fort Walton Beach until he’d arrived at the waterside duplex.

And then he saw her. Sitting on the front porch of the yellow stucco cottage. Waiting for him.

“Penny,” he called out, his heart already squeezing tight.

In a flash, she raced down the stone walkway. Long hair streaked behind her.

Kneeling, he held out his arms.

His Border collie loped faster, barking, and barking some more.
Penny.
Named for the copper streaks in her white fur that rippled as she ran to him.

Finally, a sense of coming home hit him as hard as his fifty-pound dog slamming full-on against his chest.

“How’s my girl?” He buried his face in the soft fur along her neck. “Did you miss me? Because I sure missed you like crazy.”

Penny’s barking shifted to more of a whimper talk that seemed to say,
I missed you like crazy, too. Where have you been? Skype sucks because I can’t sniff you or lick your face.

Although she was more than making up for that now.

Laughing, Brody wiped the dog slobber off his chin onto her fur. Thank God she was okay and healthy. Most important, she was back with him. This deployment had almost cost him Penny forever. He swallowed hard and scratched her ears.

When he’d flown out a year ago, he’d thought Penny was safe and cared for with his dad and his stepmom. He’d left plenty of money in an account to pay for dog food and any possible vet visits. He’d been sad to leave his pet, but his stepmom had assured him they would look after Penny.

He should have known better than to trust his old man.

A month into the deployment, an emergency message had come through from county animal control. Penny had been picked up as a stray, thin and matted, her coat full of sandspurs. His dog’s microchip had enabled the shelter to contact Brody.

Straightening out the mess from across the globe via sketchy cell phone calls and email had been tough as hell, but he’d refused to give up. His dad had insisted Penny was too much trouble and refused to spring her from the shelter. Animal control made it clear his father had been doing a crappy job caring for Penny anyway, and they were considering cruelty charges for neglect. His dad had never been the most dependable, but his father’s new wife had seemed trustworthy.

Fury had been futile. In his limited time for calls, he had to focus on securing a safe place for his dog to stay for the remaining eleven months of the deployment. There wasn’t any other family to call, since his mother lived in a no-pets apartment across the country. He’d broken up with his girlfriend two months before flying out. All his friends were deployed to Kuwait with
him.

He’d been at his wits’ end, calling dog-sitting businesses, willing to hock his truck if he’d needed to, since his dad had already spent all the cash.

Then the shelter had mentioned a possibility.

They had a handful of volunteers willing to foster long term for deployed service members. The list filled up fast. But they’d given him a name to try—Leah Russell.

His own personal godsend.

She’d come highly recommended, ran her own gourmet dog food bakery. She’d agreed and had taken in his dog for eleven months. He owed Leah Russell a debt he could never repay. She’d cared for Penny, sending him photos and video updates. She’d even set up Skype sessions so Penny could see his face and hear his voice.

Then he’d heard
Leah
’s husky voice. Seen
her
beautiful face. And wow. Just wow.

Today, he would meet her in the flesh for the first time.

Brody looked up from Penny to the duplex, searching for Leah. Was she somewhere across the simply manicured lawn? Standing in a window? Hanging out on the porch?

The creak of a chain caught his attention and he realized she sat on the porch swing. At least he thought it was her. Late-afternoon shadows grew longer, which accounted for why he hadn’t seen her right away.

Standing, he took a step toward her. “Leah?”

“Welcome back, Brody. You’re early.” She sounded like Marilyn Monroe with a southern accent, even sultrier without the filter of computer technology. “I didn’t expect you for another half hour.”

“Is it okay that I’m here now?” He hadn’t been able to wait to see Penny.

To see
Leah
. In person, rather than in computer HD.

Intellectually, he knew he was just some cause to her. Support our troops. A part of the patriotic wave to lift a warrior’s spirits. So he’d tried not to make too much of her emails and care packages. Still, he’d found himself anticipating those Skype sessions more and more.

Could the connection he’d felt have been his hyped-up imagination, spurred by battle fatigue and the need to connect with home? His feet grew roots on the flagstone walkway. Leah stayed in the shadows, the swing creaking.

“Of course it’s okay that you’re here now.” Her voice carried on the salty breeze rustling the palm trees. “Penny has been watching for you every day.”

Moving forward, Brody walked the last few feet to the house, his hand still resting on Penny’s head. His eyes adjusted to the shaded dimness of the porch, to the sunset and shadows. Leah’s caramel-blond hair shone as she swung into and out of the light.

At the top of the four steps, he finally saw her clearly. And more than wow. The reality of having her close took his breath away.

She wore jeans and layered tank tops that hugged her curves. Her long, lean legs were tucked to the side. She had the sort of soft, pale beauty that made a man go all protective, especially when he already had twelve months of battle mind-set testosterone pumping through his veins.

He locked in on the deep blue of her eyes, noticing the flecks of green that hadn’t been evident online. “I can’t thank you enough for taking such great care of Penny.”

She waved away his words with a slim hand. “Brody, anything I did is minor in comparison to your sacrifice this past year. I’m just happy to help in my own small way.”

“You made my time away less stressful, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s no small
thing.”

“Penny’s such a good girl, it was easy. I even took her with me to work.”

Leah’s tank top bore the logo for the Three Pups and a Pony pet-food shop stamped across it—across her breasts. His mouth damn near watered.

What was she saying just now?

Oh, right. Something about his dog, who was currently plastered against his leg.

“You’re joking about taking her to work with you, right?” Brody dropped into the wicker chair near the swing, stroking Penny’s neck. “I know she’s a great dog—the best—but ‘easy to handle’ isn’t a phrase I would use.”

Although his dog was sure behaving right now.

“She just needs to be worn out and kept busy.” Long feather earrings played peekaboo in Leah’s shoulder-length hair. “She’s a working breed.”

“You understand dogs.”

Her plump lips curved into a smile. “Penny’s not my first foster for the shelter. And I gain insights from clients at the shop.” She smiled, her cheekbones as high as any model’s.

“Then too, I have my own dog.”

“Monty. Your golden retriever.” Monty had made his fair share of appearances in the photos and on Skype. “Where is he?”

“In the house.” As if on cue, paws thudded on the window behind her. A long, golden nose pressed against the pane. “I was just spending a little alone time with Penny before I have to say goodbye to her.”

Goodbye? Whoa. Wait.

“Who says this has to be goodbye? I know this started out as you just helping another deployed service member. But you and I spent a lot of time getting to know each other over the past eleven months. Talking, laughing, hanging out. That doesn’t have to stop just because I’m back in the States.”

Friends, right? He was going with that. For now.

Which meant there was nothing wrong with a friendly invitation to supper, even though his body’s reaction to the sight of her was more than a “just friends” kind of thing.

He held those thoughts in check, though. Because, damn it all, he wasn’t just some horny guy looking for any woman once the landing gear touched down on U.S. soil. This was Leah—and she truly was a friend. They’d spent eleven months talking about everything from family dramas to favorite college sports teams—FSU for her, LSU for him. Music—country for both of them. Their common love of animals.

Their favorite meals—seafood.

“Leah, I’d like to take you to supper, to thank you for saving my ass. For saving Penny. Or we could go for a day on the beach, Jet Skis and skimboarding. You name it.”

If not for Leah, Penny could very well have ended up being euthanized due to shelter overcrowding.

More green flecks shone in Leah’s blue eyes. “You sent money every month for Penny’s care and vet visits. You don’t owe me a thing.”

He’d wanted to send more, but his dad’s stunt had cost him, big-time. “There’s no way to repay what you’ve done for me. But I would like to try.”

“Okay, then.” She looked away, picking along the side seam on her jeans leg, fidgeting.

“Maybe sometime we can go out to eat.”

“Sometime?”
He was getting shut down and he didn’t understand why. He couldn’t have
totally read her wrong for nearly a year. Their camaraderie, their banter had been real. He had the printed-out proof. “I’d like to go tonight, but I should shower first. I’ve only eaten god-awful boxed in-flight meals since we took off.”

“Don’t you have anyone else you would rather hang out with?” She chewed her bottom lip nervously.

Was she wondering if he’d been truthful with her? Could she think he’d just used her and was looking for an easy hookup?

He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “Leah, you know everything about me.”

“Everyone has secrets.” Her smile tightened.

“Not me. I’m an open book with you.” Other than telling her just how deep his feelings for her went. But he needed to be sure it wasn’t all an illusion. He wanted to be careful—and sure —for both their sakes. “Do you really think I’m going to be heading over for a welcome-home dinner with my jackass old man who damn near killed my dog with neglect?”

Sympathy warmed her eyes. “I guess not.”

He pushed back the anger at his father and tried to lighten the mood. “If you’re worried I’m secretly a psycho or a guy looking to get lucky, parade me in front of family and friends before we go. You share the duplex with your mother, don’t you?”

“You already know that.”

Her mom had been widowed a year ago, so they’d bought the duplex and the bakery business together. “Right, because we do know everything about each other. It’s like we’ve been—” Dating? “—getting to know each other, intensely. We emailed more than I wrote in all of high school. We talked a helluva lot, too. And now I’m grateful to have the chance to speak to you face-to-face.”

To know, finally, that she smelled of lemons and home.

She placed her hand on his, twining their fingers together on top of Penny’s head. “Those emails, Facebook messages and Skype sessions were high points in my week. I worried about you being over there, and I’m so very glad you made it home.”

Someone cared if he made it back. This woman, who he hadn’t met in person until today but who knew so much about him, cared more than his own family. And it wasn’t as though she needed anything from him. She had her mom and a business, with a wide circle of friends.

Still, he saw that connection in her eyes again. Leah was looking at him, and finally, they were touching. His skin heated where her hand rested on his. Electricity shot through him, and he wanted to gather her in his arms to find out what she tasted like.

After eleven months of “dating,” he wasn’t exactly rushing things. He wasn’t some inexperienced teen. He was twenty-eight years old, a combat vet who’d served three rotations overseas. And no pen-pal letter from others on those earlier tours had come close to developing into what he’d experienced with Leah.

He was halfway in love with her, and he needed to figure out if he was going to fall the rest of the way.

He slid his thumb around to caress the inside of her wrist. “So? Are we on for dinner tonight?”

Her smile faded and her pulse sped up under his thumb. “There are a couple of things I should tell you first, things I, uh, failed to mention.”

Everyone has secrets.

Her words from earlier detonated in his brain like an unexpected roadside bomb.

Ah crap. This was the point where she would tell him she really had a husband and two
kids tucked away in that duplex. That all those Skype sessions had been nothing more than a cyberaffair.

Damn it, the thought made his gut roil. He’d seen too many friends lied to and cheated on while they were deployed. Her uneasy shifting on the swing only spiked his anxiety.

Brody pulled his hand away, leaning back in the wicker chair, bracing himself. “What’s the problem?”

“Not a problem, exactly. Just…something about me you don’t know.” She motioned behind her to the metal ramp he hadn’t noticed earlier. “That wheelchair over there? It’s not my mother’s. It’s mine.”