Shelter Me (9 page)

“Maybe if I stick around for a couple of hours, he will settle in. I could put the time to good use and fix anything that’s broken.”

She glanced over her shoulder, her blond ponytail swishing. “In spite of what my brother says, we’ve got it under control.”

“Of course you do,” he said, not bothering to point out she was walking past a loose shutter that smacked the side of the house. “Surely there’s something I could help out with to pass the time while Trooper gets his bearings.”

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “What’s really going on with you?”

“I don’t have anything else to do.” Except fantasize about getting her naked again. Although watching her walk in shorts and cowboy boots was definitely sweet. “I’m at loose ends for the next few weeks. Mandatory leave after battle to get my head on straight again before going back to work, and not even working that much since I’ll be moving soon.”

“Surely you would rather party with your friends than fix broken kennel latches here.”

“You have broken kennel latches?”

“Damn.” She winced. “You tricked me.”

He spread his hands wide. “I couldn’t have tricked you if you didn’t keep secrets. What else is broken? Throw the whole list at me. I can take it.”

“What’s broken? Everything.” She half laughed as she opened a gate to a fenced area within their larger property enclosure. “Seriously, just the regular sorts of stuff that you tend to let slide when you’re busy and Dad’s away. To-do list kinds of items. We’ve been focused on expanding the rescue. We’ll get around to catching up on the other stuff in time.”

Serious remodeling had gone on in the past year, especially with the barn, things he hadn’t seen when eating in the family’s patio area. Some of the horse stalls had been converted into a line of five long kennels that were half inside, half out. The barn doors were open today, and he could see a bigger play area with dog beds and toys.

Outside of the barn, a large part of the yard had been sectioned off into a doggie haven. Fat oak trees sprawled, providing shade for a couple of napping pooches. Plush grass stretched like carpet from edge to edge of the fence, some kind of minor miracle given how many animals must tromp through.

There was a sheltered area over a concrete slab with a baby pool full of fresh water. Trooper took off like a bolt of lightning and charged straight in. Clementine looked up from under the tree then went back to sleep. A couple of older beagle puppies raced over to meet and sniff the new guy on the block.

Sierra watched with perceptive eyes. She had her mother’s gift with animals even if she’d chosen a different path for her life.

He looked around at the other changes made to the place. When they’d deployed, Lacey had only just started her animal rescue, fostering a few animals in her house along with the help of three other foster families. The Colonel had shared her plans for expanding. He’d been proud and a little bemused. Allen McDaniel had said that at first it seemed his wife was empty nesting over their kids growing up, but he’d soon realized she was passionate about her rescue work.

And well organized.

It appeared to Mike that only about three animals were in the kenneled areas. He’d seen some younger pups on the porch. The whole place was controlled chaos. He was more than a little surprised. This all had to come with so much work and expense for something he knew from talks with the Colonel didn’t bring any income to the family. Lacey managed the Second Chance Ranch Animal Rescue in a purely volunteer capacity. The organization ran off donations.

Sierra blocked his hand before he could reach his fingers into a kennel with a Pomeranian curled up asleep on a pink bed. “Be careful. He bites.”

His skin still hummed where she’d touched him.

“Why is he here then?”

“He’s detoxing. We won’t know what he’s really like until his system’s clean.”

He scrubbed a hand over his beard-stubbled face. “You’re going to have to explain that one.”

“The family he lived with had a teenage drug user.” She leaned back against the barn, one booted foot up. “The dog got hold of a bag of pot and ate a significant portion. The teenager tried to take it back and got bitten in the tug of war. Apparently the teen and his friends had given the dog drugs in the past. They thought it was funny to let the dog get high with them.”

“Seriously?”

“Hand to God, it happened. They called Animal Control.” The humor left her eyes. “Once a dog has bitten, the shelter’s hands are tied when it comes to adopting that animal out. Since this didn’t appear to be the dog’s fault, the shelter called my mom to see if Second Chance Ranch could take in Lucky . . . That’s his official name, even though I think of him as Doobie.”

“Doobie.” He chuckled. “Cute.”

“Yeah, but Mom says Lucky’s a more ‘marketable’ name.”

“What happens if Lucky’s still a biter afterward?”

Her cheeks expanded with a puff. “We’ve got a foster home that rehabs abused dogs, but sometimes the animal is too far gone to ever be safe around people . . . But we’re thinking positive for Lucky right now. Okay?”

“Positive thoughts. Got it.” He realized in a flash that this place wasn’t just a second chance for some animals. It was a last chance. “So all of these animals came from the local shelter?”

“Different shelters in all the surrounding counties. Others came from people who contacted Mom directly. And there are more in foster homes.” Her voice was filled with pride . . . and an exhaustion most wouldn’t have seen but he couldn’t miss. “My mother’s role as head of the rescue isn’t a paid position. She pours every cent of donations back into the rescue.”

“How have you paid your bills since your father died?” He didn’t remember the Colonel talking about that aspect, but then they wouldn’t have discussed money. “Sorry, that’s none of my business.”

“It’s okay. I have my graduate assistantship. Gramps has his retirement. My mother still teaches through a virtual school online, high school classes year-round, and she’s able to work from the house. My living at home and helping with Gramps saves us money, too. We’re fine, better off than plenty of people.”

Still, all the renovations converting the barn to a rescue facility could have bought a lot of repairs around this place. Did Sierra resent the money that went to animals rather than her education? “You used to dream of moving, getting an efficiency with thrift store refurbished furniture.” They’d talked about how she would be able to leave after her father finished this deployment and could help with the General. “You wanted to rent a writer’s garret, like that Virginia Woolf,
A Room of One’s Own
.”

He’d loved listening to her dream out loud. She had a way of painting pictures with words that let him see things differently. She’d once described her ideal space to him, in detail, while he’d messed around on the guitar after lovemaking. It had been one of the most perfect times they’d ever spent together.

“You remember all of that?” She toyed with her ponytail, her fingers plaiting it into a loose braid.

The glide of her fingers hypnotized him. “I read the book, actually.” Along with other novels she’d talked about, as if that somehow kept her close even though he’d been the one to push her away. “I had a lot of time to think when I was deployed. And you are a memorable woman.”

Besides, he’d been better served remembering their talks and her words than reliving the other ways they’d spent their time together.

“Thank you,” she said simply, avoiding his eyes, and she slipped the band from her ponytail down and twisted it at the end of the braid.

What he wouldn’t give to comb a finger down the braid and undo it all again. To sketch a touch along the back of her scalp and angle her for his kiss.

Instead, he grazed his knuckles along her jaw, guiding her face back to look at him. “I didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt.”

“Nobody ever does.” She smiled bittersweetly but didn’t pull away from his touch.

Her skin felt every bit as soft as he remembered. The need to be with her fired as hot as ever through him, surging heat south. He wasn’t any better at resisting her now than he was a year ago. So he gave her the chance to push him away. “I’m going to kiss you now, Sierra.”

“No. You’re not.”

Disappointment burned. “Why not?”

She slid her hand up to his shoulder. “Because I’m going to kiss you first.”

Five

S
IERRA ARCHED UP
on the tips of her boots and pressed her lips to Mike’s.

Pure sensation washed through her in a tingling shower. She wasn’t sure why this urge had consumed her since the minute he’d returned. But as she’d raced to that door when Mike came back, then walked with him out here, she realized how little he’d returned to. No family. No welcome home committee. Not even parties with friends. Since he’d stepped off that plane he’d carried around the weight of an incomplete homecoming. She thought of all those homecomings past, of the homecoming he should have had . . . the homecoming they could have had if things had been different between them.

Now, she was no longer able to resist the overwhelming urge to give him a welcome home kiss to end all kisses.

His hands slid from her shoulders up to cradle her face. A sigh melted through her. She leaned into him, her lips parting. She’d ached for this during long nights thinking of him, worrying for him, accepting she’d given up any right to know what happened to him.

She gripped the warm cotton of his T-shirt in tight fists and wished the moment could be held as firmly. The taste of sweet tea and Mike intoxicated her, and she was so glad she’d taken this moment. To hell with worrying about afterward. Right here and now, they both needed this for . . .

Closure?

She cringed at the word and just lost herself in sensation instead. Rational thoughts would have to come later; for now she ached to enjoy this kiss for herself as well.

Her touch confirmed what her eyes had already admired. Mike had worked out while overseas. The muscles of his chest rippled under her fingers. She explored the hardened planes of him, such a mix of familiar and new. The attraction between them had been instantaneous. Combustible. And that certainly hadn’t changed.

Sighing, she skimmed her hands up and over his close-shorn hair. Her leg hooked around his with the practiced ease of so many kisses they’d shared in the past. No wonder she hadn’t been drawn to anyone else since their breakup. She’d told herself she was too busy. But right now with the taste and scent of him filling her senses, she couldn’t escape the truth. No one came close to setting her on fire the way this man did.

She rocked closer, her hips sealed to his in a way that let her know exactly how much he wanted her. The feel of him, right
there
, made her knees go weak. She would have lost her balance if not for Mike’s hands anchoring her, his finger splayed over one thigh as he kept her wrapped around him like she was one of Nathan’s serpentine pets.

The thought would have made her giggle if she hadn’t been so dazed with lust that she was already calculating the distance to the closest bed . . .

Until the sense of being watched startled her, reminding her where they were.

Her hands eased from Mike’s shoulders to his bulging arms and she glanced down. Trooper sat at their feet, looking up, his tail swishing back and forth through the dirt. The dog stared up at her with strangely knowing eyes as he really looked at her rather than toward Mike for the first time.

She swallowed hard. Tried to pull herself together as she lowered her foot to the ground and found her balance. Still, the knowledge of how fast things could get out of hand with Mike rattled her.

He eased back, his hand trailing down her arm before he stepped away. “Well, that was unexpected.”

No kidding.

She glanced at him quickly, struggling to get her head around what had just happened. “I, uh, wanted to say welcome home.”

“I liked it,” he said simply, the rough catch of his voice sending a fresh wave of longing through her while her heartbeat still danced like mad.

“Maybe I should have thought that through, but it seemed the right thing to do.” She held up her hands. “Not that I expect it to go further. It was a salute to what we had. You deserved more of a homecoming than delivering a dog to this strange family of mine. You deserve to be celebrating.”

“I’m exactly where I want to be.” He stared straight back at her, intensely.

A shiver tingled through her, tightening her breasts with awareness and yearning. And more than a little regret for what might have been.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying. You broke things off, and I came to understand the wisdom of that.” Kind of. Mostly it just hurt like hell. “You’re right that I’m not cut out for a military life. God, that’s truer now than it was then—”

Her eyes stung and she blinked fast. Too many emotions were tangling up before she could process them.

His hand fell to rest on her shoulder. “Stop. You don’t need to say anything more.”

“I’m just emotional, I guess. And confused.” And totally wanting to lean her head against his chest. “I can’t be with you but I missed you. Every time we packaged up a box of treats and cookies for my dad I thought about the times I sent those same care packages to you whenever you went away for training.”

They’d been friends before they’d been lovers. Really, really good friends. She missed him on so many levels.

He smiled. “You do make amazing brownies.”

“I wish we could be still friends, but this”—she stroked along his chest—“just isn’t a friendship kind of feeling.”

The answering pounding of his heart beneath her palm seemed to make a reply all its own.

“And having me around is a painful reminder for your whole family.”

She hated the pain that brought to his eyes. She knew he missed her father as well. “My mother never said that, but I worry about her. Taking care of Gramps was tough enough before.”

“Have you considered . . . alternative arrangements?”

“You mean putting him in a nursing home?”