Page 73 of Puppy Christmas

“Andthenyou went on to undress me with your eyes,” he continued. “Oh, no. You can’t deny it. You stripped me of that tuxedo in five seconds flat.”

Her cheeks flamed with color. “I did no such thing,” she said and went on to contradict herself two seconds later. “Besides, you can hardly blame me. You must know how you look in a tux. Every woman there must have been ogling you. It was unnatural.”

At that, a flame of desire flickered in his gut. Ford didn’t know or care what other women had been doing that night of the ball; he was only conscious that Lila had found something to admire.

“Unnatural, huh?”

“Don’t look so smug. We’ve already been through this. You’re an attractive man, Ford Ford.Tooattractive for your own good.” She paused and pursed her lips. “And mine, apparently. You never should have been able to win me over this easily.”

That small flame roared up in an instant, working its way through his whole body before settling in his groin. His cock grew hot and heavy, as though a weight—the weight of a woman, perhaps—was bearing down on him. Lila’s confession was exactly what he was talking about, exactly the point he was trying to make. She might not be as unguarded as either of her sisters, but there was something unnervingly honest about her all the same. She was unafraid to admit a flaw, unwilling to pretend to be something she wasn’t.

That was somethingheenvied abouther. She was constantly surprising him by the things she said and did, but that was because she only said and did the things that were truly in her heart. Unlike the rest of them, who hid behind pleasantries and polite inanities and jokes that kept all the young, unmarried ladies from getting too close, Lila was one hundred percent herself, one hundred percent of the time. A man would always know where he stood with her.

“Andthenyou lost no time in making me an indecent offer,” he said. It was, he knew, another one of his jokes, but he didn’t know how else to proceed. “And in taking shameless advantage of me underneath the elementary school bleachers.”

“I did not!”

“Kissing me until I forgot that we were in a public place. Holding me captive while Helen Griswold kept watch above. Slipping your tongue into—”

“Ford, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll stop right there.” Her voice was half laughter, low and sultry. “I didn’t bring you here so you could fling my indiscretions at me.”

“Then why did you bring me?” he asked. The question came out strangled, almost as though he was buried under the weight of two dozen playful puppies instead of just one.

The feeling of gentle pressure didn’t abate any when Lila said, “I don’t know, really. You showed me your happy place, so I wanted to show you mine.”

He didn’t know what it was about that simple confession that broke down the last of his barriers, but everything he knew and felt came roaring to the surface all at once. He loved that Lila had brought him here. He loved that she’d taken the time to really think through their date. He loved how that careful thoughtfulness came through in everything she said and did.

He lovedher, period.

“Lila, I—” he began. She stopped him by plucking the golden retriever from his chest and shifting her body closer to his.

“Until recently, building this place for me and my sisters was the best—and bravest—thing I’d ever done.” The dimple appeared in the corner of her mouth. “But that, of course, was before I metyou.”

It was impossible after that for Ford to lie there and pretend he was going to escape this thing with his heart intact. Maybe, if he’d been a man of resolution, he could have walked away and saved himself a world of pain. Unfortunately, resolution was the one thing that had always failed him. Well, that and dignity—a thing that was rapidly disappearing as he found himself shifting several puppies out of the way to bring his lips to hers.

It was somehow fitting that this—his first kiss with Lila where both of them were horizontal, the length of her body pressed out against hers—was being conducted in a kennel with half a dozen pairs of watchful eyes on them. Not because Lila worked with puppies, but because every moment leading up to this one had been fraught with the same dangers. There was always something or someone in the way, forcing them to steal whatever moments they could where they could find them.

It wasn’t suave or debonair, and Ford was pretty sure the tongue currently working its way into his ear wasn’t Lila’s, but this was what his life looked like. Stolen kisses and inelegant concrete floors and a frantic desire to be inside this woman in spite of it all.

“Does it seem strange to you that we’re making out in the middle of a dog kennel when there’s a perfectly good house a few feet away?” he asked as he moved from Lila’s lips to her cheek, and from there to the curve of her neck. This was as much of her body as he’d been able to taste so far, and he was greedily determined to make a more thorough survey.

Preferably in a bed. A big one. With pillows and sheets and all the time in the world at his disposal.

“There’s a blanket,” she pointed out. She also arched her neck to give him better access to the soft patch of skin behind her ear. He was distracted enough by this—and by the coconut swirl of her hair enveloping him—that he almost forgot where they were.

Until, not unnaturally, he rolled onto his back and almost landed on one of the poor, wriggling creatures.

He laughed and nudged the puppy out of the way, careful to keep one hand on Lila’s waist as he did. Her sweater had slipped up to reveal a warm and tantalizing expanse of skin along her midriff, and he wasn’t about to give it up easily. “I don’t know if you noticed, but there are also several pairs of eyes locked on us.” He trailed his fingers along the curve of her waist, taking a slight detour around her belly button. It was an outie, small and coiled, which struck him as both adorable and somehow fitting. “I already admitted to you that I haven’t done this in almost six years. The least you can do is let me bungle my way through without an audience.”

Unable to resist much longer, he leaned down and pressed a kiss against her belly button. Nothing about her skin tasted the least bit fruity, and he almost lost himself at his delight in finding it so.

“Please,” he said—begged, really. “I don’t know how much longer I can go without you.”

Lila gave a low moan of approval, but she managed to wrest herself up into a sitting position before he managed to do much more than slide his tongue along the soft slope of her stomach. “Five minutes,” she gasped. “That’s all I need.”

It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her that he, on the other hand, required an eternity, but that wasn’t what she meant. As usual, responsibility was at the forefront of her mind. She rose to her feet and began putting the puppies back in their kennels.

It should have dampened his ardor, this attention to detail, each animal requiring a treat and a compliment before Lila was ready to move on to the next one, but it didn’t. If anything, watching her work only turned him on more. Each movement she made was elegant, every line of her body swaying gracefully to and fro. And she had no idea—that was thing that unsettled him most. She was unconscious of anything but her duty. She trotted along, doing what needed to be done, wholly unaware of the picture she presented as she did.