Possessive Veterinarian

by Flora Ferrari

  He’s at least feeling something physical between us. That’s obvious…very obvious.

  “Delaney.” The sound of my name coming from his lips in such a matter of fact tone has my spine flexing straight as a board. Just the way it rolls off his tongue sounds like leather tipped in hot steel yet somehow dripping of caramel from one of those spindle things. Metal and sweets? Those don’t mix, but neither do fire and water and right now I’m a five alarm fire and I need someone to douse me before I burn up.

  His hands form fists as he stares at me, his eyes narrowing as his brows knit.

  He leans towards me ever so slightly from the waist, his torso inching closer while his feet seem to be stuck in quicksand.

  I stick my neck out and swallow hard, not trusting my voice right now. I’ve been preparing my entire life for a moment where he would recognize me in this way. I need to say something but when I go to open my mouth the words don’t come out.

  He must think I’m just gawking at his masculinity, and those thick biceps of his sure could come in handy right now to pick my jaw up off the floor.

  Suddenly his head tips back and his eyes rake over me before settling back on my eyes. The look of the lion hasn’t left him. If anything he resembles more of a caveman right now…like he wants to grab me by my blond locks, throw me over his shoulder and beat anything in-between here and his cave with a club.

  But I know he’s not the kind of man who just wants sex. The man’s easily the most eligible in town, if not the state. Women are lining up to get close to him, but from what I’ve seen and from what my dad says he never gives them any indication or hope they have a chance. Polite but dismissive when he needs to be.

  There’s something else on his mind, or maybe someone. I want to be that someone. I want to be his only.

  I want him to paint my womb with his seed and put a baby inside me. I want to wake up every morning to him kissing my stomach and telling me how excited he is to be the father of our child. I want him to get more and more possessive of me as I grow bigger and bigger…because he knows it’s not just me he’s watching out for anymore.

  It’s us.

  “Where have you been?” he says angrily as if he’s been anticipating my arrival, waiting on me like I was away at sea only to finally return to the shores we share. “I mean…it’s been a long time.”

  “Four years,” I manage to muster.

  Then silence. A long pause between us.

  His head shakes from side to side as he blinks three times in rapid succession. “What can I do for you?”

  And just like that he’s back to being Doctor Donovan Decker again…not the man who was just looking at me like he wanted to rip my clothes off with his teeth.

  There’s still a bit of it there though, like he’s holding it back.

  His nostrils flare as I see him trying to reel himself in in real time. Like an animal that has the key to escape its cage but knows it can’t…not right now.

  “These puppies. Someone abandoned them by my apartment.”

  “Where?”

  “My apartment.”

  “But where? Where are you staying?”

  Is he asking to know where I live?

  “Just off Columbus Avenue…at the corner of Baker.”

  He grits his teeth. “That place isn’t right for someone like you. It’s not safe. You deserve better. You deserve…” His voice rising like the peak point of a symphony.

  “It’s all I could afford.”

  “Afford? What the…what’s wrong with your dad?”

  “I didn’t tell him I was moving back. I wanted to make it on my own, like you.”

  “Like me?” His eyes widen and his stance softens instantly.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just that…well, I know a bit of your backstory.”

  “What do you know?”

  “About your childhood…and…well, you know just random stuff like how you met my dad and have been best friends since you were kids. How you’d fight for him. How you have fought for him. How loyal you are to him and how much he appreciates it.”

  “I don’t need many friends. Heck I only need one friend when that friend is as good as your old man.”

  “Old man?”

  “It’s a saying. It means nothing.”

  “I know. I didn’t mean anything by it.” But I want to tell Donovan that I don’t see the thirty-nine-year-old man standing a few feet from me as old. Not. At. All.

  His muscles have the kind of thickness that only a man’s have. His wisdom and his bond with my father is older than me, and of course the boys my age.

  They’re busy doing keg stands every weekend and talking about who they want to “bang.”

  Donovan looks like he does about a hundred handstand pushups before breakfast and the only thing I know of him banging are the nails into the walls of my childhood home he helped my dad build.

  “But there’s something about me you don’t know.”

  “What’s that?” Please say what I want you to say, Donovan. Please.

  “If I tell you then you’ll know and you won’t know anymore.”

  We just stare at each other and finally we both burst out laughing.

  “That was some funny, twisted redundancy. I think.”

  “You always did have your nose in a book.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Girls your age don’t know words like redundancy.”

  “We’re smarter than you’re giving us credit for.”

  “I give you all the credit…in a lot of ways.”

  I hear the cutest bark and look down to see Curly chewing on the end of my bed sheet I used to bring them in.

  “They need shots and a full check-up, right?”

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  “Are you going to keep them?”

  “Yes. There’s no going back now.”

  I watch his Adam’s apple move through his throat. “No going back now,” he repeats.

  He moves closer, his boots making loud footfalls on the cold, clinical floor underneath his feet.

  Reaching in to take one of the pups from me, suddenly Moe lunges toward him and I instinctively reach for him to catch him, making sure he doesn’t plunge to the floor.

  Donovan’s hands do the same and we catch him at the same time, his huge hands underneath mine.

  I feel the electricity shoot through me. I feel his calluses pressing against the underside of my knuckles.

  And I feel a grip that’s strong and yells, “I’m never letting you go.”

  And I don’t mean the puppy.

  I slowly slide my hands back, Moe fitting snugly in Donovan’s oversized mitts.

  I curse myself in my mind for breaking our connection, the void of no longer touching him making me angry at myself.

  “How are you around needles?”

  “A wimp.”

  “You want to wait outside then? I promise to be fast, yet gentle with your new friends.”

  “Okay.”

  His arm curls as he tucks Moe underneath his arm like a loaf of bread before moving toward the door.

  I don’t even think about not checking out his butt. God, he’s built like a Greek god.

  He turns back and catches me staring, and suddenly I’m the one blinking and shaking my head trying to bring myself back to earth.

  I set Larry and Curly down on the floor and move to the door.

  “I promise to be fast. I don’t want you to wait longer than you already have.”

  “It’s okay. I wasn’t waiting long.”

  “Not that wait.”

  I stare at him, trying to decode his cryptic reply. All I can come up with is an “okay” that’s so soft spoken that it’s barely audible.

  I step out into the hallway and I feel like reality slaps me right back in the face. It’s like I was in a dream in there just now.

  I turn to make sure this really just happened, just in time to see him slowly shutting the
door…and checking out my ass.

  I want to tell him he stole my move, but what I really want to tell him is that he stole my heart.

  And I never want him to give it back. It’s his and only his.

  CHAPTER 6

  Delaney

  I move to the lobby and take a seat, my mind still racing from what just happened.

  In some ways I still feel like I’m falling and sitting back down right now is definitely the right move.

  Donovan’s assistants seem to be very busy, moving rapidly in and out of different rooms and checking in animals. I was impressed by the efficiency of the business that he seems to be running. At least he definitely seems to be the most authoritative person in here.

  The front door swings open and a cop enters with his German Shepherd. He surveys the room and I don’t make eye contact, praying he’s not going to sit in one of the empty seats by me when there’s a whole other row available along a different wall. I love animals, but that German Shepherd looks a bit threatening. I’m sure it’s trained well, it is a cop’s dog after all, but the guy is already kind of posturing and trying to alpha the entire place. His walkie-talkie thingy is going off, he’s talking into his smartwatch like he’s a big shot.

  And sure enough he shoots right over to the chair next to me and proceeds to manspread, his knee applying pressure to my leg.

  I wiggle indiscreetly in my seat, trying to get the pressure off me and away from this police officer. He’s a big guy so maybe he doesn’t realize how much it affects a smaller woman like me.

  But as I move he only spreads more. Give him an additional inch and he gobbles up another mile.

  His eyes move toward me, sensing my movement as I try and pull away more. Now I’m half off my chair, hoping he’s going to pick up the hint.

  But instead it seems he only wants to pick me up.

  His eyes roam over and land right on my breasts. Lovely.

  I grab the back of my shirt and pull it forward, trying to cover myself as much as I can so he’ll hopefully pick up on what’s now my second hint that I’m not interested in anything he has to offer, and also so my skin will stop crawling from this guy. I definitely appreciate the men and women of this country who serve, whether they be military, police, firefighters, first responders…you name it. But I can’t say I appreciate cocky men who look at me like a piece of meat.

  Except Donovan, because he looks at me as not only a piece of meat that he wants to devour but also as so much more. Plus he knows me and I know him. It’s only today that his attraction first became apparent. Heck, I’m still shaking from the experience.

  “Hey,” the cop says, giving me a smirk as if he’s doing me some sort of favor by talking to me.

  “Good morning, officer.”

  “Where’s your pet?”

  “They’re in with the vet. He’s my friend and he’s taking care of them.”

  “That so?”

  My eyes close slowly as I breathe in and breathe out. I face back forward and my toe starts to tap nervously and audibly.

  “Looks like you’re nervous about how things are going to turn out. This vet guy know what he’s doing?”

  I grit my teeth wanting to tell this guy off but apparently he’s got an ego and a power complex to go with it. Who knows what he’s capable of.

  “He’s the best.” I keep my eyes trained forward.

  “I hear he’s all right.”

  A protective streak of my own rips through me and now I really want to tell this guy off. Bad.

  He leans in closer, his knee pressing into me as he cups his hand to my ear. “But you know who gets the best service at every restaurant in town?” His breath smells acidic, like he’s already downed a pot of black coffee and hasn’t considered a ninety-nine cent pack of gum to mask it. Is this some technique to intimidate criminals? “This guy.” His free hand comes up and points right to his chest.

  I feel his little finger make contact with the skin around my ear and I cringe, but just as quickly as it does it disappears, replaced with a loud sound.

  I jerk away, jumping out of my seat as my primal brain kicks in. I face the danger, squatting and putting up my fists.

  “Why are you harassing women in my lobby, son?”

  Donovan has his hand around this man’s throat and his back is pinned to his chair which is pinned against the wall.

  “Molly!” the man gurgles, but the German Shepherd sits obediently.

  “Answer the question, boy,” Donovan commands. His eyes are locked on this cop who won’t return eye contact. His eyes are beady and they eventually land on mine as if he’s looking at me for help now. “Call 911,” he sort of mouths in a very low tone, Donovan’s grip turning his face red.

  “Be a man and answer for yourself you impersonator.”

  The sound of one of the assistants dropping her wooden clipboard onto the tile floor echoes throughout the lobby, but Donovan stays locked in on his target.

  I watch his thumb and first finger loosen just a bit, allowing the man to speak.

  “I’m an officer of the law and you’re going to be arrested for assaulting an officer if you don’t take your hands off me.”

  “You think I can’t tell a real police uniform from this rip off you bought from some uniform shop on the Internet? You think you’re Robocop but you’re nothing more than Paul Blart, mall cop, and if you don’t give me an answer quick I’m going to choke you until you check out for a little nap.

  Donovan sounds like an animal. His lips aren’t even moving as he growls the words through a stiff jaw and clenched teeth.

  “Okay. Okay. I’m sorry. I didn’t know she was yours,” he stutters as he continues to avoid eye contact.

  He didn’t know I was Donovan’s? His?

  I backpedal, wondering just how far Donovan’s going to take this. Now that he apologized I want to step in and tell him everything’s okay, but this is Donovan’s place and he can make his own decisions. He’s a grown man after all, and that, and this protective streak which is very much on display right now, are what I love about him.

  “Now to her?”

  “Huh?”

  “Apologize to her, you prick.” Donovan’s voice is vibrating.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “For…for…talking to her.”

  “You weren’t talking to her. You were bothering her…and you touched her.”

  “I didn’t touch her.”

  Donovan’s grip tightens again. “You calling me a liar?”

  “No,” gurgles out.

  “Your little finger made contact with her skin and if there weren’t women present I’d rip it off your hand right now and feed it to Molly…who seems to respond to my commands better than yours by the way.”

  I look down and notice Molly is chomping the last of a dog biscuit as Donovan strokes her lovely coat with his free hand.

  “Now apologize to her or I’ll sic your own animal on you.”

  “I’m sorry for touching you,” he says as Donovan loosens his grip.

  This guys eyes are bulging.

  “Look her in the eye when you say it. And say it with meaning.”

  The man does as he’s told only to get more commands from Donovan.

  “And you’re not going to do it again.”

  “No.”

  “Tell her!”

  “I’ll never touch you again. I promise.”

  Donovan’s hand pulls back and the man’s torso bends forward, his elbows finding his knees as he rubs his neck and gasps for air. From his position his shoulders are pointed at a forty-five degree angle and Donovan uses the opportunity to grab each of the epaulets of his uniform and rip them off.

  “What’s wrong with Molly?”

  “Her knees.”

  “Stand outside and someone will bring her out when she’s cared for. I may not like you one damn bit, but I never turn my back on an animal.”

  “Can I get a glass of water?”
<
br />   “Out!”

  The man slides forward, waddling to the door as his back never straightens. Even as the door shuts behind him I can hear him wheezing.