BARELY BEHAVING

by Jennifer Labrecque

  Still caught up in the throes of one of the most intense orgasms of her life, she met Niall's gaze as he looked at her from between her thighs, his bottomless black eyes reflecting arousal. Hunger. Intent.

  He stood. Tammy slid to her feet and leaned against the desk for support. Despite the orgasm that had just devastated her, she craved the feel of Niall inside her. "Tell me you have a condom." Her voice was as unsteady as her legs.

  Niall reached into his pocket. "Yes."

  Within seconds he was sheathed, both of them still clothed. He turned her around and pulled her back against him, his arm a steel band beneath her breasts. His warm breath, redolent of her scent, gusted against her neck and sent shivers along her spine. His erection teased her from behind. In between hot, sucking kisses along her nape, he commanded, "Tell me what you want."

  She gripped the edge of the desk and looked over her shoulder at him. "I want you. Inside me." Small pants punctuated her words.

  "When?" His harsh, urgent whisper intensified her ache.

  She ground back into him and he pulsed against her in response. "Now."

  He bent her forward, over his desk. And then he was in her, filling her, stretching her, connecting with her in a primal way, engaging her whole being, body and soul.

  "Every time I sit at this desk, I'll remember your sweet taste, our scent. I'll remember being deep inside you—as if I'm touching your soul. I'll remember your breasts against my desk, the sound of your voice in this room when you come."

  With each thrust he plunged deeper, harder, finding an achingly sensitive spot. Coupled with his words, she found it almost unbearable.

  A part of her wanted to cry out for him to stop, unsure she could bear it, uncertain there'd be anything left of her afterward. Another portion of her felt as if she'd die if he stopped. Like a piece of flotsam caught up in a storm of epic proportions, she felt the waves break over her, sweeping her under, carrying her along, heedless of her will.

  Spent, she lay draped across the desk, Niall braced over her, his last spasm echoing inside her. Her thundering heartbeat reverberated in her head.

  "I've never … that was…" Niall said.

  He verged on incoherence, but she knew what he meant. "I know. Me, too."

  Niall withdrew. It was as if he took a part of her with him. He sank into the chair and pulled Tammy onto his lap.

  With an unsteady hand, he brushed her hair away from her face and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Are you okay? I lose control when I'm with you."

  "That was … you know…" Every word that came to mind seemed inadequate. "Don't ruin it by apologizing." She cupped his jaw. "You weren't the only one out of control."

  And that was all it was, she reassured herself. She'd been swept up in a physical reaction stronger than any she'd experienced before. Nothing more. Nothing less.

  An odd buzzing sounded in the distance. Niall stood, almost dumping her in the process. He righted her. "Sorry. We better think fast, because someone just came in."

  Tammy tugged down her skirt and tried to quell the panic rising within her. She didn't care what people thought about her, but it wouldn't do Niall any good to get caught boffing her in his office. She inhaled deep calming breaths, resolved to do the finest acting job of her life to protect his reputation.

  * * *

  "What are you doing here, Dr. Fortson? I saw your car was still out back. Is everything okay?"

  Niall and Tammy met Trena in the hallway. Niall was damn glad they'd made it out of the office before Trena made it in. The scent of their lovemaking permeated the air. In about two seconds flat she'd figure out the new doctor had just shagged his neighbor.

  Niall stalled for time. "Trena, do you know Tammy? She's my next-door neighbor."

  "Sure. How are you, Tammy?" Trena looked at Niall. "Tammy used to do my nails but, thank God, she gave that up because she gives the best massage in three counties."

  "Thanks, Trena. How's the shoulder?" Tammy appeared relaxed and composed. Incredible. His brain still felt like mush.

  Trena lifted her left shoulder and winced. "Still a little twingy."

  "Call me tomorrow and I'll get you in on Wednesday or Thursday."

  "That's why Tammy's here—not because of your appointment," Niall babbled, "but because of Tammy's massage skills. I asked her to work with the greyhound and the results were impressive. She was much more confident and her limp was much less noticeable by the end of the massage."

  "That's excellent. I've got some news, too. After you left, I called the National Greyhound Association since they're a couple of hours behind us. The dog's name is Fair Game. She retired from a Florida track six months ago and was adopted by a G. Burns. I tried the phone number they gave me and it's been disconnected. The real bummer though is she tested positive for heart-worm."

  "Damn," Niall swore.

  "I know," said Trena.

  "Well, I don't know. What does that mean?" Tammy asked.

  "It means she has to be treated for heartworm. Some dogs make it. Some don't."

  "Oh." Tammy looked like she wanted to cry.

  An idea took hold. He'd seen the bond, felt the connection between woman and dog. "I've got an idea. Hear me out," he said to Tammy and Trena. "I've taken a lot of ribbing from some of my colleagues, but I believe in a holistic approach to healing. It's more than just physical. She obviously connected with you, Tammy. If you could foster her through the heart-worm treatment, she'd stand a much better chance of recovery."

  "No," Tammy said.

  "Yes," Trena enthused.

  "I don't know anything about dogs."

  "It's easy and the main thing you need to know is that a little TLC could mean the difference between life and death to her. She's going to be tired so a house without any other pets would be ideal."

  "Do you really think so?" Tammy said slowly.

  "I do."

  "He's right, Tammy," Trena said. "How long would it be? Before she'd be out of the woods?"

  "It takes five months for her to fully recover from the heartworm, but if she makes it the first month, then she'll be fine," Niall said.

  "It would make it much easier to find her a home," Trena added.

  "But what if she … dies?"

  "That's a possibility. But she's young and appears healthy other than that. Animals are similar to people—the will to live goes a long way."

  "I wouldn't have to keep her five months?"

  "No. Just until she pulls through this or we find her a home."

  Tammy closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead, as if warding off a headache. She dropped her hand and looked back and forth between Niall and Trena, resigned, definitely wary. "Okay. I'll take her."

  "Can you take her tonight?" Trena pushed.

  "I don't—"

  "The sooner the better." He looked at Trena. "Unless you're in a hurry to get home, could you get together some food and a crate?"

  "No problem. Max is bowling tonight with his league." Trena started down the hall and stopped to look back at Tammy. "I think it's wonderful you're doing this."

  She didn't seem to notice the tight edge to Tammy's smile. Humming beneath her breath, Trena hurried down the hall and into the dog room to get everything ready.

  "I'll be right next door. There's nothing to it," Niall reassured her. He thought Tammy needed the dog probably more than the dog needed Tammy. But, being a wise man and not wanting her to withhold sex or something equally drastic by being pissed off at him, he kept that particular thought to himself.

  "She'd be better off with you. You take her," Tammy suggested.

  "She's a sight hound and she may not be small-animal friendly."

  "What does that mean?"

  "It means that it's been bred in her for a couple of thousand years to chase small, furry things. Some dogs have a higher prey drive than others."

  "Oh, God. She'd eat Gigi and the cats?"

  "Nan. She'd just grab them by the back and toss them around until their
necks snapped."

  "That's horrible."

  Niall shrugged. "Don't hold it against the dog. It's her nature. But you can see why I can't take her."

  Maybe he was laying it on a little thick and maybe he was playing on the fact that he knew Tammy liked Gigi whether she'd admit it or not, but all was fair in love and war and sometimes the stuff in between.

  "I had a dog once," she said baldly, her back to him as she stared at a feline food analysis chart posted on the wall.

  Maybe he'd known it all along. He'd certainly sensed there was something going on with her and animals. They liked her and she kept her distance. "What happened?"

  "Grade was my best friend. After my mother left, Pops came home drunk one night. He didn't mean to let her out of the house. A car hit her."

  Losing a pet was hard. He reached over and touched her stiff shoulder. "I'm sorry."

  Tammy turned to look at him, her blue eyes pools of misery. "She didn't die right away. Pops was passed out and even if he'd been sober, we wouldn't have had money for the vet. My brother offered to … put her out of her misery but I couldn't let him. Instead I just held her. It took her two hours to die."

  He could only repeat himself. "I'm so sorry." Shit. It was one thing to lose a pet; it was a different matter to watch it suffer for several hours. And he'd all but forced her to take the greyhound. "Listen, forget it. You don't have to take the dog. We'll work something else out."

  Tammy drew a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and turned to face him. "No. I'll take her. I couldn't do anything to help Grade. But I can do something to help this dog. I can't—I won't love her like I did Grade, but I can help her." She looked down at the tile floor and then back up at him. "She's got Grade's eyes." She uttered the last sentence so softly, he barely heard her.

  "Are you sure? You really don't have to do this," Niall argued, hating the sadness in her eyes, feeling responsible for opening an old wound.

  "I think I do."

  Niall didn't know what to say and Trena saved him from a response when she came out from the back with the trembling dog, a bag of food and two stainless steel bowls. "Here she is. Ready to go."

  The dog saw Tammy and stopped shaking. Trena looked from the dog to Tammy and dropped the leash. Without any prompting the dog walked over to Tammy, looking up at her with her sad, solemn eyes.

  "What's her name again?" Tammy asked.

  "Her track name was Fair Game." The dog didn't even look in Trena's direction when she heard the name. "But she doesn't seem to respond to that. You can name her."

  "No. I don't need to name her," Tammy said with a quiet detachment.

  The dog pressed her head to Tammy's hand. "She definitely likes you. And lucky for you I gave her a bath earlier. She was pretty stinky."

  "Trena, if you'll go over how to feed her and how often, I'll load the crate in my Explorer." Niall looked at Tammy. "I've got the cargo area. I can take her in my truck and drop her off at your house, okay?"

  He held his breath. Would she back out? She wanted to—trepidation was all over her face. The dog nudged her once again, taking the decision out of her hands. "Okay. You bring her in your truck."

  They were making progress.

  * * *

  9

  « ^ »

  "I appreciate you bringing these by." Tammy closed the door behind Olivia, who carried a stack of books.

  "Never fear, if you need information the library's the place to go," Olivia quipped. Olivia's jokes often came out sort of weird, but Tammy obligingly laughed. "There's a book on dog care in general. There's another one in there on different breeds and it has a small section on greyhounds. Then the other book is on massage and there's actually a short chapter on animal massage."

  Tammy took the books from Olivia. "I was booked solid today, which is unusual for a Tuesday. But I managed to run home at lunch and right after work to check on her. Thanks again for bringing these by."

  "Anytime. I still can't believe you have a dog."

  "I don't have a dog." Not technically anyway, she kept reassuring herself.

  Olivia cocked an eyebrow. "There's a dog in this house, isn't there?"

  "I'm fostering her. For a month or less. She's not mine." She'd been handed the chance to help without risking her heart. She was a professional rendering a professional service. The client just happened to be a dog.

  "Okay. If you say so." Olivia's smirk suggested otherwise. "Where is she? What's her name?"

  "Her name is Fair Game and her crate is over there." She pointed to the metal crate snugged in the corner behind the purple armchair and beside the fireplace. Tammy didn't add that the dog seemed to enjoy the Christmas tree lights and that Tammy had surmised this because the dog possessed an incredibly expressive face. Olivia would read all kinds of nonsense into that observation.

  "What kind of name is Fair Game?" Olivia wrinkled her nose.

  "It was her racing name."

  "Well, she needs a proper dog name like Duchess or Trixie."

  Ugh. Like anyone would call such a regal animal Trixie. "That'll be up to whoever adopts her." Tammy opened the crate door. "Here, I'll let her out so you can meet her properly."

  Thus far, the dog had proven herself incredibly well behaved. Tammy could see how some people might get used to coming home to a pet. Some people, but not her. She didn't need that heartache all over again.

  The dog walked out of the crate and stood patiently at Tammy's side, as if she belonged there. Instinctively, Tammy ran her hand down the dog's neck.

  "Hello, Fair Game. I'm your aunt Olivia," Olivia crooned, leaning down to stroke the dog's neck. "Oh, you poor baby." Olivia looked up at Tammy. "She's a bag of bones."

  The dog was extremely thin, but then again, she was supposed to be. Of course, Olivia was used to Hortense. That cat was so fat Olivia couldn't find a rib if she had to.

  "She weighs sixty pounds, but Niall, I mean Dr. Fortson, says she's tall for a female and should weigh closer to seventy. Weight gain is one of the things we're working on in the next month."

  "We?"

  "Trena followed Niall and Fair Game over last night. The three of us worked up a list of therapy objectives. Weight gain plays into it." Tammy had never been part of a team or joint effort before. It had felt a little odd at first, but she'd actually enjoyed listening to Niall and Trena cover the medical aspect and being asked her opinion from a massage standpoint.

  The dog stood beside Tammy and regarded Olivia.

  "That's awesome. She'll be beautiful when she fills in a little bit." Olivia looked at the dog who stood solemnly between them. "Is she always so excited?"

  First the dog was too skinny and now she wasn't energetic enough. What was wrong with Olivia today? "She's not a jump-around, in-your-face kind of dog."

  "I see." Olivia looked at her with a mixture of surprise and conjecture. Tammy realized she'd sounded a bit defensive. "She seems very attached to you."

  Tammy shifted from one foot to the other and patted the dog's neck. The dog seemed to like her for no good reason. "She's comfortable with me. Why don't you sit down? You must be tired."

  Olivia sat. "I'm not just tired, I'm beat. And the fire's nice."

  "Didn't you say Luke's out of town? Eat dinner with me."

  "I'm tempted. I've developed a monstrous appetite. At this rate, I'll be a blimp by the time the baby comes. But I need to feed Hortense."

  Tammy eyed her oh-so-thin sister who didn't carry an ounce of spare flesh. "I don't think you're capable of blimping. And that cat could live off of her own fat for a week. Eating two hours later certainly won't hurt her. It's tuna casserole." Tammy knew Olivia would stay now.

  "Ooooh. My favorite comfort food." Once their mother left, it had become Tammy's specialty. Olivia sank back onto the couch cushions with a grin. "Okay. Twist my arm. Hortense will survive and it feels wonderful just to sit."

  "Then sit while I put together the salad and heat up the bread."

  "I should
help." Olivia started to stand.

  Tammy waved her back onto the couch. "No. You sit, like a good sister."

  "But I feel useless."

  "Okay. You can watch the dog and make sure she doesn't do anything she shouldn't."

  "Oh, yeah." Olivia raised her brows at the quiet animal. "She looks like she's into everything."

  "Then your job should be easy."

  Tammy started out of the room and the dog followed. She turned around. "Stay."

  And the dog stayed until Tammy started walking again and then she followed. "Stay."

  Olivia smirked from her vantage point on the sofa. Tammy tried leaving the dog behind three more times and three more times the dog followed. Finally, she threw both beast and sister an exasperated look. "Fine. You come with me and you just sit there." She shook a warning finger at Olivia. "And don't say anything."

  "My lips are zipped," Olivia said, her eyes alight with laughter. "That would be best."

  Fair Game's nails clicked along the hardwood floors behind Tammy as they walked into the kitchen. In the kitchen's confines, Tammy turned to the dog but couldn't muster any real irritation. "You don't need to get used to me and you don't need to get used to being here."

  "Did you say something to me?" Olivia called from the den, amusement evident in her tone.

  "No. I was … uh, talking to myself." Tammy turned on the oven and looked at the dog. This time she whispered, "See, now she's laughing at me because I'm talking to you. I can't even believe I'm talking to you."

  Fair Game responded by settling into a sitting position, her long legs tucked beneath her, looking more like an overgrown hare than a dog.

  Tammy had half a cucumber left to slice when the doorbell rang. Olivia called out, "I'll get it."

  A shiver slid over her as she recognized Niall's voice. She dropped the cucumber and snatched up a dish towel. The last thing she wanted was her sister, the hormonal matchmaker, and Niall spending time together.

  By the time she made it out of the kitchen, Fair Game on her heels, Niall was inside and the front door was closed. It was ridiculous the way her heart flip-flopped and her belly fluttered when he smiled as if simply seeing her made his day. "Hi."