Page 81 of Fundamentals in Flirting

“It’s really ok, Mrs Ryan. He obviously would like to come home with me and the feeling is absolutely mutual!”

I laughed, getting to my feet and placing him on the grass, while I gently rubbed his ears which made him grunt softly in pleasure, his back leg drumming the ground as he enthusiastically scratched at an imaginary itch.

The older lady looked conflicted for a moment, before a slightly haughty expression crossed her face.

“You don’t have to give me a rosette just to appease me, you know.”

“I know. But Bentley really is a dog I would like to take home. He’s so friendly and always happy to see me. He’s a pleasure to have in my consulting room.”

I paused and took a breath. This might not be the right time, but fuck it, I was going to say it. It was time to be myself and address the elephant in the room.

“The ball works for his anxiety, huh?”

She nodded, uncomfortable for a moment, but I carried on, lowering my voice.

“And his weight is definitely improving too, I can almost feel some ribs in there and I see how hard you’re working to keep him happy and healthy.”

The tension melted from Mrs Ryan.

“Thank you, I really am doing my best.”

“I know you are.”

Behind me, Giles appeared with a rosette. “Congratulations, Mrs Ryan. Bentley is looking super now he’s dropped a few pounds, isn’t he?”

She nodded and looked a little guilty.

“I only want him to be as healthy as possible. He’s all I have in the world.” She paused and sniffed a little. “Thank you for caring about him, Dr Havens. I’m very grateful, you know.”

I smiled and handed her prize over.

“You’re welcome.”

She graciously took the rosette and then suddenly her eyes went wide as she looked over my shoulder where a cacophony of frenzied barking had begun. Then noise and chaos erupted all around us. I turned just in time to see a blur of white as Deidre the goat raced across the field in my direction, bumping into a few of the dog show competitors, who toppled like felled trees. She bleated in panic as she took a sharp turn around me, with Teddy in hot pursuit. In a rather impressive move, he launched himself at her, but seemed to misjudge, completely missing her surprisingly speedy, zigzagging form. Instead, rugby-tackling me to the ground, landing squarely on top of me and slamming the air from my lungs. His breathless body and startled blue gaze pinned me down completely.

Yes, in a rather unexpected turn of events, Teddy Fraser was lying on top of me, with every bit of him touching every bit of me, and he was panting, more than a little suggestively, in front of the entire village fayre. Which at this moment in time was nothing short of bloody awkward, but under any other circumstances (as my sex-starved brain helpfully added) would have been most definitely hot as hell.

ChapterTwenty-Five

“Sorry, Hannah, are you ok?”

Teddy’s lips were mere centimetres from my own mouth, his breath a warm breeze on my skin. His gaze was intense and enticing, as if he were showing me a window to his very soul, and I lay still like a rabbit caught in full beam. We stared at each other, unmoving, for about twelve minutes. All right, maybe not twelve minutes, but there was definitely enough time for my entire visceral system to liquefy inside my body, alongside a few embarrassed-sounding coughs from various onlookers.

“Ummm, yeah, I’m fine, but perhaps you should get up now?” My voice was a little off – breathy, you might say, and definitely not the voice of an ice queen or a prickly hedgehog.

“Oh, yeah, I should.”

But he still didn’t move. He kept on staring with fascination into my eyes. And all I could think about in the whole wide world was snogging his face off. Once again.

It was only the sudden loud throat-clearing noise above our heads that made him jolt his gaze upwards, and I followed his line of sight and found I was looking straight up Giles’s nose, accompanied by a curious Deidre by his side as she bent down to snuffle Teddy’s hair.

“I caught your intended quarry, Ted,” Giles said.

Still lying on top of me, like this was entirely normal and comfortable for everyone, Teddy smiled.

“Thanks, Giles. She’s pretty fast for a blind goat.”

“Quite. So perhaps you could release my colleague now? I’m not sure she necessarily needs holding captive much longer.”

---