Page 35 of Tempting as Sin
Which was just fine. Edelweiss started eating the feed in her bucket, and started letting down her milk, too. Until Chuck’s cold black nose made another unwelcome appearance.
You could hardly blame Edelweiss for kicking him. A lady didn’t let just anybody touch her milk-producing area. She landed a pretty good shot to Chuck’s shoulder, and he yelped and jumped back. Which meant that Lily had to grab his leash again.
“Down,” she told him for approximately the seventeenth time, one hand reaching for a dog treat. “And you stay still, miss,” she told Edelweiss, keeping her other hand on the goat’s flank. “You all need to stop being so silly. We are not putting this off. We are doing thisnow.”
She was going great. She had it under control. Until Tinkerbelle came charging back into the shed, both Chuck and Edelweiss jumped, and Edelweiss kicked the pan of milk straight onto Lily’s lap.
All of that explained why, at quarter past eight and running way behind, she was opening the door to the back porch with a soaking-wet crotch while juggling a half-full milk bottle, two dirty milking pans, a basket of eggs over one arm, and Chuck’s leash. She leaned inside and set everything on a shelf, yanked off a rubber boot that had been through the muck wars, and thought,Plenty of time.To get showered, made up, dressed, polished, and composed before Rafe came by to get Chuck.
At the exact moment she thought it, her cell phone rang from inside the kitchen, Chuck jumped up and barked in her ear, and she jumped, too, and started to head inside.
Wait.She still had one muddy boot on, and it wasn’t Paige on the phone, or she’d have felt it. Whoever it was could wait. Probably a telemarketer anyway, or her assistant Hailey, telling her she’d be in late.
Then why were you running in there? And why is your hand shaking?
She was standing on one stockinged foot just inside the porch, tugging her other boot off, when Chuck suddenly lunged backwards. She flailed, knocked against the items on the shelf, and, as she fell backwards, saw seven beautiful brown eggs sail free of their tumbling basket like they could fly.
Which they couldn’t.
It was too much. She lost it. “Damn it tohell!”she yelled.“STAY!”The last word was a shout, and Chuck immediately stuck his tail between his legs and dropped to the planks of the porch. And Lily realized she hadn’t fallen, twisted around, and saw a pair of running shoes.
Rafe. Of course.
He was behind her, holding her up, his hands under her arms. On her breasts, in fact. Now, he got her upright again and asked, “All right?” He still had a hand on her upper arm, and she tugged her foot free of the boot, looked at the mess, looked at him, and started to laugh.
“Oh, man,” she said at last, on a gasp. “You are so bad for my life. Chuck…” She let the leash go. “Eat it up.”
He went for it, shells and all. Chuck was going to have oneveryshiny coat.
“Won’t that make him go after the eggs in the coop?” Rafe asked.
“No,” she said. “Different thing. It’s the dog version of the three-second rule. In a dog’s case, it’s theanysecond rule. If it falls on the floor? You wait to be invited, and then you go for it.”
He smiled. He couldn’t help it. She clearly thought back, because she sighed and said, “Well, yeah. My own rule, too. You wait to be invited. And I’ll point out that you just groped me.”
“By accident,” he said.“Whileperforming a heroic rescue.” It hadn’t been his best moment when he’d seen her falling backwards, about to hit her head and who knew what else, but he’d caught her, hadn’t he? And if he’d noticed afterwards that she wasn’t wearing a bra, and that she was the kind of soft that said it was natural, and the kind of round that said it was brilliant—
He said, “I’ve already forgotten what it felt like.”
“No, you haven’t. It was the phone, and Chuck, and…” She stopped, possibly because he was staring at her again. She looked down and sighed. “No, I did not have an unfortunate accident. Well, I did, but that’s goat milk. So far, I’ve maintained my continence. That’s about all I’ve maintained, though. God knows my dignity’s gone. Why are you here?”
She made him smile so much. “I tried calling you a couple times, and then I thought I’d just stop by, because you were probably out doing your farm things. I called just now, in fact, and then I saw you on the porch. I thought I’d take Chuck on my run with me and wear him out in case he ends up hanging about in the porno store today. Wouldn’t want him to chew the magazines out of restlessness.”
“There are no magazines.” She was trying not to smile herself, but it wasn’t working.
“Not even in the back room?”
“Especially not in the back room. The back room has never been one bit exciting. And,yes,would you please take this terrible dog?”
He grinned. “Yeah. I will. You want to know something?”
She eyed him suspiciously. “I don’t know. Do I?”
“I’ve now seen you absolutely, positively not at your best, twice in a row. In dirty overalls, and…well, you’re pretty special just now, too. And if being with me in your work clothes is meant to signal that you don’t care about attracting me, I think you’re going to have to be more direct, because I’m still attracted.”
Her hand flew to her face. “What? What do I have on me?”
“Nah. I just told you, you’re all good.” He took Chuck’s leash and said, “Let’s go, boy. Time to hit the mountain. I’ve got a riding lesson at ten, and the clock’s ticking.”
