“Shh.” His voice was low and delicious. “I know what will help.” And he shifted, kissing her belly, her hips, a thigh… and then between them. “This.” He rubbed his jaw to her inner thigh. “And this.” He stroked her with his tongue and she promptly forgot the question.

“Oh, please,” she whispered.

And he did. In a shocking short time, he had her crying out, shuddering with the surprise release. When she’d recovered she found him leaning over her, playing with her hair, face smug.

“Okay,” she admitted. “I needed that.” She pushed him to his back, pulled off his clothes, and climbed on top of him. “Now you, Professor Know-it-all. Your turn to beg.”

“I’m not much for begging.”

“Hmm.” She started at his throat, working her way down, tasting every inch of him, stopping occasionally to nibble. By the time she got to his abs, he was alternately groaning her name in a plea and in warning.

But not begging. Not yet. Drunk on her own power, and also how he felt shifting restlessly beneath her, she continued southward.

“Christ, Lilah,” he grounded out when she finally drew him into her mouth, his hands sliding into her hair. “Christ, don’t stop.”

Close enough, she thought, and didn’t stop.

A long shower and another cup of coffee later, Lilah smiled softly at Brady. “Cotyledons.”

“What?”

“That’s the chorion that interlocks with the uterine endometrium in the ruminant. Thanks for helping me, you’re my hero.”

“I’m no one’s hero.” He pulled on his jeans by the first light of dawn slanting in the opened shades, adjusting himself with a scowl.

Either he’d slept badly after he’d put her into a pleasure coma, or her “hero” comment had gotten to him. She was betting on the latter. “In a hurry?”

“I’ve got to go.”

Yeah. Definitely, it’d been the hero comment. “Feeling claustrophobic?”

“This place isn’t that small.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

He ignored that and bent to lace up his boots. “I have a flight scheduled. I’m taking Dell to Idaho Falls for a business thing.”

She nodded. “So go.”

His mouth tightened, and he whistled for Twinkles, who leapt to his feet to follow blindly. As she was beginning to realize she would do as well.

At the door, Brady paused. “Shit,” he muttered to himself with feeling. He turned back to her, staring at her for a long beat while she forced her expression to remain even. Then he closed his eyes. “Fucking sap,” he said, and strode toward her, hauling her up to her toes to kiss her stupid. “Kick ass today,” he said against her lips.

“You, too,” she whispered, but he was already gone.

Brady walked through the chilly morning air, shadowed by Twinkles. It wasn’t a month yet, but probably he should call Tony and at least get himself back in the queue to fly. Getting the hell out of Dodge ASAP would be a good thing.

Too bad he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He wasn’t ready to go.

It was as simple and terrifying as that.

“Arf.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He’d taken off on Lilah like a bat out of hell, and now all he could see was her face as he’d left. There hadn’t been disappointment or irritation. She hadn’t been offended the way any number of women in his past would have been when he did his usual vanishing routine. Lilah didn’t get upset or withdraw. There’d been only those two words, her softly spoken “So go.” And yet in them he’d heard all the damage, all the hurt, she felt.

She was prepared to watch him walk away.

God, he was an ass. He turned around so suddenly he tripped over Twinkles.

“Arf.”

“We’re going back. I don’t know why, so don’t ask me.” Brady wasn’t afraid of much. He doubted there was a boogey man left on earth that could scare him. And yet one woman from the middle of nowhere with heartbreaking eyes and the most courageous heart he’d ever known absolutely terrified him.

As he once again entered the clearing between the cabin and the kennels, Adam was just getting out of his truck, juggling two steaming drinks and a big bag of food from New Moon, the health food store in town.

“What are you doing here at this time of morning?” Adam wanted to know.

Brady shrugged. He’d asked himself that a hundred times in as many seconds. He still didn’t know. “She doesn’t like health food.”

“Are you just getting here?” Adam asked. “Or just leaving?”

“Both.”

Adam’s eyes went to slits. “I usually offer the choice of death or dismemberment to people who mess with her.”

Brady sighed, and Adam stared at him for a long moment, then slowly shook his head. “You poor bastard. You’re as fucked up over her as all the others, aren’t you?”

“I’m not-”

Adam arched a brow, and Brady closed his eyes.

He was.

He was totally and completely fucked up over her. Which settled it. He did not need to go back inside that cabin. Nothing good would come of him going back in there except muddying up the waters with more of his crazy-ass, confused emotions. Without a word to Adam, he turned around and began walking away.

“Was it the threat of death or dismemberment?” Adam wanted to know.

The truth was, he’d welcome either.

Six hours later, Dell had finished his business and Brady had the Bell 47 aimed back at Sunshine. The trip had gone well, rendering Belle Haven a new contract handling the vet care for a 250,000-acre ranch in the Idaho Falls area.

“This trip alone was worth having the chopper,” Dell said as they headed into Sunshine.

Brady shrugged. “Anyone can fly you after I’m gone. Hell, you can hire a pilot right out of Smitty’s if you want.”

“Rather have you.”

“You might want to check with Adam on that,” Brady said dryly.

“Why, because he found you coming out of the woods suspiciously near Lilah’s cabin at the crack of dawn looking like you’d had a long night?” Dell shrugged. “He’s always a bitch when he’s not getting any.”

“What are we, sixteen?”

“If we were, then he would have threatened you with death or dismemberment. Which one did you pick, by the way? I always pick death.”

“And yet here you still are.”

Dell grinned. “Yeah. He’s all bark and no bite. Probably you should just stick around and keep us in line.”

“Stick around?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. You don’t know those two words in that particular order. They mean stay. Unpack. Whatever you want to call it.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

Brady stared at him. “Because.”

“I realize you’re allergic to permanent,” Dell said. “But so’s Adam, and he makes it work. He travels everywhere all over the country all the time training and delivering the search and rescue dogs, but he always comes back. That’s the trick. You could do the same.”

“I could train dogs?” Brady asked.

“Travel, smart-ass. Go back and forth.” Dell paused. “Be a partner.”

“I don’t work well with others.”

Dell laughed. “Well, no shit. And here I thought your sunny disposition would be such an asset.”

Brady let out a breath. “I’ll think about it.”

“You do that. I’m thinking if you turn us down, I’ll hire a female pilot instead, maybe one who wears a short, tight uniform and greets me with ‘How can I serve you, sir?’”

Four days later, Lilah was near the outskirts of the county, on the edges of a ranch about to rescue a raccoon mama and her cubs. It had to be close to a hundred degrees outside and she was hot, tired, and filthy. Despite the unseasonably warm day, she was dressed for work in Carhartts and a long-sleeved T-shirt meant to protect her arms. She was tired because she hadn’t slept much. Midterms were over, at least for now, but it hadn’t been studying that had kept her up the past few nights.

It had been Brady.