Animal Instincts [The Andersons 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) (10 page)

“Samantha’s been r
aped?
”
He immediately cooled off.
“
I
’
m sorry. I didn
’
t know.
”

“
Why should you? It
’
s none of your business.
”

“
If there
’
s anything I can do, then—
”

“
Yeah, there is,
”
she interrupted.
“
You can stay the hell out of my way.
”

Nice one, Latimer, Rex berated himself when Ramona flounced into the office and treatment room and slammed the door. He should really apologize for being a jerk. Though knowing what kind of a mood she was in, would she accept it? Deciding he had to at least try, he knocked and entered the room.

Her back to him, Ramona was standing by the window. He approached and felt certain he saw her shoulders shuddering. He reached out to touch her, but then thought better of it. Andy Ward, his meteorologist friend from Kansas, was a twin, and Rex had experienced and understood the bond that twins shared when Andy’s brother had been seriously hurt in a motorbike accident. Ramona was probably feeling just as hurt and upset as her sister, and the last thing she’d want was to be touched by a man.

Since the night of the centennial celebrations, and because she visited Ramona almost every night, he’d seen a lot more of Samantha. Though shy, she was a really nice, kind-hearted woman, who didn’t have a bad word to say about anyone. Sure, he was opposed to violence, but at that moment, Rex decided whoever had hurt Samantha needed to be strung up by his balls from the nearest tree. And he would gladly do the deed himself.

“
I thought I told you to stay out of my way.
”

Ramona’s tone, although harsh, cracked with what sounded like a sob. He definitely needed to apologize.
“
I know, but I wanted to say sorry for being a jerk.
”

“
Apology accepted.
”

“
Oh.
”
Rex frowned. That was too easy. Ramona turned to face him, and he instantly noticed her striking emerald eyes appeared moist, as though she was holding back the tears. He contained another urge to touch her by shoving his hands into his pants pockets.
“
Who attacked Samantha? Was it somebody local? From the town?
”

“
Mark Raven.
”

He
’
d only met him the once, but remembered how he had wanted to punch the man’s lights out. He definitely wanted to do the deed himself. Just one problem…
“
A tree won
’
t be of any use. Raven hasn
’
t the balls to be hung by.
”

Ramona smiled. Rex smiled back.

“
Have you finished?
” she asked.

“
Finished what?
”

“
Twenty questions.
”

Yep, it definitely had been too easy.

“
Kiss off and leave me alone.
”

His brows shot up with surprise. “
Excuse me?
”

“
Are you hard of hearing as well as being a jerk?
”

Dammit, she had to be the most exasperating woman he had ever come across. Rex resisted an almost childish urge to kick the filing cabinet. He felt he had three choices here.

One, he could have an all-out argument with her.

Two, he could ignore her.

Or three, he could kiss her.

Against his better judgment, and because he was a red-blooded man who had slowly and unequivocally been going out of his mind for the last month, Rex opted for the latter.

Removing his hands from his pockets, he reached out and curled his fingers around Ramona’s upper arms. Then, yanking her against him, he lowered his head and fused his mouth to hers. Because her mouth was open, probably down to the startled gasp she’d uttered, his tongue plunged between her teeth to explore her warmth with energetic strokes.

At first, she resisted, but then her hands stopped pushing him and started grabbing him. She grabbed the front of his shirt, his collar, his tie, his hair, and kissed him back twice as hard, her tongue dueling wildly with his, evoking a spike of hot need to shoot down the entire length of his body, before it settled in his groin. Dreams of dewy, hunger-driven, tongue-tangling kisses had nothing on the real thing.

And she kissed with open eyes!

His heart pounding with gusto, his cock pounding to the same beat, Rex wrapped his arms around Ramona, lifted her up until their bodies were intimately aligned, and backed her into the door, provoking a startled and somewhat painful cry. He broke off their wild, passionate kiss to see what the problem was. Seeing the protruding coat hook was the culprit, he spun them around and deposited her onto the treatment table, then near enough jumped up onto it, too.

Foreplay and finesse forgotten, panting hot and hard, they frantically tore at buckles, buttons, and zippers, desperate to sate the red-hot-tauter-than-a-violin-bow chemistry that had been sparking and twanging between them from the moment they met. As soon as his pants and boxers and her jeans and panties had been flung to the four corners of the room, Rex rocked into Ramona. The table rocked with him. There was then a loud snapping sound, and the table gave way beneath them.

“
Fuck!
”
Rex swore when they both landed back on terra firma in more ways than one. He
’
d forgotten all about using protection. And it was a toss-up of either being hypnotized by her mouth or her eyes that had made him forget. He pulled away.
“
I
’
m not wearing a condom.
”

“
It
’
s okay. I
’
m on the pill,
”
Ramona panted, trying to pull Rex back down onto her, into her, but he pulled further away.

Hurtful images from the past swamped Rex’s mind.

“Stacey, darlin’, please listen to me. We’re not to blame for losing our baby… No, please, don’t do that!”

He’d grabbed her hands in order to stop her tearing the scan photo into pieces, but hadn’t been quick enough. The pieces fluttered to the floor, like the tears that had spilled from his eyes, blurring his vision of the woman he’d wanted a family with. Had wanted to grow gray and old with.

“Freak. The incident was a freak. Damaged. As damaged as the bastard who made it. You!”

“
No!
”
Rex mentally kicked himself for his sharp tone. Ramona was not his ex-wife, far from it. He told himself the chances of a repeat performance were, at best, zero to nil, and yet, he couldn’t make himself trust her, not when Stacey’s poison still taunted him.
“
I mean, I haven
’
t got anything, you know
…
But—”

The lust in her eyes turned glacier.
“
Oh, I get it,” she interrupted.
“
If I had something to catch, you wouldn
’
t want to catch it.
”

He gave himself another mental kick, this time harder, when she shoved him away and stood up.
“
Ramona, I didn
’
t mean that.
”

“
Oh, yes, you did! It
’
s written all over your smug face.
”
The slamming of the door behind her rattled the window pane.

This time, the urge was too strong, and Rex gave the filing cabinet a hefty kick. He gave it another for good measure and gathered his clothing. He
’
d just fastened and belted his pants when he heard an extremely loud and vocal curse, and Ramona flew back into the room, her face flushed bright red.

She glared at him as if daring him to ask for an explanation. Not that he needed to, not when he spotted her jeans spread-eagled on the desk and her yellow lace panties snagged on the cactus plant on the windowsill…

Hang on a minute. Yellow lace panties? And not just any yellow, either, but an in-your-face yellow. How could he have not noticed them? He stared at them and a renewed surge of heat stiffened his cock. Colorful lingerie had always been a turn-on for him. His lips then quirked when Mimi Parish spoke through the door.

“
Ramona, when you
’
ve finished running around half-naked, perhaps you can attend to your first patient of the day? A cat with a serious case of hairballs.
”

“
Don
’
t you dare laugh!
”
Ramona sternly told him.

“
Wouldn
’
t dream of it.
”
He waited until she was dressed then caught her wrist as she went to walk past him.
“
I only dream of you.
”

“
If that
’
s some sort of half-assed apology for saying I
’
ve got something to catch—
”

“
I never said that!
”
Rex shoved his free hand through his hair, causing it to stick up at right angles.
“
Dammit, Ramona! Hasn
’
t it occurred to you that I have other reasons for using condoms?
”

“
Yeah, you don
’
t want to get me pregnant.
”

“
Exactly.
”

“
But since I
’
m on the pill, that
’
s unlikely to happen. So what the fuck is your problem, Rex?
”

“
Hmm, let me think about that? How about being on the pill doesn
’
t mean—
”
Rex broke off before he spilled his guts about Stacey.
“
Don
’
t take this the wrong way, Ramona, but I don
’
t owe you anything. No explanation. No nothing
”
She obviously did take it the wrong way because her glare was glacial. He released her wrist and, adopting an equal frostiness, reminded her,
“
You
’
ve got some hairballs to attend to.
”

Ramona opened the door, her murmured curse fiery and curt. But then she did something that surprised the hell out of Rex. She pressed the door shut and kissed him. His arms immediately went around her, his hands cupping and kneading her well-rounded ass, pulling her closer to his hard body and even harder cock. She purred, which he promptly savored, then deepened the kiss until…

“
Ramona? Hairballs.
”

Smiling, Ramona drew back and straightened his tie.
“
When you do want to explain, then you know which bedroom to come to.
”

No, Rex didn
’
t want to explain, but he certainly knew which bedroom to go to. The one next to his.

* * * *

In actual fact, later that same evening, Rex did go to Ramona’s bedroom.

Casually dressed in a purple velour jog suit, a frown wrinkling her brow, she was sprawled out over the bed studying what appeared to be architectural drawings. He paused for a moment, uncertain whether to disturb her or not, but then tapped lightly on the open door. “Hey.”

She looked up, startled. “Hey, yourself.”

“I thought you were staying with Samantha again tonight?”

“Oh, I am. I’m just going.”

The speed with which Ramona folded the papers and tried to shove them under the mattress piqued Rex’s interest. “What’re you looking at?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing, my eye,” he said, stepping over and taking the papers from her hand. He sat down beside her and flattened the pages out. They
were
architectural drawings. And there was something very familiar about the building drawn. A second later and he realized why. “Is this our house?”

She gave a small shrug. “Might be.”

“Might be, my eye.” She tried to snatch the papers away, but he held them out of reach. “Do you want to tell me why you have plans drawn by a Jack Raven…” He paused and frowned. “Jack Raven?”

“Mark’s father. He’s an architect. Nice man. Though Dad would disagree. He can’t stand the sight of him. Some long-standing feud. Don’t know what about. But anyway…” She waved a carefree hand as though she’d said too much.