Need You for Keeps (9 page)

He turned his attention to the tiny ball of fuzz at the top of the tree, who looked back, all puffed fur and bad attitude. She could see Jonah gauging the distance, then he looked at all five feet four of her and his face went hard. “Don’t tell me you are climbing up there.”

“Are you crazy? No way.” She waited until he relaxed before adding, “Just far enough up so that he can smell the chicken.”

Her mom used to say the best way to attract bees was with honey. Shay knew, for cats, it was all about the chicken.

And for a male, well, that was about making them believe the chicken was their idea.

“Unless you have a better suggestion.”

“Now what?” Jonah asked, wanting to kick himself. One bat of those chocolate-brown eyes and he was practically offering to help her commit a crime—like adding one more pet to her collection.

“I think this is where you say you’re going to arrest me.”

He looked down at his jeans and T-shirt and felt a sigh of relief, because, no, he wasn’t going to arrest her. Tonight that was some other asshole’s job.

“I’m off duty,” he said, liking how that sounded.

She stared at him as though he’d lost his mind. Maybe he had. Jonah didn’t like the idea of looking the other way, but figured if he wasn’t on the clock then he wasn’t slacking on his duties. So he’d clocked out early, locked up his gun and badge, and made a point to leave his job at the office.

“But you’re never off duty.”

A problem he intended on fixing—starting tonight. Sheriff Bryant was right. Going into a new position already burnt out wouldn’t do anyone any good. Just like arresting Shay for saving a stupid cat.

Plus he had a rough few days ahead of him, this he knew without a doubt. One week a year it was as though he was forced to relive it all, remember a time he’d give anything to forget. And since that week started tomorrow, he wanted to forget about everything tonight—and he’d found his perfect distraction.

“I am right now,” he said and she smiled, warm and real and just for him, and he couldn’t help but smile back.

“Does that mean no lecture about bringing another cat into my house?”

“Would it make a difference if I did?” She remained silent and he laughed. “Then no. No lecture. Off duty, remember?”

“Well then, Jonah.” Man, he loved it when she called him by his given name. “Now we sit and wait.”

Shay leaned back in the grass and made herself right at home, stretching out her lush legs, crossing them at the ankles as though she had every right to be there.

Jonah had to admit that trespassing looked good on her. Her hair was a mess of curls, her face smudged with dirt, even the tree rash on her shin looked good on her, in that tough-girl I-can-handle-myself way. But there was something about the way she was looking at him right then, with reluctant gratitude and a shy hopefulness, that had h
im tied in knots.

“We can wait all night, Trouble, but I don’t think that cat has any intention of coming down.” Just like he didn’t have any intention of leaving Shay alone—and not just because he didn’t trust her
not
to climb the tree the second she got impatient. There was something fragile about her tonight, a vulnerability that he’d bet the last half of that sandwich she had no idea she was showing. Because Shay didn’t do vulnerable.

He’d spent the past year watching her take on one hopeless mission after another, never giving up and always managing to come out on top. No matter what. It was a testament to just how strong she was. But tonight she was showing a crack in her armor—and he wanted to know why. So he sat down next to her.

With a smile that damn near stopped his heart, she handed him his sandwich, then went back to watching her cat. Jonah took a big bite and handed it back.

She stared at it as though it were a ticking bomb.

“I didn’t poison it, I promise,” he said when she still wouldn’t take it.

“Sharing a sandwich doesn’t make this a date,” she clarified, and Jonah couldn’t figure out if she was telling him a date was out of the question or if she was mad because he hadn’t asked her out the other night. Then she eyed
him
suspiciously and said, “So don’t think this is going anywhere.”

Ah, she was talking about the kiss, the one they weren’t allowed to talk about according to her rules. “Thanks for clearing that up, I was afraid
Kitty Fantastic
might get the wrong impression of the kind of guy I am.”

She snorted but took the sandwich.

He didn’t know how much time passed, and for the first time in months didn’t care. He just sat as the sun finally disappeared behind the mountains, silently passing a sandwich back and forth with
the
most complicated women he’d ever met, and yet around her everything seemed simple. Comfortable. Never once thinking there was somewhere else he’d rather be.

When the last bit of light disappeared and the only part of the kitten visible were its eyes glowing against the moon, Shay wrapped her arms around her bent knees and hugged them to her.

“I don’t think the cat is into chicken bacon clubs,” he said.

“Every man is into bacon. It’s one of the three sacred
B
s men agree on,” she argued. “Bacon, beer, and ball.”

She was right; bacon, beer, and ball were all part of the bro code, but he added, “I can think of another
B
that ranks even higher.”

He dropped his eyes to that top, the one that didn’t require a bra. She elbowed him in the ribs.

“What? If you’re going for accuracy, then it is my duty as an official card-carrying member to set the record straight.” When she raised a single brow, he added, “Ten out of ten men would agree.”

They would also agree, he wanted to point out, that sex ranked even higher, but sex didn’t start with a
B
so he kept that to himself.

“I don’t think boobs would inspire Kitty Fantastic to come down any quicker.”

Jonah looked at that top again, obviously designed to drive men crazy, and grinned. “You can give it a shot.”

“I like this Jonah,” she said, the evening summer breeze gently rustling the few hairs that had escaped her ponytail. “Fun, flirty, and knows when to pull the police stick out of his ass and hang it up with his fancy gun.”

Jonah laughed, something he seemed to do a lot of around her. Shay Michaels was unpredictable, unapologetic, and a startling breath of fresh air.

“Can you bring him around more often?”

He’d bring anything she wanted as long as she kept smiling like that.

“You bet,” he said, and there it went, that thing that simmered between them. A whole lot of untapped chemistry. Only tonight it felt like more. And truth be told, it turned him on as much as it terrified him.

Mew.

The cry was small and desperate—breathless, as though it was a struggle for his little lungs to get even that out, and Jonah knew this had the potential to end badly.

For both the cat. And him.

Shay looked up at the tree, her heart in her eyes as the cat tried to move, causing the flimsy branch to sag and sway. After a moment the cat made it to the trunk and sagged his little body against it.

“He’ll come down,” she whispered. “He just needs time to understand we are here to help.”

“What if he doesn’t?” he asked softly, wanting to prepare her. He was afraid the cat needed more than time. The ratty thing was terrified to the point where helping him would likely send him leaping to his death, and if he was hurt badly enough, he might not be able to make it down on his own.

She turned her face, resting her cheek on her knee, and looked at him. And just like that, her eyes sucked him in and all that distance he’d been working so hard to maintain evaporated. “Just because he doesn’t do trust . . . that shouldn’t mean he doesn’t deserve to be safe and loved.”

There was so much rawness in that statement, it had his ribs doing a stupid viselike maneuver that pissed off his chest and made him wonder, not for the first time, just how many assholes she’d been forced to deal with in her life. Shay had a way of pulling people in with her big heart while keeping them at a distance. It was a mechanism someone used when they’d been burned, as Jonah well knew. There was no doubt in his mind that Shay had been burned badly, and that bothered him more than it should.

“I’m sorry,” he said, not wanting to be one of those people in her life. “About your report being released the way it was.”

“I know you didn’t release it,” she said, and it felt good to hear that she didn’t think he would let something like that slide under his watch. “I doubt you even knew it was out there until after I did.”

“Even though the report is a public document, available to anyone who knows where to look for it, it was unprofessional to have it released that way. Especially since Estella is just using it to win her stupid fight.”

“Well, it’s working. I am banned from Bark in the Park indefinitely, and now she has potential applicants so scared that the dogs are either stolen or from a puppy mill, they are withdrawing their applications.”

He leaned in closer, giving her a little bump with his arm. “Is there anything I can do to help?” She looked at him as though accepting help was too painful to contemplate. He laughed. “Come on, I’m Mr. Fix-It, remember? Me and my cape?”

She grinned. “Okay, when you get that cape back, can you write me a note on official superhero stationary explaining that the sheriff’s department isn’t going to start confiscating dogs adopted through St. Paws? Then Ms. Abernathy can come and get Yodel. He’s been waiting for a long time for his home, and he shouldn’t have to wait a day longer.”

“Done,” he said, giving her another little bump, this time not moving away, so that their arms continued brushing. “Anything else?”

“Come through on that and then we’ll talk.”

“Following through is who I am,” he said more lightly than he felt. And because he was stronger than how he’d been acting, he said, “I also wanted to apologize about the other day. I know you were caught off guard by the citation and it put you in an impossible situation.”

She’d thrown him for a loop too, hiding all of those kittens, but this moment was about showing her that he was the kind of guy who fixed his mistakes. The kind of man who his father had raised him to be. He might not be the right guy for Shay, but he was determined not to be the wrong kind either.

She shrugged. “You were just doing your job.”

“Yes, but I could have handled it better,” he admitted.

“Or you could have let someone else handle it,” she said, sitting up, and he heard a little of that bite in her voice he was so familiar with. Then, as if remembering she was mad at him, the fire in her eyes came back. “And the army of squad cars, Sheriff. Really? Talk about making Estella’s case.”

And they were back to Sheriff. “It was either that or let Warren go off half-cocked and take your pets away.”

“I could have handled it,” she argued. “Easier than having to be served by the guy who had his tongue down my throat the night before.”

And there it was. The topic Jonah had been dying to bring up. Yet, hearing her talk about their kiss in direct relation to his official visit wasn’t how he’d imagined it going down. Neither was the hurt he saw in her eyes.

“Ah, Shay,” he said, wanting to pull her to him. “I came so you could have some kind of warning and a chance to find as many of your pets homes as possible before animal control stepped in.”

“Oh,” was all she said, because the truth of it was, he’d come for her. And now they both knew it.

“Yeah, oh.” To him, they were two separate events from two completely separate areas of his life. But to her, they obviously weren’t. And that was a big problem.

She studied him for a long moment, not shying away when he studied her right back. Nope, Shay held his gaze, never once backing down when it went way past the point of companionable silence and into something deeper, something that had heat and honesty and an intensity that wasn’t going to disappear—no matter how hard they tried to ignore it.

C
hrist
, that mouth. He couldn’t make himself look away.

Her lips were soft and full and a little bit naughty. And when she smiled like she was now, as if she had a secret guaranteed to rock his world right off its axis, all he could think about was being a part of hers. About kissing her again, soft and languid, taking his time to make it a real
fireworks and mind-blowing
kind of event, where thinking went out the window and all he could do was feel.

Damn it, he wanted to feel.

Being with Shay was like spinning out of control. It was exciting and terrifying and so damn addictive he’d be crazy to go there. She made him want to live in the moment, without regard for the future. And it was that exact train of thinking that had destroyed his life in San Francisco—destroyed several lives—and brought him back home.

Impulsiveness and unpredictability, even when laced with good intentions, had the potential to turn bad. Real quick. And Shay was all of those things. He had no idea why he found her from-the-hip attitude so endearing.

“Jonah,” she whispered, placing a hand on his arm, and he went as still as the night. That’s it. Just a simple touch and every reason he’d come up with for why this would never work between them, how they were bound to disappoint each other, didn’t matter right then. All that mattered was Shay. “We’re getting distracted again.”

“Was there anything left to discuss?” he asked.

God, he hoped there wasn’t. As far as he was concerned, there was nothing he would rather do in this moment than get distracted with a woman who, with one touch, made him feel like a man.

Jonah stared down at her for a long moment, watching how the moonlight played off her creamy skin, then leaned even closer. He couldn’t help it. She smelled so damn good. Like a summer storm and the girl next door all mixed together in some crazy combination that defied logic. She defied logic. All those sharp, guarded edges surrounding that soft soul she kept hidden from the world.

She wasn’t hiding it now—not from him.

Shay swallowed and scooted even closer, until she was on her knees and they were facing each other and he could feel the warmth of her breath against his mouth. And when she whispered, “Nope,” popping the
P
extra hard, her lips flicked against his with enough pressure to scramble his brain.

“To be clear.” He ran his hands up then back down her sides before settling them on her hips. He’d prefer her breasts, because he was pretty sure that the top she had on, efficient as it was, doubled as a bra. Meaning only one degree of separation, not two. And if he got anywhere near those full
C
s, she’d be naked in two seconds flat. And that wouldn’t work because they were outside and he was a gentleman, after all. “Is this another aiming issue? Or are you going to kiss me right now?”

“You’re the detective,” she teased, her voice going heavy, kind of like his breathing. Her gaze square on his mouth, telling him they weren’t just in sync, but that this was about to get real.

And if that wasn’t enough of a green light, she placed one knee, then the other, on either side of his thighs, brought her breasts to eye level, and everything else up close and personal.

Her hands? Yeah, those went to work too, giving him all the evidence he needed, running over his shoulders and down his arms until they were interlaced with his. And just when he thought his night couldn’t get any better, she took him on a tour, across her flat stomach and then down and around to—best day ever—cup her spectacular ass.

“So, Detective, you tell me.”

He didn’t get the chance to tell her that he wasn’t a detective.
Or
the sheriff. Or even that she had the best ass he’d ever had the privilege of meeting, because he was too busy enjoying the hottest kiss of his life.

Shay kissed like she lived, wild, fierce, and taking it so far past the edge he felt free. She didn’t go for soft or languid, hell no, she used her teeth and tongue to nip and tease at his lips, taking it from kissing to so-fucking-hot-he-couldn’t-breathe in one touch. But who the hell cared? He had Shay Michaels, the tough, mouthy woman with the bite-me attitude, kissing him like he was her only lifeline. And in that moment, she felt like his.

Hell, she felt like everything that was right in his seriously screwed-up world.

“Christ, you feel good,” he moaned into her mouth.

“I was going for amazing,” she said, and without warning she slid down his body, every good part she owned scraping down his chest until she was seated fully against him, with a fistful of his hair.

“Getting closer.”

“How about now?” She did this insane little roll of her hips that set him on fire. With a triumphant smile, she did it again, teasing and sweet and so damn refreshing he opened his mouth wider, taking the kiss even deeper. Taking them deeper.

“Jonah,” she moaned, then let loose a sexy-like mewling sound and ground herself against him. Back and forth, creating a friction that had him making some sounds of his own because A) they were back to first names, B) she was about to go off and they weren’t even naked, and C) he wasn’t far behind her.

Which would be embarrassing as hell. Not to mention he still wasn’t sure what she had on beneath that top, and there was no way this would be over before he had her naked. And under him.

With a new goal in mind, one which included her shouting his name, he teased at the hem of her shirt, exploring every speck of soft skin as he headed north, only to stop short when he was about to cross into heaven.

Mew.

“What was that?” Shay whispered, her hands a scant inch from where they needed to be. His were so close he might just cry, because he knew what that sound was, and
knew
what was going to go down in about two seconds—and it wasn’t his fucking pants.

Mew.

“Kitty Fantastic,” Shay whispered at the two blue eyes blinking up at her from the inside of Jonah’s ball cap.

Yeah, Kitty Fucking Fantastic, the feline who’d already cost him his dinner and his good sense, was now using his cap for a bed and about to issue the biggest cock block in the history of bro-land.

Mew.

Two days later, Shay sat on the bed in her pajamas, contemplating her second bag of minidoughnuts. She needed it. She’d barely spoken to Jonah since the
mew
heard around the world. In fact, after they checked over Kitty Fantastic and decided the vet could wait a day, Jonah had loaded them up and driven them home, walking them to the door and wishing her a dutiful good night.

She’d texted him to say thanks for the help. It wasn’t a long text, but enough to let him know how special he’d made her feel, how good it was, even for just one night, to have someone to lean on. And in the moment, Shay had felt as though he were leaning on her too—for what she wasn’t sure, but she was honored he’d chosen her. Then, he’d texted her back, “Anytime.”

That was it, just “Anytime.”

It wasn’t bad as far as texts went, but it wasn’t great either. A one-worded text. Seven little letters that left no room for anything more. The last time she’d heard that word, from him, it had been thrown over his shoulder while leaving her locked in a kennel.

All Shay could come up with was that he’d changed his mind.

And that was okay. It sucked, and kind of made her belly grumble whenever she thought about it, but “Anytime” wasn’t the end of the world. She’d lived through worse. At least that’s what she’d convinced herself of, until yesterday when she’d received a call. Not from Jonah, of course, but from Ms. Abernathy.

Jonah had delivered on his word. Something that Shay hadn’t had a lot of experience with. Not only had he stuck an official note in her mailbox as promised, he’d taken the time to call Ms. Abernathy and reassure the older woman that no one would be taking Yodel from her. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, he issued a statement on the front page of the
St. Helena Sentinel
that St. Paws Rescue was not, nor were they connected with any puppy mills.

Shay didn’t know what to do with that kind of gesture, wasn’t used to it, and, even worse, didn’t know what it meant. He hadn’t stopped by or even texted to point to the awesome thing he’d done.

Sure, it was the perfect excuse for her to drop by his place, to say thanks in person, maybe bribe him with more beer and get an invitation inside, but then she’d never know if he
wanted
her to come in.

Shay popped the doughnut in her mouth and sank back against the headboard, that annoying grumble emanating from her stomach. On the outside, Shay liked to think she appeared tough, carefree, capable of handling anything life threw her way. Inside, though, she was a big scaredy-cat.

She looked at her bedroom, the lack of dogs, and felt her throat tighten, because she was also a big crybaby.

Shay had come home from work early, walked her dogs, fed the kittens, cleaned the litter box, changed her sheets, and when she couldn’t stall any longer, she had to accept her reality for what it was. Yodel was gone. He was off living a happy-doggie life with his new family.

Logically, Shay knew Yodel was where he was supposed to be. All of the animals who had come through her life were. It didn’t mean that it didn’t break her heart, though.

Mew
, Kitty Fantastic said from the carrier on the end of the bed.

“Are you ready to come out yet?” she asked the two blue slits peering out at her.

Kitty gave a long and defiant stretch, then turned around, giving Shay his back. His answer was clear with every swish of his tail.

He’d spent all day with Dr. Huntington, getting a full examination and round of shots. After treating his bruised paw and getting rid of every foxtail and burr matted in the poor thing’s coat, Kitty was declared a healthy ball of bad attitude. They were sent home with antibiotics and strict instructions to remain separated from his litter for the time being.

Something Kitty still hadn’t forgiven her for.

“I know you’re upset, but when you’re done being angry about something that can’t be fixed, you can come out and have some tuna.”

Nothing.

“You know you want it.” She held up a plate of cat food and placed it right outside the cage.

Kitty lifted his head and eyed his dinner with serious intent, then gave Shay a scathing look that said,
Yeah right. The last time you did that I ended up in this cage.

“Okay, I know today totally blew.” Shay reached out to gently brush his tail, not going any higher, just allowing him to get used to the sensation of being touched. “Mine did too.”

Kitty didn’t retreat to the back of the cage as he had before, but he didn’t look like he was going to come out either, so Shay moved her hand to the top of his head to deliver a little scratch. He watched her carefully, eyes full of heartbreaking mistrust, refusing to give in to the affection.

“Yodel when to his forever home today.” Shay opened the Facebook app on her phone and showed Kitty Fantastic a picture of Yodel she had taken earlier tha
t afternoon and swallowed hard. “Look, that’s Yodel and his new mama, Ms. Abernathy.”

Mew.
Kitty Fantastic lifted his head, nudging it into Shay’s hand, and she felt a simultaneous nudge on her heart. He hadn’t come out, but he’d made the first step into forgiving her.

“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” she whispered, then felt her eyes tear up again. “I think I needed that as much as you did.” To show Kitty that Shay was willing to give a little too, and to distract herself before the waterworks got out of hand, she placed a piece of tuna inside his cage so he could easily reach it.

Whiskers in action, he sniffed it and gave the morsel a tentative lick, then another.

“There’s more where that came from,” she said, setting the next piece a few inches closer. “No cage this time, just a warm lap and a good old-fashioned cuddle session.”

Shay could use a good cuddle today. And Kitty wasn’t the only stubborn male that came to mind.

Sitting under that tree with Jonah was one of the best nights she’d had in a long time. He’d been sweet, funny, and so attentive it made her forget why maintaining distance was important. It also made her forget that he wasn’t her type. Because the truth was, Jonah was every woman’s type. She just wasn’t sure if she was his.