Oh, sorry. Whats her name?
Clementine. Clem for short.
She certainly is well-behaved.
She likes to please. Clem, go outside. The dog reluctantly but obediently slipped out the door and down the stairs.
Arent you afraid shell run off? Willow asked. You dont have a fence.
No, she wont go anywhere. Shes trained. Besides, she knows shes got a good deal here. Have a seat. He switched on a couple of lights. He didnt want Willow to think he had seduction in mind.
And he didnt. Okay, it was in his mind, but he had no intentions of following through. His raging hormones had driven Willow away from him once. He had to prove that he was attracted to more than just her delectable body. Not that he had any complaints about the package.
Do you want some coffee? he asked, playing the polite host. Coffee would keep their hands and their mouths busy. They could listen to music. Watch a DVD. Play checkers.
That sounds good.
He was a patient man, he thought as he left her for the kitchen. Hed waited five years to make Willow his again. He could wait a little longer.
Hed just turned on the coffee maker when an ear-piercing scream split the evening calm. Cal raced back to the living room, visions of mayhem and blood making his pulse pound. He found Willow standing on the sofa, her eyes huge, her face pale as vanilla ice cream. She pointed down to the rug near a chair.
I just saw the biggest rat in the entire world. It went under that chair. She pointed more emphatically.
Cal groaned. Oh, no. Willow, its okay. Its just Rudy.
You name your rats? She didnt budge from her position on the couch.
Rudy is a ferret. Cal got down on his hands and knees and peered under the recliner. Two red eyes glowed at him. You probably scared him more than he scared you.
I seriously doubt that.
Cal reached under the chair and withdrew the cream-colored ferret. Rudy was trembling, but with a few strokes and some reassuring words from Cal, he soon calmed down.
The same couldnt be said for Willow.
Im sorry he scared you, Cal said. Hes supposed to be in his cage, but hes figured out how to escape. He squeezes under the door, I think. Turning to his ferret, he scratched it under its chin. Arent you a smart fellow?
Willow looked at him dubiously from where she still perched on top of the sofa.
Come down from there. Rudy is completely harmless, I promise.
She stepped down to the floor using his hand for support, then sank onto the sofa. Sorry about that. Guess I just proved the stereotype. I screamed like a girlie-girl, didnt I?
Cal laughed. You did.
She cast a cautious look toward the ferret, which had climbed onto Cals shoulder and was staring back just as hard at Willow. Okay, lets have a look at Rudy.
Cal scooped Rudy off his shoulder and held him out to Willow. She lightly stroked his head. And when he seemed to enjoy her attention, she took him into her lap.
Well, I guess youre pretty cute. Not really that much like a rat.
This was the Willow he remembered. Cal had always maintained a menagerie at the little farm just outside town where hed grown up, and Willow had always loved the animals. She only objected a little when he tried to make a pet out of a giant king snake hed found in the garage.
Clem yipped once to be let in. And right after that, two more members of his household darted into the living room, probably curious about the screaming. The two cats hopped up on the sofa, eager to make the newcomers acquaintance.
Goodness, are there more? Willow asked.
The orange one is October. The black-and-white one is Tyson. Time enough later to tell her about the other members of his family, not all of which were cute and cuddly.
Willow scratched each of the cats, showing a bit of extra attention to Tysons left ear. Half of it was missing. These guys look pretty battle-scarred.
Theyre shelter cats. Wild as March hares when I got them.
Theyre tame enough now. Both cats were vying for Willows attention, trying to climb into her lap with the ferret. Wait a minute. How come they dont try to eat the ferret?
Cal shrugged. They know its not allowed. You have to have rules. Unfortunately. he wanted to throw away the rules when it came to Willow. October, Tyson, thats enough.
Both cats froze and looked at Cal.
You heard me. Scat.
They left Willows lap and sauntered away. Willow stared after them in amazement. I never saw cats mind like that before.
Again, Cal shrugged. You can teach them things if youre patient. You just have to learn how to think like a cat. He picked up Rudy from Willows lap. The ferret squeaked in protest. Hed taken an instant liking to Willow, once hed recovered from the fright of her screaming. Ill put him up. The coffee should be ready in a minute.
WILLOW WATCHED as he exited the living room, the ferret slung casually over his shoulder. Her still-nameless date had the cutest butt shed ever seen, even in a pair of oatmeal-colored dress trousers. She wondered what he would look like in snug, faded Levis, and the thought made her light-headed.
She hadnt pegged him for an animal lover. Most of the cowboys shed known over the yearsand there were plenty in Cottonwoodthought of animals as commodities. Oh, they might have a slight thing for their horses. But cats and dogs and ferrets? It was like Wild Kingdom around here.
Cal had loved animals, too, she recalled. Hed taken in as many strays of all stripes as his mother would tolerate. That was why she always thought he would be such an excellent vet, like his father and grandfather before him. That was why shed been so shocked and disappointed when shed heard he dropped out of vet school.
It was an odd coincidence that Hank was an animal lover, too. She just must be attracted to that type of man, she reasoned. If there was an animal-lover gene, maybe she subconsciously recognized it and was attracted to the kindness that went along with it. She liked a strong, macho man as well as any girl, but she wouldnt tolerate strength without a dash of kindness, too.
A man who was gentle and patient with animals would probably be a good father.
She sat up straighter as her skin prickled with awareness. Where had that thought come from? She wasnt shopping for the future father of her children. Marriage and parenthood werent compatible with med school. They would be years down the line for her. It was especially inappropriate for her to be thinking those thoughts in connection with a man whose name she didnt know.
This situation had gotten totally ridiculous. Maybe there was a clue here in his apartment.
She stood up and looked around for some stray mail, a magazine, maybe. But the only magazine she saw was TV Guide, and there was no address label.
She sighed. He was going to get suspicious if she called him Hey, you.
Hank returned a few moments later. You want cream in your coffee?
No, black is fine. Shed learned to drink it like that in college, pulling all-nighters when she literally didnt have enough money for cream. Truthfully, she didnt really want coffee right now.
She wanted Hank.
He brought her coffee in a thick, blue ceramic mug, then sat next to her, close but not touching. She blew on the coffee to cool it and took a sip. Good.
Do you want to watch a movie?
Only if we watch it while were making love.
The thought shocked her. When had she become so wanton? She wasnt even sure she would like sex. Her one and only experience with it had been so horrible that for a long time she thought maybe she should just become a nun or a hermit.
But her hormones insisted that making love with Hank would definitely not be unpleasant. Quite the contrary. She could tell just by watching him that he would be slow and gentle, patient with her clumsy efforts, seeing to her comfort and pleasure before his own. Just as he could gentle a wild stray cat, he would calm her skittishness.
The silence had stretched uncomfortably. Willow knew she needed to tame her wayward thoughts before she said or did anything foolish. Her hormones were completely round the bend.
Do you want to watch TV? he tried again.
No. That was something staid married couples did because they were bored with each other. She wanted to rip off that starched blue-gray shirt and see what his bare chest looked like. Sure. Since her injury she found TV almost intolerable, since everyone had the same face. The few times shed tried it, shed been hopelessly confused.
They both leaned forward and reached for the TV Guide sitting on the coffee table. They collided, and half of Willows coffee sloshed out of her cup and onto her thigh. She cried out more in surprise than in pain; the coffee wasnt that hot.
Oh, my God, Im sorry, Hank said, jumping to his feet. Are you okay?
Im fine, I just
Your dress. Its not ruined, is it? He dragged her toward the kitchen. Lets rinse out the stain before it sets. Once in the kitchen, he stuck a dishcloth under the cold water, then began daubing at the spot on her dress, which was perilously close towell, to where he shouldnt be touching.
Her body responded immediately, starting with a fireball between her legs that grew and radiated outward. Her breasts ached and felt too heavy, her insides quivered and her legs trembled. She leaned on the kitchen counter for support even as she closed her eyes and desperately wished that he would move his hand just a couple of inches to the left
Willow?
She opened her eyes and saw Hank peering at her, concerned. But almost immediately his expression changed to one that more closely mirrored her own feelings. Hed seen the naked hunger in her face, in her eyes, and she fearedand hopedhed read her every lascivious thought.
And then she was in his arms and he was kissing her like he wanted to devour her, hot, demanding, commanding kisses, on her mouth and along her jaw and down her neck, his lips trailing fire wherever they went.
The comb fell out of her hair and the heavy mass tumbled down, making her feel even more wanton, like a virgin preparing for sacrifice. Not that this was any big sacrifice on her part. Shed wanted this from the moment this man had first taken her into his arms on the dance floor at the VFW Hall. Maybe she hadnt consciously been aware that was what she wanted, but her body had known. Her body had been absolutely certain.
Willow wrapped her arms around Hank and buried her fingers in his hair. She would have melted into him if she could have, merged herself with him; that was how keen her craving for him was.
Finally, she understood everything. She understood the craziness that made some of her girlfriends go completely nuts for a guy, put up with being treated like dirt, or completely forget the rules of safe conduct. She understood taking a risk, fighting anything that got in a womans way.
It was for this, this feeling. A sensation that felt as if she were a soap bubble in the wind, about to burst.
Willow. Her name on his lips was more of a groan. I didnt mean for this to happen. I swear.
She knew that. She knew he had more on his mind than conquest. It had been her idea to come home with him, after all. She was the one whod said she wanted to be alone with him. But her brain was short-circuiting, sending sparks everywhere in her body. She found it difficult to perform the mundane task of forming words.
But she wasnt interested in words anyway. She pulled his shirttail out from his pants and shoved her hands inside, next to his skin. Oh, yeah. Smooth and warm, just like shed thought it would be. Rock-hard muscles covered with velvet smooth skin.
Was he tan all over, like his face and hands? Did he sometimes work without a shirt, all hot and sweaty?
The thought almost made her swoon.
Willow
I want you, Ha She stopped herself just before she called him by the fictitious name shed given him. How in the world would she explain that? He would think shed gotten him confused with an old boyfriend.
What?
I want youryour hands on me, she improvised, though he was already touching her everywhere, caressing her breasts through her dress, squeezing her bottom. She could feel his arousal pressing against her pelvis, and her body twitched as her imagination conjured up an image of him inside her.
Surely it wouldnt hurt, like it had before. The time shed made love with Cal, she hadnt been ready. She hadnt been aroused because she didnt even know what arousal was. Shed been tense and terrified, a little girl in a womans body who hadnt been ready for sex.
She was ready now. She was past ready.
He worked the zipper of her dress down her back and slid his hands inside, doing exactly what she was doing to him. She knew that once clothes started to come off, it would be very hard to change her mind about this.
She wouldnt change her mind. For whatever reason, this felt right to her. As if her body had been waiting her whole life to find this man. Maybe those were her hormones talking, rationalizing her outrageous behavior, but she didnt care. She was entitled to act like a crazy fool once in her life.
Willow. Now her name sounded like a plea. I feel like Im rushing you.
Youre not.
We could wait
I dont want to wait. Willow knew she needed to explain herself. So she pulled herself together long enough so that she could string a few coherent sentences together. A couple of weeks ago, I almost died. You could have, too. If that experience has taught us anything, shouldnt it be that we dont know what the future will bring? Sometimes it doesnt matter how carefully we plan for something or how cautious we are, it can all get screwed up in a heartbeat.
Oh, Willow. He hugged her to him. Nothings going to happen to us.
Im sure youre right.
We dont have to rush.
We dont have to wait, she countered. If they waited, by tomorrow her sensible self might return and nix the whole thing. She simply couldnt bear that thought.
Are you sure?
She nodded, her eyes inexplicably moistening. Then she kissed him, pouring her heart and soul into the kiss. She felt like shed known him forever. Shed always pooh-poohed the notion of soul mates, her scientific mind rejecting a notion that couldnt be measured or proven. But if soul mates existed, she suspected she had found hers.
She didnt need to know his name. She didnt need to recognize his face. She knew this man on a deeper, elemental level.
Still locked in a kiss, Hank scooped her up in his arms and carried her out of the kitchen. She thought they were going to the bedroom, but they didnt make it that far. He stopped near the sofa and set her down.