Make Me Howl (7 page)

Judge started to look a little uneasy, standing at the podium without anything to say. The entire room knew the instant he thought of something because his entire face lit up and his mouth dropped open as he sucked in a quiet “ah.” “Let me introduce a few notables tonight. At the head table is the honorable Dora Hanson, past governor of the fair state of Texas. Across from her are Doctors Bella Cannis and Chase Holliday, who we’re honoring.”

He went on around the room, introducing everyone who worked at the zoo. When he spoke, his mustache hid most of his mouth. If it hadn’t been for his chin bobbing up and down, I’d have thought it was a ventriloquist/dummy act. His matching eyebrows rose and fell like ocean waves. And when he was momentarily stumped for a name, he drove his hand through his hair, which made it stand on end.

Finally Carrie flew back into the room, skidding to a stop near Judge. He leaned away from the microphone again to tell her something. With her head bowed, she went to the nearest table and started handing out cards.

“Carrie is passing out volunteer cards for those of you who’d like to give more than just your dollars. They should have been at your plate when you got here.” He shot a scathing look at Carrie, who ducked her head even lower.

“If you’ll look at your card, you’ll see there are several areas where we could really use some help.” Then as if people who could afford to pay $100 for a meal couldn’t read, he started reading to us. “Docent—those are the people who can be counted on to give our visitors a tour of the facilities.”

Duh.

“Primates—monkeys. We can use some help in that area.” He looked up then one side of his mustache lifted as he gave us a half smile. “Those little guys can be a real handful.”

I expected the room to groan as I did, but most everyone chuckled politely. To keep from throwing something at him, I tapped my fingers on the table until Bella gave me a toe nudge to make me stop.

“Groundskeepers,” he continued. “Even though we’re a new facility, we already have problems with wild animals breaching our fences. Why, just the other night we had a
wild
wolf that wandered inside our compound. Put quite a scare into some of our people, too.”

I shifted in my seat and sent Bella a quick glance, but she gazed into space as if she weren’t listening.

Carrie came to our table last. She slapped cards down in front of us as if she were killing fire ants. When she reached past Mack, he ran a hand down her spine. She jerked erect as if she’d been zapped by a cattle prod. Rather than finish handing them out, she released them so they scattered across the table. With a nasty look at Mack, she turned on her heel and stalked back to her table.

The card was exactly as Judge had read it. There was no blank for filling in if you had another idea. So I reached for my bag, which was so tiny I’d had to decide between my lipstick pencil and my lip gloss when I left the house. I did have a miniature pen, thank goodness. After I filled in my name, address and phone number, I wrote the word, OVER across all the volunteer suggestions. On the back I wrote, “Veterinarian Clinic.”

Bella took my card before I could hide it from her. As she read, she lifted one eyebrow. “You gave them your office number?” she whispered.

“Well, yeah.” I lifted one shoulder in a shrug so she would know how important this was to me. “I keep the answering machine there turned on so I won’t miss the call.” As if my cell didn’t have voicemail.

“Right.” Bella knew me too well. “You just didn’t want to write down your mobile number where Norman might see it. And use it.”

“Do you blame me?” I murmured as I smiled pleasantly at the other people at our table.

Then she turned the card over. “The clinic? You want to help with sick animals?”

With a small frown, I nodded, trying to look as if her question hurt me. Deeply.

“You know there’s blood to clean up. And feces. And you have to actually
deal
with the animals. We don’t just pet kittens in there.”

“I know.” Wanting to be sure no one else could hear me, I leaned closer. “But I want to get into Doc’s lab. I need to know just how far he’s come with his research.”

“And you think you can do that while you’re volunteering?”

I nodded once. “If they want my help, I’m going where it will do
me
the most good. I’ll find out how far Doc is in his research…and I’ll see what, exactly, I can do about it.”

Bella frowned at me. “I’m not going to let you come in and destroy my career.”

I turned, looking her full in the face. “But you’d let him destroy me?”

She blinked hard as if fighting tears. “You know if he’d talk about it, I’d tell you. But he won’t. Not a word.”

****

I dreaded Bella’s talk as much as she had to. But when they brought the mystery meal, she ate hers as if she didn’t have a care in the world. Usually when she had a speech to make, she didn’t eat for the entire previous week. But tonight she ate, chatting with Doc’s brother or staring into space. What was it with her?

Finally they brought the dessert—pecan pie. Although she normally didn’t like pecan, she ate the entire piece. It was as if she were another person.

More than a little worried about my twin, I only ate a few of the nuts then shoved my plate away. Finally Doc got up to speak.

As he talked, I admired his blatant good looks and forgot all about my worries. Dark hair, a square jaw and broad shoulders were always a turn on for me, but a man who knew how to choose a tux and actually looked good in it finished me off like a short-on-minutes phone card and a long talk. While he spoke, he must have told a joke, because his eyes sparkled with mischief and everyone in the room chuckled.

That was when he focused on me. I forgot I was supposed to laugh. I may even have forgotten how to smile. It was all I could do to sit in that chair without sliding onto the floor. And talk about the buzz. It started up my spine, jumped to my shoulders and along my arms, and continued through all my bones, running in a stream throughout my entire body.

My first inclination was to drop my mouth open and pant, but I knew better. Instead I squeezed my hands tightly together under the table. I tried counting to get my mind off my body, but I kept losing my place. Every time he glanced my way, the buzz jolted up a notch and I lost the number I had in my head.

Finally his speech ended. During the applause, he looked only at me. Then he walked toward me and I knew in a matter of seconds he’d soon be in the chair next to mine.

I couldn’t breathe. The air that was supposed to go into my lungs was suddenly too thick to force inside. My heart pounded while I thought I would die from the lack of oxygen.

Then he was there next to me and I managed to force a wisp of air into my lungs. His father said something to him and his brothers laughed, but the buzz had reached my ears, making it hard for me to understand anyone’s words but his.

“Are you okay?” he murmured as he picked up his glass of water.

I nodded. Yeah, I was fine.

“Shh!” Spence hissed at us. “Bella’s going to speak. Now maybe we’ll hear something interesting.”

Doc smirked at him in a brotherly fashion. Spence shook his head then turned to watch Bella while he leaned on his fist, with his middle finger raised slightly above the rest.

Bella smiled brightly. The dress I’d helped her find, a black satin that could have been created for a twenties movie siren, gave her face a glow I hadn’t seen before. At least I assumed it was the dress making her sparkle. “I’d like to add my welcome to Safari Land tonight…”

She went directly to vet-speak, which numbed my brain like a shot of Novocain. Every now and then I heard a reference to “research” and “findings” until finally she said, “While we work very hard here, we also know how to play. To prove it, we’ve brought what we believe to be the best orchestra in Texas to play for you. And singing for us tonight is Dave Dorrell.”

The lights quickly dimmed to total darkness, accompanied by a loud gasp from several women and a few men, then at the opposite end of the room a light glowed softly, growing in intensity until we could see the small, twelve-piece orchestra. The music started and immediately swelled. Standing by himself in a puddle of light was a man with an easy smile. “‘I get no kick from champagne’…”

Doc’s mother got out of her chair. “Oh, Sam. I love that song.”

Spence walked quickly to Bella, whispered something to her, and led her onto the dance floor. They were followed by Sam and Beatrice. Mack even corralled Carrie and led her to the dance floor when Doc turned to me. “Did you enjoy the dinner?”

The music was magic. My breasts chafed against my clothing. My body pulsed in time to the hypnotic rhythm. My head was as fuzzy as if I had my hair shortened to a buzz cut. It was all I could do to keep from running my hand inside his jacket and across his chest so I could feel his heart beat against my palm. I wanted to feel his warmth, burning through me. I wanted to—

Oh, no. I was in heat.

It only happened once a year, and for me there was little regularity. But it was enough to kill a girl. With the swiftness of a fourteen-year-old boy, my sexuality turned hyperactive. I was attracted to tall, dominant males—and especially the good looking ones.

To say my body became sensitive to the touch put it mildly. I could feel it when a man looked at me. Knowing I was in trouble, I grabbed a glass of water and took a long drink.

What was I going to do? With a man as attentive and good looking as Doc sitting by me, I was in deep trouble. Just to be brutally honest, he could be the one in trouble. Left to my natural inclination, he
would
be.

The band started playing “The Very Thought of You” with Dave singing in his slightly gravelly voice.

“Come on.” Doc pulled me from my chair. I was tempted to wrap my arms around his neck right there next to the table, but I contained myself until we reached the dance floor.

When he put his arm around me with his hand on the small of my back, I slipped so close my breasts pressed against him. Then I glided my left hand up his arm and fitted my right palm against his. He tugged me even closer until my head nestled in the hollow of his shoulder.

Finally I could take a full breath. Apparently he could, too, because he took a deep breath, then after holding it a moment, blew the air out in a rush which tickled the back of my neck.

He put his lips against my forehead and drew another deep breath. I knew he smelled the new fragrance I’d maxed out one of my cards for.

We moved together as if we were one, but I’m not sure my feet grazed the floor. His fiery touch made my body heat shoot higher. How would I ever pull away from this man who made me feel like so much sugar in a warming pan, slowly melting and changing until I was just a puddle of caramel?

By the dazed look on Bella’s face, I could tell she had a great time, too. When the band took a break, she was so disappointed she looked like a little girl who’d lost her favorite doll. As it started again, she zoned out to a space where I couldn’t reach her, not to wave or smile or even acknowledge I existed.

Doc and I’d danced together several times then Sam cut in. Although I hated to, I couldn’t make a fuss when Doc had already taken his mother in his arms, spinning her across the floor. I was extremely leery of dancing with Doc’s father, especially in my current state.

Being in heat did strange things to a girl. Parts of my body swelled enough at times that just walking could occasionally be a stimulating affair. So dancing with a man who had mature good looks and sex appeal, like Sam, could be a dangerous proposition.

If I made a pass at Doc’s father, it would certainly kill any further relationship between Doc and me. I knew staying as far away as possible from the good looking older man was the best course. But with him standing in the middle of the dance floor, holding out his hand to me, what could I do without looking like an absolute idiot?

Dredging up any bit of resistance I had lurking in my body—and it had to be in the corners of my little toes because everyplace else was filled with hot longing—I stepped into his arms. Luckily, the music switched to a western swing with a tempo fast enough that I wasn’t expected to snuggle close to him, as much as I was tempted. He kept me at arm’s length as we two-stepped around the room. The length of his legs made it hard for me to keep up with him and soon, I was breathing hard beneath my newly designed heavy-duty undergarment—the offspring of a boa constrictor who mated with Satan.

That’s when I started thinking of my total body girdle as a chastity belt. Getting into the garment had been like trying to shove toothpaste back into the tube. First I had to stand with my feet crossed to get the thing started. Then as it stretched a bit and I gained strength, I hauled it farther and farther up, until finally, after blowing out every ounce of air in my lungs, I’d edged it up, over my stomach to my breasts.

To get out of it, I would need the Jaws-of-Life.

Just the idea of trying to pry it off with a man looking on cooled my libido—at least a little. Especially a man as old as Sam. If he tried to help, and had a heart attack from the exertion, no one in Doc’s family would ever forgive me.

I almost laughed out loud at the meandering of my mind. As if Doc could forgive me for having his father help me take off my underwear even if he
didn’t
die trying?

Finally the music stopped and the floor cleared. The orchestra took an intermission. Time to go home? I looked around for Bella, but she’d disappeared, and so had Spence.