Can't Touch This (Can't Touch This #1)

And I wanted him.

Again and again and again.

Then again, he’d been around me from the beginning. He was most likely immune to the flu strain I’d had, seeing as he hadn’t become sick and he’d had his tongue on my tonsils the night before last.

“Earth to Vesper. You in there?” Polly waved her hand in front of my face. “You all good, my little chickadee?”

I shook my head, dispelling the lack of sleep and Ryder obsessed clouds. “Yes, sorry. Tough past couple of days.”

Polly returned to washing and disinfecting the instruments we’d used in the last surgery on a long-haired guinea pig that’d swallowed a button from his caring owner’s plaid shirt. He was aptly called Bits and Bobs and now he’d had his bits and bobs cut open and sewn back together to save his life.

“Yes, I heard a little bird say something about how chaotic your world has become the past week.”

I froze with my hands in scalding water, scrubbing a scalpel. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“I mean, Mrs. Lesley was in here yesterday collecting some more dog food for her fat lab and she whispered—in strictest confidence, mind you—that you were apparently set upon by a crazy naked cousin the other night and she was worried for your safety.”

I burst out laughing. God, only in small towns could busy bodies stir trouble. In big cities, no one cared because no one knew the person they gossiped about.

Why didn’t I move further? Why didn’t I open my (our) surgery somewhere larger?

However, if I had, I would never have become Ryder’s personal dog slave and soon-to-be-bed companion.

I smiled, remembering the way I’d shocked him and myself when he’d kissed me at laser strike.

“Oh no!” Polly screeched.

Bubbles flew everywhere as I jerked in shock. “What? What is it?” I swivelled to the door leading toward the recovery room where a menagerie of animals recuperated. “Did someone open their stitches?”

She rushed over to me and grabbed my wrists. “Please tell me you’re not sleeping with your cousin. Eww, Ves. What the hell are you thinking?”

I laughed, disengaging myself from her death grip. “First, I don’t have a cousin. Only child from only child parents. Second, I’m not sleeping with anyone.”

Not technically true but not a lie, either.

I had full intentions of sleeping with Ryder tonight.

“It’s that boy, isn’t it?” Polly waved her hand around, leaving a rainbow glisten of falling bubbles. “That Ryder with all his mismatching dogs.”

I grinned. “I can vouch that he isn’t a boy in any sense.”

She tossed water in my direction. “Ugh, you suck. Wait, have you sucked it?”

“Not yet.” I winked. Drying my hands on the towel by the sink, I strolled to my handbag and pulled out a pharmacy bag. Digging around inside for a new prescription to the pill that I’d started this morning and a fresh packet of condoms, I announced, “But tonight, I will.”

Polly rolled her eyes. “You disgust me.” Her smile gave her away.

“You’re just jealous.”

“Damn right, I am. Where’s my man lovin’, huh? The last action I got was senior year at uni. And it was miserable.”

“Remember our mantra. We don’t need men or penises. We’re strong, independent business owners with far too much respect for pining after Neanderthals.”

“Speak for yourself. You’ve just nabbed yourself a pretty good one. I mean, Ves, he saves dogs for a living. Who the hell does that?” She fake swooned. “If only I’d helped him that first day, it might be me touching it tonight.”

I felt a small twinge of uncertainty. Was that true? If Ryder had met Polly first would I be the one secretly jealous at my best friend's loin limbo tonight?

No, I wouldn’t torment myself that way. Ryder and I had something unique. The banter between us was ridiculous and over-the-top, but the chemistry when we touched was not. That was real and true.