Amanda yanked her mouth back from his and turned to face front. "Danny."
His lips connected with her hair. His hands were trying to turn her back around. "Just once, please, just one time."
Damn her body for leaping in excitement. Every cell revved up and waited for the starting gun.
Sorry, folks, there wasn't going to be a race today.
"No."
God knew she wanted to, but there were so few things in her life Amanda could point to and claim were done out of selflessness. But this was. This was freaking noble. She had to do what was right for Danny and Piper, and that meant keeping her distance.
Both of them deserved someone better than her in their lives. She was a helpless, hopeless, spoiled woman with nothing endearing about her at all.
Danny would figure it out soon enough, but by then it would be too late. Someone would have gotten hurt.
And if it wound up being her, she wasn't sure she could recover.
"No? Do you really mean that?" His thumbs were rolling back and forth across the top of her dress, peeling the fabric down so he could see the tops of her br**sts. His lips nuzzled her neck.
"I mean it." Even if it was hard, hard, hard, damn it, and her fingernails dug into the flesh of her palms.
"Bwack!"
The chickens had returned from their all-you-can-eat buffet.
Chapter 14
Danny's answer, which he was pretty sure was going to involve begging, was drowned out by the screeching of half a dozen hens tumbling home engorged on carbs, only to find humans making out in their house.
Amanda wrenched away from him and clomped toward the door, frantically shooing a hen that ran toward her. He sighed and reached for the bucket. He should be grateful for the interruption and for Amanda's resolve.
Instead, he was just chock full of regret, and horny besides.
"Oh my God, where's Baby?" Amanda sounded hysterical as she scanned the coop for her dog.
Danny didn't see the poodle anywhere, sure her white fur or her red leash would be easy to spot in the coop.
"Danny, what if they ate her?" Amanda took great gulping breathes and lurched toward the door.
"They won't eat her." He didn't think. Another thought occurred to him. "They might peck her to death, though."
Fortunately, Amanda was way out in the yard already and didn't hear him. He realized the minute it was out of his mouth that it wouldn't be a good plan to stress her out any further. She was standing in the middle of the yard, walking backward, looking around desperately. "What did you do with my dog, you nasty, ugly, stupid birds?"
The chickens clucked and kept moving toward the coop. Danny stepped out onto the grass and lifted the bill of his baseball hat. There was a lot of space on a farm for a little spit of a dog to get lost.
"Oh, there she is!" Amanda pointed toward the gravel driveway. "Baby, honey, are you okay? Don't move, Mommy's coming to get you."
The dog yipped, and Danny let out a sigh of relief. That he cut short when he glanced at the sky. Not good. "Uhh… Amanda, you might want to hurry."
"What? Why?" She picked up the pace in the rubber boots.
Danny started to run, though he was a good hundred feet behind her. "The hawks!" They were circling, three of them, probably thinking Baby was a big mouse or a rabbit.
"Hawks?" Amanda screamed, already running with an odd loping sort of gait before she stumbled to a stop, kicked the boots off and started running like an Olympic track star.
She was an orange blur, screaming the whole way with some sort of warrior cry. Danny might have admired it except he was afraid Amanda was going to get one nasty initiation into farm life and see her puppy snatched up right in front of her by a predator.
His boots ate up the distance between them, and he was only two steps behind her when he saw one of the hawks dive. "Get down!" He tried to push her aside, but she smacked at him.
The dog was barking, Amanda was screaming, and Danny was trying to reach Baby around Amanda's flailing arms, when she suddenly launched herself through the air and landed on the gravel with a loud crunch and smack.
Her body covered Baby in a cocoon right as the hawk descended, talons open, and screeched in outrage. The bird tried to stop and reverse but managed to slice a claw right across Amanda's shoulder as Danny knocked the thing back with his fist.
Feathers flew, blond hair whipped around, and blood beaded on Amanda's bronze skin as the hawk retreated.
Danny made sure the hawk wasn't coming in for a second dive before he turned and dropped to his knees next to Amanda and touched her back. "Alright, you're okay, he's gone."
She was shaking and sucking in her breath with long raspy gasps, but she managed to say, "Nobody messes with my dog."
Danny's heart was thumping about a thousand beats a minute, and he shook his head. "Jesus. I guess not, Princess." He laughed in relief. "That is one lucky poodle."
Amanda sat up and shook her hair back. Baby was clutched in her trembling hands, and the damn dog looked oblivious. Her tongue lolled on her chin, and she gave a yip of excitement when she saw Danny. The only sign of her near-death experience was her orange hair bow, which was drooping to one side, and some grass clinging to her striped doggy T-shirt.
He lifted Baby out of Amanda's hold with one hand and wrapped the leash firmly around his wrist. He dropped the dog to the ground and reached back for Amanda. "Come on, sugar, let's get you cleaned up."
"Everything stings," she said, as she took his hand. "Ow. Ow. Ow."
Danny saw her knees when she straightened up, and he whistled. "Took a top layer of your skin clean off."
She looked down at the bloody, dusty, gravel-pocked mess her knees and shins were. "Eewww. No wonder it hurts like hell. And my shoulder feels like my finger did when I cut it with the nail scissors then accidentally spilled half a bottle of nail polish remover on it."
"The hawk clipped you." Danny tried to sound calm, but he was feeling a little sick. He wouldn't have been able to forgive himself if Amanda or her dog had been seriously hurt. As it was, she looked like she had taken a dirt bath. "Can you walk, or do you want me to carry you?"
That drew a snort of amusement from her as she gingerly took a step. "I'm five foot ten. Carrying me is not an easy feat."
"I've carried bales of hay that weigh more than you." He wasn't lying. Meringue was probably heavier than she was.
"Is that supposed to impress me?" She took another step while he wrapped his arm around her waist in case she went down.