Animal Magnetism

by Bonnie Pega

Genres: Women's Fiction; Romance; Contemporary Romance

Synopsis

Bonnie Pega unravels a big-hearted tale of small-town romance as a young woman’s passions help a handsome stranger believe in the magic of forever.
 
Dr. Sebastian Kent needs a fresh start, and he can’t imagine a bigger change of pace from New York City than the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. He’s found the perfect place to open his new veterinary clinic and escape from a difficult past. But Sebastian’s plans don’t include the fresh-faced beauty who shows up at his office looking for a job. An innocent in the ways of seduction, she stirs emotions and desires that Sebastian thought he’d shut away forever.
 
Danni Sullivan has a gentle, almost magical way with animals. But ever since she talked the good doctor into hiring her, Danni has been in awe of Sebastian’s healing touch. She knows that she should take it slow, but she’s falling hard for the sexy vet . . . and she’ll settle for nothing less than everything he has to give—so long as Sebastian opens his heart to the promise of love.

Release date: May 13, 2014

Publisher: Loveswept

Print pages: 236

Sample

ONE
 
Sebastian Kent looked up from the box of veterinary supplies he was unpacking and eyed the female standing in the doorway. Her small size and sweet face made her seem barely old enough to cross the street without permission. Her body, however, had the lush curves that could only belong to a grown woman. Sebastian’s appreciative gaze ran over those curves before he looked up to meet her eyes. He smiled politely. “May I help you?”
 
“You’re the new vet, aren’t you? I’m Danni Sullivan.” She walked in, reached out, and gave him a surprisingly firm handshake, then perched on the edge of an unpacked carton.
 
Danni? No, she didn’t look at all like a Danni. That name suggested a jeans-clad, sneaker-shod tomboy with her hair in a no-nonsense braid. This girl looked more like an Esmerelda or a Priscilla. Golden-blond hair cascaded around her shoulders, and the violet-blue satin band holding it back was the same color as her eyes. Her features were dainty, and she couldn’t have been more than five feet tall.
 
She wore a gathered purple gauze skirt paired with a snug pink sweater and pink lace tights. Tiny pink fairies swung from her ears, and her shoes were impossibly tiny ballet slippers. All in all, she looked like a butterfly—a pink-and-purple butterfly.
 
“Well, Miss—er—Ms. Sullivan, I’m Dr. Kent. Sebastian Kent. Is there something I can do for you?” He suddenly realized he was staring at the pink sweater stretching over her pert breasts. Get a grip, man, she’s just a kid. With an effort, he relocated his gaze upward. Nice lips. Soft and just a little pouty. Damn. He’d obviously been celibate too long.
 
“I’d like to apply for a job.”
 
“A job?” Sebastian echoed stupidly. “Won’t it interfere with, uh, your schoolwork?”
 
“Oh, no. I only take classes three days a week.” Danni smiled.
 
“They have high school only three days a week?”
 
Danni’s smile widened. “I’m in college.”
 
Sebastian revised his estimate of her age from sixteen to eighteen.
 
She continued. “I drive into Norfolk on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. It’s a good forty minutes, but I don’t mind it. I really like to drive. I use the time to think. I drove all the way from Florida to Bar Harbor, Maine, summer before last. That was a great drive. Have you ever seen the coast of Maine?”
 
That was obviously a rhetorical question because she went on without giving him a chance to respond. “It’s beautiful. I’ve never seen a rocky coastline before. It wasn’t at all like the coast along the Gulf that I saw when I drove to New Orleans last summer. Now that’s some city. I was totally amazed by New Orleans. It’s so alive, so full of history. I found Lewis there, in a little shop on Bourbon Street, and brought him home. Anyway, I don’t mind the drive into Norfolk. It’s worth it. I’m working on my second degree.”
 
“Second-degree what?” Sebastian shook his head as if to clear it. He wasn’t making heads or tails out of this conversation. And who the hell was Lewis?
 
“I already have one degree,” Danni explained patiently. “In art education. Only I decided I didn’t want to teach. Might have a discipline problem with the students towering over me. So I decided to go back and get another degree.”
 
Sebastian revised her age up another three or four years and felt relieved that she was a lot older than she looked.
 
Danni absently twirled a strand of hair around her finger and went on, “I started out in business, but the subject didn’t interest me very much, so I transferred to English Lit. Great subject to study, but, as I said, I don’t want to teach. I’d almost decided on medicine—anesthesiology or nursing—but I hate hospitals and such. So I decided on veterinary medicine. I’ve always loved animals, and I get along really well with them.”
 
“I see,” Sebastian murmured. He didn’t, but she seemed to be waiting for a response.
 
“Anyway, I think I should work here with you on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays while school is in session. I graduate in six weeks, then I’ll be able to help you every day—well, until midsummer. Then I plan on looking around for a job in a clinic someplace exciting, so you’ll probably want to hire someone else.
 
“You are going to have Saturday hours, aren’t you? I think most of the folks here expect you to. Dr. Adams took off Sundays and Tuesdays. You can take off any days you want, of course, but I think you should definitely have Saturday hours.”
 
“Uh, yes, I had planned on Saturday hours.”
 
“Great!” Danni exclaimed. “It will work out perfectly, then.”
 
“What will work out?” Lord, but he was confused.
 
“My working for you.”
 
“Working for me? Doing what?”
 
“Why, your paperwork, of course. Or anything else that needs doing.”
 
“Of course,” Sebastian murmured, feeling as if he’d been hit on the head. With a pink-and-purple feather.
 
“I can help out with minor injuries too. I’ve been doing that since Dr. Adams left last spring. I hated for the local folks to drive to the vet over in Greenston for things like minor cuts or mange or flea baths. I wouldn’t mind doing that kind of thing again. You can do Peanut, though.”
 
“Peanut?”
 
“Mrs. Walling’s pet bull.”
 
“Pit bull?”
 
“No, pet bull. Brahma. Her son originally got him as a Four-H project, but Mrs. Walling became attached to him. He’s prone to skin problems in the summer heat and has to be bathed and conditioned every week. He hates water, though, and puts up quite a fuss. He runs when he sees me coming these days because I’m the only one who can manage his bath. I’ll give you some pointers on handling him, if you like. He’s really just a big baby.”
 
Sebastian couldn’t help smiling at the image of this petite blonde wrestling with a bull. A brahma, no less. Yet, somehow, it didn’t surprise him at all that she could manage it. He had the feeling that if Danni Sullivan wanted something badly enough, she wouldn’t let a little thing like several thousand pounds of weight stop her. “Some pointers would be nice, Ms. Sullivan. Look, I—”
 
“Please call me Danni.”
 
“Danni. Well, Danni, I’m not sure I’ll have enough work to keep you busy.”
 
“You’ll be busier than you think. The folks around here are going to take a real shine to you—not to mention their animals.”
 
Sebastian stifled a sigh. He didn’t want to come right out and say that she was not at all the sort of person he pictured as his receptionist. In New York his receptionist had been a middle-aged woman who’d taken her job as seriously as if she’d been receptionist to a world-famous surgeon. Danni Sullivan looked too flighty to give something as mundane as office work the attention it needed.
 
Something happened as he looked at her, preparing to say no. He’d have sworn her eyes twinkled at him. He’d heard that expression, but in all his thirty-four years had never seen it happen. But, he was sure, Danni Sullivan’s violet eyes twinkled, flashing little gold sparks. Sparks of humor, mischief, whimsy. Life.
 
He wasn’t exactly sure why, but he found himself smiling back. Stranger still, he found himself hiring the mercurial Miss Sullivan. It was probably a huge mistake. There was no telling what her filing system would be like. Besides, not only did she talk circles around him, but she was entirely too appealing. That could only get in the way.
 
And she confused him. Intrigued him. Made him smile. It had been a long, long time since anyone had done that.