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lightly, and he jumped backward, releasing her. “What the hell?”
    She laughed at his reaction and pressed a hand against her side. “It’s just the baby moving. You’ve never felt one?”
    “Not the two-legged kind.”
    He felt like an idiot. He’d palpated pregnant animals, felt four-legged babies move under his fingers, delivered hundreds of baby animals, but he’d never been around a pregnant woman as far along as she was before. Her laughter was infectious, making him smile, in spite of his embarrassment. It was sweet and smooth, like honeyed whiskey, and he found he craved hearing it again.
    “Here.” She reached for his hand and pressed it against the side of her stomach.
    Justin stared down at her, suddenly realizing how close she was, how good she smelled, how deep of an emerald her eyes were. Her breath was warm against the cotton material of his shirt. One small dip of his head and he could steal a kiss from those perfect lips. She was oblivious to his reaction to her as she slid his hand over her stomach until she found a spot where he could feel the baby bump against his palm better. His fingers, caught in her hand, moved over the curve of her waist in a caress far more intimate than either of them had anticipated. Her sweet scent, like flowers and sunshine and country fairs, swept around him, making him pulse with longing for something he couldn’t have. Something he’d never even realized he wanted until now.
    Justin fought the urge to wrap his other arm around her back and pull her against him, kissing her senseless. She continued to stare at his shoulder, unaware of the thoughts he was having about her. She brushed her hair back from her eyes, and he caught a glimpse of her wedding ring winking in the overhead light.
    This isn’t right.
    He shouldn’t be having thoughts like this about her. She was married. Almost ready to deliver another man’s child. He wasn’t going to let anything make him desperate enough to become that guy. Justin immediately released her.
    “We should get the puppies to their mother so they can nurse.” He stuffed his hands into his pockets, ignoring the way they still burned from touching her, and hurried past her, through the doorway, leading the way back down the hall into the back room to where the Lab was now awake and waiting for them. “She needs a name.”
    “She does?”
    Alyssa’s voice sounded grieved and he stopped in the hallway, looking back over his shoulder at her. Justin hadn’t meant to make her sad and she hadn’t done anything wrong, but he needed to keep his distance, for his own sanity as well as maintaining his honor. He sighed, forcing himself to ignore his inclination to apologize to her, to explain himself, knowing it would only make the situation worse. But that didn’t make it any easier to face that hopelessness he saw in her eyes. Instead, he pushed open the door to the back of the office where the kennel was situated.
    “I need to write something on the chart. Besides, I don’t want to keep calling her ‘the mom.’ ”
    Justin ran his hand over the dog’s side as she tried to stand. “Easy, girl. Just relax.” He reached out to steady the dog.
    “Lucky.”
    “What?” he asked, turning to look at her again.
    “Call her Lucky.” She moved closer and bent down as best she could, running her hand over the dog’s smooth, inky head. “She was lucky the accident happened right in front of your office and that you’re such a good guy to look for her until you found her.”
    “Or that you were going as slow as you were.” He forced himself to look away from her and the sadness that he’d caused to fill her eyes, looking back at the dog. “Okay, Lucky it is.”
    Justin put his palm against the bedding, checking the temperature, and the dog licked his hand. “All right, Lucky, let’s introduce you to your babies.”
    He made his way to the sleeping puppies, sliding the heating pad and bedding into a shallow tub to move