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lips curving. “Oh, please. Don’t thank me so sweetly.” She was waking up now, her eyes shining with challenge. She handed him the mug.
    “Thanks.” Boone sipped too quickly, scalding his tongue.
    Maddie’s generous lips curved upward, drawing his attention like moth to a flame.
    “Got, uh, work to do.” Before his wings incinerated, Boone headed for the door.
    The hounds of hell nipped at his heels, disguised in the form of a sassy, sexy woman.
    Twenty-nine days and counting.

    Maddie leaned against the fence, watching the baby nuzzle its mother’s belly, rooting around to nurse. The mare kicked out one leg and shifted. Finally, the baby latched on, and the mare settled in.
    Maddie smiled and laid her head against the railing, sighing out loud. How sweet.
    The border collie pup that had followed her made a sound, and Maddie looked down to see him happily chewing her shoelace.
    “You little rascal. What am I going to do with you? Isn’t your mother calling?” She reached down and lifted him up, nuzzling his head with her jaw while she scratched beneath his chin and he whimpered with pleasure. “Beggar.”
    He caught a lock of her hair and began chewing on it. Maddie laughed, and he scrambled closer, his little claws tickling her neck. Maddie sat down, giggling, then rolled back on the grass and held him against her chest.
    Boone observed her from the barn, wondering who this woman really was. This morning’s siren had morphed into something else altogether. Seeing her so unguarded, so much like a fresh-faced girl, did things to his insides, things he didn’t want to think about.
    But he couldn’t help smiling as the pup scrambled across her chest and began rooting that wet nose at her neck. Maddie rolled on the ground, giggling like a ten-year-old girl. Then she scooped up the pup and hugged him hard.
    Lucky pup.
    Boone knew it was foolish even while he was walking toward her, but he just had to figure this woman out. Then he could write her off and forget her.
    Maddie felt the shadow cross her body before she looked up, but somehow she’d already known it was Boone. Something about him seemed to tickle her antennae every time he was anywhere nearby.
    She craned her head up. He looked ten feet tall. But he wasn’t frowning, so that was a nice change.
    “Hi.”
    “Hi,” he answered. “Devil bothering you?”
    “Is that his name?”
    Boone shrugged, then crouched at her side. The pup abandoned her in a heartbeat, rooting at Boone’s hand. “Seems to fit his sense of mischief.”
    She had to agree. “It really does.” She couldn’t take her eyes away from those strong fingers, the wide palms. Envying the puppy who received the stroking. Remembering how those hands had felt in her all-too-brief encounter with Boone Gallagher’s potent physical charms.
    Maybe we could just have a little fling while I’m here .
    Maddie shook her head roughly. Good grief, Maddie. You’re insane . Besides, she wasn’t the fling type.
    “Why are you here, Maddie?”
    Sigh. Back to that. “You know why.”
    “How can you just leave your life and come down here for a month?”
    Maddie wasn’t ready to discuss her failures with Robert, so she turned the tables. “How could you leave for so long?”
    He stiffened. Probably didn’t like being on the receiving end. But she noticed that his hands stayed gentle on the puppy falling asleep against that broad chest.
    Then he met her gaze, shadows in his eyes. “Long story. Nothing you’d want to hear.”
    “Maybe I would.”
    “And maybe I don’t want to talk about it.” His tone made it clear she was trespassing.
    But something in Maddie wanted to dig past his secrets. Find out who this man was. “Where were you?”
    Boone huffed out a breath. “Don’t give up easy, do you?” He shook his head, then stared out in the distance. “Serving my country at first, then…”
    “I’m sorry.”
    He stared at her. “Why?”
    “Because…” She gestured around her.