Chapter 4 #2
“Sweetie pie. My lovely baby girl. Papa’s so sorry he was gone so long,” I say as she bursts into purrs. She can never hold a grudge at me for long. Nah, all of her grudges are held against every other human who has ever existed.
“I think she’ll survive,” Liam dryly comments while his cat, Butter, stares at us from where he’s loafing on the couch.
The poor thing was neglected and had matted fur, so the shelter shaved him, leaving him in quite a state.
Though his hair is slowly growing back, he still looks…
interesting. His flat face makes him look like he’s wearing a permanent glower… much like his owner.
I watch as he jumps off the couch, and I stare in disbelief at this unique action. He never gets up when we return home, not caring in the slightest about greeting us. He walks right past me and up to Liam before letting out some screech straight out of a horror film.
“I really think that was a cry for help. Margarine would like me to help him find a new home,” Liam says as he grimaces at the cat.
“Pick him up,” I demand, shifting Lucille so I can grab the food. “He wants you.”
Liam’s grimace deepens. “But Gabriel… I don’t want him.”
I stare at him until he slowly crouches down and gives the cat one single pat on the head.
Pleased, Butter turns around and returns to his heating pad on the couch where he will continue to glower at the rest of us.
I’m not quite sure how the cat and Liam thought that was an adequate interaction, but the cat seems pleased, so I leave it be.
Liam takes the food and off he goes to plate it and bring it over to the couch where I’ve retreated to. The moment he sits down, Butter oozes off his heating pad and onto Liam’s lap.
“Why does it insist on touching me?” he asks.
“Because he loves you.”
“That’s questionable,” he declares as he sets his food container on top of Butter, like the cat is now his table.
I grin at him. “It’s really not.” I lean over and kiss his cheek. “You’re quite easy to love.”
“I… Gabriel, my love, the light of my life… I often agree with everything you have to say… but not that.”
“Well, you were for me.”
“Sounds suspicious and concerning.”
I laugh. “It was neither!”
Liam raises a brow. “I have deduced that it was both.”
I take a bite of the sandwich and nod since I’m not going to win any part of that conversation. “This is good.”
“Thanks, I showed him how to properly season and make it. Let’s see if he does an adequate job.” Liam takes a bite and then proceeds to scrutinize the sandwich for far too long before giving a slight nod. “I will allow it.”
“You’re ridiculous! You want nothing to do with the diner, yet you sure don’t mind criticizing them.”
“That is correct. Gabriel, you know me so well.”
“I do,” I say as I peel off a tiny bite of chicken for Lucille and then Butter while Liam judges this action but says nothing about it. “Do you want to come to my parents’ for Christmas? I know Thanksgiving was a bit much for you, so you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
“If you’d like me there, I will grudgingly go. Will your cousin who bullied you be there? We still have many words to exchange.”
“He will be, but don’t cause too much drama… my grandma doesn’t like it.”
“Noted.”
“I’m not sure it was actually noted, but we’ll pretend,” I say.
“Do I have to make all of the food again just to manipulate your mom into loving me?”
“No, no you don’t. My mom already loves you.”
“Debatable.”
“It’s not,” I say, pressing a fry against his mouth in the hope of getting rid of his ridiculous ideas.
“Liam?”
“Hm?” he asks as I lean against him on the couch.
“We have a problem.”
Liam doesn’t even waste a moment thinking about this. “We have too many cats? I will willingly give up mine. I bet Matthew will take him if I threaten him enough.”
“No! It’s that I’m too tired to walk to bed.”
“Oh. Then you can sleep here tonight,” he says.
I stare at my one true love in shock. You know… the true love who has declared that he will burn down the world for me but is just going to leave me here on the couch.
He stands up and looks around for something before picking up a rug. I’m not quite sure what he’s doing with the rug until he tosses it over me like it’s a blanket.
“Good night. Sweet dreams,” he says as he starts off for bed without me.
“You are a monster.” I lift up the rug I’m currently wallowing under to emphasize this.
He gives me the sweetest smile that almost tricks me into forgiving him. “Thank you, love.”
“Fine, I will sleep out here. You enjoy that big bed all alone,” I say.
“I will.” He offers me two thumbs up and walks off! Liam, of all people, just… walks off.
“Liam, come back here. Carry me. My legs are tired.”
He peeks his head out around the corner. “Are you talking to me?”
“Get your ass back here and carry me to bed.”
“Oh? Awfully demanding now, aren’t we?”
I hold my hands out and he reaches out to take them. He clasps my wrists and begins to pull, and I realize that being carried off like a prince to our bed is nowhere in my future. Nope. I’m going to be dragged right off the couch and onto the floor.
“Liam, it’s pulling my pants down!”
“I’m doing the best I can do,” Liam says as the carpet grabs my pants and whips them off.
“My paaaants! My underwear!” I watch both items leave me before looking up at Liam.
That does make him hesitate before he drops me on the ground and scrutinizes me. I’m confused about why until he reaches down and takes my ankles and starts dragging me that way.
“What are you doing?” I ask as he pulls, and my shirt immediately gets dragged up around my neck.
“Nothing… nothing at all.”
“Are you just stripping me in the least sexy way possible? Like here, allow me to strip you with a side of carpet burn.”
“I’m being careful. Your tush should be carpet burn free. The carpet here really is such thick plush that your cat’s hairballs embed themselves into.”
I sigh as the t-shirt I’d changed into when we’d finished eating dinner whips up and wraps around my face, suffocating me.
Despite how much Liam claims to love me, he sure doesn’t seem to care about making me feel like a prince on my journey to the bedroom. He only cares about the fact that I’m now mostly naked… all but my socks and the shirt wrapped around my face.
“My, my, my. How forward of you, Gabriel.”
“I’m sorry, which… which part of this is me being forward?” I ask. “The part where you can’t even see my face?”
“Blindfolded, eh? You should have just told me this is what you’ve been wanting.”
“I’m not sure it is what I’ve been wanting.”
“How… tantalizing. You trick me into believing you’re so tired you simply want to sleep and then force me to look at this erotic display while expecting me to go straight to bed. Is this torture?”
“It’s karma,” I say a moment before I feel his finger trail down my chest. It makes me shiver, and when I pull the shirt down so I can look at him, he’s grinning at me. This man is enjoying all of this too much.
“Since you’re down here, carry me,” I decide, grabbing him before he can pull back and drag me the rest of the way to the bedroom in an attempt to rid me of my socks.
He tries to withdraw but I’m fully latched on to him, so he can’t get too far. “Oh? You wanted me to carry you to bed? Why didn’t you just ask? Why did you make me do all of that when I could have simply picked you up?”
“I… weirdly feel like I did ask,” I say, rather impressed by his ability to lift me off the floor without any struggle. And then I try not to question if he’s gotten used to lifting bodies up off the floor, which is what has given him the skill to do so to me.
Sometimes it’s difficult to wrap my head around the fact that he kills people. If I came across him through work, I would name him a serial killer without hesitation. But here… in front of me… it’s hard to simply state such a thing even if I know, deep down, that it’s true.
After what Tobias did to me, I grew to understand why Liam does what he does.
I don’t ever want anyone to go through the fear I felt or to see the things I did as Tobias slaughtered innocent people after torturing them.
Do I agree with what Liam does? No… or at least I try not to.
I feel like if I start agreeing with what he’s doing, I’ll lose that part of myself that sees the right and wrong in things.
Not that I think Liam is wrong. I just…
What is it?
Why is Liam so hard to understand? And it’s harder yet to comprehend why I’m drawn to him the way I am while knowing what I know.
“You’ve grown quiet… possibly turned into a sack of potatoes. Are you a sack of potatoes? Or did you merely enjoy being dragged more?”
“I feel like a sack of potatoes.”
Liam smiles down at me. “A sexy sack.”
“I’m just… your descriptions of me are on fire.”
“I am pleased,” he says as he sets my bare ass on the bathroom counter.
It’s cold and I’m not quite sure this is where I’d like my bare ass at this moment, but he’s aiming a toothbrush laden with toothpaste at me.
I reach for it until he pushes my mouth open and starts brushing my teeth like he’s acquired a child that doesn’t know how to properly brush.
“Stooop!” I laugh out while I try to get the toothbrush from him.
I’m still halfway wearing my shirt like it’s some kind of cape and feeling absolutely ridiculous as he dodges my hand, determined to brush my teeth.
I’ve hooked his arm with one of mine and am trying my hardest to pull the toothbrush free.
“I will do everything you ever ask of me,” he says, like I’m not asking him to relinquish the toothbrush.
I snatch the toothbrush and give him a look. “Besides carrying me to bed!”
“I have carried you with finesse,” he says. “I even skipped unclothing you.”
“I see that as my bare ass sits on the counter. Very sanitary.”
“If that ass can sit on my face, it can sit on the counter.”
I try not to choke on the toothpaste with that one. He just stares at me as he watches me brush my teeth, and all the while I question what I’ve done to acquire such a strange man.
Once we’re both done, he scoops me off the counter and carries me to bed.
“See? You asked me to carry you, so I carried you.”
“I see that,” I say. “Very romantic.”
“I’ve always been a romantic. Speaking of romantic, what would you like for Christmas?”
I slowly look over at him. If our one-month anniversary present was a house… what the fuck does he think he’s going to get me for Christmas?
“Should I just tell you the things I don’t want?” I ask.
“If you’d like.”
“I do not want you to buy me another house. One is plenty.”
“Okay.”
“I definitely do not want a diner.”
“Are you sure? That was just going to be like a stocking stuffer.”
“A diner is not a stocking stuffer. Do not buy me any stores, or really any building at all.”
“Not even a cat café?”
“Definitely not a cat café. Liam, I’d take one look at those pitiful cats and bring them all home.”
“You are never allowed in a cat café again,” he declares as Butter makes his entrance. He waddles right toward Liam, who is already grimacing. And then since Liam is lying on his side and not his back, he struggles to climb onto Liam’s side, which is proving rather hard to balance on.
“Buddy, you can lie on me,” I say, pulling the cat onto my chest. He shoots off it like I’ve set him in a tub of acid and continues to try to climb on Liam. He somehow succeeds and loafs on Liam’s side with aplomb while his tail twitches back and forth and his rusty purrs fill the room.
“You can’t tell me that noise is healthy. Its life is short, right?” Liam sounds hopeful.
“Another reminder that he is not an it. His purrs are strange because of his smooshed face. He’s either Persian or half, and that face has made it hard for him to breathe like a normal cat.”
Liam just stares at Butter, who slow-blinks his love back at him.
“Back to my list. It is too early to ask me to marry you.”
That gets a glower out of Liam. “How sure are you?”
“Positive. That doesn’t mean I don’t love you because I really love you so much. But we haven’t been dating long, and I want to enjoy every stage of it with you, not rush through it and miss any of it.”
“That was smooth,” Liam says.
I grin at him. “Yeah? Did you already get me a ring?”
“Not yet… the one I wanted would take too long to be made.”
I can’t help but laugh at this man because what else can I do? “No! Liam! First off, do not spend so much money on me that it has to be custom made!”
“What if I die? I want you to have all of my money.”
“Yeah? And if you died today, where would all of your money go? Speak honestly.”
“To… you.”
“I saw the paperwork. I’m well aware you put me in the will to receive everything. I don’t need a ring to receive it.”
“You can have it all now, if you’d like.”
“Nope.”
“What am I allowed to get you for Christmas?”
“I don’t know. Something like… ooh, Lucille loves these little rattle mice.”
“You want me to get you two-dollar mice for your cat?”
“Yes.”
Liam sighs. “If I got you something that rhymed with the word bar, what model would you like?”
“I love my car. I don’t need a new one yet. Let me think about it and I’ll let you know what I want, okay? Nothing too much. I’ve been needing some new jeans. We could go clothes shopping and I could pick out a couple of things.”
Liam grunts, and I take that as his confirmation that he hates this idea because he can’t buy me the world.
I really don’t need the world.
I just need him.