Chapter 17
CHAPTER 17
R ayna rapped on Stark’s front door before shoving her hands deep into her coat pockets. There was a bitterly cold wind blowing, and she glanced behind her at Stark’s car. After leaving the clinic, she’d spent most of the day with Zuri, going over details for the fundraiser. She’d arrived home just after two, and after dropping her ancient laptop at the house, she headed over to Stark’s.
She rapped again and was considering texting him when the door opened. Stark raised one eyebrow. “What can I do for you, Ms. Abrams?”
“I’m here to check on Molly and to discuss her care with you,” she said.
He scowled. “What is there to discuss?”
“Can I come in? I’m freezing my ass off out here,” she said.
He hesitated, and she said, “She’s not your cat, Stark. She belongs to the rescue.”
He moved back, and she stepped inside, shutting the door behind her. “How is she doing?”
“She’s good,” Stark said as he led her down the hallway with the horrific wallpaper. “She had her first dose of antibiotics, and Dr. Henshaw gave her some fluids before we left the clinic. They’ve helped her to feel better.”
He opened his bedroom door, and Rayna followed him into the room. “That’s good. I’m glad she’s… what in the nut waffle is this?”
Stark cleared his throat, his cheeks already a little red. “I picked her up a few things before I went back to the clinic.”
“A few things?” Rayna studied the large and elaborate cat trees stuffed into the tiny room. “You bought her two cat trees?”
“I didn’t know which one she would like better,” he said defensively.
“Is that a self-cleaning litter box?” Rayna asked.
He glanced at the state-of-the-art litter box. “Yes.”
“And a water fountain?”
“The pet store employee said most cats like to drink from a fountain,” Stark said.
“Right,” Rayna said. “Did they also convince you to buy every cat toy in the store?”
“I didn’t buy that many,” he snapped.
She pointed to the floor that was covered with cat toys. “There has to be at least a hundred toys in here, Stark.”
“An exaggeration on your part, Ms. Abrams,” he said.
“Yeah, but only slightly.” Her eyes widened when she heard Molly’s squeaky meow coming from the bed. She stared at the large, clear plastic container that sat on Stark’s bed next to a slim laptop and Stark’s phone. She could see Molly inside on a nest of fluffy blankets, the three kittens sleeping in a pile against her chest.
“What is this?” she asked as she approached the bed. She reached inside and petted Molly’s cheeks, smiling a little when Molly made a soft chirp. “You look like you feel better, sweet girl.”
She turned to Stark. “Why are they in a container on your bed?”
“Molly didn’t like being stuck in the closet all the time,” Stark said.
“So, is your plan to let Molly and the babies sleep on the bed with you?” She gave him an amused look.
“Of course not,” he snapped. “You’ve seen that Molly is feeling better, so if you’ll excuse me, I have some work to do.”
She glanced at the television on the wall across from the bed. “Is that Cat TV?”
Stark gave her another defensive look. “Molly likes to watch the birds while she’s feeding her babies.”
“You know, if I didn’t know your heart was cold and black, I’d almost be thinking you like having a cat in the house,” she said.
“Hardly,” he said with a disdainful look. “You led me to believe I had no choice by lying to me about the babies dying. Or have you forgotten that, Ms. Abrams?”
“Nope,” she said cheerfully. “I lied like a boss that day.”
She held up her hand for a high-five, lowering it when he scowled at her.
“Do you think tricking me into keeping a cat and her kittens in my home is amusing?”
“A little?” she said.
His scowl deepened, and she sighed. “Look, I’m sorry I lied, okay? But I was desperate for a foster home for Molly and her babies. The rescue has a shortage of fosters right now.”
He didn’t reply, and she said, “But the good news is - Molly isn’t your problem anymore. I had a foster who was on a break message me this afternoon. She’s ready to foster again, and she said she’d be happy to take Molly and the babies. She can take them anytime.”
She could have sworn anxiety flickered across his face before that familiar scowl stamped back into it. “Has she fostered a mother and babies before?”
“Yes,” Rayna said. “Plenty of times.”
He cleared his throat. “A cat with mastitis?”
“Yes,” Rayna said. “She knows what to do for Molly, and if necessary, she can bottle feed the babies.”
He stared silently at her, and confusion rocketing through her, she said, “It’s what’s best for Molly.”
He studied Molly and the babies before shaking his head. “No. What’s best for Molly is staying in a familiar place. She’s not feeling well, and moving her now could be detrimental to her health and the babies’ health. She’ll stay here with me.”
Rayna stared at the guy pretending to be Stark and, frankly, doing a terrible job at it. “I…what?”
“Molly will stay here with me,” Stark said. “I know her likes and dislikes, and she’s comfortable here. Who knows what that other foster will do to her.”
Rayna blinked. “Jami is one of my best fosters. Molly will be perfectly safe with her.”
“Does she know that Molly is an escape artist?” Stark challenged. “Or that she likes her wet food heated up for precisely thirty seconds in the microwave? Or that she likes to have her paws massaged?”
“Um… no. But you can tell her that.”
“Molly is staying with me.”
“She needs medicine twice a day,” Rayna said. “Assuming she heals quickly, that’s the least amount of work you’ll need to do. If the babies get diarrhea, they’ll need to be bottle-fed every few hours, and Molly will need her milk expressed manually. Do you understand that?”
“I do,” he said stiffly. “It won’t be a problem.”
“Why? Because you’ll hire someone to come in and do it for you?” she asked.
He glared at her, and she sighed. “Stark, look, I appreciate how much you care for Molly and the babies, but if you bail on me after only a few days, it’ll be more work for me to find her a foster home then. I have three other cats I can give Jami to foster. So, I can’t leave her open while I wait for you to realize playing nurse to a cat isn’t nearly as fun as you think it is. Do you understand?”
“I understand perfectly, Ms. Abrams,” he said. “And I can assure you I am not going to bail on you after a few days.”
She studied him. “Molly belongs to the rescue. I could make you give her to Jami.”
He stepped closer to the bed, and Molly jumped out of the container, rubbing up against his hip and meowing softly. He put a possessive hand on Molly’s side and gave Rayna an icy look. “Molly and the babies stay with me.”
“Fine!” She threw her hands up. “But when you come to me in a few days, I get to tell you I told you so, and you have to keep playing nursemaid to Molly until I find a new foster for her.”
“I assure you that won’t be necessary,” he said.
“You really like her, don’t you?” Rayna said.
He refused to meet her gaze. “Are we done here, Ms. Abrams? Because I have work to do.”
She drifted closer to him, her urge to tease and torment him impossible to resist. “Isaac ‘I hate cats’ Stark is smitten with one.”
“I never said I hated cats.”
“It was implied.”
He sighed, staring down at her when she stopped in front of him. Molly butted her head against Rayna’s hand, and she petted her gently before grinning at Stark. “Admit it. You think Molly’s great.”
“She’s fine,” he said.
“Fine,” she said. “You demanded she get all the tests at the vet, which you paid for in full, then spent another thousand dollars on her this afternoon because she’s… fine.”
“It wasn’t a thousand,” he said.
She raised her eyebrows at him and was both delighted and floored when he blushed and mumbled, “It was eight hundred.”
“Huh,” she said. “So, I guess this means your heart isn’t completely dead and cold.”
His nostrils flared angrily. “You know nothing about me, Ms. Abrams, and your belief that I am a monster is entirely unfounded.”
“That’s fair.” God, he smelled good. Did he always smell this good? She inhaled deeply, her body lighting up in all the right ways at his good, clean scent. She studied his mouth, those firm lips she’d spent way too many hours thinking about how they might feel on her mouth, her breasts… her pussy.
Hot and heavy lust flooded her body, and her pussy began to ache with a dull throb. It wanted to be filled, stretched, teased. She leaned closer until her chest nearly brushed his.
“Ms. Abrams?” There was confusion in Stark’s gaze, but there was something else, too, wasn’t there? Something that suggested he felt the same damn pull she did.
You hate him, Rayna! Stop this!
She did hate him. He was an entitled asshole trying to bully her into selling her property. But he’d also paid for Molly’s care and Maeve’s and Mr. Magoo’s and the stray cat. And God, he was so fucking pretty, and it’d been so damn long since she’d gotten laid.
“I never said thank you for what you did on Saturday night,” she said. “Not just for helping me all night but for paying for Maeve and the others’ treatment, too.”
“You’re welcome.” Now, he was staring at her mouth.
Her nipples had turned to hard pebbles against her bra, and the deep throb in her pussy was impossible to ignore.
“Saying thank you doesn’t seem like enough,” she said.
His whole body twitched wildly, but his voice was steady enough when he said, “What did you have in mind?”
“What do you want?” She could hear the need in her voice.
Hot desire flooded his face. Holy shit… did he want her as much as she wanted him?
His big hand cupped her head, and she parted her lips when he rubbed his thumb across her mouth.
“Fuck,” he muttered, his fingers tightening against her skull. She licked his thumb with a quick, light stroke, stupidly desperate for a part of him, any part of him, inside of her.
His nostrils flared, and he pulled her toward him until her breasts touched his chest, and she could feel the hard bulge of his erection against her midsection. He bent his head, and she tilted her head to give him better access to her mouth as her pulse quickened in anticipation.
“Why the fuck haven’t you done something about that sparkle wallpaper? It’s a fucking eyesore. Also, why are you working from home? I stopped at the office, and they said you’d be working from home all week. Since when do you work from… what the hell?”
Stark pushed away from her so quickly that Rayna nearly fell on her face. He caught her upper arm in a hard grip and kept her upright before backing away to stand next to the bed. She turned, staring wide-eyed at the blond man standing in the doorway.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Jasper?” Stark rasped.
Jasper raised an eyebrow. “Is that any way to talk to family, Isaac?”
He walked toward Rayna, his hand extended. “Jasper Stark.”
She shook his hand. “Rayna Abrams.”
“Nice to meet you.” His dark eyes gave her a quick once over before he smiled cheerfully at her. “Isaac didn’t mention he was dating someone.”
“We’re not dating,” Stark said quickly.
The look on Stark’s face suggested he would rather eat dirt than date her, and any lingering lust Rayna might have felt disappeared faster than Freddie when a stranger came to the house. She gave him a frosty look as he said, “What are you doing here, Jasper? And how did you get into my house?”
“The door was unlocked,” Jasper said breezily. “I guess now that you live in the country, you don’t lock your doors? Not a good idea, buddy.”
Stark huffed out an angry breath. “An unlocked door doesn’t mean you can just waltz right the fuck in.”
Jasper grinned at Rayna. “Do your cousins treat you so rudely, Rayna?”
“I don’t have any cousins,” she said.
“Well, trust me when I say that… what the fuck? Is that a… cat?” Jasper stared in disbelief as Molly, purring loudly, walked back and forth on the bed, rubbing against Stark’s hip. “Why do you have a cat?”
“It’s cats. Multiple,” Rayna said.
Jasper laughed. “Are you kidding me?”
“Nope,” Rayna said and pointed to the clear container on Stark’s bed.
Jasper’s jaw dropped. “Kittens? You have a cat and kittens in your house?”
“It wasn’t my idea,” Stark said through gritted teeth. “She’s forcing me to keep them.”
“He’s straight-up lying,” Rayna said to Jasper. “I just gave him the option of moving them to a different foster home, and he refused.”
Jasper laughed again. “Who are you, and what have you done to my cousin?”
“I’m his number one enemy, actually,” Rayna said.
“Are you?” Jasper gave her an admiring look. “That’s intriguing. What have you done to piss him off? And how have you survived against Isaac ‘tremble before me, mere mortals,’ Stark?”
“I’m tougher than I look,” Rayna said.
“Gorgeous and tough… a lethal combination.” Jasper let his gaze linger on her mouth.
Ignoring the fact that Jasper’s gaze didn’t send even one tiny tingle to her crotch, Rayna smiled at him. “You’re pretty gorgeous yourself.”
Another angry huff behind her, this one so hard she felt the end of her ponytail flutter.
“Ms. Abrams, isn’t it time you left?” Stark said pointedly.
“No need to be rude, Isaac,” Jasper said.
“Ms. Abrams has a busy schedule. I’m sure there is a plumbing emergency somewhere in town,” Stark said.
“You’re a plumber?” Jasper asked
“I am,” Rayna said. “But I’m on vacation this week. I run a local animal rescue, and we’re having a big fundraiser this weekend, so I took the week off to organize the final details.”
“What kind of fundraiser?” Jasper asked.
“Jasper,” Stark ground out.
“A bachelor/bachelorette fundraiser,” Rayna said. “It’s this Friday at the Harmony Falls Community Hall. You should attend. Tickets are only twenty dollars, and you’ll get appetizers and wine and the chance to bid on a bachelorette or,” she cocked her head, “bachelor?”
“Bachelorette for me. Will you be one of those bachelorettes?” Jasper asked with a cute smile.
“No, but we have some really amazing women participating in the fundraiser,” Rayna said. “You should check it out. Especially if you’re as rich as your cousin.”
Jasper’s grin widened. “Oh, I do like you, Rayna Abrams.”
“You’re the only Stark who does,” she said cheekily.
“Ms. Abrams, it’s time for you to leave,” Stark snapped.
“See what I mean?” she said to Jasper. “It was nice to meet you, Jasper. I hope to see you Friday night.”
He took her hand and pressed a kiss against her knuckles. “Likewise, Rayna.”