Chapter 46
Chapter Forty-Six
Cat
A fter Eve repaired my smeared makeup, we hurried to the dining room for dinner. Kindra saved us some seats beside her, right across from Maverick and Bennett. Eve did her best to complete a sneaky switch before sitting down, but Kindra was having none of it.
Dinner progressed without a hitch after that. We enjoyed light salads, followed by tasting trays of things I can’t even pronounce. Now we just have to get through the main course and dessert before we’re off to the ball.
“Bennett, stop trying to play footsie with me,” Kindra says as she kicks him under the table.
I glare at him, knowing it was my foot he was searching for.
“Oh, all the flight plans have been settled,” Ezra says. He’s clearly trying to take some of the heat away from his brother, despite having told Bennett he would do no such thing. “The only catch was that two of us needed to sit in coach for the flight to New York, so I put Cat and Bennett there.”
Kindra nearly chokes on a puff pastry. “Absolutely not.” Crumbs fly from her mouth, and she grabs her wineglass to drown whatever remains in her throat. “I’ll sit with Cat in coach, and you can sit with your brother. I’m not subjecting her to his torment for an entire flight.”
“It’s okay,” I say, grateful that Ezra has done what little he can for us. The rest is up to me. “We had a truce for the hunt, and we learned how to tolerate each other, didn’t we, Bennett?”
He smiles sweetly at Kindra. A little too sweetly. If he doesn’t pull it back a bit, she’ll see straight through him. “I can keep my rude comments to myself if she can do the same. Right, kitten ?”
That taunting snark is back in the word, but it still travels straight to my pussy. I grip the sides of my armless chair. “Yep, I can keep my mouth shut.”
But not my fucking legs. If she asks me to promise that, I won’t be able to.
Kindra places the back of her hand to my forehead. “Are you feeling okay? Maybe we should have a doctor check you out before flying.”
“Hey, I’m serious,” I say. “We get along fine when we want to.”
“Why would you want to?”
Before I’m forced to answer that question, the doors on the other side of the room fly open, and Chef Maurice enters. A silver trolley with a large cloche on top glides ahead of him. As he pulls the cart to a stop, he lifts the lid and reveals . . .
A massive turkey.
Not just any massive turkey, but the massive turkey. I can tell because one of the legs has been affixed in place with a bit of butcher’s twine.
I look at Bennett, but he’s already looking at me, likely thinking the same thing. The turkey that he fucked, the turkey that has been inside my asshole, is about to be served to the entire group.
“I got dibs on that turkey leg right there,” Bennett shouts as he stuffs his napkin into his dress shirt and points to the Frankensteined appendage.
“Suddenly, I am not very hungry,” Grim grumbles from another table.
Rosie just shrugs and readies her plate.
With growing horror, I watch as Chef walks around the room, cutting off bits of turkey and laying the white meat on the outstretched plates. His servers shuffle behind him, dropping fluffy dollops of potatoes and skewers of grilled veggies beside the meat. People begin digging in, and I can only watch as I remember the things we’ve done to that carcass.
Chef reaches our table, and I tell myself that Bennett technically fucked the cantaloupe, not the turkey, as meat falls onto Kindra’s plate. It’s okay if I take this one to my grave, right?
Right?
And now it’s too late, because she’s chewing and swallowing.
Bennett feels no remorse at all, as is evidenced by the way he brings the turkey leg to his nose and sniffs it. “I dunno, Cat. It kind of smells like ass. What do you think?”
He holds the leg toward me, and I don’t know whether to laugh or scream, so I just lean forward and sniff. “Maybe a little rubbery.”
With a chuckle, he pulls the meat toward his mouth and takes a bite. His eyes roll back in his head, and he smacks his lips.
A slight moan creeps up my throat, but I snatch up my wineglass and swallow that sucker before it ever sees the light of day. Still, the way he looks at me as he devours that turkey leg . . .
“Cat? Earth to fucking Cat?” Kindra nudges me out of my daydream. “What do you think of the turkey?”
“Oh, I haven’t tried it yet.”
“It’s very filling ,” Bennett says. “Just open up and stuff yourself.”
Kindra grimaces at him. “Don’t be vulgar.”
Meanwhile, I want him to keep going. Openly mentioning our inside sex jokes is such a turn on, especially when I know there’s no way Kindra can make the connection. I mean, who just sits around and suspects their friend has shoved a turkey leg in their ass?
“Did you girls get your little sex cubicles set up?” Kindra directs the question toward me and Eve.
“Play area,” I say, “and yes, we did. We even pulled down some fancy serving bowls and stuffed them with condoms.”
“How very practical of you,” Kindra says as she takes another bite of turkey. She lowers her voice and leans closer to me. “Are you sure you’re okay with sitting beside Bennett for the entire flight? I can insist we take another if?—”
I shake my head and place a hand on her thigh. “I appreciate the concern, but seriously, we’re good. He’s actually not that bad.”
Kindra snatches her napkin from her lap, dabs her mouth, then grips my hand and rises. “We need to use the ladies’ room. Please excuse us.”
She pulls me out of my seat and drags me from the dining room, and I’m useless to fight her off. She’s in sensible flats, and I’m doing the best I can in heels. I stumble behind her and try to keep up.
We finally reach the massive bathroom, and she pushes me inside.
“He’s actually not that bad?” she says. “ Not that bad ? Cat, listen to yourself. You’re talking about the man who fucked a pineapple wedged inside a dresser drawer.” She pauses to grit her teeth and shake her head. “Then he sucked it clean!”
Her words should disgust me, but now I’m just jealous of the pineapple. He hasn’t sucked me clean.
Yet.
Kindra snaps her fingers in front of my face. “Are you listening to me?”
“Yes!” I swat her hand away. “So he has some weird sexual urges. So what?”
“He’s mean. He views women as disposable objects. He isn’t fit to lick the dirt from the bottom of your shoes, let alone lick your pussy. Do I really need to keep going?”
No, she doesn’t, because her words are making me hate her, and I don’t want that. I don’t want to choose between the man I care for and my best friend.
“What if he’s not any of those things?” I ask. “What if he’s actually a nice guy?”
Kindra huffs and steps toward the sink, where she reaches into her clutch and pulls out a tube of lipstick. “If he’s such a great guy, why haven’t we seen any indication in the months we’ve known him?”
Because he’s scared. Because vulnerability isn’t easy for him. Because it’s just not his way.
And none of the reasons will be enough for her.
I sigh. “I don’t know, Kindra, but maybe he’s not who we think he is. I’ve seen a different side of him on this trip, and I?—”
“No.” She lowers the lipstick. “Absolutely not. Look, I get it. He’s hot, muscular, tattooed—a total catch. But Bennett is like an apple. It might look shiny and delicious on the outside, but when you get to the core, it’s rotten and infested with parasites.”
I roll my eyes. “Bennett doesn’t have worms.”
“He might. You never know.” She leans over the sink and applies a daring shade of burgundy that only she could pull off. “All I’m saying is that you need to steer clear of him. If he gets his filthy hooks into you, I’ll never forgive myself.”
Well, she’d best learn how, because his hooks—and his dick—have been buried deep inside me.
She slides the lipstick into her clutch and turns to face me again. “Is this because of me? Have you become friendly with the devil because I’ve been so busy with the retreat?”
Tears spring into her eyes, and I rush to comfort her before she fucks up her makeup.
“What? No! And stop with the waterworks.” I snatch some tissue from the holder on the sink and dab her eyes. “I knew you wouldn’t have time to babysit me on the retreat, and I still wanted to come. I’ve had an amazing time so far, much better than you even realize, and I’ve made other friends. I dare say Eve has weaseled her way into our inner circle.”
Kindra smiles, sniffles, and takes the tissue from me. “That she has. But you’re still my bestie, right?”
“Of course.”
It’s so unlike Kindra to display emotion this way, and it’s all because she’s so concerned with whatever has occurred between me and Bennett. I wanted to come clean to her tonight, but now . . . Now, I don’t see how I can.
She’ll never accept it.
“Christ, I don’t know why I’m being so silly,” she says. She dabs her eyes, checks her face in the mirror, then tosses the tissue into the wicker wastebasket. “It’s not like you’re fucking him or anything. No way would you be that stupid.”
As she laughs, the sound drives tiny daggers into my heart.
“Well, we’d best get back to the dining room. It’s almost time for the ball. Are you excited?”
I nod my head and force a small smile, but now I don’t want to go to the dance at all. Locking myself in my room and crying into Shorty’s fur as he growls at me sounds like a better time than sneaking around in front of her face.
As we near the stairs, I’m already preparing my excuse. I’ll just say that my stomach hurts. Since Kindra has gut issues, she’s less likely to argue. Yes, that will work, and it will spare her feelings.
But then Bennett rounds the corner, and I can only think of reasons to stay. This is where I want to be. With him.
“I was beginning to worry that you two had run off together,” he says. “Or that you fell into the toilet. Lack of brain cells and all that.”
I can see his words for what they are—playful teasing—but Kindra is blind to his banality. For her, this is an affront of the worst kind, a joke made with cruel intentions. A week ago, I was just like her.
My, how things have changed.
“I’m not surprised you found us,” Kindra says. “Even if I look through Cat’s hair and find a tracking device sewn to her fucking scalp, I won’t be surprised. You’re like a dog trained to find only one thing: Cat.”
“Isn’t that what a dog like me does? Chasing a cat is just in my nature.” Bennett smirks, but the playful curve of his lips doesn’t translate to the rest of his face, least of all his eyes.
“Well, you can sniff her out all you want at the ball, but you won’t get anywhere near her,” Kindra says, and I don’t like the confidence behind her smile. “She’ll be attached to my hip for the duration of the evening, and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it.”
With that, Kindra turns on her heel and drags me toward the ballroom. I glance over my shoulder, searching for Bennett, but he’s already gone.
I guess dessert is off the menu tonight.
And so is Bennett.