Chapter 4 #2
With a shocked yelp and a few cuss words that fit the occasion, I took off for my room, the sound of Cy’s deep belly laughs following after. “Give me one good reason I shouldn’t bash you, then boil you, mash you, or stick you in a stew!” I barked as I made a hasty retreat.
“Cy yours,” he barked back very matter of fact. “Miss Cy’s… taters,” he settled on, stifling choked laughs.
Scooping up the clothes he’d left me, leaving me to stay naked in the blanket or wear his offerings, at least until I could figure out where the lunatic had hidden all of my clothing, I walked them out with me to the bathroom.
At the door, I set my things on the counter just inside, then turned to toss the shirt Cy had left me on the bed at him.
“You’d look weird polka dotted from bacon burns. I hear singed fur smells,” I teased, then closed the door and threw the lock.
Cy went to turn the knob not two seconds later. “Why door locked?”
“I could be making a twozy,” I shouted over the water as I walked over and turned the shower on.
The grunt Cy let out told me he had not entertained the possibility.
Walking back to the counter, I neatly folded my favorite new double-sided fur blanket and set it down with care.
Glancing around the room, I found further proof he did indeed shower, shave, and whatever else he’d needed to do, an electric razor I’d never seen before charging near the end of the counter, a shaving kit neatly beside it.
Grabbing a couple towels and a washcloth, I set the towels on top of the laundry hamper and hopped in for a quick wash up.
Once finished, I’d just shut off the water and had my hand on the curtain to pull it back when something stopped me. I couldn’t rightly say how or why, but something was definitely off.
Having a quick peek around the opposite side of the curtain I’d been about to pull back, I glanced at the toilet, an obvious choice for a sneak to be lying in wait for me. Nothing. No one. Okay.
Dropping the curtain, I went to pull it back to step out the right way, right where the mat was situated to step on, when a hand shot in past the curtain and a hairy hand waved a towel at me.
The scream I scrumpt. “Cypress Rowan Tree, are you insane?! Do you have a death wish?!”
The noncommittal noise he made was what set me off.
Snatching the proffered towel, I threw the curtain open and smacked him upside the head with it.
The soft oof the man let out as my aim rang true, it wasn’t nearly as satisfying as it should have been. “Poed-tatoes done,” he rumbled out quietly, slowly, in that way he did when it was a word he struggled to pronounce.
“So… you decided to invade my personal space, break into the bathroom, and wait for me to hand me a towel? Because the potatoes are done?”
It took him a minute to drag his gaze past my breasts as I gestured angrily.
Realizing he’d been caught, he retrieved the towel I’d whacked him with, squinting through the one eye that hadn’t been smacked with the towel, and held it out in offering.
Wrapping it around me, I motioned for the second towel, accepting it with a dirty look, and started drying off my exposed skin with it.
He was still shirtless, and it was kind of damn distracting.
“If we’re going to be snowed in buddies,” I began, “there needs to be some ground rules. Boundaries. Personal space. These things are important to me.” It was hard to think beyond that when he leaned his backside against the counter, crossed his ankles, arms holding onto either side of the counter, and waited.
While I was treated to an ab-tastic, arms bulging display from the front, the mirror at his back gave me a glorious view of the back of him, namely the bastard’s shapely, denim covered backside and those wide shoulders I was all too familiar with.
“The potatoes are done?” My eyes narrowed on him as he watched me.
Blue eyes glittering with more than hunger for food, he gave a short nod.
It was hard to decide what was more enticing in that moment— taters or him.
“Don’t make a habit of this,” I grumbled. “I enjoy my privacy, ya know.”
“Cy say sorry,” he muttered, eyeing the water droplets on my skin I’d yet to catch, “but I not sorry at all.”
A splutter of a laugh escaped me. I stared at him, incredulous and yet oddly charmed. He was such a weirdo and I guess I was too if I was buying into his bullshit. “You’re impossible, did you know that?”
Cy grinned but admitted, “Yes.”
“Dick,” I muttered.
“Female,” he purred, if only just to irritate me.
Eyeing him the way he was eyeing me, I smiled. Cy’s rumbling purr cranked up and he sat up straighter.
“Do you want me?” Dropping the towel I was drying off with to the floor, my hands went to where my towel was secured, wrapped around me.
As if he hadn’t spent an inordinate amount of time naked with me already, he eyed me the same way he did that first time.
“Want. Very badly. Always want my Pru,” he admitted.
“Got a little something on your face right there.” Pointing at a spot near his mouth, I waited until he turned towards the mirror to inspect this mystery schmutz to make my move.
“Whoops. Better catch that drool! Cause you know you ain’t catchin’ me!” Ripping off my towel, I threw it at his head.
The surprised noise Cy made realizing I was messing with him cut off into a grunt as my towel smacked the back of his head and then fell over his face.
He purred as he caught a peek but not much more.
It gave me enough time to scramble past him but zero time to grab my clothes.
Cy sounded like an elephant trampling through the house as he gave chase.
Instead of heading for my room, I thought to trick him and duck down behind the couch in the living room.
Cy rushed right past me, assuming I went to my bedroom. I couldn’t help but have myself a little ogle of well shaped, fuzzy, bare buns. Someone had ditched their pants.
Creeping along the side of the couch, I hurried into the hall and rushed to the bathroom. There was no way to exactly be quiet about it with creaky old wooden floors under my feet.
I’d barely taken two steps and Cy came bursting into the hall.
“Mine,” he growled, as if the chase excited him as much as the naked lady running away from him.
“Only if you ask nicely,” I taunted as I was caught up, lifted up, and kissed so thoroughly my brain felt scrambled.
Cy’s growl in answer had me shivering in his arms.
“Oi! What about my potatoes?!” I shouted on a laugh as he escorted me, bumping us both on things on his way, carrying me princess style, stealing heated kisses until I stopped protesting all together, to my bedroom.
“Cy feed my Pru after,” he rumbled out in that sexy, deep voiced way he did that made me feel all soft and gooey middled.
“So bossy,” I grumbled, if only to hear him rumble, “Mine.”