Chapter 8
Posy
Stone walks me up to my door and I juggle my keys until he takes them with a soft curse. He opens the door and I slip inside, holding the little kitten.
He comes back with a litter box and litter and even some small cans of kitten food and some dry kitten chow.
“I hope that thing is litter trained or you’re gonna have a rough few days.”
“I’ll manage. She’s so good that I’m sure she’ll do exactly what she needs to do.” I hold the kitten up and the glowing golden eyes study me seriously then she yawns and her little baby teeth gleam in the dim light.
I can’t help but laugh. Stone grins at me. Then he leans on the wall. “I think we should stay engaged. What do you think about that?”
“Why?” I ask, not daring to look up from the kitten.
“Well, it suits me to keep ma happy for right now. And it keeps the gossips from going after you anymore. We’re just an engaged couple. Nothing to see here.”
Studying him under my lashes, I watch him closely. He doesn’t seem annoyed.
“Are you sure? You said you don’t want a fiancé or any other woman really. How does this help you?”
“It gets my mom off my back for a little bit. And maybe she’ll focus on my brother or my cousin instead.”
Laughing, I lift my head. “You’re scared of your mom!”
“Hell yeah!” He snorts. “She’s scary as hell. You don’t cross her.”
“What if she finds out that this is fake?”
“She won’t.”
“How do you know that?”
My breath catches when he stalks closer, his hand coming out to run one of my red curls through his fingers, a smile curling his firm lips. Then his eyes come up and desire curls through my belly at the hunger in his emerald eyes.
I can’t breathe. His head comes closer and his lips brush mine, soft and clinging gently. His breath lightly caresses my mouth and I moan softly.
Then his hand comes up to the back of my neck and he’s holding me so tight that I don’t know where he ends and I begin.
“Shit!” He jerks away and curses.
My eyes follow his and I grin. The little gray kitten spits at him and he pushes at a tiny hole in his shirt. One that looks exactly like a tiny claw caught it.
Snorting, I pull her up to my cheek and she purrs like a rusty train engine. “Didn’t you like being squished, baby? Poor thing,” I whisper and cuddle her up to my cheek.
“That thing needs a bath.”
Glaring at him, I walk to my bathroom and start running a little water to wash her gently with some dish soap. “She’s not a thing. She’s a little, scared kitten.”
He raises a brow at the kitten that’s glaring at him angrily. “She doesn’t look scared to me.”
“She knows she’s safe.”
Rolling his eyes, I undoes the buttons on his shirt and pushes the sleeves up his arms. “What are you doing?” I ask.
“You’re gonna need help with this.”
“She’s a sweetie. There’s no way that she’s gonna be anything but good.”
He snorts and his green eyes dance. “We’ll see.”
I grab the dish soap out of the kitchen and set up the station to wash the kitten. By now, she’s looking a little less happy and when I dip her paws in the water, she growls and hisses and scampers up my arm, her nails digging into my skin.
Hissing in pain, I grab her gently by the scruff of the neck and tuck her into a towel so she can’t claw me anymore.
“Give her to me.” I gently hand her to him and he grins at the outraged cat.
“Okay. We’ll try it this way.” Before I know what he’s doing he grabs the towel off of her and wets it with water and the dish soap. Then he scrubs at her while she wails like he’s either breaking her heart or killing her.
But by the time he’s done, she’s clean and a soft pearl gray. Her mouth opens on another yawn and he wraps her up in another towel to dry.
Then he hands her to me and she purrs softly, her eyes closing as she falls asleep.
Glancing up at him, I smile. “Thank you.”
He shrugs and towels off his wet arms. “No problem. But I better be getting home.”
Before I can second-guess myself, I ask, “You wanna have lunch tomorrow?”
He pauses as he slips his coat back on. His green eyes study me closely. “Are we dating?”
“Fake dating,” I correct him.
He grins and then reaches over, settling his fingers under my chin. He lifts and then his lips brush mine gently. “Goodnight, fiancé.”
“Goodnight, Stone.”
He walks out and I watch him walk out the door. Glancing down at the kitten as it opens its eyes, I smirk. “You ready for some food there, sweetie?”
She meows like her stomach’s been cut. And then she wriggles until I almost drop her.
I carry her out to the living room and then set her on the floor, setting up her litter box and showing her where it is. She scratches at it and then squats to pee.
Grinning, I grab a can of kitten food. “I told him you were too smart not to know what to do!”
And then I set her up with her little plate of food and settle on the couch watching the little thing eating hungrily and feeling more at home than I’ve felt in a long time.