Here Kitty, Kitty! (9 page)

But he avoided humans like the plague.  They could be as bad as wolves.  Some were happy enough to bump from one bed to another.  But others wanted to commit their lives to one person.  Forever!  Why the hell would anyone do that?  Why the hell did his father?

No.  He needed to stay away from Angelina Santiago.  Far, far away.

Of course, not easy with her living in his house—even temporarily.  And pushing through his kitchen door with that half-crazed look on her face, storming up to him, and grasping his T-shirt between those soft cool hands.

Yeah, a problem waiting to beat him over the head…again.

“Where is it?”

“Where’s what?”  He wanted to pull her hands off his shirt, but if he touched her again…

“The TV.  Where is it?”

“I don’t have one.”

“
What do you mean you don’t have one?” 
Panic wafted off her in waves.  “
What grown man doesn’t have a TV?
”

“One who likes to read instead.”

“Read?”  He loved her face.  Especially when she looked so beautifully perplexed.

“Yeah.  I read.  And I have a whole bunch of books you can borrow.”

Her face twisted in disgust, “What?  I look like Miki to you?”

She released him and stormed back out.

He stared at the door she went through, “Who the hell is Miki?”

***

Growling in annoyance, Angie moved through Nik’s house.  They were alone.  His family members long gone.  Just her, the hillbilly, and books.  Books!

She shook her head and wandered into what she could only assume was the library and his office.  One wall had a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf.  Books filled it and he even had books on top of books.  The other wall had a floor-to-ceiling case as well, this time filled with CDs and actual vinyl albums.  As usual, she went straight for the music.  He set up his music chronologically starting with stuff from the fifties.  She frowned.  Clearly a big Elvis fan.

“No TV.  And Elvis.  Could this get any scarier?”  As she moved past the different decades, she finally hit the eighties and nineties, and smiled in relief.  He had a nice selection of alternative music and a butt load of some great tech.  He seemed to be quite the Lords of Acid fan.  Considering their music usually had to do with fucking while being bound, she wondered briefly if he was a bit of a “kinkoid.”  Into tying up girls and fucking them senseless.

Thump.  Thump.  Thump.

Goddammit!  She really needed to get control of that.  Having such a noisy clit really was unacceptable.

She grabbed one of the earlier Lords of Acid CDs and popped it into what had to be the most amazing sound system she’d ever seen.  She turned on one of her favorite tracks, “Rough Sex,” then went through a pile of magazines he had on his desk.  He had a stack of news magazines like
Time
and
Newsweek
, but she had no interest in reading anything that depressing.  But, thankfully, buried down at the bottom was a recent copy of
Vogue
.  The name on the subscription label said Kisa Vorislav.  Must be a sister, since Nik wouldn’t dare have a wife.

With a sigh, she sat down at his desk, put her feet up on the exquisitely carved wood with the magazine on her lap, and promptly fell asleep.

***

Nik could hear her moving around his house.  He could imagine the way the skirt of her mini-dress swirled around her thighs.  And those shoes.  The black “strappy ones” she debated about getting.  They really did look good on her.  Twenty grand well spent as far as he was concerned.

His cell phone went off and Nik let out a sigh of relief.  Anything to distract him from the thought of that woman in those shoes.

“This is Nik.”

“Hey, Nik, darlin’.”

“Sahara.  Hey, baby.”  A lioness.  She belonged to the Lyon Pride from this afternoon.  He and Sahara had gone a few rounds in the past.  The woman did know how to have fun.

“My sisters said they saw you in town today.  And I started thinking, I’m free tonight…”

Nik smiled, then groaned.  “I can’t.  I’m babysitting a dog-lovin’ human.”

“Get your brothers to do it.  From what I heard about her fabulous taste in clothes, they won’t mind a bit.”

Nik’s good humor fled.  He thought about his brothers lingering around his territory, watching Angelina walk around his house in those shoes.  And he didn’t like that thought one goddamn bit.  Then he realized he felt territorial about a woman he had no intention of breeding with.  And that particular realization pissed him off even more.

No way.  He
was not
his father’s son.  He’d meet up with Sahara tonight.  Meet her and fuck her into oblivion, completely blocking out Angelina Santiago and her strappy black shoes.

“Ya know, Sahara, as a matter of fact…”  Tech music suddenly pulsated through his house.  But not just any tech music.  The Lords of Acid.  Specifically “Rough Sex” by Lords of Acid.

That heifer.

Thoughts of the evil viper bent over his kitchen table, taking his dick, while screaming out his name almost had him coming in his jeans.  Especially when he added in the handcuffs.

“Sahara…I can’t.  Really.  I made a…,” he sighed heavily,  “…a commitment.”

“You?”

Nik’s frown returned.  “Yes.  Me.”

Sahara chuckled, “Uh…okay.”

***

Angie woke up when she felt her chair kicked.

“What?”

“Hungry?”

She nodded, yawned, and stretched.  Arms over her head, legs stretched out with toes pointed.  When she finished, she looked up to see Nik staring down at her with his hands clenched into fists.  “What?”

“Nothin’,” he growled.

Strange man
, she thought as she followed him from the room.

Angie expected him to go to the dining room, but he kept walking right back into the kitchen.  She wondered how long she slept, because it had gone pitch black outside.  She’d look at her new watch, but she’d left that on the dresser in her room.

She followed Nik into the kitchen and stopped in the doorway.  He had the table laid out with food, wine, and lit candles.

Oh, but no
.  That wouldn’t do one damn bit.

She popped on the overhead light.  He looked up at her with a frown.  At first, she thought it was annoyance, but she realized the bright light bothered his eyes.

“It’s too dark,” she gave as way of explanation.

“I guess it would be.”

“Does it hurt your eyes?”  She didn’t know why she suddenly cared.  Honestly, she hated candle-light dinners.  To quote Miki, “You never know what the hell they’re puttin’ in your food, dude.”

“Not really.  Just not used to it.  I don’t really need lights at night.”  He placed a huge bowl of food on the table; the salad and bread already out.  “Sit, Sugar.”

She realized she’d been standing like an idiot for the last two minutes.  She grabbed a seat and plunked herself down.

“You talk to your friends again today?”

“No.  I’ll call ‘em tomorrow.  Give ‘em the night to cool the fuck off.”

“How long y’all been friends?”  He sat down catty-corner from her and began ladling out the food.

“Since we were eight.”

“Got any brothers or sisters?”

“No.”

“Not a real chatty gal, are ya?”

“Exactly how am I supposed to expand on not having siblings?  Should I cry?”

He smiled as he held up a bottle, “Wine?”

“Please.”

“So you can say that word.  I thought you were physically incapable.”

She watched him pour the white wine into glasses she was damn-near positive were Riedel Vinum stemware. 
Nice.

She definitely appreciated a man with taste.

“I say it when I feel it’s necessary.”  She glanced down at the food he’d ladled out for her.  “Macaroni and Cheese?  Classy.”

“I pull out all the stops for my unwanted guests.”

“I can see that.”  She took a bite, closing her eyes and letting the flavor roll around her mouth.  “Oh, my God,” she finally bit out.

“Is that good or bad?”

“Good.  Definitely good.”

The hillbilly grinned, “Why thank you.”

“Where did you learn to cook like this?”

“Momma.  She taught all her boys to cook.  She said with our attitudes, we could never expect a woman to stay very long.”

Angie’s head snapped up.  Unlike her grandmother and her best friends, her parents’ love always remained in question.  So, the fact that someone’s mother would say that to them bothered her.

Nik caught her look.  “Don’t worry.  She says the same thing about daddy.”  He sighed, “And Lord knows she still hasn’t gotten rid of him.”

Angie didn’t know if he meant divorce or murder.  And she wasn’t about to ask.

Instead, she decided to change the subject before they got around to her family.  “What do you know about Victoria Löwe?”

He shrugged, “Not much.  Her Pride’s territory is out your friend’s way.  Up near San Francisco, I think.”  Angie had no idea lions lived so close to the Pack.  “And I know she’s making lots of changes among the Prides.  But the tigers don’t involve ourselves in too much of that Pride crap.  Always seemed to me they brought that war on themselves.”

“I thought you were all part of a Cat Nation.”

“I guess.  I mean, honestly, none of it is really my business.”

“It is now.”

“Well, you can blame my brothers for that.”

“You know, I don’t remember seeing you with your brothers.  Exactly why did I end up here?  Did they not have enough room in their trailers?”

Nik glared at her as he bit into a piece of bread.  “Actually, they rolled dice for ya…and I lost.”

“They rolled…for…and you…
lost!” 
She threw her fork down and started to get up, but Nik’s hand on her arm stopped her.  “Get off me!”

“Sit.  Now.”

She didn’t have much choice.  He had an iron grip.  She sat back down but wouldn’t look at him.

“That was mean.  I’m sorry,” he released her arm.  “My momma raised me better than that.”

She finally looked at him.  “So you didn’t roll dice for me?”

“Oh, no.  They did,” he gave her that goddamn devastating smile again.  “But I won.”

No.  She’d
never
be able to control this one.

“As a matter of fact, you did win.  And don’t you forget it.”

“Don’t worry, Sugar.  I won’t.”

***

Nik rolled onto his back, his arms behind his head, his eyes locked on the ceiling, his cock hard, ready, and demanding satisfaction.  Preferably from the hot piece of ass just a few doors away.

He could smell her.  She’d taken a hot shower and her scent now flowed through the entire floor.  His mouth watered.  His heart hammered against his rib cage.  Christ, he wanted that little lady.  He wanted her bad.

He closed his eyes, trying to sleep.  But that was a mistake.  As soon as he closed his eyes he saw her…with her head in his lap.  Her mouth on his dick, her tongue swirling around the tip.  Her cheeks hollowing out as she sucked him long and deep.

No.  That wouldn’t help him sleep.  He opened his eyes.

He wondered what she’d do if he sauntered on down her way and knocked on her door at one o’clock in the morning.  Welcome him in or kick him in the nuts?  Probably welcome him in only to kick him in the nuts once she got him in there.

A growl from underneath his balcony pulled him away from his fantasies about Santiago riding him like a cowboy on a buckin’ bronco.

His brothers.  They wanted to go hunting.  Not a bad idea really.  Besides, as much as his brothers drove him crazy, he did love ‘em.

They growled again and Nik laughed.  They wanted to go hunting.  Now.  And they basically told him to get his head out from between Angelina’s legs and get a move on.

Smart asses.

Well, anything had to be better than laying here all night pining for a woman who treated him like an annoying alley cat she couldn’t get out of her backyard.

He shifted, while still in bed, and slid out from under the covers.  Bounding across the room, he leaped over the balcony.  His brothers were already running, the scent of deer filling their heads, and he followed.  Loving the feel of the cool Carolina night on his fur and the power of his people flowing through his veins.