“Nothing sexier than a man who loves cats,” a husky voice rasps from our left.
I glance over to see the older woman who waited to fill out her paperwork at the desk watching Sam with a hooded gaze as she pets the little gray kitten cradled between her massive fake boobs. She’s easily old enough to be his mother, but she’s very pretty and…expensive looking in a way I could never pull off, not even in the fanciest dresses Harlow hunts down at her vintage hidey-hole.
Sam clears his throat and pulls his hand away from Handsome. “I confess I’m a dog person, actually. Cats are all right, but I’m here to support Jess. She’s going to be an amazing foster mom. Aren’t you, Snuggle Bug?”
Arching an amused brow at the horrid nickname, I nevertheless play along, “Yes, Scruffy Bear. I think I will be. And you’re the best boyfriend ever for letting me bring home two beautiful cat babies and let them sleep in our bed.”
“As long as I get to be in the bed with you, I’m a happy man,” he says, his gaze smoldering into mine in a way that makes me want to laugh and kiss him again at the same time. “Even if I wake up with one of your familiars on my chest, sucking up my life force.”
“Your life force will not have been sucked in vain, Boo Boo,” I say, batting my lashes until Sam snorts and whispers, “She’s gone. You can stop flirting.”
“Never. I’m going to rub my sexy boyfriend in her fancy face until we leave this pen,” I say, running my hand gently over Handsome’s belly as he rolls over onto his back, purring like the world’s most adorable lawn mower. “That’s what she gets for flirting with a guy who’s clearly with another woman.”
“To be fair, you do kind of look like a kid from a distance,” he says, settling cross-legged onto the ground nearby, not far from two kittens doing some very cute wrestling. “She might have thought you were my little sister or something.”
“You’re Puerto Rican and I’m Korean,” I say, shooting him some major side eye.
“Adoption, Cho. Our parents could have adopted us. Which, thinking about it, would have been kind of amazing. I always wanted a sibling when I was a kid, especially one who loved video games and nerd stuff as much as I did.”
“No,” I say, abandoning Handsome’s belly before he claws my hand to pieces—I might not have ever had a cat of my own, but I’ve petted enough felines to have a sixth sense about when they’re done playing nice and are ready to make things more interesting with their claws. I stand, crossing to plop down beside Sam and draw one of the now-curious little kittens into my lap.
“Yeah, you’re right,” he says in a smug voice that makes the hair lift on the back of my neck and tingles shiver down my spine. The tingling gets even worse as he leans down to murmur just inches from my ear, “I wouldn’t want to be your brother. Then I never would have gotten to kiss you the way I did last night.”
I lift my head, lips burning with the need to feel his warm mouth on mine. For a second, I think about going for it—surely, a quick stolen kiss would be okay, even if we are in public—but he pulls back with a shake of his head.
“Nope. Can’t do it,” he says.
“Do what?” I ask, rolling my eyes as he arches a “your innocent act isn’t fooling anyone” brow. “Fine, so I was thinking about kissing you. So what? It’s fine if you don’t want to. No fur off my pants.” I glance down. “How is it possible for something so small to completely cover my jeans in fur in such a short amount of time?”
“Talent,” he says. “And I totally want to kiss you. I just don’t want to horrify people walking by. With my early gray and your pigtails and baby face…we look like a couple that should be forbidden by law.”
I lift my head, shocked. “But you have a baby face, too.”
“And a beard. With silver streaks in it.”
I glance down at his strong jaw, fingertips aching to feather over the salt-and-pepper stubble there. Ugh, what’s wrong with me? The urge to touch him inappropriately is something I’m going to have to get a handle on…at least for this afternoon. “I see your point. At least, I do now. I’ll change when we get back to my place.”
“You don’t have to,” he says with a smile. “You’re a cute skater girl. And I prefer to keep making out behind closed doors anyway.”
I cock my head, dividing my attention between Sam and the kitten now walking the tightrope of my crossed shin toward Sam’s much larger knee. “Yeah? Not into PDA?”
“Nope. I don’t like to share the woman I’m into with strangers. Especially not a woman I want as much as I want you,” he says with a casual shrug that somehow makes the words even hotter.
Dangerously hot…
My panties just caught fire and I’m pretty sure I would have planted one on Sam’s sexy lips—appearances be damned—if Handsome hadn’t chosen that moment to bat the kitten off my leg with one fat paw. A beat later, he drapes himself across mine and Sam’s laps like a black-and-white movie heroine collapsing onto a fainting coach and lets out a plaintive meow that makes us both laugh.
“I don’t think he wants to share you with the world, either,” Sam says, scratching Handsome’s scruff. “Or a bratty little kitten brother.”
“Aw, Handsome, why you gotta be like that?” I ask. “Fluff Nugget just wanted to be friends.”
“Fluff Nugget doesn’t seem too broken up about it,” Sam says, watching the kitten pounce on a knitted ball and go rolling across the ground. “He’ll get fostered, no problem. Everyone loves a cute little kitten. A snaggly-toothed old man with part of his ear missing is going to have a harder time.”
Gathering the cat fully into my arms, I stroke him reverently, whispering into his soft neck fur, “Don’t you listen to him, Handsome. You’re a gorgeous beast and I’m going to take you home and feed you and pet you and tell you you’re pretty every single day.”
Sam pulls his phone from his back pocket. “Looks like it’s a match.” He lifts his cell, snapping a few pictures as I kiss Handsome on the top of his precious little head. “I’ll text these over. A souvenir from the day you failed as a foster mom.”
“What do you mean failed?” I ask, sitting up straighter and propping an indignant hand on my hip. “I’ve already been approved. Amy checked all my references in advance.”