“Sorry, Daddy.” She wrinkled her nose. “I just feel silly.”
“It’s just us, jellybean. Nothing to be embarrassed by.”
Blowing out a breath, she sat back on her haunches and lifted a hand toward the towel. It danced in front of her, daring her to try and catch it. With slow, deliberate movements, she reached out and batted her hand at the scrap of cloth.
“Good kitty,” Connor praised softly, making the towel bounce in circles around her head. “Can you catch it?”
Meow. She wanted to say it. Her throat physically ached with the effort to hold back the animalistic response, but her embarrassment was still too strong for her to let it loose.
Settling instead for swatting at the towel again, she twisted her torso in search of the playful fabric. It was easy, easier than she had expected, to pretend the towel wasn’t connected to a hand. That it was a living thing, deliberately teasing and taunting her as it danced just out of reach every time she tried to catch it.
Haha, can’t get me!
Whoops! Almost!
Oooh, so close!
“All right, little kitty. Daddy needs to get dinner in the oven and then we can play some more.”
Dropping to the floor, she rolled onto her back and looked up at him. This time, the response she wanted to give worked its way past the tightness in her throat. “Meow?”
“We can play in a few minutes. Why don’t you go explore a little bit?”
She’d already seen every inch of his house. But not as a kitten. Curious to see how it might differ, she rolled back onto all fours and crawled toward the living room.
The couch provided her first bit of challenge. Human Hayleigh could just stand up and then sit on the couch. But kitty Hayleigh would have to find a way to climb up.
That could wait. If she climbed up onto the plush leather, she wasn’t going to want to get down again. And there was so much left to explore.
Leaving the living room behind, she headed for his bedroom. Jackpot. Not only were there the little bits of clothing Daddy had left scattered all over, the open door of his closet beckoned with a treasure trove of things to play with. She scampered into the closet and batted at a shirt.
It swung back and forth a few times, so she swatted it again, harder. Kitty Hayleigh wanted to know how hard it would be to knock the hanger off the rack.
Not too hard, as it turned out. She had to reach a little higher, but a few more swats had the shirt and hanger tumbling to the floor. Giggling, she moved onto the next shirt, batting and pulling at it until it joined its brother at the bottom of the closet. Next up was a neat row of ties she pulled down one by one until she was surrounded by a pile of clothes.
“Naughty kitty!”
Popping up from her pile, she looked up to find Daddy standing just outside the closet with his arms crossed. “Meow?”
“Don’t try that innocent act on me. Come here.”
Crap on a cracker. Was she really in trouble? Had she overstepped her kitty boundaries? With her stomach twisting in painful knots, she pushed to her feet.
“Is that how kitties walk?”
Oh God. Crawling around the house had been fun when she’d been playing but crossing the room on her hands and knees to accept a punishment was a level of humiliation she wasn’t sure she was ready for.
Obviously sensing her struggle, Daddy lowered his arms and gave her a reassuring smile. “You can do this, baby. It’s just a few steps.”
Knowing he wasn’t really mad gave her the boost of courage she needed to drop back to her hands and knees and take those few crawling steps out of the closet.
“Making a mess with Daddy’s clothes was a very naughty thing to do. If you can’t behave when Daddy is busy, we’ll have to get you a leash. Or perhaps a kitty crate.”
A cage? At no point in her life had she ever considered the idea of being put into a cage the least bit sexy, but as soon as the words left his mouth, she couldn’t wait to try it.
Going with instinct, she moved forward and rubbed her face against the stiff fabric of his chef’s pants. She was going to have to figure out how to purr at some point, but for now this would have to do to let him know she was sorry.
“You really are too damn cute for your own good.” Reaching down, he gave her head a soft scratch. “Come on, naughty kitty. The chicken is in the oven, but I still need to make the potatoes and the salad and I want you in the kitchen where I can keep an eye on you.”