“All.”
“What?”
“All of them work.” He glanced toward our feet. His were bare and so were mine. I wriggled my toes and he mimicked me, and when I glanced up, he was smiling—just barely, but I could see that he might give me a shot… if I didn’t fuck it all up somehow.
“Okay. Let’s do that, then.”
“What?”
“Let’s spend the week together. That’s the best way to see if we really click. Time in. Think of it like a practice. Teams always spend time together to see if they mesh.” I touched the back of his wrist, and he jerked away.
“What?” He glanced quickly toward the door, but thankfully didn’t race outside. “I didn’t mean, I didn’t think you would want to—”
“What better way for us to figure out if this will work? I like having someone around. Taking care of them.” My heart surged and the tips of my fingers tingled. I couldn’t stop looking at him. People thought I was laid-back, and I was a lot of the time, but now that he’d been here, I really didn’t want to send him away again. The biggest piece of me wanted to keep him already, and that was bad because he seemed skittish.
He frowned. “I’m still not—don’t expect anything from me.”
Laughing, I reached over and tickled Harley’s chin, and he screwed up his face, almost like he didn’t know if he should be irritated or not. But he leaned into the touch until I pulled my hand back. “If you decide you hate me, there’s nothing to stop you from going home.”
“I have to work,” he snapped, almost like he desperately wanted to drive me off, but I was onto him. I could take a few swats.
“Me too.”
He shivered and glanced down himself to stare at his toes again. “I’d need to go home and pick up a few things.”
“That’s fine.”
He ducked his head until his chin nearly touched his chest and brought his hand up to his face so he had his collar and cat ears pressed against his cheek. “I like pink things,” he mumbled.
“To match your pretty collar.”
He shrugged and stole my breath with a genuine smile and my stomach ran warm. My dick went on notice. Hot damn, he was a sexy little kitty. It would be so easy to spoil Harley cat, or Harley boy, or maybe even both.
“I’ll go home and get my stuff, then, if you’re sure?” He kept his gaze on his feet.
“Sure, I’m sure. I like what I’ve seen of you so far.”
“Same. I’ll just….” He pointed toward the door. It was driving me crazy that he wouldn’t look at me, but I wasn’t sure how far to push at him.
“Let’s go together, one trip out?”
Harley shuddered and his back curled slightly, almost as if he wanted to go down to the floor, and I considered telling him we didn’t have to do this right now, but he said, “I… kind of don’t know if I want you to know where I live yet.” His words bled together.
Hurt surprised me, but I tried to respect his decision and keep it out of my voice. “That’s fair.”
He flicked his gaze toward my face, as if he knew I didn’t like that he didn’t trust me with his address. “Let’s meet at the big pet store at the mall? In… in an hour?”
“Okay.” I stepped in to kiss him, not quite ready to send him out into the world alone, but he turned his head. I was only able to brush my lips on the soft part of his cheek, right above where his light stubble began.
“Where’s your phone?” he asked.
“My pocket. Why?”
“I’ll give you my number. There’s always a chance something could happen on the road.” He quirked an eyebrow.
“So that’s how you want to play it?” I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing when he frowned. “If you want me to be able to call you, just say so.”
“I can change my mind,” he replied archly, his nose going in the air.
