“Sorry. I wasn’t expecting anything to touch me while I was admiring you.” His eyes dropped down to the ground where a fucking orange cat sat two steps away, licking it’s paw. “What is that?”
“That’s Marla.” Jessie said it so calmly, like saying the cat’s name, which sounded like a seventy-five-year-old grandma, explained everything.
“Jess, who is Marla, and why is she in our apartment?”
She laughed, turning away from him and back to the stove. Celine Dion still blared through the small Bluetooth speaking on the counter top, Jessie’s hips swaying back and forth pulling him back under her spell.
“She’s our cat.”
Oh, god.
“No,” he huffed.
“Oh, yes. She is.”
“Well,I don’t have a cat.” He walked into the kitchen, letting his hands land on her hips. Hawk’s lips rested on her ear. “And last thing I knew, I was intimately acquainted with the only pussy you own.”
She giggled as he nipped at her ear, his fingers moving slowly to touch her belly. Jessie shifted her hips and pressed back into him, pulling a fucking pathetic groan from his throat.
“From my recollection, you haven’t seen her in a very long time.”
“Don’t worry, Pretty Girl. I plan on fixing that in thenext two minutes. But first… the cat currently sitting over there?” He playfully pulled the spoon from Jessie’s hand and waved it in the direction of the mysterious feline.
“Marlapicked me today while I was out with your sister. At the park with the girls.”
His body went still. “She’s a stray? Jess?—”
“Knock it off. Mae and I took her to the vet. She’s perfectly healthy. And she was clearly someone’s pet because she’s been spayed, but she isn’t chipped. No one has reported her missing, and Dr. LeMott didn’t recognize her. So, I said I would foster her.”
“Foster her?”
Jessie rolled her eyes. “Keep her, until her family is found. Eventually adopt her, if they can’t be.”
“She’s going to scratch all of our stuff,” Hawk groaned. “Couldn’t you have found a cute puppy?”
“What do you want me to say? The universe distributes cats the way it wants to. It’s an honor to be chosen, Chief. I promise.” Her hand patted against his chest before she crouched down, wiggling her fingers back and forth to call over the ginger menace. “Besides, she won’t scratch us or our things. She has claw caps on.”
The cat sauntered over to Jessie, jumping into her arms. She cradled Marla like a newborn baby, grasping her front paw and holding it out for Hawk to examine. And… well, fuck. The cat did in fact have little tiny, bright pink rubber covers over all her claws.
“Bright pink, huh?” he teased.
“Dr. LeMott was just going to put on a bunch of mismatched ones, but we couldn’t have that.” Her voice turned sugary sweet as she smooshed the cat's face into hers. “Could we now, Marla? She’s definitely a pink kinda gal.”
“Don’t know. She seems emoto me.”
“That’s just because you haven’t given her a very warm welcome.” She stuck her bottom lip out and widened her eyes.
“Fine.” Hawk forced his hand up, setting it on the cat's head. “Welcome to the family, Marla.”
“Yay!” Jessie squealed, twirling the cat around before setting her back on the floor.
“But she stays out of our room, Pretty Girl. That space is just for you and me.”
“Whatever you say,daddy.”
He chuckled, his sights set back on Jessie. “Mm… that reminds me.”
Her shriek filled the kitchen as his hands held her in place while he nipped and nibbled at her skin. It felt like it was a thousand degrees in their apartment and it had nothing to do with the food she was cooking.
