The couple had already been falling for each other, but caring for the two dogs had made them an inseparable family.
Lucy wondered if River could do the same for her and Knox.With the wild twists and turns of her life lately, anything seemed possible.
CHAPTER9
When Knox awoke, he realized right off that something was wrong.His legs wouldn’t move and one arm was cramping.He lifted his head—and damn.Maybelline was stretched out over his calves, pinning him down.When he wiggled his toes, both legs tingled uncomfortably.Tank was tucked somehow between Maybelline and Laylee.With Laylee using his right arm for her pillow, he was effectively immobilized.
River …?Ouch.Feeling claws sink into his shoulder, he turned his head and there was the cat, stretching—claws out—now that Knox had disturbed his sleep.The cat’s yellow eyes opened, he gave a rumbling purr, and butted Knox’s chin.
“Mmm,” Laylee said, indulging her own stretch until she became aware of the cramped conditions.“What …?Oh.”She peeked up at Knox.“Good morning.”
Yeah, this.He wouldn’t mind starting every single morning for the rest of his life in exactly this way, as long as he was waking with Laylee beside him.“Good morning.”
“We have company.”
How could she look so beautiful and sexy even now?Neither one of them had gotten nearly enough sleep.Worse, the animals had afforded them no time for intimacy.
The cat wanted to be with them, and where River went, Maybelline and Tank followed.
At first Knox had been determined to set a proper routine.He loved animals, he really did, but he’d wanted Laylee.For that, he needed a smidge of privacy.A few hours.Hell, he could have worked with thirty minutes.
He didn’t get five seconds.
Repeatedly, he’d taken the animals back to the kitchen.But they hadn’t stayed there.So he’d tried moving the pet beds to the hall just outside the closed door.River was relentless, which also had Maybelline and Tank whining.
At one in the morning, he’d dragged the beds to the floor inside the room with the hope that the animals just wanted to be near them.After all, River had been through an ordeal.
But no.The cat wanted to beonthem, and that meant Maybelline and Knox did, too.
“You’re all cock blockers,” he grumbled now to the sleepy animals.His need for Laylee hadn’t abated.Pretty sure it never would.
“River was the instigator,” Laylee said around a yawn.Carefully, she extricated herself from the tangle of furry bodies.Her long hair was messy, her blue eyes heavy with sleepiness.The oversized shirt she wore barely covered her panties and left her long bare legs on display.
No woman should look that hot first thing in the morning, and yet she did.
At the bedroom door, she asked, “Who wants to go out?”
Her question caused a mad rush of flying paws and scrambling bodies as first Maybelline—huge lummox that she was—rolled and kicked until she’d freed herself, and then Knox lifted Tank off the bed.The dogs went flying up the hall.
Eyes wide and ears back, River sat up to watch, confused by the pandemonium until he apparently decided he didn’t care.He cuddled into Knox’s neck and turned up the volume of his purrs.
Knox had to laugh.“Nuisance,” he said to the cat, then gave him a stroke that had claws gripping him again.“Ouch.Stop that.”
River rolled to his back and scooted closer.
“You’re a real snuggler, huh?I wonder if a cat buddy would appease you at night.”
Laylee strode back in saying, “Don’t even think it.The bed’s not big enough.”
He sat up.“Come here and give me a kiss.”
She dropped the shorts she’d just picked up and crawled into the bed to straddle his lap.After petting River, she leaned down, and Knox captured her mouth for a kiss that would hopefully hold him until later.
A useless effort, because he wanted Laylee all the time—and he didn’t think that would change anytime soon.
When he pulled away, she collapsed to his side and cuddled against him much as River had.“I wanted you last night.Unfair that the animals wouldn’t let it happen.”
“We’ll figure it out.”
