Dropping Gloves (20 page)

Well, there was a first.

It felt insanely
awkward to get up, clean myself off, pull my pants on, and move around the house as if nothing earth-shattering had just happened. But it had. My whole world had changed in the moment that Katie had put her lips on me. Even now, I felt it all the way to the ends of the messy hairs on my head, and I could see it in the way her eyes fell on me every time I walked by her. Both of us knew nothing would ever be the same between us again, and that was a good thing.

What kinds of things should we talk about after what had just gone down, though? How the hell was I supposed to move from something like that into whatever came next? She’d just given me my first ever blow job, and I hadn’t done a fucking thing for her, and that wasn’t even close to fair. I was almost as much of an ass as fucking Beau Brunetti, but she acted like she didn’t mind me being so selfish. In fact, she’d seemed as though she’d enjoyed it. Was that normal? I didn’t know. I mean, I completely understood why men loved it because, holy hell, that had been amazing and mind-blowing and a thousand times better than anything involving nothing more than my hand, but I wasn’t sure I followed how a woman could be into it.

Maybe I should talk to her about it, but the idea of asking something along the lines of
Hey, did you enjoy having my balls up in your face, because I did?
seemed even more uncomfortable than pretending our world hadn’t just tilted so far off its axis that it fell through space. I’d better just zip it for now. My mouth and my pants, both.

I went into the kitchen and put fresh water in Blackbeard’s bowl, then grabbed a can of his kitten food. I left the dry stuff out for him all the time, but the people at the rescue had insisted I should give him some of the stinky wet stuff every day, too. He was still on the couch. Katie had joined him again there after she’d gone off to the bathroom for a minute, and he was gnawing on her fingers. But the second he heard the can pop open, he raced into the kitchen and climbed my pants. Thank God I’d put them on again and hadn’t just pulled on some boxers. I should have put on a shirt, too, but it was too late for second thoughts since he was sinking his claws into my skin to get to my shoulder.

I hissed in a breath. “Fucking hell, dude.”

Katie joined us just in time to snicker. “Should you be using language like that in front of him?”

“I doubt he’ll start repeating everything I say anytime soon.” Not like Connor Johnson. So many inappropriate things had come out of that little boy’s mouth the other night that I hadn’t been able to stop myself from laughing out loud. My reactions had only made Jonny glower at Sara more than he already had been, until she’d thrown up her hands and said,
What do you want to do, wash my mouth out with soap for every bad word he picks up?
I was pretty sure Jonny was debating it, but chances were he would come up with a better solution. Granted, she might not agree his idea was better. What I wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall in their house sometimes... The battles of wills had to be epic.

“I don’t know,” Katie murmured, tapping her fingers on the table even though Blackbeard was
not
willing to be distracted by something silly like playtime right now. There was food coming, after all. “He’s more parrot than cat, at this point.”

“Just don’t tell me I need to start feeding him birdseed. I have no doubt he’d eat it because he eats everything, but I’m guessing this is better for him.”

“He might not mind it if you got a parrot,” Katie said, grinning. “They could be buddies and entertain each other when you’re gone.”

“He’d probably try to kill and eat the parrot.”

“As small as he is, the parrot might eat him first.”

“Not so sure about that,” I said, extracting Blackbeard’s claws from my skin so I could set him on the counter now that his food was ready. “I don’t think birds are carnivores.”

He flailed, frantic to grab on to me again, until I got his nose right in front of his dish. Then he devoured his food in about two and a half seconds. By the time he finished it, his belly was big and round, and he had a sleepy look on his face again.

Blackbeard settled those huge blue eyes on my shoulder. I picked him up and put him there to avoid more claw marks in my skin.

“He looks fat and happy now,” Katie said.

I grinned. “You want to join him?” As soon as I said it, I realized how that might come across. Too late, though. The words were already out of my mouth. Heat raced up my neck and face.

She arched a brow. “You want my belly pooching out like his? Not sure I’ll be able to gain much weight once I start radiation and chemo. I’ll probably lose weight then because of all the nausea. And there’s no telling if I’ll ever be able to…well, that’s not what you meant, anyway.”

Her cheeks were pink and she wouldn’t look at me. She meant being pregnant. She meant she might never be able to have a baby. I really hadn’t thought anything through when I’d opened my fucking mouth. I didn’t mean to turn the conversation back to cancer and chemo and all the ways it would hurt her even though it might save her life. I didn’t want to bring all that sadness and pain back into this moment. I wanted to keep things light and playful, to give her a place where she could escape from the harsh realities of her life for a while. I wanted to be her safety net.

“I meant I could make you something to eat. Dessert or something,” I said, recognizing how feeble it sounded in comparison to what she’d initially interpreted it to mean. “I fed you once, and you didn’t immediately keel over and die from food poisoning. You never did eat the chocolate mug cake I made for you.”

She smiled without looking up, tracing the patterns of the swirls in my marble counters. “If I ever turn down chocolate, that’s when you know there’s something to worry about.”

“Two chocolate mug cakes, coming right up.”

I disengaged Blackbeard again, passing him over to Katie. Then I took out two coffee cups and the ingredients, and I set to work. She put him on the floor and got him to chase a feather toy on a bright yellow fishing pole for a while, but I doubted he would keep it up for long. Not after a big meal like that. When I took the cakes out of the microwave, I turned around to find him making a flying leap at me…only it was really the feather he was going for. It was just heading right in my direction. I dodged out of the way just in the nick of time to avoid claws sinking into my balls again. Once was more than enough for this lifetime.

“Sorry,” Katie said, but she was laughing and didn’t look remotely apologetic.

“Did you swing that thing my way on purpose?”

“Not really. Maybe.” The look in her eyes said
absolutely
.

“So that’s what I get for making chocolate cake for you, huh?” I set them on the counter to cool, put some raspberries in the mugs, and topped them off with whipped cream.

“Can you put some more in mine?” she asked.

“After you sent that killer flying straight at my nuts?” I scoffed. “You should be glad I’m not going to keep it all for myself.” But I still put more whipped cream in her cup. I set the can on the counter, grabbed two spoons, and carried everything into the living room.

She followed me, Blackbeard chasing the feather toy behind her. When she sat down next to me, she set the can of whipped cream on the coffee table.

“Still not enough?” I asked, laughing.

“Never enough.” She gave me a seductive smile that heated my blood. It was too soon after I’d just come, wasn’t it? But I was already starting to get turned on again.

Blackbeard swatted at the feathers a few more times, but Katie wasn’t swinging it anymore, and he was absolutely pooped. He curled up on the area rug, wrapping both front paws around the feathers to keep them close, like a child would hold a teddy bear, and was asleep in no time.

Katie took one of the mugs and a spoon and dug in. I waited to see what she thought, not that I had to wait very long. She swallowed and glanced up at me. “How on earth is this so good?”

“Oh, you’re surprised, eh?”

“Well, not that you made it,” she clarified. “I already figured out you’ve learned a lot in terms of making your way around the kitchen. I’m more surprised that something that can be put together so fast could possibly be this good.”

I shoved my spoon in my cup and came up with a big mound, making sure I got cake, berries, and cream, too. Katie reached for the can, but instead of spraying it in her cup, she shoved the dispenser between my lips and shot some cream in my mouth alongside my bite. In shock, I laughed so hard I snorted, which was apparently the wrong thing to do with a mouthful of chocolate, raspberry, and sweetened cream; it went everywhere.

“What did you do that for?” I asked, trying to catch what was falling from my mouth but failing miserably. It dripped down my chin, dribbled all over my chest, and some even landed on my lap.

Katie had a mischievous gleam in her eye. “So I could do this,” she said. Then she took my mug from me, set them both on the coffee table, and licked some of it from my chest.

That was all it took for me to go from laughing to harder than steel. I’d been uncertain a few moments before if I could get another erection so soon, but there it was, plain as day, tenting my pants. I leaned back against the cushions, watching her in wonder. “If you wanted your cake and mine, too, you could have just asked,” I said. My voice shook because she was working her tongue up the cleft in the center of my abs, the same way she’d done to my cock earlier. “I would have given it to you. Made you another. Whatever.” I’d give her anything she wanted.

“I could have,” she said when she dipped her head lower and flicked her tongue around my belly button in a way that made my stomach quiver. “But I wanted to do this more than I wanted cake.”

I leaned back, eyes locked on her every move, trying to get myself under control. I couldn’t exactly complain about what she was doing, either. I couldn’t do much of anything but watch, hope that I could hold out long enough to actually make love to her this time, and clench my hands on the couch cushions.

She still had the can in her grip, and she sprayed a dollop on one of my nipples. Her lips closed over it, and she sucked so hard she might as well have been doing the same to my dick, because it jerked in response.

“Does it—” I cut myself off, trying to get my thoughts in line. Not an easy task since now she was swirling her tongue around that nub, and her hands were gliding all over my ribs and abs, and I was about to completely lose my shit.

“Does it what?”

“Does it feel like this for you? If I— If I touched you like this, would it feel this good?”

She didn’t answer right away. She kept licking my skin and leaving a trail of wet kisses in her wake as she came up my neck to my mouth. Her thighs straddled my lap, and she ground herself against me. She kissed me, tasting sweet and chocolaty and perfect, and I put my hands on her hips to bring her closer to me.

But then she straightened, set the can of whipped cream aside, and tugged on the hem of her shirt. I watched in wonder as she stripped it up and over her head, tossing it to the floor behind her. “Why don’t we find out?” she said.

She had on a pink, lacy bra, delicate fabric cupping her flawless breasts. My mouth watered, my eyes hungrily taking her in. I wanted to see every bit of her. To touch every inch of her skin. To discover all her scents and tastes and learn the sensitive places she liked to be touched.