Page 97 of My Best Friend's Mardi Gras Wedding

“We do hayrack rides back home,” she said.

“They’ve got a couple of dogs too,” Josh told her, loving the way her walking pace had picked up.He didn’t think she was even aware of it.

“Oh my gosh.”She sighed.“Yes, I need a dog break.”

Yes.He knew it.And there was even more.Josh led her to the side door one of the groundskeepers had showed him earlier when he’d wandered into the barn.He held the door open for her.The barn looked—and smelled—like a barn, and Josh noted with a grin that Tori took a big breath as she stepped inside.The combination of wood, hay, dirt, and animals was a sharp contrast to the air in the mansion that smelled like wood polish and flowers and baked goods.He loved that she preferred this.It wasn’t like the bayou smelled what most people would callgood.But Tori just might not mind.

“Right over here.”Josh led her to the third stall on the right.He got in front of her because he wanted to see her face.

He turned as she came around the edge of the stall, and he watched as she scanned the hay and found what he’d brought her to see.

“Oh my God!”She stepped forward and hit her knees beside the mama cat and her six kittens.

Josh felt satisfaction and lust and love—yes, love—flood him as he propped his shoulder against the wooden post beside him and settled in to watch.

Tori started talking with the mother cat softly, letting the cat sniff her fingers, and reaching out slowly to touch the mother’s head first.

“She’s clearly used to having people around,” Tori said, smiling up at him.

“I talked to the groom a little bit earlier,” Josh said of the man who told him he’d been caring for the horses and stables here for over twenty years.“She’s basically a house cat but just out here in the barn.”

Tori turned her attention back to the cat.“She’s clearly well cared for.”

“I thought you’d like this.”

“Iloveit.”She gave him a smile that made his heart turn over in his chest.“Thank you.”

“Anything for that smile, Iowa,” he told her, noting his voice was gruff.

She looked touched by that and…something else.Something he couldn’t quite name.Then she sat down in the hay and reached out for the kittens.

And just like that, he knew that he’d lost being center of her attention for at least a little while.But he didn’t mind.He joined her on the hay and they spent the next thirty minutes holding and petting kittens.

He loved animals.Kittens were cute.No one could debate that.But there was nothing like watching Tori with animals.He’d heard her talk about them.He’d heard her stories and seen her face as she told them.But this was even better.

If he could talk her into moving to Louisiana, he was going to have to buy her a farm because he was going to need to keep her supplied with four-legged friends.For her, but also because of what it did to him.He really liked the way this woman made him feel.

“Is this one the runt?”he asked Tori, holding up the kitten he had cradled in his hand.

Tori looked over.She sat cross-legged and had two in her lap, one on her shoulder, and another in her hands.

She smiled.“Yep.But she seems to be doing okay.They’re about four weeks old and they’re all healthy.She’s clearly been feeding.”

Josh looked down at the purring ball of fluff in his hands, running a finger over the extra soft fur on the top of her head.Of course, Tori had checked them all out as they’d played.He winced as one of the kittens climbed his sleeve and sank her claws into his shoulder.He reached up and gingerly unhooked her from his shirt.“Now, come on, pretty girl,” he said to the kitten.“Holes in the shirt I can deal with, but maybe not holes inme.” She mewed at him, staring back with her big blue eyes.She was really cute.“Okay, see, then you say something sweet like that.”He sighed and put her back on his shoulder.She nuzzled his ear and he patted her head.“Yes, I forgive you.”

“Okay, that’s it.”Tori set all of the kittens to the side and stood.

“That’s…what?”Josh asked.

She brushed hay off of her skirt.Then she reached for the ties on the top of her shoulders that were keeping the straps of her dress up.She pulled one loose and the front of her dress fell down, revealing the top curve of one breast.

“I am very in favor of…whatever this is,” Josh said, his body throbbing with need instantaneously.

She gave him a soft smile and his cock got even harder.“I want you, Josh.I’ve wanted you since the first minute we met.Sex with you was amazing.But you and kittens?Yousavedme from wedding makeovers with Paisley…withkittens.I’ve never wantedanythinglike I want you right now.”She pulled the other tie loose and her dress fell to her waist.She wasn’t wearing a bra.“Right here.”

He peeled the kitten off of his shoulder again and set her and her runt sister back in the hay with their mom.“I didn’t bring you down here to see the kittens so you’d get naked.”

“Which is all the more reason that I really want to get naked with you.”

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