Page 14 of Peacocks

He pulled back and met my eyes. “I know you don’t want anything serious, but I…” He swallowed. “I want to sleep here with you tonight. It doesn’t have to mean anything.”

I didn’t know exactly what Iwanted, but I was pretty sure I knew what waspossible. Nothing had changed in the last hour, after all. I was still shitty at relationships at the best of times, and Jay and I were still incredibly different people. But I couldn’t help asking, “What makes you think I don’t want anything serious?”

Jay’s eyebrows winged up. “Do you?”

“N-no!” I shook my head fervently. “God, no. Nope. Noooo. I mean, I just got out of a relationship. Er, well, a year ago. Six months before I moved here. And it ended badly. Chad didn’t… I wasn’t…” I took a deep breath and let it out. “So… no.”

His eyebrows settled. “Right. So. It’s just… casual… whatever. Yeah?”

Logically, I knew he was correct, so even though something about his words felt wrong—jarringly wrong—I ignored it. I forced myself to say, “Yeah. Good. Casual.”

He leaned in to kiss me again. I lost myself in the overwhelming feel of him, the intoxicating press of his strong body against mine. The warmth of his skin and the sounds of his enjoyment.

We kissed for what seemed like hours, eventually stroking each other off when the intensity ratcheted up. After cleaning up the mess, we fell against each other again to catch our breaths.

And when the morning came, I expected things to get very awkward very quickly.

Except… they didn’t.

Jay appeared at my bedside in his underwear and holding two mugs of coffee. “Scooch over. It’s cold as balls out here.”

I moved over without thinking and felt the icy draft he brought with him as he returned to the warmth of the bed. As I took the hot mug from him, he settled against the headboard. “Okay, tell me what the peacocks need, and I’ll get it fixed up for them. You said something about a roost, right?”

“Yes. You’re really sweet,” I said softly. “Not a lot of people would care so much.”

Jay shrugged like he was uncomfortable with the praise. “I like taking care of things, like you said. I don’t always know the best way to do it, but I’m a quick learner. And what’s so wrong with wanting to make people… or, like, peacocks, I guess… happy, when it makes me happy too?”

“Not a single thing.”

He looked at me for a moment like he was trying to decide if I was being sincere or just telling him what he wanted to hear. Then, his face split in a wide grin. “Good. ’Cause I might not have set out to acquire a flock of peacocks, but they’re mine now. And I take care of what’s mine.”

I sucked in a breath.What would it be like to be his?I couldn’t help wondering.

But then I stopped myself. There was no use wondering about impossible things.

We spent the next half hour discussing proper peacock habitats, the fifteen minutes after that sucking each other off in a shared shower, and then separated to go back to our real lives.

Except it wasn’t quite that easy. Even when I was supposed to be concentrating on my work, I kept remembering how it had felt to be touched by Jay, adored by him. I already knew what it felt like to have him care for me in a “neighborly” way, but having him in my bed was an entirely different thing. The orgasm had been phenomenal, but the way he’d focused on me afterward and insisted on staying with me was?—

“But those anal glands are all yours.”

“Huh?” I snapped my head up to see Pete Winchell, our vet tech, glaring at me.

“Are you even here today, Doc Lane? Because I said your name, like, ten times and then had to threaten you with an impacted anal gland to get you to pay attention.”

I rubbed my eyes and glanced down at the exam table. Buttercup’s gaze was reproachful.

“Sorry,” I said, aiming my apology to both Pete and the dog. “I was daydreaming, I guess. My bad.”

“Uh-huh.” Pete raised one eyebrow. “So who’s the guy? Is he hot? And does he have a twin brother, close single friend, or heartbroken ex in need of a shoulder to cry on?” He wiggled his eyebrows meaningfully. “’Cause I’ve got sturdy shoulders, and I wanna say I’m not that desperate, but… I might be that desperate.”

I felt my face go hot. “I said nothing about a… anyone. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“No?” Pete pursed his lips. “If that’s the story you wanna go with, okaaaay… I’ll just have to tell everyone I caught you smiling goofily and daydreaming about expressing Buttercup’s glands.”

I shot him an exasperated look. “You don’thaveto tell anyone anything at all since it’s none of their business.”

He gave me a pitying smile. “That’s not how it works in the Thicket, Doc. Everybody here knows everybody else. And that’sa wonderful thing because it means everyone looks out for each other and really cares. But even a CIA agent couldn’t keep a secret here.”

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