Page 16 of Desperately Seeking Kitty

“What the hell are you talking about?” Clint demanded. “Can I come up? I’d rather not stand in the lobby with a cat strapped to my chest, staring at me with murder in his eyes.”

Cat strapped to his chest?I supposed that was the plan change he’d mentioned.

I laughed again and released the door.

He made it upstairs in record time and was at my door in what felt like seconds. I opened it at his knock—and was struck by the most mesmerizing green eyes I’ve ever seen.

And this time, I wasn’t talking about Lucky’s, although it was a close race. His were pretty stupendous too.

“You actually do look like father and son.” I managed to keep a straight face as I pushed my glasses up on top of my head.

It was actually a smart move because Clint was a littletoogood-looking. The kind that made a woman like me forget my morals.

He frowned. “What was that about romance novels?”

I waved a hand. “Think that was static on the speaker.” Lame save. I wasn’t embarrassed about my profession. I just didn’t want to hear the usual questions and jokes. “The super barely keeps this building up, but hey, it’s rent controlled, so yay me. Come in?”

“Um…” He smiled briefly, revealing perfectly white teeth that seemed almost too bright against the darkness of his scruff. Just the perfect amount too. Not too much. Just enough that you knew it would offer the perfect friction against sensitive areas that probably would’ve settled for lackluster scruff just about now.

Nothing about Clint Hauser seemed lackluster in any way.

Clint was looking around my place with a frown, which made me frown back as I tried to see the place as he would. My style could best be described as spartan. I didn’t have much furniture—just the couch, a couple of tables, a small bookshelf crammed to the brim with books, a single recliner, and an assortment of cat condos, trees, and toys.

No wall hangings or decor. No knickknacks. Just two photos—my favorite of Muffintop and one other. But he didn’t notice that. Oh, no.

“No TV?” He diverted his sexy eyes to my face, his dark brows knitted together as if I was a new and puzzling alien life form.

I shrugged. “Princess watches Cat TV on my laptop, so why bother?”

“Your only use for a TV is Cat TV?”

“Why else?”

“I don’t know. Movies, sports, porn?”

If the last one was meant to shock me, he was snarking up the wrong tree. “I can watch that just fine on my laptop.”

His black eyebrow winged up as Lucky looked back and forth between us as if we were his own form of entertainment. Who needed squirrels and birds on a screen? “Are you saying you watch it?”

“I didn’t confirm or deny. Just that I have the capability.”

He gestured wildly. “What about Christmas?”

“What about it?”

“Your place isn’t decorated.”

“Duh. It’s November. Halloween was just last month.”

“So? Many of your brethren put up the tinsel on November 1st. Not to mention the town has started decorating. The apartment on the first floor of this very building has a festive lit-up duck tangled in Christmas lights in her window.”

I shrugged. “Some are into it. Some are not. Some are indifferent.”

Indifferentwas a great word. I’d been trying to reach that state regarding one thing or another for most of my life.

Especially family matters. That one, I had a feeling I’d be striving for until the end of time.

“Which are you?”

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