Page 45 of Desperately Seeking Kitty

“I’m not much of a baker. If I want cookies, break and bake works for me.”

“Usually me too, but my father should be here any minute, and seeing him stresses me out.”

I nearly spit out my mouthful of burger. I managed to chew and swallow and set down the burger in its box, not about to leave it for the eagle-eyed cat to descend on. I knew very well my own cat’s proclivities for snatching takeout food, and Princess was watching me with the fixation of a voraciously hungry feline.

I leaped to my feet and hustled behind the couch to dig through my pile of clothes for my pants. “With no warning? It’s late. It’s gotta be late. And you didn’t tell me your father was coming? I’m sitting around in my boxers.”

It was a damn miracle I’d even managed to pull those back on.

“He won’t care. He’s been naked half his life.” She glanced at the cat-shaped wall clock. “Besides, it’s not even ten. This isn’t late for him. He stays up all night. His plane just landed.”

“I was more worried about me. I’d rather not meet your father in my underwear, if it’s all the same to you.”

“He won’t care what you’re wearing,” she repeated. “Just be prepared for him to judge you.”

“Isn’t that the job of a parent?”

She sniffed and stirred the ingredients in her bowl hard enough to repeatedly bang her spoon against the sides. Guess she didn’t agree with my opinion.

“He only drops in and out,” she said, almost too low to be heard. “He’s never been consistent yet tries to pretend he has a right to have a say in my life.”

At a loss what to say, I pulled on my sweats.

“You’re not supposed to wear underwear with those.”

“I’m not?”

“No, it makes it harder to ogle your cock.”

“Um, okay.” I tied my sweats tighter in my version of clutching my pearls, at least when it came to freeballing it in front of Kitty’s father.

I turned to pick up my shirt and sweater, only to find Princess Goldenrod had made a nest out of them and promptly gone to sleep. Shit. She was too cute to disturb, but I couldn’t meet Kitty’s father bare-chested.

Or bare-balled, but at least I’d handled that part.

“Don’t suppose you have an extra shirt I could wear?” I smiled at the cat despite myself.

I was a sucker for a cute pet. So sue me.

Kitty stirred her mix fiercely, not looking up. “Why do you think I hid my vibrator in the Bible? He claimed he was looking for a lighter when he knows damn well I don’t smoke.”

I cleared my throat. “Uh, T-shirt? And excuse me, what?”

She liberally poured in chocolate chips from a bag and then continued whipping her batter into a frenzy. “Any other father would’ve just ignored it. Not him. He should’ve been happy I didn’t have the drug stash he was snooping around for. Instead, he made it all awkward, as if plenty of people don’t have sex toys. Now, if I had a full-blown Sybian in here, fine.”

Maybe I could just wear my jacket. I bent to pick it up then stopped, cocking my head. “Isn’t a—”

“A sex machine. Yes. So I know what it is. I’ve seen stuff, okay? When a woman spends time alone, she has every right to fill her time as she chooses. Besides, one of my authors—” She broke off and stared into her bowl of batter as if it were a pile of tea leaves. “You know what? I’m an editor for independent authors. I’ve edited mysteries, sci-fi, true crime, some historical, and now I mostly edit romance. That includes erotic romance.”

“Okay,” I said slowly in deference to her almost defensive tone.

“I’m not ashamed of what I do. I’m proud of the books I edit, whatever genre they are. I just hate talking about myself.” She stirred faster. “People like to ask too many questions.”

“That they do.” And Kitty had shown over and over again that when she tired of a conversation, she just…ended it. So I could see why excessive questions would bother her.

Which was why I didn’t pose any on this subject myself.

Hell, there was a chance she’d edited a book I was on the cover of. Granted, those were fewer and farther between, now that I’d been out of the game for a couple of years, but some authors stockpiled cover stock, so I could appear anytime on a new book.

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