Page 50 of Desperately Seeking Kitty

Hated fucking tears. I thought I’d avoided them this time. Too many distractions.

But nope. Of course not.

Sucker.

I should be basking in the night I’d spent with Clint, whatever may come. Instead I was yet again wondering why my father just couldn’t help causing me pain.

As if he sensed the change in me, Clint crawled back out and swallowed at whatever he saw on my face. “You okay?”

“Sure. Fine. Why wouldn’t I be?” Furiously, I swiped at my cheeks and threw my legs over the side of my bed, gripping the edge of my mattress until my knuckles burned from the strain. “He’s done this before. He’ll have an excuse. Something colorful. Not just ‘I didn’t bother to come’ because that’s too boring.” I tried to bite my tongue on the rest but it just spewed out of me. “I should be focusing on what an amazing night we had. I tried so hard to block him out. But the moment I woke up, after I checked you out—nice tie, by the way—I was right back on mystupiddaddy issues.”

“Here I thought you were checking out my ass. Instead it’s my tie?” He flopped it against his chest.

I was so flabbergasted I had to laugh—until I cried.

He didn’t say anything else, just tugged me into his arms. I’d never had a better hug. Even with all our nakedness, I hadn’t taken time to properly appreciate how his arms were perfectly formed for comfort.

“You’re not only good at thrusting,” I said against his neck when my tears finally began to slow.

“No? And I’ve prided myself on it for so long.” He stroked my hair. “Are you hungry? You didn’t eat last night.”

“Neither did you.”

“I did after you fell asleep. Then I baked the cookies and ate some of those.”

I eased back to look at him. “How could you make my cookies? You don’t have the recipe.”

“Three-hundred-fifty degrees is pretty standard. I eyeballed them, and they were delicious.”

“You probably ate them raw, you animal.”

He shrugged. “They tasted good.”

Because those words reminded me of other…things he’d tasted thoroughly last night, I flushed and looked away.

Unfortunately, my gaze landed on his pristine white dress shirt, now soaked with my tears.

“Oh, God, I ruined you. You can’t go to work like this.”

He jerked a shoulder. “It’ll dry. It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine. I’m not fine. I shouldn’t be dating you. Dating is for balanced people only.”

“Really? I hate to tell you, most of us are cracked cookies in one way or another.”

I sniffled. “You’re only being nice because you loved my cookies.”

“That is a very true statement.”

I flushed again and tried not to burrow into his chest. He was so solid and warm and he smelled so damn good.

Next time, I’d try adding cinnamon to my cookies. The baked ones.

“I’ll buy you a new shirt.”

“You most certainly will not. But you could bring me lunch.”

My head shot up. “You’re sneaky, Hauser.”

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