Page 38 of A Taste For Trouble
“You’re both wrong,” declared Trevor. “Just like some other people I won’t name, Sweetpea needs a woman to love the grumpy out of him and keep him in line. I’ve got a solution for that. Presenting Sweetpea’s new girlfriend…Scary Mary!”
He reached into the big box he’d lugged into the house and pulled out a black cat with a white face and white stockings. I examined her critically before I turned to him.
“There’s literally nothing scary about her, Trevor. That has to be one of the sweetest cats I’ve ever seen.”
“I agree,” said Rose, taking the cat from Trevor and cuddling her gently. “She’s lovely, but Sweetpea is going to maul her to bits. He cannot tolerate other cats around him.”
“He can try,” said Trevor, with a snort. “Scary Mary looks very sweet, but she is, in fact, the scourge of the alpha male cat. She’s been rehomed twice because she has emasculated every male cat she’s met so far.”
Just then, Sweetpea wandered into the room, and he went on high alert as soon as he saw me carrying another cat. He yowled angrily and came up on his haunches to yell at Scary Mary. She stared back at him coolly, not moved in the slightest by his threats. And before he could understand what was happening, she put out a paw and skippity-papped him right across the face.
I gasped in response, and Sweetpea looked shell-shocked. And that’s when I realised that Scary Mary was going to live up to her name.
It was as if that slap changed something vital in Sweetpea. He began to see Scary Mary as a superior creature - one worthy of his devotion, and became completely obsessed with her. Scary Mary, in turn, was completely obsessed with Dominic.
She followed him around all the time, crying like a baby when he went to work, curling up in his lap when he was in his study. And she got furious with Sweetpea if he was mean to her Daddy. Which meant he was forced to put up with Dominic if he wanted to please his lady love. I almost cried the day he allowed Dom to brush his fur while he was brushing Scary Mary’s.
But all of this was complicating my future.
A few days after Scary Mary came into our lives, Trevor and I were at the weekly nail appointment he had set up for us, when he turned to me with a smug smile.
“I told you I’d fix your cat, and I fixed him good,” he crowed.
I shook my head.
“And what about when this all ends, Trev?”
“What do you mean?”
“Scary Mary is Dom’s cat now. She’s never going to come home with me when I leave, and Sweetpea is going to be heartbroken.”
“Why the hell do you have to leave, Rosie? You’ve finally got a shot at what you’ve always wanted - Dominic Carlisle. The man is completely besotted with you. And no, we all know this relationship is not fake anymore,” he said, rolling his eyes. “You can’t hide your post-coital bliss from your best friend or the housekeeping staff who make your empty bed every day.”
I sighed heavily and stared at the pretty swirls the stylist was making on my nails.
“We might be sleeping together, but the relationship is still fake, Trev. We’re not together in the real sense of the word. I think we’re just scratching a mutual itch.”
“That’s ridiculous, babe. The boss can’t take his eyes off you anytime you’re around him,” he argued. “He hasn’t taken this much time off since he first started working because he wants to spend all his time with you.”
“What are you talking about? He works from his study all day,” I replied.
“Babe, that is a miracle in itself. We’re talking about a man who used to be at his desk at nine am every single day, even if he was sick. Now he’d rather work from home, so he can make his own coffee while staring at you, and have a quickie before lunch.”
I was just taking a sip of herb tea when he said that, and at his words, I spewed the fragrant tea all over my poor manicurist.
“Have you been spying on us?” I asked in horror.
“Eww, no! But thank you for confirming my suspicions,” he said with an evil cackle.
“Trevor, be honest with me. It’s been almost ten days since Joe went into hiding. What’s going on with the cartel?” I asked desperately.
Dominic didn’t like to discuss it at all, and any free time we had, we spent…well…boinking. I thought we’d tire of each other after the first few times, but it felt like each time we made love, it only made us hungrier for each other. It was addictive.
Dom was a very generous lover, taking time to coax multiple orgasms out of me before taking his own pleasure. I was deliriously happy because all my dreams were coming true. Only I couldn’t shed the feeling that in Dom’s mind, this was only temporary, while I was falling deeply and irrevocably in love with him.
“Well, we’ve hit a bit of a block as far as the cartel is concerned. They refuse to call off the hit on you unless you return the stash,” he whispered, with one eye on the woman doing his pedicure.
“What hit?” I yelped in horror.