Page 10 of Approved (The Dapper Duck #1)

Chapter ten

TYLER

When I looked in the box, everything I had said to West vanished, because his worries were appropriate for the situation—I swallowed down my panic.

This kitten was one step up from birth.

Its eyes were barely open, and there was no way it could walk.

If I were to guess, I would say this kitten was maybe ten days old.

I dropped to my knees and reached into the box.

When I arrived, I unhooked Earl’s leash, so he jumped down next to the box and looked inside.

“Fuck West. It wouldn’t have lived overnight.” I petted the tiny body, which fit easily in the palm of my hand.

“You’re a hero.”

West sat on the floor beside me, our backs against the cabinets.

I held the tiny kitten, my head leaning against West as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

His heat along my side made me feel good, and I smiled.

Even though we were focused on the small animal, a shudder ran through my body at his proximity.

I’d warmed up to West, and it felt like my brain had started to catch up with my desires.

Finally, I was in a place where I wanted to know a whole lot more about him, including the things we might do naked.

We sat there and looked at the baby in my hands.

“How do you think it got out there?” He said quietly.

“I don’t know, but it’s lucky you found it.”

“I didn’t have much choice. It was crying for help. I would have never been out there if it weren’t for wanting to check my phone for messages.” I watched as he blushed as soon as he said the words.

It was already getting close to three-thirty.

“I have a 4:00 p.m. appointment for this little one. I should leave. Will you stay?”

A wave of warmth flowed through my body.

“Yes. How about I drive, and I will run a couple of errands while you are talking to the vet.”

“Errands?”

“Yes. You’ll see.”

We both got up, and he put the tiny cat inside the box and made sure it was cuddled inside a towel.

I picked up Earl and put him on his back, petting his tummy scales.

“I am going to leave you here, buddy. I will bring you some beef and chicken, but you must behave yourself.” He pushed himself upright and rubbed against my face.

I knew Earl would be fine, but he didn’t love being left behind, and the promised treats would go a long way to make up for it.

While West went to his appointment, I headed to a big box store.

My cart was embarrassingly full as I walked out, but I had everything needed for dinner, and all the items a new cat dad would want.

WEST

We are ready.

TYLER

I’ll be there in five minutes

In front of the office, West had a smaller box than the one he had before, but he was peering inside and fussing with the contents, so I knew he still had the kitten.

I waited while he put the box on the back seat, securing it with the seatbelt.

“What did they say?” I was eager to find out the tiny kitten’s prognosis.

“They think they are between ten and fourteen days old, and since I went to all the neighbors, then called all the clinics, they suspect he had been taken and then dropped by another animal.”

“What? Like a dog?”

“They said a dog or a large bird most likely. If they hear of a missing kitten, they will let me know. With that information, odds are it’s a boy, based on visual inspection, but they can’t tell me the gender one hundred percent. Since we are about to go into the weekend, they could send it to the ASPCA facility, but they couldn’t say what would happen afterward.”

“You.” I couldn’t believe he had even considered leaving it, but he didn’t say that I made an assumption.

“So what did you decide?”

“He’s going to stay with me. There was no way I would put this guy through any more than he already has been. They need to be home with us.” The word home comforted me somewhat, but the term us caused a lump in my throat.

“Here is the thing, though, for the next few weeks, they must be fed every three to four hours, which means long nights and days. I can take him to the bar with me, and I am already scheduled off tomorrow.”

“I’ll be with you and help.” He turned his head and looked at me, and I looked at him.

Neither of us said anything, which confused me.

The car behind us beeped when the light turned green.

“Oh.” As we drove, I could feel West looking at the side of my head.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Waiting until your brain catches up with your mouth.” He smiled at me like he knew something I didn’t know.

I ran through everything we had talked about, and then it hit me: “Ohhhhhhhh.” At that moment, I realized that I liked West a lot because I was comfortable enough to assume we were in this together.

“If that’s okay?”

He chuckled, “It’s more than okay. I think this might change our date, though. I’d still love to spend the day with you. We just have to work it around feeding the little one.”

My heart pounded harder than it had a right to.

“I’d like that.” “Good. We’ll still have fun, I promise.” He grinned at me.

“Anyhow, it appears they are in good shape, healthy, hungry, but they are an orphan. So I guess I am the mama.” He sounded bashful when he said it.

“I feel better now since my panic was warranted. They shouldn’t be on their own at this age. They can’t even walk yet. My poor baby is probably terrified.”

Everything in me warmed with affection for this man, which turned into desire.

I wanted him.

It was lucky that my needs lined up with my inviting myself to spend the night.

“They have their new ‘Mama’ and will grow big and strong.”

He looked at me weirdly but didn’t say anything as we parked.

“Let me get them in the house, then I’ll help with groceries.”

West had no idea what I had purchased for his new baby, but I figured that would be my little surprise.

I admired his body as he walked away, watching how he held himself.

Now that I approved of him, I embraced the whole package.

This was the first time I would get to know a guy, date, and even consider a future in seven years.

I hoped I wouldn’t regret it.

He came back out and grabbed the grocery bags.

“Are you having a dinner party you forgot to invite me to?”

“I only got stuff for dinner.” He looked at me, not buying it at all.

It could be that I had gone overboard, but I had so many ideas about what I wanted to cook for him, and now that I would be there for the remainder of the day and tomorrow, I was glad that I bought so much.

Since he had grabbed the remainder of the groceries, I started to unload the trunk.

Wrestling one of the bigger boxes up the sidewalk, West came out the door.

“Hey Tyler, what’s…” He stopped mid-sentence while I continued to fight the unwieldy box up his walkway.

“Tyler? What is all this?”

“Hehe.” I freaking giggled.

“You are a cat dad now, you need cat things.” There was already a pile of items at the door that I had moved before he came back out.

There was a litter box, litter, several kinds of kitten food, cat formula, toys, and various other random items.

The biggest purchase was a seven-foot tree for the kitten that couldn’t even walk yet.

He looked at the giant box and then at me with a huge smile.

He said nothing but shook his head and helped me get everything inside, including the cat tree.

When he closed the front door, I looked at the things I had purchased.

He moved closer to me.

“Tyler, what have you done?” He smiled even bigger and chuckled, then got even closer, his hands sliding my jacket off my shoulders, letting it fall to the floor.

He let his hands run up and down my arms.

It was soothing, and I moved closer to him until there wasn’t more than an inch between us.

“This seems like an awful lot for a kitten that can’t eat on its own yet.” He was right.

“How did you know I would keep the kitten?”

That was a question easily answered.

“Because it picked you. You are a good person, a sweet man, and someone who would never let something so vulnerable navigate this world alone.”

He pulled me against him, one of his hands going around my back, the other running gently down my jaw, stopping and holding my chin.

“You think very highly of me. Thank you for that.” Then he drew my mouth to his, our lips touched and teased.

My nerves kicked up while his tongue moved over my bottom lip, warm and gentle.

I opened for him and dove into his mouth, searching for the heat.

When his hand slid to the back of my head, he deepened the kiss, and I went right along with it.

As our tongues battled my cock filled, a low groan escaped from me.

His mouth was magic, my entire body felt electrified, and my worries about being with West faded away in that moment.

I wanted him more than I had ever wanted someone.

I appreciated his patience while he let me decide where we would go with our friendship.

It had been weeks, but there was electricity there, and I was ready to explore it more completely.

“West.” His name was the only thing my brain could come up with.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to ask him to take me to his bed or drop to my knees right here amongst the cat supplies.

His mouth was on mine again, then he kissed up my jaw, and sucked along my neck as he moved us around the things on the floor to his couch, where I sat when my legs made contact.

“Is this okay?” My answer was to pull him to my lap.

As soon as he straddled me, I could feel his hardness as he strained against his zipper.

We took a minute to breathe.

Unable to stop completely, I kissed his neck, to his collarbone, and opened his shirt.

Under my touch, he wiggled and moaned, his hips sought friction, which allowed me to look between us.

“Fuck. West, you are…” How did you tell a man you thought he had a big cock when you could only see it through his jeans.

Before I started taking this further, I wanted to make sure we were on the same page.

I ran my tongue along his trapezius ridge, then up his neck until I was right against his ear.

“I want you.”

He retook my mouth like he was starved for me, our lips were already bruised, and our need ramped up.

“Tyler, I want you, too.”

That was all the confirmation I needed.

I unbuttoned his shirt, pulled it off, then stopped to stare at all the exposed skin.

He had an incredible body, broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and defined abs.

“Holy fuck West. I didn’t expect all this under those Western shirts you wear.”

He smirked at me.

“Do you like?”

I kissed his chest, then sucked one of his nipples which hardened immediately.

My teeth tugged the nub, and I liked the rumble from his chest.

“Like? That would be a huge understatement.”

He followed my lead and removed my shirt, kissed my shoulders, and went down my chest.

He licked my skin which made me shudder with desire, and my cock throbbed in my pants.

Slowly, I ran my palms down his chest over his stomach, and across the trail of hair that led to the button of his jeans, which I opened quickly.

Unable to help myself, I reached for his thick cock immediately, then squeezed him through his boxer briefs.

He was impossibly hard, and there were so many things I wanted to do with his impressive member.

My mouth watered and my ass already ached for him.

With West, I had none of the awkwardness I’d had with hookups—he made me comfortable.

I quickly became obsessed with rubbing and squeezing him.

As I enjoyed how he felt in my hands, I was reminded that I did that to him.

I was the one who made him that hard, and it was empowering—the wet spot on his briefs got bigger.

I could tell he had no control as his hips pushed toward me.

All I could think was that he was gorgeous as his control slipped away from him.

“I think we have too many clothes on,” he said between kisses.

I liked how he thought.

“Let’s get naked.” He laughed, which aroused me more.

I wanted to drag him back on my lap as soon as he got up.

Instead, I stood up in front of him and started to work his jeans down his hips.

As I pushed them down, I followed with kisses, then moved my way down his stomach, hips, and deep V, then finally in front of me was his gorgeous erection.

He was larger than average, straight, thick, and uncut.

I wrapped my hand around his length, pulled back the foreskin, and flicked my tongue across the frenulum.

“Oh fuck. Tyler. Your touching me will make this end too quickly.”

There was a thick bead of precum at his tip, which I gathered with my tongue before I released him and stood up.

We removed the remainder of his clothes until he stood completely bare in front of me.

I was speechless.

I might be biased, but I was sure I had never seen someone as physically beautiful as he was.

“West. What the hell?”

He looked alarmed.

“What? What’s wrong?”

I stood up and laughed.

“Nothing is wrong. You are unbelievable.” I poked him in the chest.

“Are you real?”

His smile was brilliant, and I wanted to see thousands more of them.

He ran the tips of his fingers down my sternum, followed my happy trail, and unzipped my pants.

He then pushed them down over my hips, my underwear was removed at the same time.

He stood up, then stepped back, holding me at arm’s length.

“Tyler, you are the beautiful one.”

I blushed as he guided us back to the couch, where he fluffed pillows for my head and got me to lie down.

“I’m going to join you if that’s okay.”

I grabbed him and pulled him on top of me.

His thigh nestled between my legs, rubbing against my balls, our cocks making contact for the first time.

There was no way I could control the gasp I made at that initial contact.

“Woah. Fuck.” I said as I pulled him closer.

He kissed my chest and neck, then went back to my mouth, where he kissed me until I couldn’t breathe.

Our hips moved against each other, our shafts hot and hard between us.

West was gentle and passionate.

“Tyler, I have thought about kissing you since I met you. This is far beyond my fantasies.”

“You’ve thought about kissing me?” I wouldn’t admit I had thought about him once or a thousand times.

“Tyler, I have thought about doing ALL the things with you, but I am happy to lie here with you and make out.”

I couldn’t help but smile against his lips.

We continued to frot against each other, our bodies created generous amounts of lubrication making our movement easy.

West moved so we were more aligned, his fingers moving over my erection.

It had been months since I had been touched intimately.

He wrapped his hand around me, and I pushed into his hand, unable to help myself.

His grip tightened, then ran up and down, teasing the head, then squeezing lightly.

He moaned loudly against my neck, which aroused me more, as I made similar sounds.

Being with him like this felt good, but there was something more.

Being with him felt right.