Page 29 of Purrfectly Outfoxed

“Yeah?”

“I think I?—”

A creak from upstairs makes us both freeze.

Footsteps.

“Oh no,” Tabitha whispers. “She’s awake. She’s never awake this late.”

“Don’t move.”

“I couldn’t move if I wanted to!”

The footsteps come down the stairs. We hear the range-hood light click on. It illuminates everything with a soft glow, and we stay frozen and locked together on the couch while Bea fills a glass with water and drinks it. “That’s better. Must have been sleeping with my mouth open.”

She rinses the glass. Sets it in the dish rack. Then clicks the light off.

Her footsteps move back up the stairs.

We wait until we hear her bedroom door close before we start breathing normally again.

“That was too close,” Tabitha hisses.

“Hey, she didn’t see us.”

“We were NAKED on her COUCH. KNOTTED.”

“Mate tied. But she walked right past us. We’re good.”

“We are not good! We are the opposite of good!”

I feel the tie starting to release and carefully, slowly, pull out of her. She winces slightly, and I press an apologetic kiss to her lips.

“You OK?”

“I’m fine. I’m—” She pushes at my chest. “Get off me.”

I roll to the side, and she immediately sits up, wrapping the robe around herself.

“That can never happen again,” she says firmly.

“What? The tie or the sex?”

“Both!”

“Not happening.”

She turns to glare at me. “We were almost caught!”

“You expect me to claim you once and that’s it?” I shake my head. “No way, kitty. You’re mine now. And you and I are going to do this again and again and again until you finally accept it.”

“That’s—you can’t just?—”

“Can’t I?” I pull her into my lap, her thighs straddling mine. “Tell me to stop and I will. Tell me you don’t want this and I’ll go back to the laundry room and leave you alone.”

She opens her mouth. Closes it. Then, with a sound that’s half growl, half moan, she kisses me.

“I really do hate you,” she gasps between kisses.