Page 14

Shawn

T owels. Something warm. This little guy was a popsicle. I needed to warm him up, and fast.

I’d needed to get space from Daniel earlier. While I hadn’t minded him kissing me—and hell, he could do a heck of a lot more—he’d been having a fucking panic attack. I felt like it was taking advantage of him. I was an asshole, but I wasn’t that much of an asshole. If he wanted to go there, he needed to be clearheaded.

That was when I heard the small cries coming from under the house. It made sense with the way the weather had gone south so fast. Animals had panicked and sought shelter wherever they could. Part of me wasn’t even sure that’s what I heard until I’d gone out and found Daniel in the living room.

The kitten had been by himself. There was no telling how long he’d been separated from his momma, but he didn’t appear to be a newborn. I was no expert at cats, but if I had to guess, he had to be at least a few weeks old. His eyes were open, and I could easily tell that he was a male cat with his orange coloring.

I grabbed a towel from the cabinet in the hall and threw it in the dryer in the laundry room. The small creature was tucked inside my jacket still, and the way he was kneading at my chest gave me hope he was okay.

“It’s alright little dude. I’ve got ya.”

The dryer rumbled as the towel tossed around and warmed. It was then that I noticed the house was oddly empty. Where the hell had Daniel gone? Looking out the window, he was still standing like a stone statue on the side of the cabin. Little puffs of steam escaped his mouth with each breath he took. Looking at what he’d worn outside, I knew he wasn’t looking for more kittens like I’d asked him to. Was he frozen in place? What was going on in that head of his?

When I knocked on the glass, wide brown eyes turned and blinked at me. Oh yeah, we were back in panic mode. What the hell had set him off this time? I still didn’t know what happened this morning. We’d been having breakfast and having a great time. He’d gone back to his room and then had a meltdown.

Seeing me seemed to snap him out of whatever trance he was in, and he made his way back to the front of the house. I unzipped my jacket since the kitten seemed to be doing fine. He was curled into me and I stroked between his ears as Daniel came through the front door. When he saw us, he froze again.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing slowly as it struggled to move.

“Do we have to have that thing inside?”

I looked down at the kitten, who was now purring. The vibrations carried up my arm, and I raised an eyebrow in interest at Daniel’s question. That thing?

Chase had a cat, and I knew the two of them were good friends. Did he have a problem with Oreo as well?

“If I take him back out, he’ll freeze to death. Is that what you want?”

Daniel swallowed again, inching inside the front door, and staying as far away from me and the kitten as possible. “No. I’d feel terrible if it died.”

He was visibly shaking now. That was when it dawned on me. Every time I’d been to Chase and Nathan’s place while Daniel was there, Oreo had been absent, shut in a bedroom. Was Daniel afraid of cats?

Instead of continuing to torture the guy who was finally opening up to me, no matter how small, I walked back to the laundry room and pulled the towel from the dryer. I wrapped it around my new little friend and shut him in the bedroom. I’d need to figure out how to feed him soon and a find place for him to go to the bathroom. There was no way I’d be letting him back outside in this weather.

Daniel sat rigidly on the couch, shoulders up to his ears. When both my hands landed on his shoulders, he relaxed, melting into my touch. That was new.

“Where is it?”

I chuckled. “In my room for now. Are you okay? I’ve never seen you like that, just like this morning...”

Maybe I was pushing things by bringing up the kiss from this morning, but now I had all kinds of questions. Daniel’s cheeks turned pink as he chewed his lower lip. “I’m not the biggest fan of cats.”

I laughed as I sat on the couch next to him. Daniel’s face reddened. I didn’t intend to make him feel insecure about it, but it was a little funny to see someone his age so freaked out over a kitten. “I figured that much out. Doesn’t Chase have a cat?”

He sighed, gnawing on that plump lip even more. My fingers itched to pluck it from between his teeth, to soothe it with my tongue. When my cock twitched in my pants, I took a deep breath to keep my thoughts from derailing. That’s not what needs to happen right now.

“Oreo? She’s cute, and uh, she’s grown on me, but I still have issues.”

“What kind of issues?”

He flinched at my question. Maybe I was pushing too hard, but I couldn’t help him if he didn’t let me in.

“Forget it, it’s stupid.” Daniel pushed to stand, but I caught his wrist, not allowing him to escape. His skin was still cool from being outside, and like an idiot, I pulled him back down, but onto my lap instead of the couch. My arms wrapped around him, and even though he fought me for a second, he gave in quickly.

“Nothing is stupid if it upsets you that much. I get that I’ve teased you a lot, but when something is actually serious, you’ll find that I’m not a dick about it.”

Daniel didn’t move at first, but when I felt his fingers begin playing with the ends of my shirtsleeves, he relaxed into me.

God, why did he smell so damn good? With the way I had him held against me, my nose was pressed into the back of his neck, and he smelled like ginger and coconut. Maybe it was his shampoo? Whatever it was, it made me want to eat him up. My mouth watered at the idea of licking a stripe up the column of his throat… but once more, it wasn’t the right time.

“My grandma...”

When he didn’t continue, I rubbed my nose against his skin. He shivered, tensed, and then relaxed.

“When I was little, she’d babysit me a lot while my parents went to work. She had this huge-ass cat. And it was just a fucking cat. People love cats. But this fucker was mean. It would chase me around her house and hiss at me. I’d leave with scratches all the time and whenever I’d tell my grandmother about it, she’d tell me I’d probably done something to upset her poor baby.”

Daniel shifted in my grasp, his deep brown eyes meeting mine. There was a moment where something crackled and sparked between us. It shifted. He was opening up and letting me into a part of his life, even though he’d made it very clear he wanted nothing to do with me most of the time.

Before I could stop myself, and without second guessing it, my lips landed against his. My eyes closed as Daniel let out a soft gasp, but he didn’t pull away. His fingers tightened their hold on my sleeves as he pressed back into me.

Daniel Morgan was kissing me back. And it wasn’t rushed. It wasn’t in a moment of panic. I made the conscious decision to kiss Daniel Morgan because I felt like we were finally connecting.

When I broke the contact, he whined, chasing my lips with his, pressing them together, and swiping his tongue, asking for entrance. While it now seemed fast, I wasn’t about to deny him. My hold on him loosened, and Daniel turned in my lap, thighs landing on either side of my hips as we continued to make out on the couch.

His hands framed my face as he explored my mouth, and I took the opportunity to soak in everything that was him. I took a deep breath of Daniel’s unique smell. That and his taste were quickly becoming familiar and something I could get addicted to.

And then he rocked, causing me to break our kiss in a hiss.

A playful smile graced Daniel’s lips as he rested his forehead against mine. “I like this. Is that weird?”

My hands found his hips, holding him in place. My eyes closed again as I thought about my answer. Why the hell would he think it was weird to like kissing someone, and who the hell had made him feel that way?