Breathless georgia vol 2, p.18
Breathless, Georgia--Vol 2, page 18
He, too, pushed off and rotated to face her as he shook his head. "Cats are often solitary. If you’re willing to split them up, you can make two people happy. It probably means we wind up delivering two different kittens in two different directions, but..."
She was nodding along as he spoke, clearly considering what he was saying. "What am I even looking for in a good future cat owner? I mean, I know I'm looking for nice people who don't have any criminal histories. But do I want people who will keep the kittens indoor or outdoor? Should the person have other pets? I don't even know. Will you help me?"
“Of course.” He smiled and nodded at her and wondered if he could say no to her for anything. "Are you doing criminal background investigations?"
"You know I am," she smiled, and he thought, he did know she was. That was Emma Kate. She had taken to these two little kittens with a fierce form of motherhood even though they were fosters. Furthermore, she'd impressed him by making sure that everyone understood that they were, in fact, fosters, and would not be staying with them. Whether or not they would be hers forever, she was not going to let them go anywhere she did not feel was the best possible place. Em would probably drive two or three hours to meet up with someone for a kitten exchange, and send them off with a personal homemade pack, full of kitten toys, a favorite blankie, and treats. All wrapped up with a bow. Keith had no doubt.
"Well, once they pass your criminal background check, forward those emails you like on over to me." He then mentioned a few other flags she might want to look out for.
"What? Are you serious? People do that with kittens?" Her mouth was open, her eyes wide with horror.
He wished he hadn’t said anything but wouldn’t want her to find out later she hadn’t known what to look for. "Yeah. You have to watch out. Puppies and kittens can both get taken advantage of that way. It’s probably best if you charge a re-homing fee—"
“I didn’t say that on my video. Crap.” She was looking around the room, thinking.
Keith thought it through, too. “But you didn’t say you’d give them for free either. Anyone who’s good for the kitten will understand, and probably a bunch will expect it,” he told her. "For a small reason, it’s insurance that the people who take the kitten have enough money to take care of it. For the bigger reason, the fee makes it a lot less likely that your happy couple is actually taking your kitten to become a bait animal for a fighting dog ring."
He watched as her face fell while she absorbed all that. She was probably thinking that she could keep these kittens out of the fighting ring, but that she couldn’t save them all. Keith wished he hadn't told her, but anyone giving away puppies or kittens needed to know that handing them over for free often meant some of them would wind up in bad places.
"Why don't you read me some of your best candidates?" he suggested, hoping to take her mind off the horrors of the underground dog-fighting world. He listened as she tapped her keys and she moved her face in a little closer to the screen. Her voice didn’t sound so horrified by the world as she started reading a couple of them out loud.
"That last one sounds really good," he offered. "They sound normal. They sound like they've wanted a kitten for a while, and like they're ready for one. That reads like they know what a kitten's going to do, too."
"It's going to tear up the house." Her voice was wry from experience.
He nodded. As Lucky and Star had gotten older, they’d first shown they could escape their box by mewing from the tops of the curtains in the living room one morning. Em had rolled over and shoved his arm asking, “Why are they crying like that?”
They’d both found out once they located the two, clinging for their lives at the top of the curtain rod. They’d gotten up, but down was apparently harder. Neither he nor Em had even realized they could escape their cardboard box on their own. He’d brought a crate home from the office that night. Two kittens had not been amused.
And Emma Kate had already had a couple moments where she'd had a kitten ripping small snags into the pretty cover that she'd put on the couch as one or the other decided that claws were too sharp and old covered couches were just too pretty. He'd expected her to get angry, but she'd handled it beautifully.
In a few more moments of reading off candidates’ emails to him she seemed happier, and he stopped worrying that he’d given her nightmares. As he watched her though, she didn't seem to notice.
Somehow, he'd made it another two weeks without telling her how he felt, and he was done with it—done with holding back, done with pretending they were going along with how things were. He wasn’t. He knew what he wanted now, even if he’d had no clue a mere six weeks ago. Things had changed and he’d be a fool if he didn’t grab life by the tail. Still, it had been hard to just come out and tell her.
Whereas the last time a chance had presented itself, he’d fallen back on the old “he was crazy about her” and not used the L word. This time he was ready to shout it. Only no one had bothered to ask, or even get into a sticky situation where he’d have to say it or back off. It simply had gone unsaid, resting at the bottom of his chest, waiting for the right moment to burst forth.
Most likely they hadn't been getting enough sleep. But this last week, the kittens had passed a mark where they were at least able to sleep six hours in a row. The problem was, either he or Emma Kate was stumbling into bed two hours later than the other, having stayed up for a last feeding. The other one was getting up two hours earlier to feed the kittens again.
It didn't leave much time at all for the two of them to just be together. It must be what parenting was like. So Keith decided that the house was quiet right now, and that might be all he got. Dialing up his playlist, he tapped the key and let the music pour out of his speakers.
With a wide smile that sparkled in her eyes, Em turned around again. “What’s that?”
“Romantic music playlist?” He didn’t know why he said it with a question. No questions, he told himself as he held out his hand toward her.
Though she clearly had no idea what was going on, she put her hand in his. That’s what it was all about, he thought. Reaching for the other one, for no reason, simply because you trusted them and wanted to see what could happen.
Tugging her to her feet, he marveled at how easily she slipped into his arms to dance with him. The room was too small for anything showy, but he didn’t need showy. He needed close.
When the first song ended and slid easily into another sweet, low, heady song, he thanked the gods that he’d made up this list earlier. His gratitude only lasted a moment though, as Emma Kate pushed up onto her toes, pressing her lips softly to his.
He didn’t mean to do any of it, but he couldn’t help it. One move from her and he just reacted. His hands slid into her hair, cradling her head, holding her close. He sucked in a breath as she clutched at his waist and moved closer to him. The feel of her changed everything in his world, there was nothing beyond this room and the two of them, nothing that mattered anyway.
He leaned into her, into the kiss, his tongue searching and finding hers, finding her. They were reaching for each other and he couldn’t tell if he was moving against her or if she was pressing herself into him. He sighed into the kiss, wanting it to never end even as his hands moved, over her shoulders, down the front of her shirt, quickly popping buttons open.
When her fingers found his waist again, he felt flesh on flesh and turned his head as she peeled his shirt upward. With one arm, he pulled her closer, while the other chucked his shirt and then hers into a corner somewhere. She was wearing a short skirt and leggings, and he was peeling them down her legs. The feel of lace on his fingertips telling him he was successful in getting her underwear down with the leggings.
She’d gone for his belt buckle, soft fingers plying the leather until it opened. For a moment, he’d fleetingly thought about the condom in his wallet and then his whole body relaxed at the memory that she’d gone on the pill. For him. For them. He’d never had sex without a condom before her, and it felt he belonged here with her.
Em pushed his pants down, leaving him naked as her mouth roamed across his chest. The flick of her tongue on his skin made it difficult to do something as simple as step out of his jeans. So when she pushed him down into his office chair, he went willingly.
His eyes glazed, Keith watched in awe as she climbed over him. Her shirt was gone, her bra straps hanging low and exposing her breasts to him. She held her skirt up in one hand, as she moved to join them together. It was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen.
But he sucked in a breath and found the strength to say, “No!”
40
Em froze. She’d been hot, so hot, wanting Keith. She needed her husband when they hadn’t had a chance to touch each other for days.
But now she sat across his lap, basically naked and open for his touch… and he wasn’t touching her. He’d even said, “No.”
With a deep breath, she stepped back. Though her legs were shaky and her heart stuttered as her eyes filled, wondering what she’d done wrong, Em turned away and tugged her bra straps back up.
“No.” He said it again, and she couldn’t even process it. Then his hands were on her shoulders and he was turning her to face him before she even got her second bra strap back up. She was a mess and she didn’t understand.
“Not in here.” He was kissing her, whispering to her as he did it, melting her all over again.
His hands roved her still bare skin, igniting her again.
“I need you, Emma Kate, but I want something more. Not fast in the office chair. I want you.” The words came out like breath, feather light across her soul.
She nodded as she kissed him back and fought the tear that fell from the corner of her eye.
“I’m sorry. Don’t cry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“It’s okay,” she whispered back to the man standing so close in front of her. But in a flash of a moment, she was in his arms again, warm and held tight.
She gasped as he tugged her upward, lifting her feet and kissing her quiet with a whispered, “Shhhh,” as he carried her out the office door and into their bedroom.
Keith set her gently on the bed, across the comforter, and then leaned back and closed the door. There was no one to lock it against, but maybe keeping the sounds in here would keep the kittens quiet. She was reaching up for him when he shook his head again. Only this time she trusted him and waited.
Slowly, he peeled her bra away and flung it behind him without looking. She would have laughed, but his hands were already tugging at the waist of her skirt and she was wriggling out of it, his touch lighting her already hot skin on fire.
Keith peeled the fabric slowly down to the tips of her toes then pushed her knees apart and kissed his way up the inside of her thigh. She couldn’t breathe, just watched as his mouth closed over her and felt his tongue tentatively touch her, then again with more force.
Her head fell back and she breathed his name over and over until the feeling of his touch spread everywhere and she arched her spine and called out with her orgasm.
He climbed up on the bed beside her but didn’t move to join them together, even though she wanted that, wanted to feel him inside her. Her hand reached out to his shoulder, hoping to pull him closer, before she could find words, or trust that any words she found would have actual meaning.
But he resisted.
For the first time, she had the clear thought, What is he up to?
He’d never pulled away from her before, but now, as she rolled to face him, a question in her eyes, she saw the tentative look in his. “Keith?”
Em watched as he took a breath and she wondered again what this was about. It only took a moment.
“I love you.” He paused a moment and said it again. “Emerson Kate Mayfair, I love you.”
This time the words gushed out of him as though he couldn’t hold them back any longer, the heat in his eyes leaving her no question that he meant it. He didn’t want anything in return, just to tell her how he felt. It washed over her and tugged her under, stealing her breath and robbing her of the right words in return.
This time, when she reached for him, he fell into her arms, willing and strong. His belief made all of it headier and changed her escape from reality into a new reality. One where the man robbing her of breath as he pushed inside her loved her.
She chanted his name as they moved together, lost in the feeling of the two of them. His fingers clutched at her hip and she wanted a bruise there, shaped like his touch, as though that would help her come back to this moment later.
Holding onto him for everything she was worth, Em had no idea if she raked her fingernails down his back or screamed loud enough to be heard beyond the walls of the little house. She only knew that she reached, trying to get deeper and closer to this man than she ever had to anyone before.
“Em!” He was practically yelling her name as his hands framed her face and held her where she looked up at him. She was watching as he came apart, as he moved one last time, then once more. He was watching as she did, her hands twisting at the covers beneath her as though that would anchor her to earth.
Her breathing was labored as she came back into her own body. It was harder still because Keith was crashed on top of her, but she liked that, and wrapped an arm around him to keep him there. Her head was hanging off the edge of the bed and she could only guess they’d scooted their way across and almost off the other side when they hadn’t been paying attention.
Well, she’d been paying attention, just not to her position on the bed.
It wasn’t heat that flared in her at the sudden and clear thought that he’d said he loved her. It was satisfaction, contentment, some kind of fire at being loved—really loved for just what she was—for the first time in her life.
As his breathing evened out, Keith’s hand came up and combed through her hair. She turned her head at his touch, leaning into it and practically purring.
“You good?” he asked softly, his mouth finding her temple and pressing a soft kiss there.
“Better than good,” she murmured back. Surely he felt her sigh, they were pressed so close.
She had no idea how long they laid there, entangled in so many ways, but she offered a real, put-out sigh when she heard the mewing of a kitten.
Keith laughed. “No rest for the weary.” But he rolled up and off the bed and headed out the door with a smile and an, “I’ll get them.”
“You better put some clothes on. Kittens are dangerous against naked men!” She hollered out to his retreating—and very fine—backside. But as she watched, he slipped across the hall and disappeared into the office, presumably to get his clothes.
“I’m the only one who gets to scratch your back,” she whispered it to herself as she flopped back on the bed.
In a few moments, she heard him opening the latch of the crate and talking softly to two little kittens who were still mewing at him, not satisfied until they’d been fed to the point of fullness. If she hadn’t already known she was in love with him, she would have known it in that instant.
She would have loved for him to stay in bed with her, but he wasn’t wired that way. He was a veterinarian because he automatically took care of every creature around him. Including her. He changed all his plans for her. Eventually, when they’d shared their bank accounts, she’d seen what space he had on his credit cards. He hadn’t needed her. He could have done fine on his own, but he had a new wife, even if he wasn’t sure how it had happened, and he’d saved her as surely as he was saving the little kittens, one step at a time.
Em rolled out of bed, wishing she could climb back into it with Keith for a repeat performance. But she promised that she would do that later—soon. As soon as possible. But she also promised that her own performance would be better next time.
So she pulled her pajamas out from under her pillow and climbed into them, then she walked out into the main room where Keith was sitting on the couch. Lucky was walking on his shoulders, back and forth and clearly using his claws while Keith focused on feeding Star. She was on her back, still fitting into his one hand, even though she’d outgrown Emma Kate’s palm a while ago. He was using a bottle now to feed her, as they’d finally graduated from syringes and needing to measure every drop that went into them.
He looked up as Em entered the room and from the look in his eyes it was clear he spotted that she wasn’t wearing a bra. It was clear he was thinking back to just fifteen minutes earlier when they’d been yelling each other’s names and crashing back to earth in each other’s arms.
She sat down on the couch next to him, tugging her feet up under her. Then she touched the side of his face, pulling him to her for a kiss that had her reeling. When she finally pulled back, she looked him in the eyes. “I love you, Keith Lee.”
“You don’t have to say it back—”
“I know.” She cut him off and smiled. “I love you.”
Then she almost screamed as Lucky walked from Keith’s shoulders onto hers, his tiny claws like needles. She reached up and tried to pull him off. She tried to ignore that Keith was trying not to laugh. “Give me that second bottle,” she sighed to him and began to feed the tiny kitten.
41
Em rushed in the door at Bobby's Pizza, hauling her purse strap over her shoulder. She hated to be late. It only added to her ongoing reputation as the family screw-up. Couldn't even show up for lunch on time. Part of it was because she was the baby and was behind her sisters the whole time she was growing up. She’d wanted to be like them and had gotten into a heap of trouble just trying to keep up. The other part of her reputation was well-earned.
Emma Kate was aware that she’d have to be hyper vigilant if she was going to fix everyone else’s perception of her. She knew it would take time for them to realize she wasn’t the screw up anymore. If she was persistent, one day it would happen. But today was not going to be that day.
