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Birdie doesn’t even stop me from following her up to her apartment. This time, our elevator ride is tense. She stands on the other side of the steel box, her cheeks dusted pink as she stares at her feet and avoids looking at me. Like this, I can smell her hair, the scent of her products mixing with her natural pheromones and making my head swim.
She doesn’t stop me from following her down the hallway, nor does she turn to stop me at her door. She merely bends to pick up a box left outside her door and looks at me expectantly over her shoulder as she holds it open for me.
At the sight of his home, Baxter squirms against my hold before leaping free. He sprints into the apartment. Birdie lets out a little cry and drops the package. She scrambles after him, muttering something about her balcony door and needing to close it.
Without her nearby, my head clears a little. I stand in her doorway and debate leaving, but can’t get my booted feet to trudge away. If I continue to follow her, I know there will truly be no turning back. What will I do when we’re truly alone together?
The list of things I want to do is infinite, but will I have the self-control to take my time?
As I mull over my next move with her, I grab the package by her door and walk in after her, letting the door swing closed behind me. Inside the apartment, her scent pervades the very air, threatening to ruin my last attempts at restraint. My primal need to claim her is overwhelming, but I push it away as best as I can as I follow Birdie’s voice to her living room.
“You need to promise me to be good,” I hear her whispering to Baxter, the scolding in her tone too adorable for words. “If you can’t behave, I’ll start charging you rent.”
The love in her voice is evident, and yet again, I find myself seething with jealousy. This damn cat gets her attention and love and doesn’t know how good he has it. How does he reward her? He jumps from the balcony into my construction site.
Hm … Maybe I should be thanking him instead. It’s because of him that I’m here now, holding her package for her in her own apartment. It’s like he knew exactly how to lead her to me.
When I appear in the entryway to the living room, Birdie straightens instantly. Even though her body is tense—which I can’t blame her for, I’m as dangerous as I am protective when it comes to her—her eyes are wide and open with curiosity.
“Thank you again for helping me,” she says, her eyes shifting down to the box in my hands. “That package was outside my door, right?”
She reaches out to grab it but I step back out of her reach, my mind racing with the plan taking form before my very eyes.
“I saved your cat,” I say to her as I set the box down and take a step toward her, watching her reaction carefully. She tilts her head at me, her eyelashes fluttering as she looks me up and down with a strange, almost needful in her eyes.
“You did,” she replies quietly. She steps back as I draw closer, and again and again until suddenly, I have her backed against the wall. There’s space between us still, but it’s not much—only as much as my self-control allows.
All I want to do is close the distance between us and drown myself in the scent and softness of her skin.
“I think I deserve a reward, don’t you?”
Her full, soft lips part with surprise as she looks up at me.
I should slow down. I’m risking scaring her away like this, which would make taking her as mine that much harder. How the hell am I supposed to slow down when I have her in front of me, her tits pressing through her sweater with each trembling breath she takes?
And then it hits me.
“Just your number, Princess,” I finally say, forcing myself to take a step back.
Her wide eyes meet mine in confusion. “I’m sorry?”
“I want your number. As my reward,” I repeat. “Let me take you out for a date as a thank you for saving your cat.”
“A date?” she gasps. “Why?”
“I want to get to know you,” I say with a shrug, trying to keep my compulsive interest in her looking casual. “I feel like your cat introduced us for a reason.”
Her cheeks and neck flush instantly at that, but it doesn’t distract me from the hint of a smile on her lips.
“He did kind of do that, didn’t he?”
“Are you free to go out for dinner this evening?” I ask.
Her pretty eyes widen to saucers. “Tonight?”
I nod at her, watching as she mulls the idea over in her head.
“I think that should work,” she says, biting into her lower lip. I want to suck it into my mouth and make it even redder with my own teeth. “I guess you really will need my number then.”
