Page 75 of Oblivious Roommate

“Oh, no…”

“What?” Cass asks, seeming alarmed yet too tired to move.

“The cat’s been watching.”

He snorts. “Maybe he’s a voyeur?”

I cover my face with my hands. “No! Don’t say that! That’s terrible.”

“No, it’s not. Cats do it out in the open all the time. He won’t judge us,” Cassian says into my ear before giving it a soft kiss.

I can’t help but laugh. When I peek from behind my fingers, the animal is tentatively approaching us. He doesn’t come in for a cuddle but must want to be by the fire because he rests where the blankets fold by our feet.

“Can we stay down here?” I ask. “I don’t have bones anymore.”

“Neither do I. And my most important bone won’t harden again today,” Cass mumbles and pulls on my shoulder to make me face him. He’s all smiles, even if exhausted.

“Bone-er.” I snort like I’m fourteen again.

Cass takes a deep breath. “Yep, that was the joke.”

“Bone-er.” I laugh even harder, regardless of whether it’s funny or not. He can’t help himself either, even if my pun is lame.

Chapter 24

Hot coffee tastes amazing when drank outside, in all this fresh air.

It’s cold, so I sit wrapped in two blankets, on a chair I dragged onto the porch from inside the house, but now that the storm passed, I can take in the natural beauty around us. The lake stretching just about two hundred yards away from our door is the biggest surprise of all, since I hadn’t noticed it during the storm. Now I’m wondering if skinny-dipping would be really such a terrible idea. Cold or not, it could be fun.

As I stretched my legs earlier, it became clear that there was a dirt road leading here, which Cassian must have somehow missed, but neither of us mentioned it, since there’s no point in beating a dead horse. In this changed weather, we can easily hike back to where we left the Jeep anyway.

And Cass has been extremely attentive since morning, which I’m interpreting as bottom privileges. You won’t hear me complaining. I didn’t feel it yesterday, but I am a bit sore.

I’d still love to do it again tonight though.

Cass is making us breakfast, so I’m on my own, enjoying the birds singing and the scent of damp leaves.

A little squeak alerts me to the cat, which jumps out through the open window.

“Hey there, cutie. All dry and warm, I see? Yeah, me too.”

The cat yawns and looks up at me, as if it wants something. We woke up to it sleeping on the edge of our blanket, and considering the state of the tuna can, the poor thing had its fill of food while we slept.

“What did you say?” Cass calls out, but as I prepare to shout back, the little ginger cat gets to his back legs and rests the front ones on my thigh. Does it… want to sit on me?

I adjust the position of my legs to make room for it in my lap. “Cass! I’m pregnant!”

“What, already? Don’t you remember how Gareth McCol insisted you can’t get pregnant during your first time?” He laughs, but I’m serious, because this cat, while worse for wear, is clearly not afraid of people. Though it isn’t wearing a collar.

The poor thing is a stray that’s lost its home or worse—was left in the woods on purpose. It’s a miracle it survived.

“Well then Gareth was wrong, because there’s a fur baby in my lap!”

No longer wet, the ginger cat is a ball of fluff that doesn’t waste any time and starts kneading my blanket. And by extension—my stomach.

I hear footsteps, and then Cassian’s head emerges from the window. His brows trail up. “Oh no. Maybe I should have used protection after all?”

The cat glares at me with a weirdly serious expression, before showing me its backside.