Page 26 of Brandon’s Mate

Oh, fuck.

“It’s good to see you, Kitty,” he said softly.

She looked up at him. “Is it?” she asked. “You didn’t answer my texts.” She put down his mail and picked up his wallet, which he’d left on the desktop.

Damn, he didn’t want her going through that. He stepped forward, trying to be as casual as she was. “Geez, give me that. Does the word ‘privacy’ mean nothing to you?”

She shrugged and tossed him the wallet, but not before she’d pulled out his fake driver’s license.

“Ray Danvers,” she read off it, drawing out the name. “From Texarkana. Nice photo.” She twirled it between her fingers. “Did you know that bad ol’ Ray knocked up his girlfriend back in Texas?”

Brandon felt like he’d been dropped into an alternate reality. Kitty. Ray. None of this made any sense. “Ray doesn’t exist,” he pointed out. “Therefore, no girlfriend, knocked-up or otherwise.”

Kitty put her hand on her belly. “False. I went by the Crows’ Nest looking for you, and of course they wanted to know why. So now Ray’s girlfriend is all alone in the world with no money to support little Ray Junior.”

This. Was not. Happening.

“You went to the Crows’ Nest? By yourself? And told them you were fucking pregnant with my—Ray’s—baby? Are you trying to mess up everything I’m doing here?”

Kitty raised her eyebrows. “Which is what?”

“Which is something you should stay far away from.” This whole damn thing was getting out of control. “Shit, Kitty, you shouldn’t have gone there. You could have blown everything.”

She narrowed her eyes and sat upright, dropping her feet to the floor with a thump. “Uh huh. And how was I supposed to know that? You never call, you never write, you never send us a list of places we shouldn’t show up because we might compromise your secret identity and keep you from getting beat to shit by crow hit squads.”

That stung his ego. “Excuse me? Three on one, and I’m not the one who got beat to shit.”

She rolled her eyes and said in a talking-to-a-pet-dog voice, “Of course you didn’t, sweetums. You were very brave. My ovaries thank you for that awe-inspiring display of testosterone.”

Fuck.

“You’re mad at me,” he said. “Why? Because I wouldn’t let you help? I knew you wouldn’t want to bloody your sparkly shirt.”

“You think that’s why I’m mad at you? Not because, oh, say, you disappeared for six years without even saying goodbye? And forgot all about us?”

“I didn’t forget.”

She just gave a disbelieving snort.

Okay, this was more than “just passing through.”

“Kitty, why are you here?”

She gazed at him levelly with those blue-green eyes. Something shivery unlocked in the middle of his chest and spread outwards.

Finally she said, “I got the feeling you were having a bad day.”

That stopped him. He remembered the text she’d sent him. She’d felt his pain. She wanted to share it.

But there was no way he was sharing that with her, or anybody.

“I was,” he said. “But it’s over now.”

“No it’s not.” Her voice brooked no argument. “What the hell have you gotten yourself into this time, Brand?”

The old nickname slid through him like a knife. He couldn’t do this. Couldn’t stand here and look at her, so achingly beautiful, familiar and yet mysterious. Couldn’t handle her scent, or her memory. Or the way she always could feel what was inside him.

His cat said again, very quietly, Want.