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Looking into the eyes of this Meatball character made me see how true that was. This cat was trouble, and I knew it down to the center of my bones.
“Alright, yeah,” Sebastian said.
I held my palms up to Meatball like a peace offering. I couldn’t talk because Sebastian was within earshot, so, like an idiot, I moved my lips. Surely the cat could read lips.
“You like treats?” I mouthed. “Keep quiet and I’ll hook you up as soon as he leaves.”
Meatball walked closer to me, somehow graceful even as its oversized belly swung from side to side. He put both paws on my knee as I sat cross-legged, bringing his face close enough to mine that his whiskers were tickling my cheek.
I shook my head. “Don’t do it,” I whispered.
Meatball met my eyes, then meowed. Except it was less of a meow and more of a cat scream. His puckered mouth worked up and down as he hollered out some horrifying mixture of human and cat sounds, just like he’d done on his way out of my room earlier. I was almost certain I could hear a few actual words mixed in there at random. Did it just call itself Big Billy?
“Stop,” I hissed.
“Hold on,” Sebastian said. “Meatball is losing his mind. I think there might be another squirrel in the garden.”
I bulged my eyes at the little cat bastard, then rushed to the flowerpots and tried to hide behind them. Sebastian’s footsteps sounded on the concrete a moment later.
“What is it, Meatball?” Sebastian asked.
Mr. Meatball gave a disgustingly normal meow. I could see between two ferns as the cat rubbed his swollen little head on Sebastian’s leg, purring. You little shit, I thought.
“Nevermind. He just wanted attention,” Sebastian said.
He was about to go back inside when the cat let out another inhuman yell. Sebastian turned. To my horror, Meatball walked straight to where I was and started pawing at the flowerpots.
Sebastian yanked the one by my head aside and found me curled up, smeared with dirt, and looking like an absolute lunatic.
“I’ve got to handle something,” he said coldly, hanging up his phone. He was also still topless with a towel wrapped around his waist. Looking at him, I was suddenly sure the baby he’d put inside me was going to come out of me with a six pack, sculpted biceps, and a glare on its face.
Sebastian had the kind of muscles that gave me an irrational desire to taste them. Yeah, I was becoming more and more convinced there was some kind of Trinity-influenced weird, kinky relationship between my arousal and food. But I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the ridiculously perfect skin of his bare upper body bathed in that buttery gold light. I was particularly focused on the single, oddly alluring vein running diagonally down his abs that disappeared beneath the towel. I found myself wondering if it continued all the way to his… Yep. Don’t need to be thinking about that right now.
I stammered, blurting out the first words that came to mind. “I think I have a concussion,” I murmured. “And sleep walking. And, uh… amnesia?”
Sebastian looked unimpressed. “You were eavesdropping.”
“I wasn’t trying to. I was looking for your cat. I thought it’d be best if the two of us got to know each other. You know. Bond a little.”
“How much did you hear?” he asked.
“Nothing. Mr. Meatball was screaming in my face the whole time.”
Sebastian looked like he was trying to decide if he believed me. After a few tense moments, his expression softened. Slightly. “You shouldn’t be out of bed so soon.”
I got up, dusting myself off a little and spreading my arms. “I’m more durable than I look.”
Something passed over his unreadable eyes, and I couldn’t help wondering if he was remembering our little bang encounter at the convention four months ago. Part of me nearly blurted right then and there that his baby was in my belly. If nothing else, it’d be interesting. But I had a sinking feeling he’d just tell me to get out of his life and that would be that. Or he’d turn into a rich supervillain and try to make sure he got the baby from me.
“I’d feel better if you rested at least until tomorrow,” he finally said.
“So I don’t sue you, right?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Something like that.”
“I’m not going to sue you, asshole. I want this job. Besides. If I was actually crazy enough to sue you for hitting my own head, your fancy lawyers would crush me.”
Sebastian towered over me. He looked like the vengeful god of sexy glares. Yes, that would be a really specific and probably pointless god, but Sebastian was totally the guy they’d cast to play him in a movie.
“All the same,” he said. “You should be resting.”
