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Barely twenty minutes later, I knocked at the door to my room and Roy let me in, relieving me of our bags as soon as I’d crossed the threshold.
This man, honestly.
He was hot, that much was without question, but I had no idea why I was suddenly insatiable and why every moment I was not touching, or kissing, or fucking him felt empty and wasted. Our project was almost done; we had maybe one or two meetings and the launch. And then? Life would get in the way like it always did. He would find a new flat, maybe a new partner, and he’d be gone from my life for good.
“Kat?” A soft furry hand palmed my shoulder, squeezing me gently before travelling up to cup my cheek. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I lied but I didn’t shake his hand off. His touch felt too sweet, too comforting to voluntarily give it up. And when he kissed me, my entire being came to a full stop, locking me up in the moment until my brain was ready to resume its work. His kisses were devastatingly beautiful, like a gulp of cool fresh air after being stuck under a stuffy duvet for way too long. The kind of kisses that made you question your sanity and wonder how you survived without them all this time.
“It’s going to be all right, I promise,” he repeated, rubbing his nose over mine and brushing one more small kiss on my lips.
***
Both Ava and Isla were waiting for us in the kitchen, washed and dressed a couple of minutes later.
“Kat!” Isla jumped up and hurried around the table to hug me.
“Hey baby girl, it’s good to see you.”
She was three minutes younger than Ava, quiet and bookish, and I loved her to pieces.
Ava hadn’t said anything when we’d entered. She simply sat there and stared at Roy with her eyes wide and her mouth hanging slightly open.
“Rude,” I said sharply, snapping her out of it. It wasn’t speciesism; she simply lost her mind whenever an attractive guy was around, and my tiger was the cream of the crop.
Thankfully, he wasn’t weirded out by her. Crossing the room with three wide steps, he held out his fur covered hand, a wide grin on his face.
“Ava,” she breathed as she shook his hand, her mesmerised gaze hanging for a moment on his huge canines and the long pink tongue.
“Roy. It’s lovely to meet you. Kat’s told me so much about you.” His grin shifted into a cheeky smirk that made my sister blush.
Go, baby.
Unlike Mason he didn’t seem fazed; on the contrary. Ava staring him down as if he was a particularly scrumptious piece of red velvet cake visibly amused him. The expression on his face was fit for an old tiger watching cubs practising hunting with the end of his flicking tail.
Isla, too, shook his hand. She didn’t seem intimidated in the slightest by his hulking form as he asked her about the book on the table, and before I knew it they were deep in conversation about romance novels with Roy insisting that he hadn’t read more than a few pages in nearly five years, but genuinely asking her to recommend some of her favourite books to him.
Ava joined me at the coffee machine to refill her mug. “That’s your roommate?” she asked under her breath, our chat masked by the grinding of the coffee mill.
“Yeah, he is.”
“But that’s the guy from the ads you showed me? Your client?”
“It’s complicated. He needed a place to stay.” I couldn’t say more, not wanting him to overhear us. Ava raised an eyebrow at me but didn’t press the point.
He was my client, my roommate, my fuck buddy. We shouldn’t even be that, I knew perfectly well. But tell that to my treacherous body and my stupid heart. They were hooked on him like a cat on catnip.
“Hey kiddos.” Ava and I flinched, and all heads turned to see mum enter the kitchen. “Sorry, Roy.” She flashed him an indulgent grin.
“It’s okay.” He obviously didn’t mind being included; the smile she got in return had not just my mum, but Ava and me swooning.
“How about we get ready and have lunch in the city? Show Roy around a bit?”
“That’s a great idea, Judy. I’ve never been to Brighton before.”
“Oh, you haven’t?” my sisters said simultaneously.
“No, it’s my first time. That’s why I insisted on driving Kat when she couldn't get a flight. That and meeting you of course.” Both girls turned crimson.
