Olivia nodded. “That seems right.”
“Yeah, she’s kind of a pest that way.”
Olivia laughed. “Like I said, not the first time. About six months ago, she brought in a feral that had been badly injured in a fight, and she wouldn’t leave until after the poor cat got out of surgery.”
“Was the cat okay?”
“Yeah, he lived. We patched him up and found him a nice home in a controlled feral colony upstate.”
Caleb nodded. Some feral cats would never make good pets because they were too wild and likely to claw or bite people. Caleb assumed Olivia was referring to the old, abandoned army fort upstate that had been converted into an isolated location for feral cats to live. Scientists studied the colony there to learn more about feline behavior.
“I’ll just go wake her up then,” Caleb said.
“All right. I’ll give these little guys some food.”
Caleb gave each of the kittens a little scratch behind the ears. Then he walked back down the hall to Olivia’s office. Lauren was curled up on the couch there, snoring softly. Caleb hated to wake her, but he couldn’t just leave her here all day. He knelt beside the sofa and gently nudged her shoulder.
As had happened in the exam room earlier, she awoke with a start, shooting upright. She stared at Caleb for a long moment, then looked around the room. She must have remembered where she was and why she was there, because her features relaxed.
“It’s after six,” Caleb whispered. “Olivia’s here, so I’m punching out for the day.”
“The kittens?”
“They look good. Olivia’s feeding them now.”
“Good.” Lauren smoothed down her hair and shifted her weight on the sofa. “So, ah, your shift is done?”
“It is.”
“The invitation still stands, you know. My staff can take care of the café this morning. They have the morning rush down to a science.”
Caleb felt a bit of relief. Maybe she didn’t hate him so much after all, or they’d reached some kind of a truce. Likely nothing romantic would come of this, but a bit of fun in bed with a woman as sexy as Lauren was never an unwelcome occurrence. Wanting to seal the deal, he leaned over and kissed her. She put her hands on his shoulders and kissed him back, snaking her tongue into his mouth. It would be so easy to hook his leg over her on the sofa and…
“Upstairs,” she whispered against his mouth.
“Yeah, getting caught making out in my boss’s office is not a good look.”
“Not so much, no.”
Caleb stood and set himself to rights, and then helped Lauren off the sofa. She was still warm with sleep, and she gazed at him affectionately as he grabbed his bag from the drawer in Olivia’s desk where he’d stashed it. There were still a lot of ways that this could go wrong in the short distance from this office to Lauren’s apartment, and Caleb probably should make up some excuse. He definitely didn’t want to have an excuse, though.
And then he remembered…
“Hank.”
“Huh?”
“My dog, Hank.”
“You have a dog?”
“Yes. He was… He was abandoned here at the clinic and he kind of grew on me. He’s at my apartment now. Way overdue for a walk.”
“Oh. That’s disappointing. But you should know that your compassion for your pet is kind of turning me on.”
Caleb laughed. “Well, hold that thought long enough for me to call my dog walker.”
Chapter 8
They burst through the door of Lauren’s apartment after breaking a land-speed record to get from the vet clinic into the residential part of the building. Lauren had barely gotten her key out of the lock before Caleb shoved her against the door from the inside, slamming it closed. There was no prologue or pretense here; instead, they kissed and groped each other against that door. Caleb reached down to grab Lauren’s thigh and pulled her leg up to wrap around his hip. They writhed against each other, tasting each other, groaning when things felt good. Lauren pulled Caleb’s shirt out of his trousers and slid her hands up the inside to feel his warm skin. God, he was hot. She could feel the traces of his abdominal muscles, the soft fuzz of his chest hair. She pinched one of his nipples and he hissed into her mouth.
“Where’s the bed?” Caleb asked.
Lauren couldn’t make words. Instead, she shoved him toward the bedroom door, which was about six feet from the front entrance. He didn’t even look around, just went where she pushed him. She sent a little prayer to the gods of preparation that she’d actually made the bed the morning before and her room wasn’t too messy, then she steered Caleb toward the bed. His foot must have hit the leg of the bed frame, because he tripped, landing on his back on the mattress.
He didn’t protest, though. In fact, when Lauren crawled onto the bed on top of him, he whispered, “Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about.” Lauren laughed and kissed him. Caleb put his arms around her and leaned up into the kiss, then bucked his hips against her.
“Oh, yeah,” Lauren said. “Let’s do more of that.”
Caleb grabbed the hem of the shirt Lauren wore and pulled the whole thing off over her head. She sat straddling his hips, and he reached up and touched her breasts over her bra. It wasn’t the sexiest bra she owned, just a practical plain beige situation with a little strip of lace at the edge of each cup, but Caleb stared at her as though she were the sexiest thing he’d ever seen. She could give him more. She reached behind her and unhooked the bra, then pulled it off. Caleb’s eyes went wide, then something in his gaze darkened, turning primal.
He leaned up and pulled off his own shirt without bothering to unbutton it. The white undershirt he’d had on under his standard-issue blue oxford shirt landed on the floor next
