Read Online The Care and Feeding of Unmarried Men by Christie Ridgway - Free Book Online Page B

knot of seams to press between her legs.
    Maybe she thought it had been an accident, because she tried her takeover move again and again Nash “punished” her with that small sting of a kiss and another little upward jerk on her jeans. She gasped again, her head falling back, and he took the opportunity to slide his mouth down her neck. Her breasts heaved against his chest.
    Not ready to move there yet, not when it was so obvious that she was accustomed to having things all her way, he ignored the obvious to stroke his whiskery cheek against the side of her throat. Then he soothed the spot with the slide of his hair. She choked off a sound, and he rubbed against her again.
    He wanted her scent all over him. He wanted his all over her.
    Uh-oh. Wrong thought. Wrong woman. The warning pierced his consciousness just as something else pierced the back of his left calf.
    His head jerked up. “Ow!” Craning his head over his shoulder, he peered down at his lower leg. “What the hell?”
    In the dim glow of a landscape light, Nash could see a shadowy creature behind him, its back feet on the ground, its forepaws—fore claws —sunk into his leg, right through his jeans.
    He gave his calf a shake. “Scat. Shoo. God damn it, go away.” But the beast hung on.
    â€œDon’t!” Eve broke free of Nash’s grip. “Don’t hurt him!”
    The cat’s claws dug deeper, and Nash grimaced. “Instead of talking to the ugly thing, do you think you could disengage it or something?”
    â€œI’m talking to you, you oaf. Don’t hurt Adam.” She kneeled down and petted the ugly bugger, even as it stabbed harder into Nash’s flesh. “Let go, my baby,” she crooned. “I won’t let the big man hurt either one of us.”
    â€œI won’t let the big man hurt either one of us.”
    Nash frowned over the odd remark, then it flew from his head as the damn cat flexed once more, forcing him to bite back another curse. Finally the tom released him, slowly though, first delicately lifting one paw, then the other. Nash peered over his shoulder at the new holes in his jeans, then at Eve. “Has that thing had its rabies shot?”
    She was standing now, cuddling the tattered beast close to her chest. It stared at Nash with a satisfied cat-smile on its hideous mug. “Don’t be such a sissy,” she said, toying with the creature’s stump of an ear.
    â€œI’m not kidding.” Beneath his pants, he could feel blood rolling from the wound and into his sock. “When did that thing last see a vet?”
    â€œI don’t know. We’ve just sort of met.”
    He rolled his eyes. “Leave it to the Party Girl to pick up any stray male that wanders by.”
    Whoops. Her nostrils flared, her back stiffened, and Nash knew he’d just shoved one of his size 15s into the enormous cavern that was his mouth. But damn it, he’d been in the middle of the hottest make-out session of his life with the hottest woman of his life whenhe’d been rudely interrupted by a cat—an ugly cat—whom she appeared to like a hell of a lot better than she liked him.
    Don’t you suppose she might at least try to look as if she regretted the interruption? Instead, she looked as if she regretted the fact that Nash was alive.
    Which reminded him that she just might get what that implied. “Look, Eve, you’ve got to understand. We’re talking about a fatal disease. You might not give a hoot about my hide, but I happen to—”
    â€œYou get rabies from an animal bite, Nash.”
    â€œâ€”feel—” He took a breath. Grimaced. “Like a total ass.”
    â€œWhich makes it oh-so-much-easier for me to say good night.” She was all icy superbeauty, and he couldn’t think of one more remark to make as she turned away. But wasn’t it better this way? He’d already decided she was dangerous to