Roam didn’t reply.
I didn’t touch the boys, touching was not right. I might nudge them or shove their shoulder playful y but I only did these things after months of getting to know them. The only other time I’d touched Roam was to slam him against the building when we found Park.
After hesitating, I laid my hand on Roam’s chest.
“Something happened to you, I don’t know what I’d do.
We lost Park, I don’t want to lose another one of you,” I whispered.
I felt his breathing go heavy like he was fighting emotion.
He stil didn’t say anything and I left him alone.
I bent to Sniff. He was also lying on his back, arms to his sides. I could see his eyes staring at the top bunk.
“You did the right thing, Sniff,” I told him.
Sniff turned his back to me.
Oh wel . So be it. For now.
I left them to their thoughts and went home.
I let myself in, set the alarm so the door and window sensors were activated but the motion sensors were not. I took a long, hot bubble bath and let the tension seep out of my body. Then I got out, toweled off and slid open the door to the under bed storage.
I had two dressers under there. My clothes were mostly utilitarian, chosen for comfort with only a bit of attention to style.
My nightwear was anything but.
Outside of decorating my house, my only extravagance was sexy nightgowns. I had two drawers stuffed ful of them.
I pul ed out a nightie and put it on. It had smoky gray lace at the triangular bosoms and at the hem which came to my upper thighs. The thin straps and body of the nightie were the palest pink satin.
I climbed into bed and Boo settled in beside me.
I shut down my mind, and, just as I told Crowe, slept like the dead.
*
I woke up, groggy from sleeping heavily, and felt strange. The covers were tucked close to my back; an odd intense warmth coming from there. And, for some reason, even though he’d never done this, Boo was draped over my waist.
My eyes opened slowly and I saw Boo, lying beside me, watching me and waiting for me to get up and give him his morning portion of wet food, the favorite part of Boo’s day.
I closed my eyes again. My morning alarm buzzer hadn’t gone off so I figured I had time to sleep some more.
Then my eyes opened again and I stared at Boo.
If Boo was lying beside me, then what was draped over my waist?
My mind cleared.
Oh crap.
I moved quickly, dislodging what was on my waist and heading out.
At my sudden movement, Boo went flying on an angry,
“Meow!”
I was snagged around the midriff and thrown back to the bed, my head hitting the pil ows, and Vance Crowe rol ed his body over mine.
I stil ed and looked up into his dark, lushly-lashed eyes.
“Oh my God,” I breathed.
“‘Mornin’,” he said to me, like we woke up next to each other every day.
“Oh my God,” I breathed again.
His hair was not in a ponytail but fal ing around his face and shoulders and, I kid you not, he looked like a Native American Warrior God.
“Do I have your attention?” he asked.
Yes, he had my attention. He seriously had my attention.
“How did you get in here? My alarm –” I started.
“I disabled it.”
“Oh my God,” I said again.
My alarm was a good one. Nick had it instal ed for me. It had settings for when I was home and when I was not. The motion sensors had been specifical y placed so Boo wouldn’t set them off, even if he used his kitty flap. When an intruder tripped it, an alarm sounded and it immediately cal ed a security dispatch then the police. It was not a rinky-dink alarm, it cost a fortune, not only instal ation but monthly maintenance fees.
“How did you disable it?” I asked.
He didn’t answer, instead he gave me his shit-eating grin.
Then it came to me where I was, where he was and I bucked to throw him off.
This didn’t work.
“Get off me!” I yel ed.
“We’re gonna talk,” Crowe replied.
“No… we… are… not. Off! ” I was using my Law-at-the-Shelter-tel ing-off-the-kids voice.
This had no effect on Crowe.
“Don’t make me hurt you,” I warned, mostly for show.
The shit-eating grin spread to an amused smile and that pissed me off.
“Like to see you try,” he said it like he would, indeed, like to see me try.
It was a chal enge and, because I was al kinds of fool, I took him up on it.
Heavy and Frank had shown me a number of moves and they’d made me practice them until my body ached.
Unfortunately, these moves were mostly done standing up but I used them al the same.
We wrestled and I realized Crowe knew al my moves, knew also how to deflect them and he had far more moves in his arsenal, not to mention he was a hel of a lot stronger than me.