Like Cats and Dogs by Kate McMurray (scary books to read TXT) 📗

Lauren’s tone struck Caleb as blasé. “That’s all you can do.”

“It’s not like we’re giving out state secrets here. And you guys at the clinic don’t do any more than that when you allow pets to be adopted.”

“No, but most of the adoptions are to people who are already clients.”

“Sometimes, my cold-blooded friend, you have to trust your fellow human beings to be good people. What’s the alternative? A lot of these cats would die on the streets or in kill shelters otherwise. At least this way, we give them a chance at a good home.”

“It’s not that I don’t trust people…”

Lauren leveled her gaze at him, as if to say, “Oh, please.”

“I’m only worried about the welfare of the animals.”

“Sure, you are.”

The mocking note in her tone felt like she was goading him. On purpose? He couldn’t tell.

He rolled with it. “I’m just saying, letting any rando off the street adopt a cat could lead to these cats being mistreated, and that’s not what you want.”

“Of course not. We do screen people. Are you accusing me of something?”

“No. I would never accuse you of anything.”

She scoffed. “Oh, really?”

“Have I ever?”

“You’ve called me flighty on a few occasions. And you, buddy, are stubborn and untrusting.”

Their raised voices were starting to attract attention around them.

“You’re too trusting. You live in some strange fantasy land of cats and unicorns where everything is perfect, and it’s ridiculous. People aren’t nice. That’s not how the world works.”

“That’s not fair. I’m doing good work here. If you can’t see that—”

“Oh, I can see it. But be realistic. And lower your voice—people are staring at us.”

“Fine,” she whisper-shouted. “Are you really mad at me or are you making an argument to make an argument?”

“Some of both.”

“You asshole. I can’t believe you would pick a fight with me at an event I put on, in my place of business.”

“You pick fights with me at my place of business all the time. You did just a few days ago, in fact.”

“You are such a jerk. Why do I keep thinking we can even be civil?”

“Because you are foolish and idealistic?”

Lauren let out a frustrated grunt. “And you’re an arrogant prick. God, you piss me off.” Then she turned on her heel and marched into the back room.

Caleb looked around. Some of Lauren’s friends—people he recognized but couldn’t name, not really disproving her point—looked at him expectantly.

“Fine, I went too far,” he told his audience. “I’ll go apologize.”

He made a big show of looking put out about it, and then jogged after Lauren. He walked through a series of open doors and found her in a big walk-in closet that seemed to be used mostly to store extra cat food and litter.

“Shut the door,” Lauren said breathlessly.

Caleb did as he was told.

“Are you as turned on as I am?” Lauren asked.

“It was about to get embarrassing for me out there.”

Lauren reached forward and grabbed his crotch, the palm of her hand against his very hard cock. “I think we have, like, ten minutes before people start to notice I’m missing.”

“I’m supposed to be apologizing. I’m sorry if I went too far there.”

She worked at the fly of his pants. “Shut up and fuck me. We can talk about it later.”

He grabbed the hem of Lauren’s skirt and shoved it up. He looked around. There was a narrow table that looked like it was about the right height. Would it support Lauren’s weight? Only one way to find out. Caleb lifted Lauren onto the table and slid off her panties. She opened her legs. He was already half-hanging out of his pants, so he fished out his cock and kissed her.

“Do you have any—?” he asked.

“No, but I am on the pill.”

“I don’t have anything.”

“I don’t either.”

With that, he pushed inside her.

It was fast and intense. Lauren threw one arm around Caleb’s shoulders and used the other to brace herself against the table or the wall or whatever would keep her from falling. Caleb drove forward, shocked by how good it felt to be inside her bare, amazed that she trusted him this much, lost in the feel of her body around him.

It was over almost as fast as it started, with Lauren biting into his clothed shoulder to keep from crying out, and then Caleb shuddering and coming inside her.

They stayed panting on the table for a moment, Lauren still clutching at him to keep from falling. With some reluctance, Caleb withdrew. As they each put themselves back to rights, Caleb said, “That just happened.”

“I do trust you, you know. You’re always unfailingly honest.”

“I trust you, too. At least as far as this goes.” He gestured between them.

But the truth was, he did trust her. Maybe not with his heart, but he’d never known her to lie or be deceitful. Although now that he heard what he’d said in his own head, he worried he’d sounded condescending.

Lauren said, “I’ve never done it in a closet before.”

“Me neither, actually. And Lauren, I didn’t mean—”

“It’s fine, don’t apologize. Do I look okay?”

She looked gorgeous. A little disheveled. He reached over and smoothed down her hair. He tugged her shirt back into place. “Your lipstick is smudgy.”

She hopped off the table. “My bag is in the office. Come with me.”

He followed her down a short hallway to an office. She pulled a purse from a drawer, produced a compact mirror and a couple of what looked like wet wipes. She tossed one at him. He saw it was an individually wrapped make-up wipe.

“You’ve got my lipstick smudged on your face,” she said, gesturing around her own lips.

He sighed and ran the wipe over his face as she fixed her lipstick. When she was done, she took the wipe from him, dabbed at a spot on his cheek, gave him a quick peck on the lips, and then ran her hands over his hair.

“Do I look passable?” he asked.

“You’ll do.” Lauren patted his shoulder. “All right. Let’s get back