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

she was in one of those relationships—or not—in which she never went to her lover’s place, it was more because of expedience and convenience than anything nefarious on his part.

When she’d first moved to the city, she’d had a roommate who dated a guy who never allowed her at his place. Turned out it was because he had a live-in girlfriend, and Lauren’s roommate was his side piece. Thus Lauren had long been skeptical of guys who didn’t want to take their potential sex partners home. She didn’t even know what block Caleb lived on, but given that they both worked in the same building as Lauren’s apartment, that was likely due to laziness more than malevolence.

He was apparently equally contemplative, because he said, “Have you told your friends about me?”

“I may have said something the first time we slept together, but as far as they know, I hate you again now.”

Caleb murmured something Lauren couldn’t hear, then said, “Do you hate me?”

“Not right now.”

“Is it because of all the orgasms?”

She sighed dramatically. “They certainly help. Anytime you want to win me over, just go down on me like that again.”

“So if I said, ‘Dogs are better than cats’ and ‘One should have red wine with red meat’ and then went down on you, you’d be on board with my platform?”

“I’ll consider the wine thing, but you’re wrong, cats are clearly the superior animal.”

He put his hand on her hip. “Shall I try to persuade you?”

“I won’t stop you from trying.”

He laughed. Then he rested his head on her chest. “I’m not quite recovered from the last bout, but I’ll put it on my to-do list.”

Lauren ran her hand through Caleb’s hair. It was hard to deny this was…nice. More than nice. Being with Caleb made her feel powerful in a way, like she was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen, maybe the sexiest woman in Brooklyn. And now, tangled up with him in bed, she felt content. One could get used to such things.

And under normal circumstances, maybe she’d tell her friends about this, but her friends had few boundaries, and she wasn’t ready to let them in on this yet. Plus, she’d never be able to explain it. How she was sleeping with a man whom, in public, she despised. But the truth was she didn’t despise him so much anymore. Whether that was the endorphins from all the good sex talking or how she genuinely felt, she couldn’t say right then.

And then Molly hopped up on the bed. She gave Caleb a wide berth as she walked around the edge of the mattress and then curled up in a ball near Lauren’s shoulder.

“So you do have a cat. She’s not imaginary.”

“Nope. She doesn’t really like people, especially men, but I guess she’s either decided you are okay or her need to sleep near me has overwhelmed her desire to avoid you. Hard to say.”

Caleb chuckled, then reached across Lauren to hold his hand near Molly. Molly gave him a cursory sniff, then lifted her head to rub against his hand a little, then went back to her ball of sleep. Caleb retracted to his side of the bed.

“I see what you did there,” said Lauren.

“What did I do?”

“You tried to get her to like you. Tested the waters a little.”

“Sure.”

“You do like cats.”

“It’s not that I dislike cats, it’s that I prefer dogs.”

Lauren rolled onto her side, careful not to disturb Molly, and faced Caleb. “I wonder what Molly would do if you brought Hank here.”

Caleb recoiled. “I don’t see that ending well. Molly doesn’t look very big, but I’ve seen tiny cats do a lot of damage.”

“Or they will be fast friends. Molly’s never met a dog, so I don’t know what she would do.” Molly didn’t get along well with other cats, but she might like different animals. “Do you remember, when we were kids, there was a movie with a kitten and a pug who were friends who went on adventures together?”

Caleb narrowed his eyes. “I have no recollection of that.”

“I can’t remember what it was called, but it was really cute. And the whole point of the movie was to show that even a cat and a dog can be friends. Like you and I having a civil conversation right now.”

“When I was a kid, we had a golden retriever named Floyd, who was about the sweetest dog I’ve ever known. We also had a couple of cats who moved into an old barn on my parents’ property. Both cats clearly had it out for poor Floyd. I wanted to bring the cats into the house, but in my one attempt, they tried to claw Floyd’s eyes out. So dogs and cats can be friends, sure, and I’ve seen that in my practice. But not always.”

“Your childhood trauma explains a lot.”

Caleb laughed. “I did build a nice home for the cats in the barn. My family wasn’t really using it for anything except storage, so I cleaned it up and put some pet beds in there and I brought food to them every day. So, see? I’m not evil.”

Lauren shot him a sultry grin and reached over to twirl a lock of his hair. “No, not evil. I think you’re a big softy on the inside. You love all animals, even cats. You’d have to, in order to be a good vet, and the rumor around the café is your patients like you. But don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me.”

“I appreciate that. Although…” Caleb shifted his weight and propped himself up on his elbows. “I’m coming to realize the divorce left me more jaded than I thought. I didn’t used to be as much of a dick as I’ve been lately.”

“Are you…apologizing?” Lauren put some mocking in her voice.

“Shut up. No, not really. Just… If you’d met me a year ago, you might have actually liked me. You’re right, I do love animals. I like taking care of them. I like