“Thanks for letting us know about the cat dilemma. We should have them wrangled shortly. Finnie has a whole load already in the back of her truck. She’s heading over to the Society now to drop them off with Yedda. I’ve got some catnip in the back of Bain’s truck.” She paused and her gaze went over my left shoulder. “Hey, Lincoln. Welcome to Auburn Hill and all our craziness!”
Linc and Lucy hugged. I’d never been so jealous of a hug.
“Hey, man, did you do it?” Bain’s voice rose over the cacophony of toddlers whining.
Linc brushed a hand over his chin, obscuring the smile I’d come to obsess over. There was dirt under his short nails, and normally that would turn me off, but something about Linc getting messy with his hands made my insides ignite and melt.
“Maybe,” he hedged.
Bain tossed his head back and roared with laughter, clearly in on a joke the rest of us weren’t. “That’s awesome. Mission accomplished, bro. Now let’s clean up this mess.”
Lucy and I looked at each other with raised eyebrows. Sounded like Bain was up to one of his stupid dares. Lucy finally shrugged and tossed the keys to Bain’s truck at me. Linc snatched them out of the air.
“I’ve got this. Hop in, Keva.”
Didn’t have to tell me twice. I sprang into action so fast my boots creaked at the sudden change in direction. I hopped into the passenger side of the truck and directed Linc around town as we found cats and put them in the back of the truck. We were at max capacity and heading back to the Society to drop the critters off when I saw one last kitty roaming the side of the road, just barely out of the flow of traffic in the roundabout.
“Over there!” I shouted, pointing.
Linc yanked the wheel and cut off Poppy in her mail truck in the inside lane. She stuck her hand out the window and gave me a rude gesture I won’t describe. Linc hit the brakes and Poppy veered around us, barely missing clipping our back bumper. She pulled to a stop while I hopped down from the truck, gaze laser focused on the poor kitty shaking on the curb. Although on further inspection, the cat looked surprisingly pink and not very catlike.
“What in Sam Hill is going on around here?” Poppy demanded from behind me.
I ignored her and crouched down to croon to the cat that probably wasn’t a cat. “Hey, pretty little thing. Are you lost?”
The lump of pink with black spots shivered and then let out a mighty snort. She lifted her head and I saw a snout. “Oh my God! It’s a baby pig!”
Poppy leaned over my shoulder and almost made me squish the pig. “First there are cats all over the place, and now this. This town is going to hell, I tell you!”
I reached out and let the pig sniff my hand. She didn’t shy away, so I attempted to pick her up. She came willingly and even quit shaking as I held her to my chest. Poppy’s hands went to her hips, her eyebrows drawn together like she hated pigs. How could anyone hate an adorable mini pig?
“I shall name you Spunky,” I declared. Spunky let out a pig squeal and her thoughts smoothed over me like liquid love.
“Is that thing from the Cat Society too?” Linc asked, arms crossed over his chest, the sun sinking into the background behind him, lighting him up like a dark angel sent to earth to lure women with his good looks and charm. Good Lord, that man was a fine specimen.
“Well, hello there, Mr. Handsome. I’m Poppy Strauss. Mail carrier by day…Well, I can’t tell you what I get up to at night.” Poppy winked lasciviously at Linc.
Holy shit. Poppy was flirting.
The mini pig gently snorted, and I couldn’t have agreed more. The sight was highly disturbing. Linc smirked. I had to hand it to him for not cringing or outright laughing. I mean, Poppy wasn’t a day younger than sixty and poor Linc here was probably only mid-twenties. She was barking up the wrong tree, though I kind of understood. That kind of prime man candy made a woman go a little batty.
Linc unfolded his arms in slow motion and reached out, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. He gave me a yank and suddenly the mini pig was pressed between our two chests, bleating out a warning signal at the change in cabin pressure. Linc’s head tilted down and blotted out the sunset. His lips hit mine and I forgot to breathe. There was nothing shy about the way he plunged his tongue into my mouth, eating me up before I even realized what was going on. My head spun up to the skies and I began to shake at the sensations pinging through my extremities. He was warm and tasted like that peanut butter whiskey I’d recently discovered.
“Got room for a third?” Poppy’s loud voice interrupted my best kiss ever.
Damn, that woman was bold. And also, ew.
I swallowed hard as Linc reluctantly looked up from my face, his lips wet. “We got the pig and three’s all we can handle. Sorry.”
And then he was on me again, his teeth nipping at my lips, his hand dipping down to grab my ass. The squished mini pig’s snout came up to bop me under my chin, but still, I didn’t lean away from that kiss. The whole town of Hell could go up in stink bombs and I’d be right here, fusing my lips to this dark stranger with the banana-yellow scooter and the abs I could count through his T-shirt. I shifted as close as I could get without climbing inside his skin, catching a faint whiff of rotten eggs. I had a sneaking suspicion Linc caused the cat kerfuffle, which I normally would have protested, but he had helped clean up the mess.
And the resulting escaped cats and a spoiling sperm sample had brought us together.
“That’s okay. I have plenty of toys from the Hardware Store.”
Linc broke the kiss looking confused. I grimaced, knowing exactly what Poppy was referring to and, quite frankly, I didn’t need to know about Poppy’s sex toy hobbies. Linc’s warm hands let me go, leaving both me and mini pig whimpering. Poppy cleared out and we hustled back to the Society before all the cats finished with the catnip in the back of the truck and realized we were delivering them back to Yedda.
The whole gang stood there when we pulled up. Yedda was counting each of her babies and Hazel made sure they got extra wet food tonight as a reward for coming back home. We stood in a circle, chatting, the warm presence of Linc right behind me more distracting than the way Yedda knew each cat’s name without looking at the collars. Linc breathed on my neck and I couldn’t help the goose bumps. He brushed his hand against my hip, and I begged the universe to make everyone disappear.
“Dude, what happened to your bike?” Bain asked Linc, clearly done with the cat business.
“In the shop.” Linc shrugged and I could feel it since he was standing so close.
Bain chuckled. “Aren’t you a mechanic?”
Linc straightened and my ears perked up. Yeah, what did Linc do for a living? And why was he in town? And was he dating anyone? The kiss said no, but then again, that might have just been to get Poppy off his tail.
“I work on planes, not motorcycles, man. Minor repairs I can do, but not the big stuff. Some asshole hit me on the road last week and I was lucky to walk away with both nuts intact.”
Nuts. Sperm. Oh shit!
“Lucy!” I called to her across the parking lot where she was trying to get Roxy to put down the cat she was hugging like she intended to take it home. Her head popped up as I checked my watch. “I forgot to come back and take that sample to San Jose. They close in like twenty minutes.”