Page 23 of Ruffled Feathers

Ineeded to get laid. Not just laid—I needed to get tag-teamed by Casanova and Don Juan, so that any thought of my stepbrother fucking me would disappear entirely from my brain.

There’d been a moment. I was almost sure of it.

But as soon as we reached the house, he was all business, asking about how much to feed each kitten, their schedule—anything but the way we’d been standing under the tree outside, and the way his eyes had snagged on my lips as we spoke.

Just going to lock that shit back down where it belonged, as late-night fodder for my vibrator collection. After we finished up with the kitten care explanation, I quickly retired to my room and to my waterproof rabbit.

Lance and Akio still hadn’t returned, though, and I was a little worried. Maybe they were gone for good, but would Lance really leave without saying goodbye? I wished he had a phone, or some way to contact him, so I didn’t have to worry. I just had to remind myself that he was a capable man, not some injured fawn I’d collected on the side of the road. He had his own things to work through, and he couldn’t do that if I was hovering around him.

But when I woke up the following morning, and Lance was in the kitchen, I couldn’t help the flood of relief that washed through my body.

“Good morning, Lancelot.”

He gave me a small quirk of his lips, but his eyes were warm. I wondered if the scars on his face pulled painfully if he smiled.

“Good morning, Otillie-James. I’ve given the kittens their morning feed.”

I took my mug over to the machine and set it to make me a latte. “Thank you. I have work today, for a few hours, but I wanted to warn you that Sonny is staying for a little bit. He’s taken time off work, because he needs a ‘break.’” I did air quotes with a sigh. “But I think he just wants to keep an eye on me, to make sure I don’t break into some science lab and liberate the monkeys or something.”

He raised an eyebrow. It was dark and straight, and kind of attractive. “Was that something you were looking at doing?”

At least once a year, every year since I was about thirteen, but I didn’t tell him that. I just shook my head. “Not lately.” I reached down and scratched Akio’s ears. “I just didn’t want you guys to be surprised, if you stumbled across him this morning. Sonny’s a nice guy. He won’t get in your face.”

Lance gave me a strange look, his head slightly tilted. “This is your home. It’s his home too. I’m the guest here.”

I rolled my eyes at him, bringing my coffee to my lips and sighing happily before leaning back against the island countertop. “I know that. But it’s always good to know who’s haunting the place.”

A little bit of stubble had grown back across his face, enough to just see the slashes of scarring across his cheeks. There was one that dissected his upper lip almost to his nostril. His eyes were dark this morning, and not to brag, but I’d done a fantastic job on his hair. He seemed to be wearing new clothes, just basicones—a soft flannel and light-wash jeans that fit him perfectly, clinging to his thighs just right. He looked so fucking handsome, it was almost painful.

Burying my face back into my coffee, I pushed that attraction back down too. Maybe I was ovulating or something, because I’d wanted to climb every attractive man in the vicinity for the last forty-eight hours.

But what would it be like to run my tongue up the strong column of his neck?

Oh god. Time to leave.

Lance’s face was unreadable as he sipped his tea, seemingly oblivious to my horny turmoil. Clearing my throat and hoping my face wasn’t on fire, I downed the rest of my coffee. “Okay, off to work I go. Call me if you need me.” Then I remembered he didn’t have a phone. “Or, like, send a carrier pigeon or something. Pepe would probably do it.”

Pepe was an injured pigeon out in my coop, with his girlfriend Sweetpea. None of the other rescue places would take them, because they were just pigeons, right? Rats with wings. But pigeons had once been domesticated, to the point they no longer knew how to operate as wild birds, and then someone invented the telephone, and what? We abandoned them back on the street? They’d even forgotten how to properly nest. Nope. Not on my watch. They’d get the same treatment from me as the dogs and cats.

I shrugged. “You’ll figure it out.” Lance chuckled, and I hustled out of the room before I said anything embarrassing.

I worked across town for Fur Babes Doggy Daycare, which was usually eight hours of pure chaos, but I loved it. I’d tried college, and while I’d made good grades, it wasn’t for me. I didn’t want to go into research, or become a corporate powerhouse, or whatever the hell kind of careers other people wanted.

Maybe it was because I’d lived the first part of my life homeschooled, free and without structure. It hadn’t made traditional education any easier for me. It had then been compounded by the assholes at that stuffy private school Dad had made me attend, who’d made the remainder of my teenage years hell.

Yeah, college hadn’t been for me, but the problem was, I didn’t know whatwasfor me yet.

I turned into the staff parking just as the bus pulled up. It was basically a school bus for the doggos, and honestly, it was my favorite thing. Terry, the bus driver, opened the door, and the cacophony of barking immediately made me smile.

“Morning, Terry! Just in time, as always.”

“Morning, Miss Otillie. Only eleven today. Aruba Smith is having dental surgery.” Aruba Smith was a mixed-breed stray, adopted by Paul and Lionel Smith on their honeymoon in—you guessed it—Aruba. He was surly around strangers, but spent most of his days sitting beside my feet, looking at all the purebreds with something akin to disdain. He’d definitely punish his parents for the indignity of oral surgery.

Sasha, the daycare’s owner and hardest worker, bustled through the front doors of the building and onto the bus with me. “Morning, Terry. Morning, Tillie.” She smiled at the dogs, still attached to their seats by clips on their collars. “Morning, fur babies! How are we today?” she cooed, and the bus went wild.

Laughing, I went to work unclipping dogs and attaching them to leads on my belt harness. We never attached more than two at a time, just for safety. I started at the back, while Sasha started at the front.

Unclipping Bacon and Eggs, a Beagle brother and sister, I attached them to the leads. “Good morning, lovelies. Are we going to have a good day today?” Walking down the aisle of thebus, I scooped up Smilow. He was an elderly gentleman, who was maybe part Chihuahua with a grumpy attitude, but I’d won him over on my second day by giving him some of my fries.

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