Page 7 of Sexy AF
Four
Benny
Her fucking hot kiss reverberated all the way to my toes. I hadn’t expected Carrie to still pack such firepower with those lips. On the drive back to my house, my body was hard, and I ached to devour her.
I’d been obsessed with her for years but stayed away as everyone—my parents, my brothers, my friends—told me there was no way at eighteen that I’d know what I wanted in the woman I’d spend my life with. But listening to my parents, who both screwed other people regularly, hadn’t been the smartest choice.
That was so fucking clear as I raced to my street, pulled into the driveway, and glanced at Carrie. She glittered in the late-afternoon sun. We’d spent hours at that lunch, talking, and soon I’d have her again.
Hope swelled in my chest. “This is home. Make a list of things you want brought from your apartment.”
“Home. I forgot.” She shook her head. “I can’t stay here without Sparkles.”
“Who’s Sparkles?”
“My cat. I should have mentioned him last night or earlier.” Carrie texted something, and a second later, her address popped on my phone. Then she said, “We need to go to my apartment to get him.”
Fine. One pussy in exchange for the one I want later.I didn’t tell her I already knew where she lived. Instead, I backed up and asked, “You named your cat Sparkles?”
“He’s the best.”
So was she. And I’d been a complete asshole to her. I’d waited for my obsession with her to fade, but it never had. Now I was close to having everything I wanted.
I tapped my steering wheel. “And you expect me to bring an animal here?”
She crossed her arms. “We’re a package deal. If you want me in that new house of yours, then Sparkles comes too.”
Fair enough.I’d never had a dog, or any animal, in my life, but the last thing I needed was for her to fight me. “Fine, but you didn’t mention him before now.”
She shook her head and looked out the window. “We were talking about other things, and I didn’t think you’d object. You volunteered at the animal shelter.”
We were almost at her apartment. “What if I don’t want a cat?” I asked. I needed to hear her voice, even if it was an argument.
She took the bait and flipped her head back with her lips curled, like a child. “I don’t want a husband, but I’m stuck with one as of today.”
I found a parking spot by her apartment, though this wasn’t the best place for my Porsche. I stepped out of the car. “Fine. Let’s head up.” We needed to do it fast.
I made it to her side, but she’d already let herself out. Carrie nodded at me. “Good.”
She found her keys, and we headed inside. The staircase was dark as we climbed up to the third floor. When we stepped into her apartment, I saw a cheap gray couch, a simple black-and-yellow rug, a TV, a table made for one, and a small kitchen. This was modest, which meant she wasn’t taking any money from her family. If she wasn’t involved with our fathers’ deal directly, then maybe she was more like me than I’d imagined. I stayed far away from anything sordid.
Carrie ran into her bedroom and then came out a minute later as I perused the living room, where she had a new Mac on her couch. I grabbed it and found the power cord, as she’d probably want it.
She came out with a fluffy white cat with blue eyes that stared at me. I fixed my tie. “So this is your cat?”
She let him down in the living room. “I’ll get the carrier and pack his food. I have extra litter. Can you grab that from the laundry room?”
I slipped into the side room, and my skin itched as I’d never met a cat I’d liked much. I went into a cabinet and found a large container of litter. As I returned with it, she had the carrier on the floor with the gate open. I hoped the cat would never touch my clothes. “You expect this—”
“Yes.”
If she felt as good as I remembered now that I’d retrieved that kiss of hers, she was worth taking a cat home. I nodded. “Well, he’d better not scratch up everything.”
“We keep him trimmed,” she said with a shrug and grabbed some dry food from a cabinet then placed it in the carrier.
“Who’s ‘we’?” I asked as blood rushed into my head. If she had a boyfriend, I would reconsider joining my family business.
“You and me,” she said quickly.
