Page 54 of Hard Tail
Chapter Eighteen
When I stumbled downstairs Wednesday morning, the first thing I saw was a tousle-headed Matt, wandering around the kitchen in nothing but his boxer shorts.
I’ve never had much appetite for food in the mornings, but God, Matt looked good enough to eat. His torso was lean yet defined, just as you’d expect of a cyclist, and those broad shoulders gave him a rangy, powerful look that did interesting things to certain parts of me. “Morning!” I called out a bit too brightly. “Have you found everything you need?”
Matt looked up and stretched, the boxer shorts riding down just a touch to show a teasing glimpse of his treasure trail. I realised I was holding my breath and let it out quickly before my face could turn red. If it wasn’t too late already. “Only…” He yawned widely. “Only just got up. What do you normally have for breakfast?”
I swallowed. “Just coffee. But there should be some bread, if you fancy eating something.”
“Yeah, I’d keel over if I didn’t eat breakfast.” Matt looked around and located the bread bin. Fortunately, my prayers were answered: there was indeed bread, and it was in a perfectly respectable condition. True, it was bog-standard white cut-loaf from Asda, but at least it hadn’t gone green.
Shoving a couple of slices in the toaster, Matt twisted around to look at me. “Sure I can’t tempt you?” he asked.
Toast. He meant toast. Focus, Knight. “Uh—no, thank you. I’ll put the kettle on.”
Mindful of the strength Matt preferred for his coffee at work, I made his mug with about half as much coffee as I used for mine and added lots of milk. “That’s great—thanks,” he said, having taken a sip.
I held my mug in both hands and inhaled deeply, my eyes falling closed. Coffee. There’s nothing like it, particularly first thing in the morning after a night disturbed by someveryspecific dreams. When I opened my eyes again, I saw Matt gazing at me with an odd expression on his face. I sighed. “Go on, laugh. I know I have a caffeine problem, and I’m just fine with that.”
Matt blinked. “Oh—no, I mean, I wasn’t going to laugh—” His toast popped up noisily, and he jumped, spilling some coffee on the floor. “Shit—sorry—I’ll wipe that up.”
“Don’t worry about it. Eat your toast while it’s hot, I’ll get the floor,” I insisted. I took a fortifying sip of the brown nectar and grabbed a kitchen towel, only to be beaten to it by Wolverine, who was lapping up the drips as if they were mouse-flavoured. “Scat!” I shouted, shoving him aside and mopping the rest up hastily. I didn’t know if coffee was particularly bad for cats, but I was fairly sure it couldn’t be actually good for them. And the prospect of Wolverine hyped up on caffeine was not one I wanted to live through.
Assuming survival would be on the cards in any case—I certainly wouldn’t have rated Adam’s chances if he’d happened to turn up at the wrong moment.
Wolverine stalked away, affronted.
“You know, you’ve got a weird cat,” Matt commented indistinctly, his mouth full of toast.
“Tell me about it,” I said in exasperation. “Punishment for my sins, I think.”
Matt grinned. “Been a lot of them, have there?”
If lusting after another man when I already had a boyfriend was a sin, I was going straight to hell. I cleared my throat. “Usual amount, I expect. Actually, now I think about it, the number’s probably depressingly low.”
“Yeah, well—I’m sure Adam’ll help you out there,” Matt said with a strange sort of tone in his voice. I didn’t quite know what to say.
Fortunately, Wolverine chose that moment to stalk into the kitchen andmiaowat me pointedly. “I wondered where you’d got to, oh guardian of my morals,” I muttered as I fetched the can opener.
“You what?”
Bugger. Now I’d have to explain myself to Matt. “I, er—he sort of attacked Adam. At a rather unfortunate moment.” I tried not to cringe too visibly.
“Yeah? He looks such a softy.” Matt bent down to stroke him. I had a brief moment of panic—besides not wanting Matt to get hurt, how on earth would he do his job with no fingers? But Wolverine just leaned into Matt’s touch and purred in ecstasy despite the fact he still hadn’t been fed.
“Maybe it really is the ginger thing, then,” I mused, having brief and somewhat sadistic fantasies of inviting other redheaded people round to see if Wolverine would go for them the way he did for Adam.
“Doubt it,” Matt said. “Cats can be funny, though. What was Adam doing when he attacked him?”
I froze in the middle of forking out the tuna into Wolverine’s bowl. What the hell was I going to tell him?Oh, he was just about to shove his cock in my virgin arse? I swallowed, and straightened slowly, forcing myself to look at Matt. “I, er, can’t remember,” I lied, probably excruciatingly badly.
Matt stared at me for a moment. “Oh. Okay,” he said and, looking down, took a bite of his toast.
A few crumbs fell to his chest and were caught in the fine hairs there. I swallowed. If I’d been starving for a month, I couldn’t have wanted to lick them off more than I did already. I stared at them ravenously for a long moment—and when I looked up, found Matt’s gaze on me. My cheeks were so hot, if I stood there any longer I’d probably give the poor bloke sunburn. “Um,” I said intelligently. “Better go and get dressed.”
***
I hoped Matt wasn’t anything like as distracted as I was at work that morning, or we’d be sending out bikes with the wrong number of wheels and no brakes. I misheard requests, gave people the wrong change, and more than once had total strangers give me funny looks and ask if there was anyone home. It was a blessed relief to shut up shop at one o’clock.
