Page 10 of Missiletoe
Everyone said we looked the exact same, but they had to be nuts. Baz was a wonderful, perfect, beautiful force of nature and…
Paris turned the head pat into full-on head petting with little scritches behind my ears, and I forgot all about Baz.
I tilted my head to look up at Paris, and honestly? He was twice as beautiful as Baz, but please don’t tell Baz I said that because I don’t want him to get his feelings hurt, okay?
“Are you okay, bunny?”
I blinked mutely at Paris. He was crouched down beside me, and his hulking form absolutely dwarfed my own small body. I was pretty sure internal combustion was right around the corner at this point because I really, really wanted to be Paris’s bunny.
But the sheer impossibility of that wish had my brain fritzing like a malfunctioning computer, and I let out a long, drawn-out yawn.
“Still sleepy? That’s okay. You can stay here as long as you need to.” Paris put a hand on my chest and one behind my neck and slowly pushed me back onto the bed.
The resulting zing of lust shooting through me, combined with the knowledge that I would win a tall-man contest before I ever got a chance to ride Paris’s bologna pony, made my brain flip the closed sign, and it was lights out for Vix once again.
Chapter4
Paris
My human bunny went limp in my arms before I finished easing him onto his little bed. I patted his cheek, but he didn’t stir.
“Is this normal for him?” I asked Baz.
“Normal is relative for Vix, but no. He doesn’t usually have episodes back-to-back like this.” Baz flexed his wrists and rubbed the red marks my hands had left on his skin.
I prepared myself to deal with Baz if he took exception to being manhandled by me. I had no idea what came over me. I’d never done anything like it before. All I knew was that one minute I was okay and the next, I wasn’t. My bunny was so small, and while Baz was the same size, he didn’t give off bunny vibes. He was more like a honey badger. Bunnies were no match for honey badgers.
But Baz wasn’t giving off retaliation vibes. His face was pinched and filled with worry as he kneeled down to take my bunny’s arm in one hand to check his pulse. Whatever Baz found there had him relaxing a notch, and he stroked my bunny’s hair.
My eye twitched.
While Baz petted Vix, he looked like he was fighting an internal war. It seemed to go on for an eternity before he finally said, “Being out of the house isn’t good for Vix when he’s like this. I need to get him home. Can…” Baz gritted his teeth before continuing. “Can you help me? I can’t carry him by myself.”
In response, I scooped Vix up, dog bed and all, and said, “Do you have a car? Or do you need me to drive?”
Eager? Heck yes, I was. I was about to find out where my bunny lived without needing to rack my brain to figure out how to get the information another way. I fairly sprinted out of the shelter before realizing I’d left Baz in my dust. Also…
“Trixie, watch over the place while I’m gone,” I shouted down the hall toward the back room. Her answering bark reassured me that I was leaving all my friends in good paws until I got back.
I strode out into the parking lot with my precious, sleeping bundle, but got sidetracked when I looked down at his face. It was so small and cute. His nose wiggled like something was tickling it, and it made him seem even more like a bunny.
“Our car’s in the other direction, genius,” Baz’s voice came from behind me as he collected his knives from the flower pot, a startling reminder that I was standing in the middle of a parking lot staring at a virtual stranger while he slept.
Sure, we could have gotten hit by a car, and that wasn’t ideal, but the bigger problem was how much I wanted to keep watching him sleep.
“Ourcar?” I asked, shaking myself free from the spell my bunny had cast on me.
“Vix and I share a car. It’s not safe for him to drive, but he didn’t want to feel like a freeloader by having me drive him around everywhere, so he built it. He added in a bunch of really cool features too.”
“Really?” My bunny was so smart. “Like what?”
Baz’s face went shifty before saying, “Like…lots of things. But I don’t have time to get into it. Listen, you aren’t here to talk. You’re hired muscle. That’s all. So stop ogling my brother and follow me.”
“But you didn’t hire me.” Unless the payment was getting to be around Vix longer. That was pretty priceless in my opinion, but it would have been nicer if he was awake for it. The short, fleeting moments of hearing his soft voice and watching his expressive eyes as he spoke had been captivating. Even his tears had been lovely.
Awake Vix was enchanting. But sleeping Vix was warm and snuggly. I bet any kind of Vix was pretty much perfect.
Baz snorted. “If Gareth were here, you wouldn’t be necessary. Vix would be safe and sound in his lap in the back seat, and we’d be halfway home already.”
