The Game (That Girl, #2)(37)

I lick chocolate from my lips. “They are.”

A strange noise catches our attention. Looking over to the shore, I notice a little kitty. Levi pulls himself to a sitting position to take a closer look. It’s a tiny, mainly black kitten with a little white painted on the top of his back.

“Is that a cat?” Levi asks.

“Yes, I wonder where its mom is.”

Levi gets to his feet with a few grunts, and I feel guilty. The poor man’s body does need to recover. He starts to walk down the dock toward the kitten.

“What are you doing?” I ask, jumping to my feet.

Levi gives me a crazy look, and I follow on his heels.

“Levi, I’m scared to death of cats.”

He stops, turns to look at me and starts laughing. “You’re kidding, right?’

“No, I hate them.”

“It’s just a kitten, honey.”

The word honey completely throws me off my game, and I can feel as the blush takes over my face. It’s the first time he’s called me something other than Jazzy, and it…well, felt good.

“But it still has claws.”

Levi chuckles even louder, stepping off the dock. His loud laughter spooks the kitten a little further down the shoreline, but the curious critter stops to look back at him. I don’t step a foot off the dock. Yes, I know it’s a kitten and probably harmless, but the fact is cats creep me the f*ck out. Growing up, my dad had a black cat. The word huge doesn’t even begin to describe it. George was humongous and loved to attack my toes under the dining room table. I swear the bastard scarred me for life.

“It’s going to eat your face off,” I holler as Levi bends over to snag the little kitten.

I swear I can hear the kitten and Levi both laugh at me. Evil bastards.

“Look, Jazzy,” he calls back to me, holding up the kitten.

I shoot Levi a sarcastic thumbs up, praying to god we stop at an animal shelter on the way home.

He walks up to me with a huge grin. “See, it’s a cute little thing.”

And by damn if he’s not right. It’s the cutest kitten I’ve ever seen, with deep blue eyes and the blackest of black coat dappled with white.

“He’s cute,” I admit.

“He looks skinny.”

“Do you think he lost his mom, Levi?”

“Probably.”

We begin searching the beach and surrounding trees for any sign of his mom or other baby kitties.

“The main road isn’t that far away. I bet someone dumped it off.”

“What the hell? People actually do that?’

“All the time. Mom used to call animal control, and they’d come get them.”

“Then?”

“Probably euthanize or adopt out. One time Lincoln and I tried to hide a dog in our room.” Levi laughs at the memory while petting the kitten’s head.

“How long did that last?”

“About a week.”

“A week, holy hell, that’s a long time, Levi.”

“Well, we had to pay off the house cleaner to not rat us out.”

“You damn Wilks boys have always been charmers, huh?”

Even the damn kitten is already absolutely smitten. It has his little head nestled down in the crook of Levi’s elbow.

“I’ll go grab the cooler and one fishing pole. I’ll meet you at the truck.”

“Nah, I’ll wait here, sweet cheeks.”

My blush is back, I’m sure. The second time he’s called me by a pet name, and if I didn’t know better, I’d think he’s getting a kick out of watching me go all schoolgirl on him.

“Ready?” I ask, making it back to Levi and the kitty.

The two are in the same positions as when I left them.

“One day, I’ll stroke your * this good, and you’ll just lay there and purr.”

I try to hold back my laughter and suck at it. “You’re an *,” I get out between giggles.

When we make it back to the truck, I toss everything in the bed as fast as I can, trying to avoid Levi feeling useless. Besides the little incident this morning, our day has been perfect, and I’m not going to let anything ruin that. Who knows how many more hours I have with him before he leaves?

“Quit.”

Levi’s voice pulls me from my thoughts, startling me a bit.

“Quit wondering what’s going to go wrong.”

“How did you know?”

“I can read you like an open play book.”

“Oh, really? What am I going to do next?”

“Walk over here and kiss me.”

I follow his words as he says them. This time I drive the kiss, not pausing to feel his lips. Even in this quick kiss, Levi’s lips are more persuasive than I care to admit. He holds a certain power in them, and when they are on mine I’d give the man anything. He makes me feel free. Free from it all.

A little meow escapes between us, pulling us from our kiss, but with lips still touching.

“You’re squishing my *,” Levi says with a smile on my lips.

“Could you be any cornier?”

“You mean hornier?”

“I swear there are twelve year olds out there more mature than you.”

“Probably,” he admits, “but I’ve wooed you.”