Part 23 (2/2)
”You'd better put him in the coat closet.”
”I hate sticking him in that tiny s.p.a.ce. The hall will work.” He set Orion on his feet outside the door and closed it. Then, keeping his attention focused on Anica, he pulled his s.h.i.+rt from his slacks and began unfastening the b.u.t.tons.
Orion began to meow and scratch at the door.
”Coat closet,” Anica said with a smile.
”Right.” Jasper opened the door.
Orion shot through it and dashed under the bed.
With a groan, Jasper dropped to his hands and knees and tried to reach the cat, but Orion backed into the exact center of the s.p.a.ce.
Laughing, Anica broke her pose and climbed out of bed. ”I'll get the broom.”
Jasper enjoyed the view as she walked out of the room, but then he peered under the bed and glared at the cat. ”If it weren't for you I'd be a happy man right about now. I was trying to do you a favor, you ingrate. I'd hate to be closed in that tiny closet, so I figured you would, too. And this is how you repay me for being a pal.”
Orion stared at him, unmoving.
”This should help.” Anica arrived with the broom.
Jasper recognized the broom. It was the same one she'd used to chase him out from under the bed that first night. This was no O-Cedar brand of broom, either. The handle was thick and had a pentagram carved into it near the top. The bristles were gathered in a bundle instead of the flat brooms he was used to using.
Where had he seen a similar kind of broom? Oh yeah. Kate had been a Harry Potter fan. She'd dragged him to the movies. Harry and friends rode on brooms like this, but of course that was all fake.
Anica gave him a puzzled glance. ”Is something wrong?”
h.e.l.l, he needed to ask these kinds of questions sooner or later, but he was afraid it would ruin the s.e.x. He hated to do that, because every time he looked at her walking around with no clothes on, he wanted to-well, do everything in the book with her. And a few things that might not be in any book.
”Jasper?”
”I . . . um, do you . . . ride that?”
Her brow cleared. ”You're freaked out by the broom.”
”I wouldn't say that.”
”I would. You're staring at it as if it might start moving around the apartment on its own.”
”Can it?”
”No,” she said gently. ”And right now, when I have no magic, it's just an ordinary broom, the kind you can use to get a cat out from under the bed.”
He realized he was buying trouble, worrying about things that weren't a factor yet. He was less and less willing to do that, so he decided to drop the subject of the broom as a potential flying machine. ”I don't want to use the broom to get Orion out.”
”Why not?”
”Because it's no fun being chased out from under the bed with a broom.”
”Oh.” She seemed to be holding back a smile. ”Then what do you suggest?”
”Let me get him something to eat instead.”
”You know I'm trying to keep him from-” She interrupted herself and shook her head. ”Never mind. Sure. Get him whatever you want except tuna. I really don't want to start with that. Cats can get to the point where they won't eat anything else, which isn't good for them.”
”Okay. Be right back.” He went into the kitchen with the image of her standing there naked, holding the broom that might or might not be able to fly. He was so effing confused. He wanted her more than he'd ever wanted a woman before, and she'd jump-started his libido, which was huge. But could he deal with flying brooms and magic wands?
He'd said the magic wasn't such a factor now. Maybe he hadn't been honest with himself about that. The idea of Anica flying through the night astride a broom was a little disturbing.
He found some deli meat in the fridge to tempt Orion out from under the bed. As he carried it back to the bedroom, he was met with a sight guaranteed to fry a guy's brain and send all the blood rus.h.i.+ng south. Anica was on all fours beside the bed, which was interesting enough.
But her pose was even more erotic than that. With her f.a.n.n.y in the air, she laid her cheek on the carpet so she could see under the bed and call to Orion. Jasper almost came when he saw her positioned like that. Forget the cat. He'd grab a condom and be buried deep before the cat could blink.
She must have heard his footsteps, though, because she pushed herself upright and stood. ”I can't get him to budge without the broom, so let's see you try with the food bribe.”
He was so aroused he could barely talk. Apparently she had no idea what she'd looked like to someone coming through that door. He doubted he'd ever forget that moment.
Then again maybe she'd known exactly what she was doing. She glanced up at him and smiled. ”I was just thinking, we haven't tried it doggie style.”
He gulped. ”Uh, no, we haven't.”
”Get Orion out from under the bed and maybe we can remedy that omission.”
Given that possibility, he was ready to drag Orion out with a grappling hook. No, no, he wasn't. Cats were people, too. Well, some were, him in particular. Some were people wannabes, and that would be Orion's category. He didn't deserve the broom treatment.
Fortunately the deli meat worked like a charm. Once Orion was mostly out, Jasper grabbed him. Orion would still get the meat, of course, unlike the sneaky behavior of that Shoumatoff woman, who had brought tuna without any intention of giving it to him. Jasper knew he'd probably been guilty of similar tactics with pets, but he wouldn't treat an animal with that kind of disrespect ever again.
After closing Orion in the closet with his deli meat, Jasper strode down the hall, shedding clothes along the way. He was s.h.i.+rtless before he made it through the bedroom doorway, and shoeless before he got to the bed.
She was back on the bed again, bathed in flickering candlelight. This time, instead of lying on her back as if ready to receive him between her thighs, she was propped on her side watching him undress.
”I love seeing you naked,” she said.
”Same here.” Then another thought came to him. As he stripped off the rest of his clothes, he wondered if she danced naked in the moonlight.
What were those groups of witches called? He'd read it on the Internet. Then the word came to him. ”Do you belong to a coven?”
”How would you feel about that?”
”I don't know. I picture people dancing naked in a circle out in the woods somewhere.”
”I have done that a few times.”
He was a little shocked by that and a lot turned on. ”Basically, witches and wizards are nature buffs,” she said.
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