Page 9 of Cuckoo
Twelve years after the adoption, I still couldn’t call her mom. I wasn’t sure of the reason. Maybe it was because I’d been so close to my birth mother before she died. Even at five years old,I remembered her smile, the scent of her floral perfume, and her soft Soprano voice as she sang to me.
Sabrina was the opposite of that memory, but that didn’t mean I didn’t care about her. I adored her, even when she was being a pain in the ass. Like now.
“I’ll see you soon. Love you, Kat.”
Kat. I hated my name being shortened. Sabrina never seemed to remember. “Love you too.”
The call ended, and I closed my eyes. I was glad that tomorrow was Saturday. I could sleep in and forget about work for a couple of days. One of the perks of my position and seniority was that I had the freedom to work the shift I wanted and avoid weekends. I still had to work one weekend shift a month, but the tradeoff was worth it.
I became a librarian during my senior year in college. The city hired me before I even had my diploma. Five years later, I had no intention of ever leaving. Being a librarian was the one thing in my life that felt perfect.
There might have been some truth in what Sabrina said. I was a bit lonely. Perhaps I was a little envious of Lizzie and her date, too. But all of the heartache in my past helped to erect a barrier I wasn’t sure I could ever break down. Worse, I didn’t think I wanted to be rid of it. There was something to be said about a safety net. Or, in my case, a solid and heavy safety wall.
Pushing off the swing, I decided to head inside for the night. After all, I had episodes of a certain vampire show to watch, even if I liked the books more.
Chapter 3 Cuckoo
It took several days for Eagle Eye to get back to me. He woke me in the middle of the night, blowing up my phone until I answered. The fucking vibrations kept going off by my head, and the cell nearly fell off the nightstand before I managed to catch it.
A bit groggy, I grumbled a gruff answer. “Yeah?”
“Katrina works for the city, Cuckoo. She’s a librarian.”
A librarian. It made sense. Katrina always loved books.
“Give me five minutes.” I didn’t wait for him to reply, hitting the end button.
Groaning, I pushed off the mattress and dropped to the floor, doing a few sets of pushups to wake myself up. Once the blood was pumping, I popped to my feet and entered the bathroom. It took me less than ten minutes to shower before I snatched up my keys and phone, shoved them in my pockets, and shrugged on my cut.
Eagle Eye ticked his chin my way as I entered his office. “Wait until you see this. Katrina has an employee I.D. It’s a much better pic than her driver’s license.”
Nobody ever had a good driver’s license photo. That was common knowledge.
“Let me see.”
He pulled up both images, but I settled my focus on the City of Henderson I.D. My entire body awakened as a blast of heat shot through me. My cock swelled in my jeans, and every thought in my head focused on her pouty, perfect lips and those pretty doe-like brown eyes. She still wore glasses.
I lifted my hand to touch the screen, brushing my fingertips over her image. Fuck. Was her skin as soft as it appeared?
Outside, my crow grew loud with his chortles and caws. A loud kraa seemed to echo from the roof.
I shuddered, feeling a warmth and intensity I couldn’t explain. It was like she locked onto me from that screen, and I was stuck in her tractor beam, zeroed in, and unable to escape.
I never had such a visceral reaction to a woman in my life. Every inch of me throbbed with want, longing, and lust. I needed to see her, touch her. NOW.
“Oh, shit,” Eagle Eye laughed. “I know that look.”
“What look?” I asked, far too distracted to glance his way.
“Like you just found your mate.”
I jolted, but I couldn’t tear my gaze away from Katrina. Jesus. Fucking. Christ. She was beautiful.Stunning, actually.
Wow.
“Bro, you need to stick your tongue back in your mouth.”
I ignored his laughter, mostly because all I could think about was how Katrina was going to be mine, and I didn’t care what I had to do to make it happen. If another guy tried to stake a claim, he’d face me and my crow.
