She shook the thought away and watched as Cherry sat cross-legged on the floor and Nugget crawled up into her lap and got comfortable. “Yeah, I don’t think he likes you.”
“I mean, I don’t really like him either, so we’re even.” Cherry dropped a kiss onto his little cat head, then scratched behind his ears, and his motor kicked on.
“Can I get you something to drink? I have seltzer. I made a pitcher of iced coffee—”
“Say no more and hit me with the iced coffee. Please.”
“You got it.”
As Ellis doctored up the coffee with Cherry’s requested “One sugar and lots of milk, if you have it,” she watched her. She still couldn’t believe Cherry was here. Sitting on her floor. Scratching her cat. Looking around the room at Ellis’s things. How had they gotten here? And what was the next step?
“Did you have pets as a kid?” She walked the coffee to Cherry, then sat on the floor next to her.
“Oh no. We could barely afford food for ourselves. My dad never would’ve allowed another mouth to feed.” Ellis felt a wave of empathy for the vision of tiny Cherry her mind had conjured up. “You?”
“I always wanted a dog, but my dad was allergic. And once I was on my own, I worked a lot and had Michaela to take care of. Knew I didn’t really have the time to devote to one.”
“Cats are less maintenance.”
“Exactly. Thus, this guy.” She reached to scratch her cat. “Who seems to like you better than me.”
Cherry nuzzled Nugget’s furry head. “Nah. I’m just new. Well. Newer than you.” She turned to look at her and those eyes…God, those eyes. Ellis couldn’t help herself. She leaned in.
Cherry’s lips were soft and slick and tasted like peaches. A second or two ticked by, and then Cherry kissed her back. Just a little at first. Seemingly hesitant. Uncertain. And then Cherry didn’t just kiss her back, shekissed her back. And oh my God. It was gentle, but demanding. Soft, but hard. Yielding, but intense.
When was the last time she’d been kissed like that?
Like, ever? Had sheeverbeen kissed like that?
She didn’t think so.
Nugget jumped off Cherry’s lap, which must’ve gotten her attention because she pulled away. When Ellis opened her eyes, Cherry was smiling at her.
“Um, wow.”
“Same. Yeah.” Ellis grinned at her. “Sorry about that. I—”
Cherry cut her off with a hand on hers. “Please don’t apologize.”
“No?”
“No. The truth is, I’ve wanted to kiss you from that first day you waited on me.”
Ellis felt a pleasant wave in her stomach. And lower. “Seriously?”
Cherry tipped her head to one side, then the other and said, “I mean, the very first thing I noticed were your legs…so, after that, yeah.”
Ellis was blushing. She knew it. She could feel it, the heat crawling up from her chest, rising over her throat and settling in her face. Her cheeks were hot. Her ears, too. “Well. That’s…wow.”
“Okay, the blushing? Stupidly cute.” Cherry leaned in and kissed her again, this time softer. Slower. She ended it with a little flick of her tongue against Ellis’s lip, and Ellis almost whimpered out loud. When she pulled back, their gazes held for a long time. Then Ellis swallowed and cleared her throat, then glanced around the room.
“Where’d my cat go?”
As if he understood her, Nugget came walking around the end of the couch, looking around the room as if for the first time. Which it kind of was. He walked slowly toward her, looked at her face for a long moment, then crawled into her lap.
“See?” Cherry said with a soft laugh. “He does like you. Told you.”
“Finally. He’s been sitting in that carrier for almost an hour. I was starting to think he wasn’t ever coming out.”
