Basic Attraction (5 page)

“Exactly.” She watched him as he took a long swallow of his beer. “How much alcohol do you consume?”

“Consume?” He choked on a laugh. “Gorgeous, I don’t consume beer, I drink it. On occasion, if you need to know.”

She sipped her water with a look that clearly said that she thought he was a rip-roaring lush. Now he did laugh.

“What? Why are you laughing?”

“Because something is funny. That’s usually why people laugh.” He lazily reached across the table and took her hand in his. His thumb stroked her smooth, golden flesh on the soft palm of her hand. He started to feel warm in his two shirts.

“Don’t,” she sighed, shooting him a fearful glance.

“Why not?”

“Because…” She closed her eyes as he moved his leg so his thigh was touching hers. “We have nothing in common. There’s nowhere for this to go.”

“We have this in common.” He brought her hand to his mouth and pressed a hot kiss into the palm. Pulling the tip of her middle finger into his mouth, he sucked it gently.

She gasped before yanking her hand back. “We’re in public, Luke!”

The pizza place only had two other tables occupied and one disinterested waitress. He didn’t bother to point this out. Instead, with the sweet salty taste of her skin still lingering in his mouth, he said, “And if we were in private?”

Her mouth said nothing, but her eyes gave her away. She wanted him as much as he wanted her.

Instead, she said, “What are we going to do about Angel’s cat?”

“You’re taking this too seriously.” Though he had to admit he wasn’t looking forward to telling his sister that between the two of them they had managed to lose her cat.

“And you don’t take it seriously enough!”

He sighed. “Are we going to argue all night or can we just enjoy each other’s company?”

“What do you mean?”

He hadn’t meant anything. He was just hoping for some lighthearted conversation and flirtation, but she was slit-eyed and suspicious. “What do you think I mean?”

“I think you want to
enjoy
my company more than I do yours.”

Lousy liar. That’s what she was. He said, “You know what I want, Sheri?”

Her head flew back and forth as she shredded her paper napkin with her fingers.

With a grin, he unbuttoned his army shirt, and pulled it open. She read the words emblazoned on his T-shirt, turned beet red, and started choking. Just the reaction he’d been hoping for.

‘Rock Her With the Shocker.’

It would be his pleasure.

Sheri was having a little trouble concentrating on the problem of overabundance of deer in the Cade’s Cove portion of the national park when all she could think about was Luke Weiss. Not to mention his naughty shirts.

By the time she clocked out at four on Tuesday, she knew she would be useless until she found Angel’s cat once and for all. Then she wouldn’t have a single reason to see Angel’s brother, and her life could return to normal. Her everyday, boring, completely sexless normal life.

With a sigh, she rang the doorbell. Once they found Mookie, she would just take him back to her apartment and that would be that.

Luke answered the door with an orange cat in his arms.

“Mookie?” She reached out in excitement and petted the cat, who blinked at her with brown eyes. Something was wrong here. “This isn’t Mookie.” She pulled her hand back and stared at Luke.

He frowned. “How could you tell so fast?”

She bit her lip to keep from laughing as she scrutinized the cat closer. “Are you serious? This cat has brown eyes. Mookie’s are green. And Mookie is a little on the chunky side. This guy’s about half his size.”

He looked crestfallen as he impatiently tossed his blond hair out of his eyes. “Are you sure? Maybe Angel won’t notice.”

Her heart lurched. So he did care about his sister after all. “Where did you get this cat?” she asked softly.

“From the pound.” His eyebrows drew together in a frown.

“Luke…” Against her better judgment, she reached out and touched his arm. “Angel’s going to know.” When he continued to look doubtfully at the bored bundle in his arms, she said, “Don’t you ever watch sitcoms? Someone always tries to substitute a lookalike for a missing pet and the owner always knows.” She eyed the cat. “At least you didn’t dip him in paint or anything like that.”

“Like I’d do that,” he scoffed.

The quick response made her wonder if that very thought had crossed his mind before he’d found an orange cat. She couldn’t help but smile at him. Maybe what Angel and her sisters had been saying all along was the truth. Luke really was a nice guy.

If that were true, Sheri was in trouble. She could barely resist a devilish Luke. She was no match for a Luke with kindness in his eyes.

“We have to take this cat back to the pound.”

Luke covered the cat’s ears. “Shh. He’ll hear you.”

“I’m serious.” She glanced around the empty living room. “He didn’t come with anything, did he?” She picked up the cardboard carrier that had obviously served as transport.

“No. But, Sheri, it just seems rude to get the poor guys hopes up then send him back.”

The cat yawned, his head settling into the crook of Luke’s arms. “He doesn’t look upset.”

“That’s because he doesn’t know yet.”

Was Luke feeling sorry for a cat? “Well, you can’t keep him. What would you tell Angel? ‘Sorry, your cat’s missing, but here’s another one’?” Setting the carrier down, she put her hands in the pockets of her tan ranger uniform shorts and rocked on her hiking boots. “That’s not going to work.”

“Fine.” He sighed and set the cat down in the carrier. “I’ll take him back.” His black T-shirt was covered with orange cat hair as he stood in front of her.

Without thought or sense, she impulsively reached out and brushed at the hairs, stroking up and down on his chest. She flushed as she realized what she was doing, her fingers stilling on the hard muscle.

“Thanks.” He grinned.

She gave his chest a good whack disguised as grooming. “I can’t get these last pieces off.” She thumped up and down vigorously.

He grunted. “I’ll just wash it.”

“Pick up the cat.”

As she climbed into her truck, Luke put the box on the seat between them and closed his door. “You know, I could get used to a woman chauffeuring me around.”

Every time she thought he wasn’t really disgusting, he went and proved that he was. “I have no response to that.”

As they pulled out of the residential neighborhood and onto the main drag, Sheri noticed Luke craning his neck left and right in interest.

“What are you looking at?”

He continued to search the street ablaze with neon lights in the hot evening sun. “Bars. There doesn’t seem to be that many.”

And he’d claimed that he wasn’t a heavy drinker. She felt acute disappointment. “I’m sure we can find one for you to wallow in.”

He looked at her in surprise. “I don’t want to go drinking. I was just thinking that, with all these people—tourists and locals—there doesn’t seem to be a lot of bars to serve them.”

“Maybe this is a family-type town.” It didn’t seem right to get people sloshed up then send them to Dollywood.

The grin he shot her was patronizing to say the least. “Sheri, sometimes you are amazingly innocent. Family town or not, people still need a place to kick back and relax.”

“Is that what you call it?” She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel and waited impatiently for the light to turn green.

“Yeah. And I’d have to check it out a little, but it looks like there could be business potential here.”

She popped the clutch and stalled the truck. “What does that mean?” With panic rising in her throat, she croaked, “Are you thinking about moving here?” There would be no hope of resistance if he actually moved here. She would sleep with him and would be horrified afterward when he didn’t call or text her. Then she’d have to avoid him and pretend to Angel that nothing had happened.

It was too horrible to contemplate.

“Just thinking out loud. That’s all,” he said casually.

She mistrusted his cocksure tone. She restarted the truck and blew the hairs that had escaped her ponytail out of her eyes. “Well, don’t.”

“You’re going to shatter my self-esteem, Sheri.”

Somehow he didn’t sound the least bit shattered. If anyone was shattering, she was.

Before she could reply, he added, “I like this red pickup truck. You look like a pickup kind of girl.”

He had the most annoying habit of throwing her completely off balance. “What the heck does that mean?”

The cat meowed from his box.

“He knows.” Luke tossed his thumb towards the fake Mookie.

“I wish he’d tell me.” She pulled into the animal shelter parking lot and glared at both man and beast. The cat’s orange head was sticking out the top of the box.

They both blinked innocently at her.

Sheri really was adorable. She had the most amazing ability to mellow him out. Make him laugh. Most of the time, he was a serious guy. He worried. About his business, about his sisters.

His sisters would probably go so far as to say that he was surly. He thought that was an exaggeration. He did have a tendency to brood with some metal music playing. And there was no telling how many times he had snapped at Dixie. His sister Hannah didn’t annoy him nearly as much, but even his brothers Jake and Eddie were known to have been on the receiving end of his, well, honesty.

That didn’t make him a bully no matter what Sheri said. But he was big enough to admit that it didn’t make him the most pleasant guy in the world either. His siblings tolerated his attitude because they knew that he would do anything for them and that his yelling at them was a direct result of his love for them.

When he was with Sheri, he didn’t think or worry. He just enjoyed. Teasing her, touching her, watching her eyes go round with shock and desire. He was starting to suspect that there was more than sexual attraction going on here, which was insane. He was generally drawn to bold and brassy woman who wore tight jeans. But now that he thought about it, Sheri certainly had her ballsy moments. She would be a bossy partner, and he had to admit that he’d always kind of dug that. He liked feisty, but not mean. Sheri fit the bill.

Not that he was in Pigeon Forge to find a girlfriend. But before he left, he was most definitely going to experience some of that attitude from Sheri. Right before he brought her to orgasm.

As he followed a huffy Sheri into the animal shelter, carrying the box with the cat, he admired her ass in those goofy work shorts she wore. She turned around and caught him.

He shrugged. She frowned.

The desk attendant recognized him from earlier. He had to admit that it seemed a little ridiculous now that he’d thought he could fool Angel with a fake cat. But if there was one thing he hated, it was disappointing his sisters. Especially Angel.

He’d do anything to avoid her tears, even pay eighty bucks for a homeless cat and try and fob him off as Mookie. Too bad he’d never thought that eye color thing through though. Who’d have thought that cats have different eye colors? Or that anyone would notice?

It had seemed like the perfect solution since there was no sign of the real Mookie anywhere. It was probably a good thing Sheri had set him straight, but he felt really bad for the poor cat he’d adopted and was now returning.

“Hi.” He smiled at the rotund woman staring curiously at him.

“What are you doing back here?” She eyed the box.

“I have to return this cat. He didn’t work out.”

She shook her head. “You can’t return him. Your money is nonrefundable.”

He set the box down with a sigh and tried not to breathe deeply. Even the waiting area smelled like dander. “I’m not asking for the money back. I just need to return the cat.”

The woman ran her hand through her curly hair, patting her do in place. She sighed. “You can’t really do that.”

“Why not? This is the animal shelter. People ditch their pets here all the time. “That’s the point.” Sheri squeezed his elbow. “What?” he asked her.

She shook her head.

The attendant said carefully, “Well, of course technically you can, but you’ll forfeit future adoption rights.”

“I can survive the punishment.” Now that he was here, he wanted the whole stupid mistake cleared up.

“As long as you understand that the animal will be destroyed.”

Sheri gasped.

He looked at the evil desk attendant. “Destroyed? Why?”

She cast a heart-wrenching look of pity at the cardboard box. “He’s two years old. People only want to adopt kittens, and we don’t have the room for older cats. If they’re not adopted in sixty days, they’re put to sleep.”

“That’s inhumane!” He looked into the trusting brown eyes of the silent cat.

“It’s a reality, sir. That’s why people need to get their pets spayed and neutered.” She flipped through some papers on her battered desk. “Your cat is on his fifty-ninth day here.”

Luke covered the cat’s ears. “Never mind. We’re not returning him.”

“Luke!” Sheri gaped at him. “You can’t adopt a cat for Angel without asking her.”

He hadn’t given any thought to Angel. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll keep him.”