Cat Snips - a Short Story Collection by Cat Johnson (6 page)

Belinda took another look at the
man. Lar. Wow. Had she actually conjured him?

She looked into those blue eyes
again, and there was something very familiar there. Oh, no. She
recognized those eyes. She looked around the room. Her black cat was
nowhere to be seen. She swallowed hard, her legs feeling weak. Good
thing this muscle man was holding her or she probably would have
crumpled to the floor.

Taking in a deep breath, she
released it slowly. “Tell me how you got here. I think there’s
a good chance I’ll believe you.”

He smiled sadly. “I got
here when you brought me home with you. I was, I am, your black cat.”

She closed her eyes and digested
this information.

She had turned her beloved Black
Cat into this man before her. What the hell was she going to do now?

Unexpectedly, tears filled her
eyes and spilled over onto her cheeks.

He wiped them gently from her
face. “Don’t weep, my lady.”

My lady
.
Not only had she conjured herself an incredibly hot sex machine of a
man, she’d made him from another century. She’d have to
stop reading those historical romances.

“
I’m sorry. It’s
stupid, it’s just, I miss my Black Cat.”
She wiped at her eyes.

He shook his head. “Your
black cat is right here.” He stroked her hair from her face and
kissed her forehead gently. “I’m right here.”

Damn it. Why did the perfect man
have to be magical? Of course she couldn’t keep him. How would
she explain him? He didn’t even have a social security number.
She’d have to turn him back.

A loud banging on the door and
the sound of Max’s angry voice interrupted her thoughts and
regrets.

The man, Lar, looked angry at the
sound and growled, “Max-man.” He released her and strode,
gloriously naked, out of the bedroom and right to the front door.

Belinda threw on a robe and
scrambled after him. She watched as he flipped the locks and flung
open the door.

The look on Max’s face
would have been funny if the situation weren’t so dire. He
practically sputtered.

“
Wwwhat the hell?”
Max’s gaze dropped to take in Lar—all of him, and she
could attest to the fact there was a lot of him to see. She’d
conjured a very well endowed lover for herself. Max peered at her
around the wall of naked muscled man in front of him. “You’re
whoring around…with him?”

Lar’s eyes flashed with
anger as he lifted Max by the collar and smashed him against the
doorframe. “You will never speak to my woman like that again.
You will never speak to her at all, ever again. You have insulted her
and belittled her for the last time. Take your things, go to your
nympho-whore and never return. Do you understand me?”

She watched Max’s eyes
bulge as he nodded.

“
Good.” Lar dropped
him none too gently to his feet, gave him one careless shove back
into the hall, and then shut the door in his face.

Belinda stood, open-mouthed and
practically melting. She never thought she liked the caveman type.
She was wrong.

Lar took a calming breath and
turned away from the door and the sounds of the fool Max-man
struggling with his baggage in the hallway. He walked back to his
woman. “I apologize for his rudeness.”

She was practically quivering. It
was the shock, he knew. It was too much for her to handle all at
once. He pulled her into his arms and held her gently. He heard her
mumble against his chest. “I don’t want to turn you back
into a cat. But how can I keep you?”

He pulled back and looked down at
her pained expression. Lar knew his woman thought she and her friends
had somehow conjured him with their ridiculous gift shop novelty
spell book. But since waking to find himself changed back, he had
pieced together what had more likely happened.

The battle that injured him took
place exactly one thousand years ago, on Samhain, what modern people
called Halloween. And although the words the witch used to curse him
were unfamiliar to him at the time, he remembered them exactly. He’d
never forget them. He’d picked up enough knowledge over his
long life to recognize now that she’d cursed him in Latin.

As soon as he could, he would
find a Latin dictionary and look up the words the witch had spoken.
He’d bet he would find she had destined him to be a cat for
only one thousand years.
Only.
Ha!

He thought briefly of Sebastian,
hopeful that he too had been turned back. But at the moment, his
woman needed all of his attention. Her eyes glistened with unshed
tears.

“
What’s wrong, my
love?”

“
I’m frightened.”

“
Surely not of me?”
That thought cut him like a knife.

She shook her head. “No.
I’m afraid of losing you.”

That thought pleased him above
all else. He ran his hand up and down her back. “I have a lot
to explain to you, my love. But take comfort in this thought. I am
with you now, and I will never leave you. I knew the moment I first
saw you standing before my cage that my future lie with you.”
He bent to softly kiss her trembling lips. “You stole my heart
then, and I gladly let you.”

She reached up and pulled his
mouth down to hers again. When she finally broke away, he said, “I
know you loved your black cat. Can you also love the man?”

“
Yes.” She shook her
head and laughed. “It’s crazy, I know. But yes.”

He smiled and leaned down, intent
on claiming his woman as his own once again. His hardened cock was
more than ready.

She blocked his kiss with one
raised finger against his lips. “Um, maybe now is the time for
your explanation.”

He nodded. He would explain, but
he would make it quick. His cock was already bobbing with desire for
her.

“
One thousand years ago, a
vengeful witch turned me into a cat. I have lived that way until last
night, when the spell expired. So you see,
you
didn’t turn me into a man. I always was one.”

She ran her hands up and down the
muscles of his arms. “And what did you do when you were a man a
thousand years ago?”

“
I wielded a sword for a
living. And did it quite well, if I do say so.”

She pressed closer against him,
smiled and raised a brow. “You still do.”

He felt his face grow hot but
couldn’t help but smile.

Modern women were shameless, and
he loved it. He scooped her up and as he carried her to the bedroom,
he actually thought fondly of the witch whom had set him on this path
a millennium ago.

Sometimes a curse turned out to
be a blessing, if you just gave it enough time.

The End

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS

Chapter One

There was a clattering of the
receiver and then, “Uh, hello?”

Judging by the grogginess of
Jeff’s disembodied phone voice, Meg had woken him, but she
didn’t feel bad about that. After all, she figured what she was
offering would be worth his losing a little sleep.

“
Hi. You wanna come over?”
Meg purred in what she thought of as her irresistible, sex kitten
voice.

“
Why don’t you ever
get horny earlier at night?” That sounded distinctly annoyed,
which annoyed her even more. What the hell did he need to get to
sleep early for? The next day was Saturday. Jeff didn’t have to
work. He could sleep late in the morning.

“
Who says I’m horny?
Maybe I just want some company to watch TV.”

“
Meg, I know a booty call
when I hear one. It’s after midnight. One civilized person does
not call another after twelve unless one, someone is dead or two,
they want sex.”

And so what? Since no one was
dead, it was obviously the latter. She didn’t see any problem.
Didn’t it just figure that Meg might have possibly found the
one and only man in the world who didn’t single-mindedly think
about sex and how to get it twenty-four hours a day. “Fine.
Never mind.”

He let out a deep sigh. “Don’t
be like that. I’m not saying no or anything, but can’t
you come over here for a change?”

Meg hated losing the home team
advantage. It was cold outside. She would have to get dressed. And
Jeff, being young, single and male, lived in a typical bachelor pad.
Nothing to eat. No diet soda. Science experiments living under the
couch and in the shower. Besides, all her stuff was here at her own
nice, comfy place. The list of reasons went on and on…

He noticed her hesitation. “What?
My apartment isn’t good enough for you?”

“
No, that’s not it.”
Not
e
xactly anyway.
“Um.
When
did
you change your sheets last?”

His sarcastic laughter resonated
through the phone. “I thought you said you only wanted to watch
TV. What does it matter when I changed my sheets?”

A little nookie was not worth
this much humiliation.
She
could service herself with a bit of help from the battery-operated
friend she kept in the nightstand. She’d done it before and was
quite sure she’d do it again.

“
Never mind. Good night.
Sorry I woke you,” Meg added even though she wasn’t sorry
in the least.

Having known Jeff forever, well,
actually, since they were both in eighth grade at Wilmont Middle
School, she didn’t hang up the phone, but instead waited for
his predictable resignation-filled sigh. She wasn’t
disappointed. “Okay. I’ll be over in fifteen minutes.”

Perfect.
Meg smiled. “I’ll see you then.”

After disconnecting the call, she
flew into action.
First
hiding the steamy romance novel she had been reading, which had
thrown her into such a physically needy state to begin with. Jeff
would only tease her on her
choice of reading material
if he saw it. Then she ran to the bathroom to brush her teeth and
scrub the day’s faded makeup off her face. The apartment would
just have to remain as it was, there wasn’t time to fix both
her and her home, and it was still worlds better than his place
anyway.

The good thing about Jeff was he
didn’t expect much in the way of preparation on her part. It
was pretty convenient actually. For instance, in the dead of winter
when the apartment was chilly because the landlord wouldn’t
turn up the heat, she could remain in her favorite soft and faded
flannel pajamas, warm and toasty. On those cold nights, while having
sex with Jeff she wouldn’t even take off her pajama top or
socks, just the bottoms.

Tonight, she didn’t need to
do much more than clean the raccoon circles of old mascara from below
her eyes and maybe run her fingers through her hair. She knew what to
expect from him too. He would arrive in his favorite pair of old
sweatpants and a t-shirt, tasting of toothpaste, hair a mess, but the
important part would be hard and ready for her.

When it came down to the serious
stuff, the reason she’d called him, he knew exactly how to get
her off and always did before he took care of himself. A nice
predictable lover, that was Jeff. More importantly, there was no
messy, emotional, romantic entanglement, just a friendship as
comfortable as her favorite old pair of sneakers. Broken in. No
surprises. He was a known constant in a sea of unknowns. With Jeff,
she got none of the pain you risked with either a hot new pair of
high heels or a hot new guy.

This “friends with
benefits” thing she had going with him really was the perfect
arrangement…almost.

Admittedly, it wasn’t
exactly as exciting as falling madly in love with someone who made
your pulse race at the very thought of seeing them, but hey, you had
to compromise sometimes.

Looking at herself in the mirror,
Meg pulled the rubber band from her unruly dark curls and fluffed
them into some semblance of order. Her dark eyes stared soulfully
back at her from the mirror as she ran the tissue beneath them one
more time to remove the last smudges of makeup. Then she paused and
continued to evaluate her own reflection. She was happy, wasn’t
she? Twenty-something and single, she had an all right job and a
cute apartment all to herself. She struggled with her weight but
managed to maintain a size at the low-end of the double digits. She
had her health, her family and her friends, and sex whenever she
needed it. Really, what more could she ask for?

She didn’t have time to
contemplate further the odd feeling that something was missing as the
doorbell rang.

When she opened the door, good
old reliable Jeff, sandy-colored hair sticking up like he’d
just rolled out of bed, stumbled in. He dumped his jacket onto a
chair and headed directly for the bedroom. When she didn’t
immediately follow, he stopped in the doorway and turned. “What’s
wrong?” The brow above one of his baby blue eyes was still
creased from his pillow.

Meg shrugged. “I don’t
know. I just thought you might kiss me, or say hello or something,
before we went directly to bed and fucked.”