Cattitude (5 page)

A short while ago, she’d thought she was
going to die. The car had hurtled toward her and every fiber of her
being had protested. She’d wanted to live!

Now she had her wish. But at what cost?

“I’ll make sure you’re taken care of,” Max
called. He stopped below her. If she lost her grip and fell, she’d
land on his head.

She was tempted. This was her human. Her Max.
Her chosen person above all others.

“Sorcha? You don’t know me, but I promise not
to harm you.”

A yowl wanted to come out of her mouth, but
she swallowed it. What about Caroline? Could he promise Caroline
wouldn’t hurt her? Even in this human body, Belle didn’t trust
her.

Belle clung to the branch, the bark digging
into her flesh-covered fingers, the knobby wood rough against her
ribs and stomach. Her muscles, tired from holding so tightly for so
long, trembled. As a cat she could stay here for hours. But she
wasn’t a cat any more. That was the problem.

“I want to make sure you’re all right.” Max
tramped on, still calling. “I won’t take you to the hospital or
report you to the authorities. I promise.”

Belle watched his back, his squared
shoulders, his lean hips and strong legs.

Why hadn’t she noticed these things about him
when she was a cat?

The wind gusted, cutting through the tree
branches with an icy edge. Belle’s teeth clicked together. She
wished for her warm fur back. How could humans stand this hairless
skin?

She could see nothing good about being a
human.

“I’m going back.” Ted stood under her tree
now. “I’m cold and hungry. The woman doesn’t want to be found. The
best thing we can do for her is go home so she can be on her
way.”

Max turned back and crashed around the tree
next to hers, his mouth tight, his expression grim. “There was a
bruise on her forehead. She might have a concussion and her car’s
totaled. There’s no bus stop nearby. You go, but I’m not leaving
until I’m sure she’s okay.”

Now they both stood under Belle’s branch. She
clenched her jaw to keep her teeth from clattering like chatty
chipmunks. Max had said he wouldn’t make her go to a hospital.
Should she let go and return home with them?

The answer was a big fat NO. She was a cat
turned into a human. It was Max’s fault for letting Caroline into
his home. His fault for not seeing what Caroline was. A murderer.
It was bad enough Caroline killed her husband, but she went too far
when she tried to kill Belle. Max would have to suffer a lot longer
to make up for that.

But what if Caroline tried to kill Max?

Belle froze, her hands numb, her breath
sucked in. Then she remembered that Caroline didn’t want to kill
Max. She wanted something else. To marry him.

Belle hissed.

A crack exploded in the air like a bang of
thunder. The branch! It wobbled for an agonizingly long instant,
then lurched downward. Belle cried out, hanging on, her thighs and
hands tightening.

Max looked up and saw her. He lifted his
hands, ready to catch her.

Another crack. Two words she’d heard Ted say
often went through her mind, words she’d never thought of in her
cat body.
Oh shit.
Belle looked down into Max’s
I’ll-take-care-of-you blue eyes and let go of the branch.

The next instant she was flying, but for the
first time in her life the act of falling frightened her. She
spread out her limbs for the air to catch her belly and slow her,
but these front limbs were so much smaller than the back ones. And
where was her tail for balance? Instinctively, she knew she
wouldn’t end up on her feet.

Max caught her, holding her to his chest,
staggering back. “Oomph.”

Ted slapped him on the back. “I always knew
you were a hero.”

Belle slumped against Max’s chest, clutching
his wide shoulders. Her heartbeat thumped inside her ears as loud
as Ted’s music. Her mouth was so dry she could have lapped up half
her water bowl.

Only as her heartbeat slowed did she pay
attention to Max’s arms curving around her back and beneath her
thighs. Max had held her so many times, but everything felt
different now.

Why hadn’t she ever noticed how hard his
chest felt? How strong his arms were? And he smelled different,
like a man. Not just human, but
male
.

She felt different too, like...well, she
wasn’t sure. A woman?

Yech. This was terrible.

She’d rather have a hairball in her
throat.

Max closed his eyes and breathed in the
honey-flavored scent of the woman in his arms. Sorcha Anders. He
tossed the name around his mind, liking the softness of it. But
there was nothing soft about her clinging arms.

“Nice catch.” Ted slapped his back. “You’re a
hero.”

“Yeah, right.” A horny hero. Must be a side
effect of adrenaline, one the experts never talked about.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

Her face buried into his leather jacket just
as she’d done when he held her after the accident. His muscles
bunched and he swung her around, her feet missing Ted’s head by
inches. Ted jerked back with a surprised look that would have made
Max laugh any other time.

“I’m taking you home with me.” His breath
ruffled the dark curls on top of her head. “If you don’t want to go
to the hospital, I won’t force you. Rest awhile, and I’ll see what
I can do about your car. Okay?”

She didn’t answer.

They passed the ditched car. The driver’s
door hung open by one hinge, the windshield smashed, the front end
resembling a giant accordion. Looking at the wreck, he felt
amazement and horror. Why she wasn’t dead or hurt badly, he didn’t
know.

It almost made him believe in a higher power.
Something he stopped doing watching his father die among the
wreckage of their old house the day his fourteen-year-old life
turned upside-down.

Almost. But if there were a God, why the
accident at all?

“You sure you won’t go to the hospital?” he
asked with more urgency.

Her arms clutched tighter, as if she never
wanted to let him go. As if she was frightened for her life.

“It’s okay,” he said. “You’ll be okay. I
won’t let anything or anyone hurt you.”

Ted strode ahead of them and opened the
Jeep’s passenger door. Max bent forward to set Sorcha inside. She
clasped her hands around the back of his neck, her arms locked.

“You have to let go so I can drive you
home.”

She made a sound like the one Belle made when
he didn’t give her a treat or pet her on demand. Behind him, Ted
snickered.

“I’ll drive. Looks like she’s become attached
to you. Must be your animal magnetism.”

Max shot Ted a glare that made him grin
wider. A mewling sound came from Sorcha and his attention swiveled
back to her. Her green eyes stared at him, not beseeching
but...demanding. Almost angry.

“Get in,” Ted said. “It’s getting colder by
the minute.”

Giving up, Max slid onto the passenger seat,
the woman cradled in his arms. During the two-minute drive home, he
breathed in her honey scent with every inhale and tried not to
think of her hip pressed against the front of his jeans. When he
gazed down into her wide eyes, she stared back at him, not blinking
once.

She and Belle would get on well. Two of a
kind.

Ted parked the Jeep in the garage, then
jumped out to open the door leading to the house. Max carried
Sorcha over the threshold like a bride. Her driver’s license put
her at five foot five, her weight at one hundred twenty, but she
felt lighter. Too light. She needed someone to fatten her up.

Not him. He would make sure she was all
right, call someone to tow away her car, then send her on her
way.

His steps lengthening, he strode along the
hall, past the guest bedroom.

“Where are you putting her?” Ted asked,
strolling behind them.

“My bedroom.”

Ted laughed. Sorcha’s head lifted, her green
eyes searching Max’s face.

“There aren’t any sheets on the bed in the
guest room,” Max said, his voice as soothing as if she were a sick
child. “You need to lie down.”

More snickers came from behind him. Max
reminded himself his brother was at the age when a woman in one’s
bed had one conclusion.

“Max! Max! What is it?”

He glanced behind him and saw Caroline
sprinting along the hall. His gaze automatically noted the bouncing
breasts beneath the yellow sweater, the long legs in the beige
slacks, a worried expression on her flawless face.

Damn Emery. He wished his cousin were in
front of him so he could ask how the hell he’d been so clumsy,
falling off the trail and leaving his young wife alone and broke. A
man needed to take care of the people who counted on him. Even if
he had to die to save them.

Max had learned that lesson from his father.
Learned it the hardest way possible.

She stopped next to Ted, but her gaze fixed
on Max and the woman in his arms. Her long fingers splayed over her
breastbone, her breathing hoarse. “What’s wrong? Who is this woman?
Why are you carrying her?”

Sorcha’s body stiffened. Max nodded at Ted.
“You tell her. I have to get Sorcha to bed.”

Caroline gasped. Max swept around. Right now,
Sorcha needed him more than Caroline.

“There was an accident,” Ted said. “In front
of the house. Her car’s totaled. She’s not talking, but she seems
okay—”

“If she’s okay, what’s she doing here?”

Max strode into his bedroom and closed the
door on Caroline’s rising voice. The tension seeped out of Sorcha’s
body, her shoulders loosening, her muscles relaxing. The covers of
his bed were already thrown aside, and he laid her on the sheet.
Her head fell back against his pillow, her dark curls spreading
out. She stared at him, her green eyes open and trusting.

“I won’t harm you. You’re safe here.”

She continued to stare.

The door opened. Ted walked in, a glass in
his hand. “Water?” he asked.

She pushed up on one elbow, her hand reaching
for the glass. Ted sat on the side of the bed. Standing on the
other side, Max crossed his arms over his chest. What the hell was
his brother up to now?

“I’ll hold it for you,” Ted said. “You look a
little weak.”

He slid his arm around her back and held the
glass to her plump lips like she was a child. Max watched Ted
through narrowed eyes. A child was the last way Ted saw any
attractive woman.

Instead of swallowing, Sorcha drew back. Her
tongue poked out and she appeared to taste the water, lapping it.
Then Ted lifted the glass bottom up, spilling water into her mouth.
Her head tilting back, she sucked down the water, her slender
throat working.

“Good girl,” Ted said.

Max folded his arms. He knew what Ted was
really thinking, but he trusted him not to act on the thoughts.

Hell, he was having the same thoughts and
wasn’t acting on them. She was disoriented and not talking. Though
something about her attracted him, he preferred woman who were able
to say simple words like “Hi,” “Thanks,” and “Oh my God, Max!
You’re the world’s best lover!”

Ted took away the empty glass from Sorcha’s
mouth. “Caroline’s changing the sheets in the guest room.”

“Hmmm?” Max kept his gaze pasted on Sorcha’s
face.

“For Sorcha. She doesn’t like the idea of
another woman being in your bed. Remember what I said earlier.”

Max shook his head but couldn’t deny Ted’s
words. And he couldn’t deny his money was part of it. Caroline
prided herself on being impeccably dressed and her income, with
only two decorating jobs so far, wasn’t going to buy $500 designer
shoes.

He uncrossed his arms. Caroline had come to
him a week after the funeral, saying she missed Emery so much,
despite all his faults. She wanted to make her decorating business
a success, and if she could just get a start...

Then she started crying, saying Emery must’ve
had a premonition, because before they started on the trail he’d
said if anything happened to him, Max would take care of her.

In Max’s head, he’d seen his father’s face
growing paler by the second and heard his last words to him.
“You’ll take care of them,”
he said, his voice raspy and
fading. But for the next words, his voice grew strong.
“Promise
me.”

Looking into Caroline’s watery eyes, he’d
told her Emery was right. He’d take care of her. She’d laughed and
cried and hugged him. He’d smiled grimly and thought someone should
hit him on the head with a two-by-four.

His glance landed on Sorcha as she licked a
drop of water from her lower lip.

Now he had a new dependent. This one in his
bed. But this one wasn’t family or connected in any way. As soon as
she could talk or even write and tell him where to take her, she’d
be out of his house. He’d have his life and his bed back.

Ted got to his feet. Bending over Sorcha, he
tucked the blanket around her shoulders. His hands lingered on the
blanket and Max tensed. Only when Ted straightened and stepped back
from the bed did Max’s muscles ease.

Muffled footsteps came from behind him. He
heard Caroline’s voice but didn’t turn.

“I made the bed,” she said brightly. “You can
move her now.”

Sorcha turned her head and watched Caroline,
her body stiffening. The wary gleam in her eyes reminded Max of an
animal watching a predator.

“Thanks,” he said, “but you shouldn’t have
bothered. She’s settled where she is.”

Caroline exhaled heavily out of her nose. She
stepped toward the bed. “It’s no trouble. She’ll feel better with
the new sheets than in your old bed. Won’t you?”

Sorcha shrank away from Caroline. A mewling
sound emitted from her mouth and alarm flickered across her face.
She sat up, the cover falling to her lap. Her hands came up with
her fingers bent, claw-like.