“Maybe that’s why you’re single,” she couldn’t resist jibing back.
His eyes widened, and then he gave her a speculative look. “Only with coffee, Edie. Only with coffee.”
Annnnd now she couldn’t finish her coffee. Blushing, she put it aside. “So how is Lady Daredevil settling in?”
He gestured at the stairs, all energy. “You want to go up and see her? I got the litter and the food set up, but she seems scared.”
Edie nodded. She slid off her stool and went around the long bar to take her mug to the sink.
They headed up the four sets of stairs to Magnus’s office, and Edie’s leg protested the entire time. By the time they got to the top of the stairs, her knee was throbbing a reminder that she wasn’t supposed to do those kinds of things to it, and she tried to hide her limp as they walked, remembering his ease as he went up and down the stairs. It sucked to be her sometimes.
The office was just as she remembered it, all sterile neatness on Magnus’s side, and all chaos on Levi’s. Papers were strewn about on Levi’s desk and the small garbage can under his desk overflowed with more wadded notes. Other than the two desks and a file cabinet, there wasn’t much to recommend this room as a haven for a frightened blind cat.
“Perhaps we should have started with a smaller room, like with your bathroom,” Edie commented, searching the room for Lady Daredevil. She found her huddled by the file cabinet, pressed against the wall. She moved closer and squatted, ignoring the screaming pain in her knee, and clucked gently at the cat, outstretching her fingers.
“Can we just stick her in with Lady Cujo?” Magnus asked, coming up behind her.
“Not right away,” Edie told him. “Cats are territorial so they’d fight, and I imagine Lady D here is having to go through enough trauma at the moment.”
“Should we move her, then?”
Edie nodded. “Why don’t you sit here and hold her so she can learn your scent and I can move the litter and the food into your bathroom?”
“Why don’t I move the litter and you comfort the cat?”
She frowned. “Because she’s supposed to learn your scent if she’s going to be your cat. Scent’s very important to a blind cat. I . . .” Her voice died as he began to strip his shirt off. She got to her feet, staring. “Wh-what are you doing?”
“You can wear my scent,” he said, shrugging his button up shirt off and handing it to her. That left him in nothing but a tight-fitting tank top that showed off sculpted muscles.
Oh dear sweet lord. Wasn’t the man supposed to be a video game nerd? How was it that he was built like this? She tried not to stare, even as she clutched the shirt he handed her.
“You need help putting that on?” he teased. “I’d be happy to help you with your clothes.”
“Huh? No, I’m cool.” She shrugged it on over her own shirt, and immediately the scent of his aftershave enveloped her. Oh, damn. He smelled so good.
This was so unfair.
“You look good in my things,” he said with a grin, reaching out and straightening the collar. The action brought him close to her, and she gazed up into his handsome face. His fingers brushed against her neck, and for a moment, she thought he was going to lean in and kiss her. Press his lips to hers and claim her mouth . . .
Nope. He winked and sauntered away, and she watched his tight ass as he left the room.
So, so unfair. Wrapping his shirt around her body, she moved to sit next to Lady Daredevil again. The cat hunched its body and gave a small hiss, and it took Edie a few minutes to calm her down again, then eventually pulled her back into her lap.
By the time Magnus returned to the office, Edie was curled up on the floor with the cat tucked against her front, purring and relaxed. He’d taken longer than she’d thought. “Everything okay?”
“Just setting up things for our newest resident,” he said, and she couldn’t help but watch as he moved forward to take the cat from her. He cradled the fluffy Persian in one arm and offered his free hand to her to help her up from the floor, and Edie was surprised at how easily he hefted her up.
“Thanks,” she murmured, and dusted some of the stray cat hair off her clothes as she followed behind him. Down the stairs and into his room, and when he opened the door, she was surprised (and pleased) to see Lady Cujo curled up on his bed, as if she owned the place. “I see someone’s made herself at home.”
“Yep,” said Magnus as he headed for the adjoining bathroom. “So far, so good. We’ll get this one settled in, too, don’t you worry.”
She followed him into the bathroom, well aware at how intimate the moment felt. Bathrooms were private sorts of rooms, because you knew how organized or clean a man was by the state of his towels and the ring around his bathtub. Magnus, she was happy to see, had a clean, claw-footed tub with a nice fluffy cream-colored towel hanging from a hook nearby. Inspection: passed. Not that she was inspecting him, of course.
There was a thick, shaggy bath rug on the tile floor, and in one corner next to the toilet, he’d set up the cat litter. On the other side, food and water bowls were laid out. Against the opposite wall, Magnus set up several boxes with additional towels for the cat to hang out in.
Magnus sat down on the floor and curled his legs underneath him, still cradling the cat in his arms. Since he looked as if he was settling in, Edie sat down, too, stretching out her bad leg.
They hung out in silence for a bit, watching as Magnus set down the cat and Lady Daredevil explored tentatively. She moved a couple of feet, then returned to Magnus and rubbed her head against his leg, demanding more attention. Edie’s heart gave a little squeeze when he chuckled and picked up the cat, pulling her back into his lap and petting her again. “She’s a little monster for attention, isn’t she?”