“Open up! For the love of God!” My fist hammers the wood as the beast-like howls continue. “Hurry the fuck up!”
Distantly, I hear the sound of a curse, and then light flickers on. The door flies open to a disheveled, shirtless Gage. Tendrils of heat wrap around my limbs as I look at the landscape of hard muscle, the sweatpants hanging dangerously low on his waist. His face is pinched with tiredness.
“What the hell do you want?”
“Gage, there’s a lion in the backyard!”
Another hair-raising scream punctuates my sentence, and Gage narrows his eyes at me. “You saw a lion?”
Did I see it? Blood careens in my veins. No, I didn’t. “What the hell else is making that sound?”
Rolling his eyes, he takes my arm and yanks me inside. “Hey—what are you doing?”
“Stop talking and come with me.”
Fear shifts into something hotter as Gage leads me through his house, toward the sliding glass window with a view of his porch and backyard. It’s all black, but he flips a switch and the porch glows from the two lights attached to his house. I peer into the semi-darkness, my chest tight. Any moment now, and I’ll see a hulking form of a big cat.
“There’s your fucking lion.”
I look in the direction where Gage taps on the glass to see two sets of glowing eyes. They’re attached to small bodies, which are sitting on the table he set up in the yard. The sliding glass door bangs loudly as Gage slams his fist into it, and one of the animals darts from the table, it’s short, bushy tail streaking behind it. The other one slinks down, briefly running through a patch of light, which illuminates its striped coat.
“You woke me up for raccoons.”
Mortified, I turn my head toward Gage, who seems only slightly pissed. “I’m really sorry. I honestly thought it was a lion.”
“Have you ever even seen a lion?”
I think back to my elementary school trips. “Of course, I’ve seen one.” Once.
“So you just heard a growl and automatically assumed it was a mountain lion?”
“Those things made an ungodly amount of noise. Will you shut up? I can’t be the first person to make that comparison.”
His laughter abruptly cuts off as he notices something in the yard. “Did you by any chance forget to clean up after yourself?”
I glance outside, peering at the two plates I forgot to clear up and the half-eaten corn on the cob. “Oh shit.”
“Oh, shit is right.”
“I’m really sorry.”
“Don’t ever do it again. If that was a bear, I would’ve been pissed. Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to leave food out?”
“I never went camping. I wouldn’t know.”
A second passes, and then he heaves a sigh. “Now get your ass outside and clean it up.”
His tone is like a crack of a whip. I heave open the sliding door and step out, hoping the air will cool my stinging cheeks. He’s right. I should’ve known better, but I was distracted by Mark and forgot to clear everything up.
I grab the couple plates with the half-eaten corn, wincing at the scattered seeds and the ripped up tablecloth. Then I walk back to Gage, who watches me with his arms crossed over his chest. I brush past him as I enter the kitchen and dump everything in the trashcan. God, I’m so tired.
And Gage is still standing there, glowering at me.
“What?”
“I’m wondering what the hell you expected me to do against a big cat. Did you think I was going to shoot it or something?” In the darkness, I see a shadow of a smirk. “Or did you just want to run into my arms?”
I’m too tired for this. “I apologize for waking you up, but I’m not sorry for thinking that was a lion. I’ve never heard anything so vicious come out of such a small animal. So take your holier-than-thou crap and shove it up your ass.”
He laughs, and the sound incenses me. “Jesus, Liv. You need to lighten up. I’m just fucking with you.”
My head pulses as he walks toward his fridge. As the door opens, bright light brings his handsome features into sharper relief. His pecs ripple as he reaches inside and pulls out two beers. Then he gestures toward me.
“Have a beer with me.”
“No.”
“Take that stick out of your ass and have a damn beer with me. It’s the least you can do after waking me up.”
Fine.
He jerks his head toward outside, and then he flips the light,