No, it had to be some kind of trick. Something like a Criss Angel stunt-he was the king of pulling off incredible illusions while millions of people watched. Never had she believed in magic of any kind and she wasn't about to buy into that crap now. She only believed in what she could see and feel.
And you could feel him right now. No one would ever know...
"Oh, get thee behind me, Id." But then it had been way too long since she'd had a naked guy around, and she'd never had one around who was quite this fine. Of course there was a really good reason for that. Most guys who looked like this weren't exactly date material. They were more the players who came and went so fast that they often left skid marks on a woman's heart and in her bedroom.
That was the last thing she needed in her life.
Returning her thoughts to her dilemma, Susan glanced to her couch, where she'd taken cover when the lightning had started-an easy trick to pull off probably. They could have rigged something to her outlets to cause the lightning and friction. Maybe that's what had thrown her back when she'd pulled the collar off-it could have been some kind of remote. Then, while she'd been distracted by the light show, this guy must have traded places with the cat.
Yeah, that was it. That made sense.
Now he was pretending to be unconscious. He had to be.
She looked up at the ceiling. "If you're filming this, I'm not amused. It'll take more than this to make me believe the cat turned into Mr. Gorgeous."
There was no response. Fine. Let them laugh. At least she got some good eye candy out of it.
Licking her dry lips, she studied him carefully. He lay as if in some kind of coma, but if he was an actor, that would be easy to fake, too. Against her better judgment, she reached out and brushed the hair from his face until she could see him.
Her breath caught. His features were chiseled and perfect. His eyebrows finely arched, his cheekbones high and covered by at least two days' worth of black whiskers. He had an almost sullen, bad-boy look to him. It was smoldering and animalistic. Magnetic. That moody, dark sexuality that made every woman pant whenever a guy like this came on the scene.
And those sensuous lips of his, completely kissable. Yeah, it was hard to be this close to him and not take advantage of it. Honestly, he was the best-looking guy she'd ever seen in the flesh.
All of a sudden, she started laughing. Deep and loud. She couldn't help herself. Good Lord, how weird was this?
Over and over, she could hear Leo's voice in her head:
"CATTURNSINTOSTUNNINGNAKEDMANIN
SINGLEWOMAN'SHOME...WOMENSTAMPEDING
LOCALANIMALSHELTERSEVERYWHERE.
KEEPYOURCATUNDERLOCKANDKEY."
It made her wonder who she should call... a doctor or a vet.
She froze as that thought triggered another. "Angie."
That was it. Angie had to have been in on this. No wonder Angie had insisted that she take the cat home in spite of her allergies. Now it all made sense. Jimmy's insanity, Leo insisting that she check into the Catman story. Angie's fake acting-nobody was that bad an actor.
Not to mention the fact that she was no longer sneezing...
Yeah, they were all playing some kind of prank on her. She was positive. And damn them for it. Like she didn't have anything better to do with her life. Well, you don't. Narrowing her eyes, she chose to ignore that irritating little voice in the back of her mind.
There for a second, they'd almost had her going.
Well, fine, two could play this game and she could play it a whole lot better than all of them combined.
Disgusted at herself for even buying into it for a second, Susan grabbed the cell phone from her pocket and called Angie's number.
There was no answer.
"Come on, babe. Pick up the phone." She called again, only to have it roll over to the voice mail. Deciding to continue her friend's game, she added a tremor of panic into her voice. "Hey, Ang. It's me. Give me a call, okay? I really need to ask you about this cat you gave me. Something really weird has happened. Give me a call as soon as you get this. Talk to you later."
Susan tucked the phone back into her pocket and glanced at the unconscious hottie as another thought went through her head...
I'm sure Catman Moron found some bimbo to shack up with and shag for the day, but dammit all. Couldn't he have called and told me that?