Some Like it Hot - J. D. Light Page 0,16

was pretty confident wouldn't hold the weight of anyone heavier than Cat, I felt pretty safe in assuming nobody was going to break in that way.

"You installed a cat door on your window?" he asked, his eyes still wide as he watched me.

"I got sick of always having to get up to let him in or out. His meow is really loud and obnoxious."

"Of course," he said on a whimper, closing his eyes for a long moment. Was he allergic to cats? That was going to be rough on our relationship if he was, but maybe I could get him a bubble. "Don't you worry that other cats will take Cat's lead and start wandering into your building?"

I froze, glancing at the window, then over at Bates and then at Cat. "Well now I do. Cat, no parties when I'm not home, okay?"

Meow.

"Did he just say okay?"

I shrugged, not even trying to understand that cat, or his extremely loud and hoarse meows.

Bates watched me for a long moment, before shrugging and walking over to the cat, making me sigh in relief when he easily reached out and petted the scruffy-looking beast. I guessed that meant he wasn't allergic, so I wasn't going to have to bubble him in order to continue allowing Cat free reign of my home.

Letting the curtain fall back in place over the cat door, I moved toward the kitchen just as the buzzer on the oven went off, and I grabbed a potholder and pulled the baked potatoes out of the oven, setting them on separate plates, before going back of the cracker-crusted pork chops. It wasn't much, but it was one of the many things I'd learned to cook since I'd gone to live on my own, and I absolutely loved it.

"Well, you'd sure be a handsome boy if we brushed the knots out of your fur."

Frowning, I leaned out of the kitchen, blinking at the man. "I don't… Oh, you're talking to the cat."

Bates blinked at me for a long moment, his gaze moving down to my shirt-covered chest and then back up to my face, before he burst into laughter, shaking his head.

"You're already handsome, even with the knots in your fur."

I chuckled, rolling my eyes before going back to making our plates. "I might not be a complete train wreck like I was before my brothers' boyfriends got ahold of me, but handsome is pushing it," I said, loud enough for him to hear me from the living room, but his voice was almost directly behind me when he spoke.

"Is that really how you feel about yourself?"

I cringed, realizing too late that I probably sounded tragic, but I really wasn't feeling sorry for myself. It was what it was, and I just wasn't a major looker, or even a minor one, but I wasn't going to say all that and have him feeling sorry for me like Riley, Jennings, Hinton and Kent had, so I just shrugged, giving him a small smile over my shoulder.

Reaching out, he touched my upper arm, drawing my attention again. "Well, I think you're gorgeous, and I thought so before they took your beard and trimmed up your hair, though it really is nice to see the rest of your face."

I blinked down at him, for some reason believing him as his pretty amber-colored eyes watched me. "Thank you," I said, blushing.

He blinked, laughing awkwardly and dropping his hand away from me. "Sorry. I didn't mean to make things awkward."

I fought a smile, sucking on my cheek. "Well, you did."

Another laugh burst from somewhere deep inside him, where he kept all that sweetness bottled, I was pretty sure, and I smiled happily as I watched him.

I did that. I've made him laugh. Me! I felt a million feet tall.

***

"Oh my God, you guys. I'm not winning at this," Bates said miserably, as he let his head fall back on his shoulders, less than thirty minutes after he'd left my apartment.

Shockingly, I'd never gotten up the courage to clarify what I wanted from us, and he still thought we were working the whole friendship thing, so here I was, watching him share some of his most intimate thoughts, because he didn't know an asshole like me was watching, and kicking myself for not just grabbing him and kissing him at least one of the hundred times I'd thought about it during the five hours he'd been sitting in my apartment, eating dinner and watching movies with Cat and