Perfectly Toxic (Sterling Shore 9)

“I swear someone is here.”

He arches an eyebrow before tugging me to him. “If you wanted to see me, all you had to do was call. Freaking me out like this isn’t cool,” he goes on, apparently convinced I’m playing little-girl games.

I scowl at him, ready to say something to wipe that smug, condescending look off his face, when something zooms by us, and my eyes catch sight of a hairless, massive rat.

I scream and leap up on Ethan, practically strangling him as I climb him like a freaking tree. He coughs and chokes, but I only squeeze tighter when the hairless beast zooms by again.

“The fuck is that?” he chokes out, tugging my arms looser around his neck so he can breathe.

“A rat! A big fucking rat! I’m burning my house down and moving in with you! Go, Gigantor! Get me the hell out of here now!”

He chuckles like I’m joking. I’m not. I’m really not. Hell to the no. Fuck rats.

The thing suddenly stops running, and when it slows down, I realize it’s not a rat… Oh no he didn’t. I’m going to freaking kill him!

The hairless maniac I accused of being a rat suddenly meows at us, and it starts weaving in and out of Ethan’s legs.

“Is that a… cat? Who shaved it?”

“Maverick,” I growl, furious now.

“Maverick shaved the cat?” Ethan asks, confused as I slide down his body and glare at the little hairless thing, which is so ugly that it’s almost cute.

“No,” I snap, still ready to strangle that son of a bitch.

“Explain,” Ethan says as I squeak and back away from the kitten. Do all cats have that kind of skin under their pretty hair?

“It’s a sphynx kitty. Also known as a hairless pussy.”

Ethan releases a burst of laughter, but then it dies immediately. “How the hell did he get it in here? You have a security system.”

“He has my codes to my door and alarm system,” I tell him, kneeling down as the kitten starts purring and rubbing against my leg. Is that a tag on its collar?

Bananas, the tag says with engraved letters. He named the damn thing Bananas?

Definitely killing him.

What the hell am I going to do with this thing?

I look up just as Ethan stalks away, heading toward the living room like a man on a mission. Confused, I walk past the kitten that I really don’t want to touch, and follow him. When I see him studying my door, I cock my head to the side.

“What are you doing?”

“Did you install this?” he asks instead of answering me, gesturing toward the keyless entry lock.

“No. It was here before us.”

“Do you have the instructions on changing the code?”

“Um… yeah. Why?”

His eyes narrow as he casts a glare in my direction.

“Where?”

I point to the small table’s drawer beside me, and he cracks his neck to the side before walking up and jerking the drawer open. In a few seconds, he’s reading through the manual for my keyless entry lock.

“What are you doing?” I ask, eyeing him like he’s crazy as the hairless kitten starts running through my house again.