Sleeping with the Enemy (An Enemies to Lovers Collection)

“Oh god,” I sniffle. I can’t help it. “You poor thing.” The cat rubs herself up against my leg, already friendly, and purrs at me. I bend down and run my hand through her fur, which is every bit as prickly and wretched as it looks.

“Stella,” Hal proudly says as he nods at the cat. “Meet Stella.”

CHAPTER 15

Hal

“You named your cat Stella?”

I give her the most sheepish look I can muster. “That was already her name when I got her if you can believe it. I guess it was destiny.”

Stella looks sad as she very gently picks up the old girl. “I hope you’re feeding her a diet of tuna, rainbows, and unicorn kisses.”

“She’s going to be very spoiled.” I affectionately scratch the cat’s head, and Stella, the person, looks at me in wonderment. “What? You thought I’d be a total monster as a pet owner, devoid of the ability to give love or look after another living soul?”

“That’s going a bit far. Are you teaching her all of your spells already? Being a wizard’s cat is a very important job.”

Stella, the cat, blinks her one eye at me. Maybe it really was fate. “She’s an old soul. She probably knows more spells than I do.”

“Oh good. Maybe she can teach you something then.”

“She’s already taught me that as thin as she is, she hates anything chicken flavored. I bought her all this food, treats, all of it, and she’s very choosy.”

“Us women know what we like,” Stella, the person, croons as Stella, the cat, starts kneading Stella the person’s arm, making cat purring sounds.

Stella, the person, walks off, still holding Stella, the cat, to explore the house. My mom had a lot of fun helping me furnish the place, and some of her odd choices are sprinkled throughout the house. In the living room, there is a robin’s egg blue fabric sectional and a purple and pink rug that looks like someone tossed paint splatters all over it to make the purple bits. The artworks on the walls are cheerful, of birds and flowers. The kitchen is entirely modern, and it came with all the appliances and flat white cupboards that have no handles, which I was confused about at first. The steps going up have a glass railing, and they’re quite open, so you can see all the way down from the top. There’s a massive light fixture up there that looks like something stolen out of a museum, and it hangs down at least two of those stories. Mom picked that out, too, because she didn’t like the ‘paltry, boring’ chandelier that came with the house.

I’m pretty sure the light cost over forty grand, but I just swiped my card, and away I went while my mom grinned so happily that you’d think she died and gone to light heaven. When it was finally up, my mom literally had to blink away tears.

“Wow,” Stella gushes when she eventually walks back. She’s still holding my cat, who looks like a queen in her arms. “This is actually pretty nice.”

“Well, thanks.”

“I didn’t imagine your place would look anything like this.”

“What did you imagine it would be like?”

“Like a…a castle or something? Lots of stone. Fortress-looking inside. With a moat and a drawbridge, maybe?”

“Ha! In Bellevue? I think I would have had to go to Europe to get that.”

She wrinkles her nose, and a deep line appears between her brows. However, she can’t hold the stern expression, and a smile soon breaks free. “Maybe you have a few vacation houses I don’t know about.”

“Only one in every country.”

That earns me another nose wrinkle as Stella walks over to the couch and sets Stella, the cat, down. The cat munches a few cat biscuits then curls up into a ball and falls asleep in her purple bed which matches more or less the color of the rug.

“I’m scared to ask what her story is,” Stella says. “It’s probably really sad.”

“Yes, but she’s good now. I promise.”

She looks around again. “Yeah, I can see that. Although your…uh…your place looks a little bit…uh…”

“My mom picked out most of the stuff. She really liked doing it, and I didn’t want to do it, so we made a good team.”

“Oh, I see. That makes sense then.”

“If you want to bring that paper with you upstairs, I have my authentication key in the office up there.”

“Which floor are we talking about here?” Stella’s tone might be dry, but she can’t hide how amusing this all is for her. Good. I’m glad I can be a source of entertainment, and I sincerely mean it. I’m thoroughly enjoying this slightly less edgy, far less prickly Stella.

“The second. But the bedroom is on the third floor if you’d like to check it out.”

That’s all it takes for Stella to go scarlet as she pulls a folded-up square of paper from her pocket. “The office is good, thank you.”