Hunting the She-Cat Read Free Page B

with you today?”
    “Hmmm?” Misha mumbled.
    “Your mind is not with me, friend.
You’ve got that distracted air people get when they’re only half
paying attention. Or less.”
    Sala, her friend and landlord for the
six past years and more recently her legal client in real estate
matters, stared at her with a deep question in her lovely cocoa
brown eyes.
    “You’re not your usual sharp,
attorney-on-the-move-self today. You’re distracted, distant. Your
mind is definitely not on my real estate deal, that’s for
sure.”
    “No, I’, ah … I’m, ah,
fine.”
    “Yeah, I can see that by the hunted
look in your usually calm and pushy eyeballs. Have anything to do
with that piece of man that strode out of here as I was coming in?
What a handsome guy, if you like the big, tall, lanky sexy type.
And, oh, yeah, I remember. Every woman with blood in her body
does.” Sala grinned shamelessly. “I thought your taste in men ran
more to the slick, metro types like your Bronson.”
    “True. Of course,” she nodded too
vigorously for believability. “They do. Bronson and I are in a
serious relationship.”
    Sala raised a doubtful eyebrow but said
nothing to refute the statement.
    “The man just now was an unfortunate
case of mistaken identity. That’s all he is to me. He wasn’t even
supposed to be here. Had no appointment. He was looking for someone
else. I need to speak to Mildred about allowing him in.” Especially
since she thought there for a second he planned to murder her in
her own office.
    “Hmmm, hmmm. Oh, he has your number
now, whoever he came here to see today. I saw the way those
otherworldly green eyes fixed on your ass when you turned away from
him and asked me to come in here. Did he come to see Liz? The sexy
chick in the next office over? That the identity
mistake?”
    “Something like that.”
    Sala’s tone became hushed. “I say keep
him if you want him. Good old Bronson is not that into you. That
boy needs someone to surprise him, shake him up a little, I
say.”
    “Sala!”
    Her friend threw up her hands. “I’m
sorry to say it. You don’t pull your punches on legal matters with
me. I owe you the truth in personal matters. Hell, I’ve wanted to
tell you for a long time now. Especially important now with Mr.
Alpha cat sniffing around you. Don’t want you to miss out on that
ride. Your Bronson never looks at your ass like that one did. He’s
not clicking right with you, hon. Bronson isn’t that into you. No
sparks.”
    Misha frowned. “No sparks?”
    Sala nodded her head up and down
slowly. “Mr. Sexy there had only eyes for you. Didn’t even see me
and we both know I’m the prettiest.” She laughed to soften the
blow. “A little meatier, too.”
    Sala was a classic dark beauty. Most
men were fascinated by her. She worked at it and loved the
attention from men.
    “It’s not like that. The man is a total
stranger to me.”
    She just went on. “So if you have a
chance with a better male, I say give old Bron his walking papers
and check it out with the other one. See where it goes. He has
‘give me a passel of little ones, woman,’ written all over
him.”
    Misha shook her head no. An emphatic,
definite, no. The big male who’d just left had scared the living
hell out of her. “He’s too, too--”
    “Male?” Her brazen friend
asked.
    “Too bossy, too damned
arrogant.”
    “Too protective, too much a street
fighter in modern clothes? Hmm? That’s what you mean?”
    “Why did you refer to him as a cat?”
Misha asked, knowing she should not do so, but feeling driven to
hear the answer.
    “I did?” Sala shrugged.
    “You called him Mr. Alpha Cat. Not dog,
cat.”
    “I did? I have no idea why, hon. Maybe
the way he stalked out of here, all long-leggedy grace and
strength. Did you see those wide shoulders? Oh. My. Jesus. And his
muscled legs? And better than all of that, he looked half-wild to
me. Sort of feline with that dark skin and those hypnotizing
eyes…”
    Well,