The Cat's Meow, page 11
She waited another week, just to be sure.
Then, one Friday night, when they were making out on the sofa, as they did every night, Maggie whispered in Jackson’s ear, “I want our mating to be real. I’m ready.”
He pulled away and stared into her eyes. His were lit with joy, but still he asked, “Are you sure, Maggie?”
She nodded. “I’m positive.”
He swept her back into his arms and kissed her.
Maggie thought she knew everything about Jackson’s kisses by then.
How incredibly tender and sweet they could be and how devastatingly hot and passionate.
In that moment, though, she realized how much he’d been holding back.
He devoured her mouth, tongue tangling with hers, as he lifted her in his arms and carried her to her bedroom.
He laid her on the bed and followed her down, still kissing her, still driving her mad with passion.
“Jackson,” she whimpered, clutching at his shoulders, trying to get closer, trying to find some relief from the unrelenting heat.
“Maggie,” he murmured. He sat up, pulling her with him. He peeled his shirt off, then hers, then unhooked her bra and flung it away. He caught her breasts in his hands, tweaking both nipples and making her gasp.
She collapsed back onto the bed and he followed her down, capturing one nipple in his mouth while tweaking the other with his hand.
She writhed on the bed and gasped out his name. “Jackson, please.” She grabbed the back of his head, clutching the hair there, holding him to her, but wanting, needing more. “Please, I need you.”
He groaned, then jackknifed up and off the bed. “Should have stripped first,” he muttered, struggling out of his jeans and boxers, only to get hung up at the boots.
He stumbled around the room, trying to kick them off, almost losing his balance in the process.
Maggie would have laughed, but she was frantically trying to get out of her own jeans without leaving the bed.
It didn’t help that she couldn’t pull her eyes away from Jackson.
Even hopping around the room with his jeans half-on and half-off, one boot on and one boot off, he was the sexiest man she’d ever seen.
She was so busy watching him that she forgot her own mission, so when he finally got free of his boots and jeans, he had zero patience for her own. He stripped them off her so fast she was once more in awe of his strength as he lifted her entire body with one hand while the other made short work of her jeans and panties.
He dropped her to the bed, settled his shoulders between her legs, leaned forward and swiped his tongue through her folds.
Maggie gasped and fisted the sheets beneath her hands.
Jackson settled one arm across her belly, pinning her to the bed and with his other hand, opened her wide for another swipe of his tongue.
“Jackson!” she wailed. She couldn’t escape his questing tongue, could only lie there and feel.
White sheeted across her vision as he caught her clit in his teeth and tugged gently.
For one long moment, she was frozen on a precipice and then she broke.
Everything clenched hard, then shattered.
The first sense that came back was her hearing.
The room still echoed with the sounds of her cries of ecstasy. Beneath that was her ragged breathing and a soft growling from Jackson.
She lifted her head and looked down her body to see that he was still between her legs, nuzzling her pussy, growling softly as he slowly licked it clean.
She whimpered at the sight. “Jackson.”
He raised her head and looked at her. His eyes were wild, almost as feral as the panther’s.
Her heart skipped a beat, then began pounding an impossible rhythm. “Jackson. I need you.”
He let out another soft growl, then slowly prowled up her body until he reached her face. He settled one hand against her cheek and kissed her.
Slow. Gentle. Tender.
He settled over her, lodging his cock right at the entrance to her pussy, then waited.
She arched up slowly and begged, “Please, Jackson. Now. Please.”
He reached down, grabbed one leg and pulled it up, then slowly began to penetrate.
Maggie’s eyes fell shut at the sensation.
Jackson growled and her eyes flew open again, catching his.
Staring into his eyes, she could barely breathe as he slowly, so slowly, plowed forward, stretching her, claiming her, welding them together as one.
“Maggie,” he growled. In that one word, she heard a wealth of passion and affection.
Finally, he was fully seated inside her. She could feel him everywhere, in every part of her being. He was hers and she was his.
“Jackson,” she whispered.
He leaned down and growled, “Are you ready?”
“Yes. Yes, Jackson.”
He pulled back and powered forward, the sensation so intense, Maggie whimpered and clutched at him tighter. “Please, Jackson. More.”
As if that was all he needed to lose control, Jackson braced his arms on either side of her and let loose.
The friction, the incredible sensation of being filled with him, then empty, then filled again had Maggie crying out and begging for more.
She lost track of time and space. All she felt, all she knew was Jackson.
He was her everything.
When she broke this time, she didn’t even know it was coming. It just came in a wave so powerful, it swept her under and it kept going and going and going.
“Jackson!” she shrieked.
He let out a growling roar and plunged deep.
Warmth bathed her pussy and another orgasm wrenched through her, causing everything inside to quake.
Jackson collapsed on top of her, then carefully rolled them both so that they were still connected, but she was on top.
For several long moments, they lay in each other’s arms, gasping for breath and shuddering through the aftershocks of pleasure.
Into the silence, Jackson said, “God. Damn.”
Maggie giggled. “Is it always so…”
“Intense?”
“Yeah.”
“Not in my experience, but I have a feeling you and I have just hit the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the intensity of our mating.”
“We may not survive.”
“Eh, maybe not, but what a way to go.”
Maggie laughed, then lifted up to see his face. “Jackson?”
“Yeah, babe.”
“I love you.”
He rolled them so that she was on her back again and he was crouched over her. He settled his hands to either side of her neck, sliding his fingers into her hair so they cradled her head. “I love you too, my Maggie, my mate, my everything.”
They got very little sleep that night as they spent it solidifying their mating, catching tiny catnaps between bouts of loving, only to rouse and love some more.
At some point in the wee hours of the morning, Maggie felt Genghis Khat jump onto the bed and smiled.
Her world was now complete.
***
Genghis Khat walked across Baby Sheriff’s stomach, flexing his claws and making the panther hiss, then curled up on Maggie’s pillow.
Even though the sheriff had intruded on their space, Maggie didn’t hesitate to cuddle Genghis Khat close and to whisper to him, as she did every evening, that he was the sweetest, best cat ever.
Baby Sheriff made a scoffing sound in the background, but Maggie slapped her hand over his mouth and snapped, “Knock it off, Jackson.”
She then turned back to Genghis Khat and finished their ritual with a kiss on his nose and a whispered, “I love you so much, Genghis Khat.”
Best. Human. Ever.
The Cat's Meow Copyright © 2021 Pepper McGraw
Digital Edition
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Cover and Title Page Images from Dreamstime:
Panther © Tanais-tanais
Paw Prints and Heart © Zsuskaa
Cartoon woman, small black kitten © Iuliia Kolesnikova
Chapter Cat Images from Dreamstime:
Chapter 1: Black Cat Logo © Alex Andreev
Chapters 2, 3, 7, 10, 11: Cat Logo Set © Paul Diaconu
Chapter 4: Abyssinian Cat Logo © Rinaherald
Chapter 5: Cat Silhouette © Tadorski
Chapter 6: Cat Logo © Majivecka
Chapters 8 & 9: Cat Logos © Beata Kraus
Edited by J.L. Troughton
PMG Publishing
A matchmaking cat may be Jefferson’s only hope
for a happily ever after.
Of course, the kitten he just adopted may destroy
that happily ever after before it ever begins.
Jefferson isn’t thrilled when his sister-in-law hires a new receptionist for his auto repair shop without first consulting him. He’s even more annoyed when he realizes the new hire is a bear, and not just any bear. She’s Kate Worcester of the Worcester bears and even worse, the only sister of Mason Worcester, the scariest grizzly of them all. And to top it all off, Jefferson’s pretty sure Kate Worcester is his mate.
Kate is sick of her brother’s interference in her life. Most recently, he tossed a client out a window simply because he was standing too close to his baby sister. If the only way to escape Mason’s ridiculousness is to quit her job and go work for a panther mechanic, then that’s what Kate is going to do. Even better if that mechanic turns out to be her mate.
Cleocatra has a mission: keep Jefferson to herself. He’s her human companion and no one else’s. The bear needs to go because Jefferson belongs to this kitten and no one else!
Chapter One
BYGUL WAS THE top matchmaker at Pawsitively Purrfect Matches. Of all the matchmaking cats in the place, he was legendary.
Until recently, however, this hadn’t been a good thing. In fact, the other cats had looked down on him for meddling in human affairs, which as far as he was concerned, made no sense at all.
After all, their entire mission at PPM was to match homeless cats to their purrfect human companions. If this wasn’t already meddling in human affairs, he didn’t know what was.
Meddling or not, though, Bygul took great pride in bringing his matches to the next level. Not satisfied to simply match his cats with a human companion, he also insisted on mate-matching those humans as well. After all, PPM was in the business of happily furever afters.
Besides, being the cat companion of a goddess gave Bygul insight and skills the other matchmaking cats lacked. Skills that honestly made him a matchmaking genius, one who brought endless joy to the world.
So Bygul did what he did best.
He matched cats to their human companions and he matched their companions to their true mates. It was the whole true love thing that most of the other cats (and to be entirely honest, the goddesses as well) objected to.
Bygul had his suspicions as to why the goddesses objected the way they did. He had no doubt it had something to do with power and control. True love, after all, should be the purview of the gods and goddesses (and the occasional demons and demonesses), but as Bygul continually pointed out, he was the cat companion of a goddess, and therefore, he acted on her behalf whenever he mate-matched a human.
He wasn’t sure Freyja completely agreed with his logic, but she didn’t try to stop him either, so as far as he was concerned, that was as good as giving him permission.
Then, he made the match of the ages.
A human, so completely withdrawn from the world, that matching her to a cat was a true challenge. Yet, Bygul managed to match her in such a way that she forged bonds, not just with the cat, though she did, and not just with her true mate, though she did that as well, but also with an entire community of shifters.
Suddenly, everyone at PPM was realizing what Bygul had always known: he truly was a matchmaking genius.
Now everyone wanted his advice and half the cats at PPM had it in their heads that they too could bring true love to the masses.
And that’s when Bygul’s genius backfired.
Ceridwen, that interfering goddess from hell, came up with the brilliant idea that Bygul should offer mate-matching classes for the cats interested in expanding their services.
Ridiculous.
Bygul had tried to protest, explaining that it was an innate ability, not something one might learn, but Bastet had smirked and agreed with Ceridwen that this was a fabulous idea.
Freyja, outnumbered by the other two, had sighed and agreed.
So now, five times a week, Bygul was responsible for teaching an hour-long class on mate-matching humans.
He blamed the human, Maggie.
If she hadn’t been so stubborn and difficult to match, no one would have recognized his genius and he could have continued to mate-match under the radar and been perfectly content. Instead, he was standing in a giant classroom at the center of Pawsitively Purrfect Matches, trying to wrangle fifty matchmaking cats into a semblance of order.
“For goddess’ sake, Tivali, would you settle down?” Bygul bellowed as Cleopatra’s idiotic cat companion barreled around the room, chasing some unknown demon only she could see.
This was going to be a nightmare.
* * *
“For goodness sake, Maggie!” Jefferson bellowed. “Stop being so rude to the customers. You’ll drive all my business away!”
Maggie glared at her brother-in-law. He had a lot of nerve, complaining about her customer service skills. “You do realize I’m only doing this as a favor because you’re my mate’s brother and he begged me to help you out. So really, I’m doing this as a favor to him, so he doesn’t have to listen to you whine anymore.”
“Yes, well, I had no idea this favor would involve you hanging up on my customers—”
“He was rude!”
“—insulting their vehicles—”
“It’s ugly as sin!”
“—and refusing to answer the phone more than once an hour!”
“It rings entirely too often!”
“How is this any better than me not having a receptionist at all?”
“I don’t recall promising it would be any better. In fact, I’m pretty sure I said I couldn’t promise to be personable or friendly or even to do a good job.”
“I thought you were joking!”
“Well, I wasn’t. And frankly, if you don’t want me to be rude to your customers, then you should recruit a better set of them. I have no idea why you can’t just stick to customers from our own town.”
Jefferson let out a furious growl, then spun around and stormed out of the office, probably back to the bay where he was working on some useless sports car. At the last moment, he yelled over his shoulder, “And stop painting your nails in my office. It reeks!”
Maggie grinned down at her nails. They were now a beautiful shade called Lucky Lavender and they were a perfect match to the flowers on her skirt. Who cared about scents when the result was this awesome?
She supposed she should feel bad about driving Jefferson crazy and about being rude to his customers and possibly losing him some money along the way, but really, she just didn’t.
Because as far as she was concerned, none of this was her fault. In fact, she’d told both Jackson and Jefferson that they wouldn’t like the results of her doing this favor for them, and they just hadn’t listened.
Okay, so Jackson had warned her that Jefferson’s shop was a ways out of town, at a crossroads between three different towns, and that one of those towns was full of humans, but that didn’t mean Maggie had to like it.
She thought she’d left the whole customer service, dealing with strangers, human existence behind! Yet here she was, helping out her brother-in-law doing a job she didn’t need and that she absolutely hated, just because her mate had asked.
This was what getting mated got you.
Fabulous sex, incredible friendships, romantic picnics, a big brother and favors.
A nudge on her arm ended Maggie’s stewing. “Oh, Genghis Khat, you’re so sweet.” She leaned over and kissed the gray forehead of the best cat in the entire world. “Sorry for all the yelling, sweetie pie. And sorry we’re stuck here in this ugly monstrosity of a building, instead of back at home in our awesome garden. Give it a few more days though. I may be his sister-in-law, but I guarantee Jefferson won’t last much longer. He’ll fire me before you know it.”
“Um, excuse me?”
A woman stood in Maggie’s office door, looking uncertain. She had short, black hair that kind of spiked outward in a really sassy way and was dressed in jeans and a tee-shirt.
“I saw the help wanted sign and—”
Maggie leapt to her feet. “Come in, come in. What’s your name?”
“Kate Worcester.”
“Nice to meet you, Kate. I’m Maggie. So, tell me what your qualifications are.”
“Oh, well. I don’t really have any. I mean, not as a mechanic anyway.”
“Good because what we need is a receptionist.”
“Oh, well, I don’t exactly have receptionist experience either, but—”
“No problem.” As far as Maggie was concerned, experience didn’t really count for anything. After all, she’d worked as a receptionist plenty of times, but was absolutely not qualified for the job.
In fact, despite all her work experience, Maggie had negative qualifications, which meant that Kate, who probably had social skills, was higher than her on the qualifications ladder. “You’re hired.”
Kate’s eyes widened. “Oh. Wow. Well, great. I mean—are you sure?”
“Absolutely! Okay, here’s the deal. The phone rings and you answer it. Make appointments if they need one. Answer questions. If you don’t know the answer, make something up.”
