His Purrfect Mate by Georgette St. Clair Read Free Book Online

Halloween and I’m wearing a costume.  Come on, of the two of us, I can break into buildings much faster, and nobody’s wallet is safe from me. Nobody’s.  You need my skills. We can get Tyler to make us whatever fake paperwork  we need real quick before the plane takes off.”
    “This is a terrible idea.” Bobbi already knew she’d lost.
    “As are all your ideas. All right, then it’s settled.  Road trip!” Pixie rubbed her hands together gleefully.

Chapter Five
    The full moon glowed overhead, a giant, luminescent pearl fixed against the black velvet drapery of the sky.   A fat stone cupid in a fountain held a pitcher which poured an endless stream of water into the fountain’s bowl.  When the weather grew colder, the fountain would be shut off so the water didn’t freeze. 
    Chloe shivered in the chill night air, and she quickly pulled her sweater on. Now the glamorous ensemble was complete.
    “Would you like my jacket?” Kenneth asked.
    Oddly, her heart leaped in her chest at that. She realized that she desperately wanted to say yes, to have his jacket, warm from his body heat and smelling of him, wrapped around her like big strong arms.
    But of course she couldn’t say yes to this man, the grandson of the man who’d betrayed her grandmother in every way that a man could betray a woman …this man who was photographed with a different woman on his arm every week, as she’d realized when he started leaving her messages weeks ago, and she’d looked him up online. 
    She’d felt an odd sensation the very first time she saw his picture – a sensation which had made her even more determined to avoid him at all costs.
    Great job I’m doing with that, she thought to herself.
    “Oh, no, the sweater’s plenty. My mother knitted it for me,” she added, not knowing what else to say.
    “She’s very talented,” Kenneth said politely.
    “ Your date was stunning. I see a real love match there,”she said to Kenneth, wanting to steer the conversation away from family, and also, wanting to needle him. He was being all gentlemanly and charming, and she needed for him to stop it immediately.
    He rose to take the bait.  “ I couldn’t agree more.  Of course, I don’t think she and I shared as much of a connection as you and your almost-fiance.”
    “I have no idea what you’re talking about. That man you were pointing at? I’ve never seen him before in my – ouch!” she tripped on the gravel path as her heel sunk in and caught on something. Kenneth reached out to catch her, but she quickly stepped back. “I’m fine!”
    “And graceful as a cat, I see.”
    Actually, for a member of the cat species, Chloe was exceptionally clumsy. It was her secret shame that once, when she’d been up a tree in panther form, and she’d leaped to the ground…she hadn’t landed on her feet. 
    Well, it would have been her secret shame, if it hadn’t happened in front of all the other third graders on the playground. “Clutzy Chloe” had stuck as a nickname until high school.  Then it became “Four-Eyes.”  Most panthers didn’t wear glasses in their human form, either.
    “Shut up,” she grumbled, as they kept wa lking. Their breath left puffs of condensation in the chill air.   “If you were a gentleman, you would have pretended not to notice.”
    “Did I say that I was a gentleman?”
    “Well, you dress like a gentleman, you talk like a gentleman…”
    “But if I were a gentleman, would I lead a beautiful woman that I barely know out into the dark…” she suddenly realized how far they’d wandered from the old mansion. They were alone in the dark, cold night. “…and do this?”
    And before she could say a word, he’d spun her into his arms, making her stumble again in the gravel, and she fell into his arms, and then…he kissed her.
    It was like no kiss she’d ever experienced before.
    His strong arm circled around her, and he tipped her chin up with two fingers and pressed his warm lips