Your Fault (Culpable Book 2)

“No fucking way,” I said.

We were parking in front of an animal shelter.

“You said anything,” my insane girlfriend responded, getting out of the car, excited as a five-year-old.

“I was talking about sex.”

Noah laughed. “I know. But since this is about me, not you, you’re going to buy me a little kitty.”

Again with the fucking cat! I hated cats—they were stupid; you couldn’t even train them. Plus, they were so needy. They crawled all over you constantly. I preferred a dog. I preferred my dog, dammit! The dog I’d had to leave at my dad’s house because my apartment building didn’t allow them.

“I’ve told you a million times, there’s no way I’m keeping a cat in my apartment.”

Noah glared at me and shook her head. Before she could start back up with her nonsense, I pulled her into my chest and covered her mouth with one hand.

“I’m not buying you a cat. Period.”

Her tongue started licking at my hand so I’d let her go. I squeezed her ribs, and it reminded me of the way she’d poked me that morning. We were both ungodly ticklish.

I let her go before I lost my nerve.

“Nicholas!” she shrieked.

“You slobbered all over me,” I said, wiping my hand on my pants.

She ignored me. “Okay, fine. If you won’t buy me a cat, I’ll buy it myself.” She turned on her heels and walked into what must have been any man’s hell. I followed her, exasperated, smelling animal fur, piss, and shit, hearing hamsters running back and forth and cats meowing, all of it so loud, I had to struggle not to drag Noah out.

With an Olympic effort at pretending I wasn’t there, she turned to the employee behind the counter, a young guy, her age, probably. His eyes lit up when he saw her.

“How can I help you?”

She looked over, and when she saw I wasn’t going to do anything, she turned indifferently to the guy and said, “I want to adopt a cat.”

Coming out from behind the counter with a huge smile on his face, happy to help her any way he could, the attendant headed down a hallway, and I followed behind Noah.

“This way. Just yesterday, we picked up some kittens from a parking deck. Someone had abandoned them there, and they can’t be more than six weeks old.”

Noah said a long and aggrieved “oh.” I rolled my eyes while the jerkoff took us back to a room with a bunch of cages full of cats of all shapes and colors. Some were sleeping, some mewing, some just being a pain in the ass.

“Here they are,” he said, showing us a cage at the end of a row. Noah walked over as if it concealed a magic treasure.

“They’re so tiny!” she said in that voice girls have when they talk to kittens or babies.

I came up behind her and looked at the mangy beasts lying on a blanket. Three were gray with white spots on their paws and head. One was black all over. Right away, they gave me a weird feeling.

“Look how they’re playing,” the guy said in a little-bitch voice. I scowled at him and edged over to Noah.

“Can I pick one up?” she asked, using all her feminine charms.

“Yeah, whichever one you want.”

Of course. So which did Noah pick?

The black one, obviously.

“He’s the calmest one. I haven’t seen him playing since they got here.”

The other three were anything but—they were jumping all over and slapping each other with their paws. They’d probably given the poor runt one hell of a time.

Noah brought the kitten close to her chest and caressed it like a mother holding her baby. The damned thing started meowing, and at that point, I knew it was game over.

I sighed.

“Look, Nick,” she said, her eyes tender.

The cat was ugly as hell, black, its hair standing on end, but I knew Noah wasn’t the type to pick the cutest or the most playful one. She would go for the outcast, the one that had been ignored, the one nobody loved… That reminded me of myself.

“Fine, shit, you can keep the fucking cat,” I conceded.

A huge smile crossed her face.

The employee led us to the counter where I had to sign a ton of papers promising to take care of the cat and get it vaccinated and a bunch of other nonsense. Noah started picking through a small selection of supplies for sale, and when she came back, she had a ton of stupid toys for this animal that didn’t even have a name.

“You gonna pay for that?” I said, needling her. I didn’t give a shit about the money; I just wanted to let a little air out of her balloon.

“You said whatever I wanted,” she reminded me, grabbing a collar, some food bowls, and a soft blue bed, and laying them on the counter.

The damned cat was in a little cage, which they handed over to us to take him away.

“I hope he adapts well and that you all enjoy him,” the cashier said, eyes on Noah. “Don’t forget to take him to the vet in a couple of weeks to get him fixed and take care of his vaccines.”

Fixed… Well, now I felt bad for the poor guy.

Ten minutes later, we were on our way to my apartment. Finally, I would be able to be with her and do what I’d been thinking about for months.

I turned to look at her, and an involuntary smile crossed my face. She looked just like my little sister did when she got a new toy.

“What are you going to name him?” I asked, pulling off the freeway and heading into my neighborhood.

“Huh. I don’t know yet…” she said, carefully petting the Nameless One.

“Don’t call him something stupid like Nala or Simba, please,” I asked, parking in my spot. I got out and opened her door. Seeing Noah almost intoxicated, I glared at that animal that was trying to take my spotlight.

“I think I’ll call him N,” she said as we walked toward the elevator.

“N?” I repeated, doubtful. Had she lost her damned mind?

Offended, she replied, “Yeah, N. For you and me, for Nick and Noah.”

I laughed. “I think you had too much caffeine this morning.”

She ignored me as we walked into my apartment.

“You’re going to have to take care of him when I’m not around,” she said, letting him out in the middle of the room and watching him investigate his surroundings.

“In your dreams. Your cat, your responsibility,” I said, dropping all its accessories on the floor.

She gave me a salty look, and I pulled her close before we could start arguing again.

“You’re the one person in the world who can make me give in at times like this,” I said, leaning over to kiss her neck. Noah closed in to give me better access. Her skin was soft and smelled so good… I saw the hickey I’d left on her… I liked it; it drove me wild to see the marks my kisses had left on her, but I’d never say that aloud, knowing how much it would piss her off.

“What if I told you that I love the idea of sharing a pet with you?” she said suddenly. Seeing my confusion, she shrugged, as if she felt guilty. “It’s going to be ours. Our cat, both of ours, like we’re its parents.”

That made me take a deep breath. I knew that phrase had something much deeper hidden behind it, something that would never let her go, and that made my blood boil. I kissed her gently on the lips.

“It’s fine. I’ll take care of K,” I said, stroking her hair, hoping to make light of the situation.

She smacked me jokingly. “His name’s N!”

I laughed, picked her up, and sat her on the kitchen counter. “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about,” I said, feeling unnerved, with no idea how she was going to react. “I want you to come live with me when you start school.”