I Unintentionally Became Her Kitten

Chapter 100: A Quiet Moment

Tye dropped us off as had been the routine for the past few days. Alisha was a little softer than she had been at the cafe, but still sighed heavily when we got inside and went upstairs to strip her extra layers and empty her purse. I followed, pulling my apron off and then stared hesitantly at my side arm that was in its usual spot on my shelf.

I glanced over at Alisha, finding her watching me.

“I’ll start carrying it,” I agreed without her needing to ask.

“I won’t force you to,” she said gently.

“Yes but… I’m in this now. And your business doesn’t really respect the concept of working hours.”

She ran her hand down my back. “Okay, Kitten,” she agreed. She planted a kiss on the top of my head before walking over to her couch and took her business phone out. I thought about scurrying somewhere so she could have her privacy but decided to stay. I even grabbed a cookbook, a physical one, and settled onto the couch next to her, putting my legs across her lap and letting her gently trace some patterns against the fabric as she scrolled and messaged, before finally dialing a number and putting the phone to her ear.

I couldn’t hear what Sergei had to say for himself but Alisha’s tone was harsh.

“If you so much as breathe in the directory of that cafe, Sergei, I will have the other one removed. Is that clear?” she asked.

There was a pause as Sergei probably made some excuse.

“If you can’t handle a basic order like this, what makes you think you can handle an upper management role?” Alisha’s hand tensed on my leg a little.

I glanced up to see the furrow in her brow deepened. Sergei’s voice was muffled and defensive and I only saw the fury burning in her stare more.

“Behave Sergei,” she ordered him, ice crystalizing her every word. “There won’t be another discussion on this.”

And then she hung up, sighed heavily again, and leaned her head back against the couch cushion.

I set my book aside and instead curled up with my head in her lap, feeling her fingers start to smooth through my hair soothingly. The fabric beneath my head was soft, probably more expensive than something I’d normally want to touch, but I’d tolerate it for the sake of helping ground Alisha to this moment. She needed it desperately.

Her fingers trailed across my cheek.

“You’re such a sweet thing,” she said softly after a moment.

I pressed myself against her a little more. “I love you,” I told her.

“And I love you too,” she resonated. “More than anything. I wouldn’t trade you for the world.”

I nodded, letting my eyes slide shut as her hand rubbed behind my ear, making every nerve in my body vibrate with the rush.

I hummed lowly, not really moaning but still feeling the urge to mindlessly express appreciation of her touch. When I blinked blearily up at her, I found that soft smile on her face and blushed.

“What?” I asked.

“You’re just an adorable little Kitten when you curl up on my lap like that.”

I blinked, I thought I had just rested my head on her lap but as I became more aware of my body, realized I had curled into her so my face was pressed against her stomach and my legs wrapped around her side.

“I love you,” I said defensively.

She smiled a little more and soothed my hair back again. I closed my eyes. “I love you too, Kitten.”

I nodded. Part of me wanted to let myself slide into sleep, but another knew better. I still needed to eat dinner, and Alisha probably needed to too. A shower would be nice. A shift at Starmaids left me sticky and sweaty.  I didn’t want to wreck my complexion just because of laziness.

So I’d have to get up… eventually.

But for a few moments, I let Alisha pet my hair, her head leaned back, eyes closed. She was enjoying the moment too.

When she finally shifted, I let it be the trigger for me sitting up and blinking sleepily.

“You want dinner?” she asked.

I nodded. “I should shower too.”

“Let’s have dinner first,” she directed, and trailed her hand along my cheek before standing.

My insides quivered just a little. Just enough to know she might have other intentions later in the night.

We had our usual salad, and I made some tea after and baked off some cookies. Alisha looked exhausted, in an emotional, restrained kind of way. I had a feeling her day hadn’t been bad just because Sergei had dared to harass me. And while Lili asking to be reinstated had been framed as a good thing between her and Tye, it was still another thing she had to worry about.

And me… the worst thing that I had to worry about was creepy people at work. It wasn’t like Sergei could’ve done anything in public and help was always just a text away.

“Here,” I set a mug of tea down in front of her as she was typing out another message on her phone. “You’ve been working too much,” I told her.

“It just needs to get done,” she told me softly, but accepted the tea and later on nibbled on the corner of a shortbread cookie. “You always make the best sweets,” she said softly.

I looked up from my own phone, to find her gazing at me again, softly. “You provide quality ingredients,” I told her, “It isn’t hard with that.”

“You’d be shocked at the bullshit people try to give me after I give them quality ingredients,” she said dryly and took another sip of tea.

I scooched my chair a little closer and leaned against her warmth. “I’ll do my best to never give you bullshit,” I told her. “And if I ever do, tell me so I can fix it.”

Her hand automatically went up to soothe me again. “I don’t think you ever could.”

She pressed her lips to my forehead with a gentle but meaningful kiss and then gazed at me. I felt the hormones start to push under my skin again.

“You had a rough day?” I asked quietly.

“Yes,” she said simply. Her fingers guided my chin up to look at her. “And I know you did, too.”

“It was better after you were there,” I told her.

“Hm… I wish I could always be there for you.” Her fingers moved from my chin to behind my ear and fixed my hair there. “But the best I can do is give you something tonight that’ll hopefully help keep you happy throughout tomorrow.”

I blushed hotter. “Yes but… let's have the tea first,” I said. As much as it would be nice to get thrown down on the table and fucked into oblivion, that kind of thing couldn’t replace the soft mood of the moment, and I wanted to treasure both. 

So she settled down, wrapped an arm lovingly around me and sipped at her tea. We talked softly about things. Nothing groundbreaking. Just clothes and shoes and basic politics and how dumb the current presidential candidate situation felt.

It was nice. Normal.

And when we'd finished tea and cookies she stood, gathering up the dishes. I helped, getting them loaded into the dishwasher before she pulled my face in close again and leaned her forehead against mine.

We were warm together. Maybe even too warm.

And then she urged me up to the bedroom.