Mr. Purr-fect and the Geek
Gone Geek #2
Sidney Bristol
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Mr. Purr-fect and the Geek
Gone Geek 2
When veterinarian Raul is reunited with his lost cat he gets more than he bargained for in Miranda, the sassy woman who wipes the floor with his subpar gaming skills. But Miranda doesn’t know if Raul is flirting with her, or if he’s the stalker she’s lived in fear of for years. Is he the crazy cat guy of her dreams, or does he want her—dead or alive?
To all my fellow cat ladies.
<3
Table of Contents
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Epilogue.
1.
It was a Monday on a Wednesday, and that was before the terrier in patient room four took a chunk out of Raul’s forearm. He pressed the towel to the puncture wounds and watched blood drip off his elbow into the sink.
Great.
He had a full set of rooms, patients for hours, and no other vets on duty tonight. The on-call backup wasn’t answering, so he couldn’t even take time to get his arm properly wrapped. Worried pet owners would not be comforted if he was covered in blood, and he’d never replace his back-up scrubs after the incident with the Pomeranian. What was it about little dogs, anyway? Man, they were cute with attitude.
And here he’d just had to undergo a full-scale barrage of tests and shots for the last distressed pet incident. Getting them again was going to be a pain in the butt. He couldn’t blame the terrier. Raul wouldn’t like someone squeezing his anus either. If only the tech hadn’t let go of the dog to check her damn cell phone.
He eyed the wounds once more, relieved to find they’d finally stopped leaking. A quick wash, some topical antibiotic, and a bit of gauze with some neon-pink vet wrap to hold it all in place, and he was ready to jump back into the fray. It wasn’t his worst day, but he’d be glad when the evening shift at the twenty-four-hour vet clinic was over.
“Patient in room one ready?” He snagged the chart and glanced over the vitals and test results. Looked like someone was about to be a new mommy.
He tapped on the door when the tech ignored his question.
Damn cell phones. He was going to have to figure out a polite way to suggest banning them from the work areas.
“Lola Marie?” Raul pushed the door open, glancing first at the feline ball of fur curled up on the exam table and then at Lola’s guardian.
Except Raul’s eyes skipped back to an all-too-familiar patch of rust-colored fur in the shape of a question mark on top of the cat’s head.
Lola—no, Penny?—picked her head up and blinked her sleepy, amber eyes at him. Her pink little nose twitched. Raul took a step closer. No, way...
“Penny?” he whispered.
The cat uncurled herself and stretched, haunches up, shoulders down, tail twitching. She waddled a few steps to the edge of the exam table.
Meow?
“Uh, I’m sorry, we haven’t met?” The woman seated on the padded bench rose.
Raul couldn’t look away from the cat. Was it really Penny? But... His former fiancée had taken the cat, along with his text books, when they’d split. She’d said “fair is fair,” when he asked where Penny was, whatever the hell that was supposed to mean.
“Excuse me?”
Raul’s head snapped up. The woman on the other side of the table had a one brow arched, lips pursed and annoyance creasing her features.
“I’m sorry, but... This cat? Where did you get her?” Raul reached out, stroking the short, soft hair along Penny’s back.
“A lady renting a house a few doors down left Lola when she moved out. I...” Now the woman glanced away. “A neighbor and I got her out.”
“Does—Lola have a microchip?”
“I...don’t know. I mean, I keep meaning to do it but I haven’t...”
“I’m going to scan her real quick.”
Raul knew he was being rude, that this was not how the exam should go, but he couldn’t look at Lola and not see Penny. He snagged a RFID scanner from the wall of devices and returned to patient room one.
The woman had Lola cradled in her arms when he returned. The way she stared at him was plainly suspicious.
“I’m sorry, this is completely not typical.” Raul pressed his hand to his chest. “I’m Dr. C, or Raul.”
“I’m Miranda. This is Lola.”
“Can you put Lola on the table?” He smiled, trying his best to regain his best patient manner, but not having his hands on Penny—Lola—was making him antsy. He had to know.
Miranda’s gaze narrowed, but she complied, crossing the distance. Her heels clicked on the floor, and the front of her black wrap dress was covered in fur. She didn’t seem to mind that aspect of pet guardianship, like many women did.
“What seems to be the problem with Lola?” Raul stroked down Lola’s back.
Lola, in turn, shoved her butt up in the air and rubbed her face on the exam table.
“That is so weird.” Miranda stood back. “She’s usually such a grump around people. I literally never see her do this.”
Raul clicked the RFID handheld scanner, powering it on, and did a quick swipe over Lola’s shoulders, holding his breath.
The reader flashed once, displaying the number he’d memorized back to him.
He set the scanner down on the table and knelt, looking Penny right in her amber eyes.
Holy shit.
It was Penny.
His Penny.
And she was all grown up.
“Doctor...?”
“I’m sorry. Really, I’m sorry.” He stood and took a step back and covered his mouth.
It was his cat.
His cat his ex-fiancée had stolen.
But she wasn’t his cat anymore.
“Dude, I don’t know what your deal is, but I’m losing my patience here. What the hell is going on?”
“Miranda, right?” He tore his gaze from Penny, directing it at her guardian. “I’m sorry. I really am but... I know this cat.”
“What?” Miranda’s brow scrunched up. Dang, but she was cute. Her hair was curling, scrunched up around her head like a halo and her face was open, expressive. Right now he’d be willing to guess she was close to chewing him out if he didn’t supply answers pronto.
“Lola is Penny. I’m sorry. I’m really screwing this up.” He stroked Penny’s back, part of him shocked this was even happening. “Ten years ago, my fiancée left me and took this kitten I’d bottle fed from birth. I had Penny microchipped and...Lola is Penny.”
“Wait. Wait. Wait.” Miranda shook her head and took a step closer to the table until they were both leaning up against it from either side. “You mean to tell me that Lola was your cat ten years ago?”
“That’s what the microchip says.”
“And your ex-fiancée abandoned her in a house...down the street from me?”
“I don’t know.” He lowered himself to his elbows so he could look Penny in the eyes.
Penny flopped over to her back and batted at his nose.
What kind of crazy world was this, where his old cat was also his patient?
Miranda stared at the vet. Five minutes ago, he’d been Dr. McDreamy material, but now—was he trying to take Lola Marie away from her? What were the legalities here? Yeah, he was hot, but she wasn’t going to roll over and give him her cat.
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Lola was all she had left.
Since the break-in—and her family convinced she was losing her marbles—Lola was all she had. Even her best friends were states away. There was only so much they could do through the internet and their occasional get-togethers.
Miranda couldn’t lose her cat, not even to someone who had a better claim on her than Miranda did.
Her worry over Lola’s lethargy was replaced by the all-consuming fear of the unknown.
There was no way she was giving this man her cat.
She’d committed a crime to save Lola. Whoever Sexy Scrubs was, he wasn’t getting her cat. Whatever it took, Miranda was going to keep Lola. She was Miranda’s anchor, her reason for coming home, for going to work. Someone had to buy her fancy cat food and toys. That stuff wasn’t cheap.
“This has got to be very weird right now. Again, I am sorry. I’m Raul, by the way.” He turned his sinful chocolate eyes on her and extended his hand.
“You said that already.” She shook his hand. In another situation, she’d probably go a little weak in her knees at the touch and entertain some not-so-polite fantasies about him. It’d been an awfully long time since she’d had a man in her life. The last one had called her crazy before dumping her. But the fate of her fur baby was at stake here.
“You came in because P—Lola, sorry, has been showing some lethargy?” His hands stroked mindlessly over Lola, who’d morphed into a different cat and rubbed up against the man without shame. The hussy.
“Yeah.”
“Well...” He pressed against Lola’s stomach, his lips pulled up into a gorgeous smile.
If Miranda had hands like his on her, she’d probably be a fan of it too. Miranda couldn’t blame Lola too much on that front. Besides...Dr. C didn’t seem like the creeper type. He might even be normal. What would it be like to have a normal person in her life, for a change?
“Lola’s pregnant.” Raul grinned.
“What?” Miranda yelped, staring at Lola with wide eyes. “But—she was fixed. The vet said she was fixed. The scar... She’s fixed!”
“Oh, this scar?” Raul hooked his hands under Lola’s ribs and sat her up.
If anyone else besides Miranda had performed that little maneuver, they’d be shredded. But Lola sat there on her bottom, staring dreamily up at Raul like he was her kitty daddy.
What the actual fuck?
Raul stroked his thumb over the long scar across Lola’s stomach.
“Yeah, that one.” Miranda gripped the edge of the exam table.
“She had a non-malignant mass in her abdomen. I had it removed when she was eight months old because it was putting pressure on her kidneys. The scar seems to have grown with her. That’s a big belly of kittens you’ve got there.” He patted Lola’s large tummy.
“How? She’s an inside cat. She never moves. How?” Miranda stared, unsure if she was shocked more by the immaculate conception or Lola’s sudden one-eighty behavioral shift.
“Maybe she got out? Another cat got in?”
“No, you don’t get it. She’s a bump on a log. She never moves.” Except...back when her house had gotten broken into... Could Lola have gotten out then? But that was over six weeks ago and feline gestation was pretty fast. What if...what if the stalker was back? But that was silly. Why would a stalker ensure her cat was knocked up?
Unless...Raul was her stalker.
Okay, now she was going off the deep end.
Shock like what had been on his face was pretty hard to feign.
“Well, she is expecting and pretty far along, so I’m not surprised she isn’t moving. If I had to guess you’re looking at a litter of six or so.”
“Me?”
“Um...yeah.”
“You aren’t trying to take Lola back or anything?” Miranda’s heart fluttered, either from the intensity of Raul’s stare or the thought of losing Lola.
“How long have you had Lola?” Raul let Lola roll back to all fours while he continued to pet her.
“Six years?”
“Really?” He glanced up. “She was...barely two when my ex took her.”
“She seriously took your cat?”
“Yeah.” He grimaced. “She said I loved Penny more than her, and I can’t argue with that. Especially there at the end.”
“That’s no reason to take your cat.”
Raul smiled, though it was a sad expression. All those years lost. The worry. It made Miranda sick to her stomach. This guy wasn’t her stalker. He was...normal. Maybe even nice.
“And Penny, now Lola, has been with you longer than she was ever with me.” Raul shrugged. He stared at Lola with a sadness that resonated with Miranda. She recognized that longing. How many times had she looked at someone she loved and had to let them walk out of her life?
If someone took Lola away from her... God, Miranda would go crazy in that house by herself.
“This is going to sound strange...” Raul glanced up at her, his artfully messy hair falling forward over his tanned face. God, he was cute. “Would it be possible to visit Lola and her kittens?”
Miranda opened her mouth.
What the hell did she say to that?
Was this the beginning of some crazy, cat-napping plot?
“I totally get if you say no.” Raul fished in the pocket of his scrubs with one hand, then the other. “How about I give you my number and you think about it? Lola’s going to have the kittens soon, so don’t be surprised if she starts nesting somewhere.”
He leaned over and scribbled on a business card. Lola headbutted his hand, as bossy and demanding with him as she was with Miranda.
“Here.” He handed the card over.
“Raul C...”
“That’s why I tell people to just call me Dr. C.” He grinned.
“That’s a mouthful.” She eyed the last name that stretched on for a few syllables. “You probably get this all the time but—”
“How do you say it? Chandrasekar. Chuhn-druh-sheh-kher.”
“I’ll stick to Dr. C.” She accepted the business card.
“Or you can call me Raul.” He smiled.
Damn, but her stomach did a little flop. Miranda swallowed. Raul was good looking and wanted something from her. She had to remember that. Gorgeous men never wanted just her. There was always an ulterior motive. But damn it, she wanted a guy to look at her like that for no other reason than sex. Hell, it’s not like she was asking for a relationship, even, just clear motivation.
“Think it over. I’d like to know she’s doing well.” He tilted his head to the left.
“I’ll do that. Anything else?” She needed to get out of here. Now.
“Nope. Need a hand loading her up?” Raul grabbed the plastic carrier and held it while Miranda urged a grumbling Lola back into the travel carrier. “Let me waive the bill. Please?”
“Are you sure?” If he did that, was he angling to get something in return?
“Positive.”
Miranda chewed her lip. What if he was being honest? What if she was so jaded she couldn’t see a nice guy being nice?
“Okay,” she said finally.
“I’ll walk you out.”
The better to see what she drove?
That was silly. He was so not her stalker.
“Does she still drool in her sleep?” Raul asked as they stepped out of the twenty-four-hour clinic. The night sky was mostly obscured by clouds threatening more rain.
“Yeah, actually. And she snores.”
“Yes.” Raul laughed, head tossed back. “I used to carry her around in this ridiculous robe, tucked in the pocket when I was bottle feeding her. I couldn’t believe a sound that loud came from an animal so small.”
Miranda could actually picture that. Raul in her dorky gray, polka dot house robe, a kitten swaddled up in the pocket. Adorable was an understatement.
“This is me.” She clicked the key fob and the lights flashed.
Raul opened the back seat and took the carrier from her, belt
ing it in like a pro.
“Thanks,” she mumbled.
“Hey, thank you. I’ve been wondering where Penny—Lola—ended up for years. I’m just—thank you.” He shoved his hands into his pockets, his muscular arms flexing.
Yes, and, Please come over, were on the tip of her tongue, but that was her libido talking. Before she agreed for Dr. Cute to come over and check out her kitty, she had to run it by her girlfriends. Someone was bound to have better sense than she did as of late, what with her rampant paranoia.
“It was nice to meet you.” Miranda held out her hand.
“Best thing to happen all day.” Raul clasped hers in both of his.
“Looks like it was an eventful one.” She tipped her head forward, glancing at the pink vet wrap.
“It’s always interesting. Drive safe?” He backed up a few steps before turning around.
Miranda watched him jog back to the clinic entrance, her head still spinning.
Holy hell.
She jumped into the driver’s seat and pressed her speed dial while belting in. Lola was already singing the song of her people at full volume.
“Dear God, has that cat killed you yet?” Rashae said over Lola’s singing.
“Rashae, you are never going to believe what just happened!” Miranda related the highlights of her vet visit while she headed toward home.
“This guy—he was Lola’s owner? And she didn’t kill him?”
“She was a total doll!”
“Lola? Your psycho cat?”
“Yes, that Lola Marie. And he wants to come visit her and the kittens. I think...I can’t figure out if he’s coming over, angling to take Lola back, or if he’d want one of the kittens, or what.”
“Miranda, you can’t keep thinking every random person you meet is your stalker.”
“I know. I know. I just...”
“Did he say anything about wanting her back?”
“No, he actually said she’d lived with me longer than him, so he wanted to visit.”
“He could be one of those crazy cat dudes, like Crystal. That might be worse than a stalker.”
“I would take that over a stalker any day of the week.” Especially if they looked like Mr. Purrfect back there.
“And what’s his name?”
“Raul C-something. It’s long. I’m guessing Indian. He was super tan, deep brown eyes, black hair. Chan-dresser? No. Shoot. It’s on his business card.”
Mr. Purr-fect and the Geek (Gone Geek, #2) Page 1
