My Furry Valentine: "In Between" 1.5 (Peculiar Mysteries) Read Online Free Page A

some paperwork. Frustrated, I tried the seven and a half. It was tight. Really tight. I sighed as the eight slipped down easily. Slightly snug, but enough wiggle room to get it on and off. “Well, that sucks,” I said.
    “We’d like this sized to an eight,” Babe said.
    Damn. If I was an eight, the ring was probably a ten. Great grandma must have had some huge hands.
    “You got it, Mayor,” Jeremiah said. “I’ll have it ready by the tenth.”
    Babel nodded, and I marveled at how comfortable the title had become for him. He pulled out his wallet.
    “No, no.” Jeremiah shook his head. “On me. A wedding gift.”
    Babel didn’t argue, so I gratefully accepted the goodwill gesture. I remembered how hard it was to be new in town. Of course, I had the added pressure of being the only human.
    As we were leaving, Roger Parks pushed his way through the door. He and Kyle Avery had been Jo Jo Corman’s best friends. Jo Jo, an eighteen-year-old cougar-coyote shifter, had been one of my first connections in Peculiar. He’d worked for Chav and me in our restaurant since we opened our doors in September. Dirty from either farm work or mudding, Roger scowled at me...until he caught the “I’ll rip your eyes out and shove them down your throat look” from Babe.
    In his mind, because Jo Jo worked for me, I’d taken him away. I guess it was easier to blame me than accept Jo Jo had moved on from his friends’ immature antics and infantile jokes.
    “I have an appointment to see Dolly at Beastly Beauty,” I told Babel.
    “You need a ride home later?”
    “No. Chavvah will take me.” I felt guilty that Chavvah was managing the business every day without me, but she said it was her wedding present to me. I was grateful for the time off. One of those pre-wedding errands today would be hoo-ha maintenance. Since the pregnancy, I’d let my girly parts go wild. I usually did it myself using depilatory cream, but I wanted my lady-bits to look good for my groom. Besides, I couldn’t reach between my thighs because of my distended belly. So, I’d made an appointment for my first bikini wax.
    “Getting your hair done?” Babe asked.
    “Of a sort.” I batted my eyelashes.
    “Is there something in your eye?”
    “No.” I smacked him on the shoulder. “I’m trying to flirt with you, moron.”
    He pulled me in close with a sudden quickness that took my breath away. He stared down at me as if he could capture my soul. And why not, he’d already captured my heart. I felt the rigid length of his shaft press against me as he stroked his hand through my hair.
    “Looking at you, holding you close to me, knowing I get the share the rest of our lives together...that’s the only flirting I need, Sunshine Haddock.”
    Oh Jeezus. My girly bits throbbed.
    “I’m getting a bikini wax,” I said, breathless and feeling super warm even in thirty-six-degree weather. “Ho boy.”
    Babe raised an eyebrow, a quirk of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Oh yeah?”
    “Yep. It’s going to be really awkward though if you don’t ease up on your sexual mojo.”
    “I do have mojo,” he agreed. His lips slid over mine, and he poured heat into my mouth, warming me up from the inside out. “I’m looking forward to tonight.”
    “Me too,” I panted. He let me go and turned me toward the beauty shop. He gave me a tantalizing and decidedly unprofessional (for the mayor) slap my ass as his final farewell.
    *** *
    Two hours later, I tried not to cry on the ride home. Chavvah kept shaking her head, but she had the good sense to keep her comments to herself. I thanked all that was good and merciful that my maternity stretch pants were baggy in the crotch.
    As I walked into the cabin (by myself, because no way was I inviting Chav in to witness my humiliation), Babel waited for me, stretched out on the couch in nothing but a pair of tented sweatpants. The smile on his face wavered then disappeared.
    “How’d it go?”
    Without saying a