Courting Alley Cat by Kathryn Kelly Page A

of her purse. She unlocked the door and turned back to him expecting to say goodnight.
                  He had one hand on the door casing. He reached up and held her chin with the other while his lips moved quickly to hers. “I’ve wanted to do that all night,” he said against her mouth.
                  She nodded. Speechless. Her eyes closed and she lifted her face to his. Her back was pressed against the door as his hands moved along her sides to her hips.
                  The kiss deepened and time stood still. Then, suddenly, he lightened the kiss and pulled back from her. She felt like someone had taken her air away.
                  “I’ll see you tomorrow evening,” he said.
                  She didn’t know what to say. Tomorrow? What about now? Speechless, she watched him walk from her door across the lawn to his own door. When she heard his door open, she turned and went inside. She didn’t see him watch her until she was safely inside her own house.
                                                           

Chapter 9
                  Justin closed the refrigerator door and popped the top on a coke. It was his third one and it was only ten a.m. He’d barely slept all night, lying awake fighting the urge to go next door. He had to keep his distance from Alley or he would not be responsible for the consequences.
                  The more time he spent with her, the more he knew she was the right girl for him. He knew he had to tread carefully or he ran the possibility of scaring her away. He couldn’t risk it. He had to make her think it was her idea or else he would be just another guy falling at her feet.
                  He had nothing to base this theory on, of course. This was the most important project he had ever engaged in. No, he didn’t have everything figured out. It was an inexact science. There was one thing, however, that he was absolutely certain of.
                  He would marry Alley Alexander.
                  He couldn’t see her through the windows, and he was thankful. If he could see her from his own kitchen, he ran the risk of becoming some kind of pervert.
                  He sighed. That wouldn’t look good to one’s future wife. She probably wouldn’t be a future wife if she thought he was a perv.
                  He didn’t know what they would do tonight. He didn’t want to be predictable. They had already been to a nice dinner. Now he had to be creative and come up with something else to get her attention. With her being from the city, he had to stand out from the competition.
                  He’d almost taken her out to the training center last night. But she had been dressed much too well. Since she liked animals, she might find that interesting. And it would give her a better idea of what he did in his spare time. Since it hadn’t worked out, he would have to wait until another weekend.
                  He rinsed his hands and tossed the paper towel into the trashcan. There was no need to torture himself so much about this. He would show up and together they would come up with something. They could hang out and watch some TV, maybe get a movie, a pizza. There were so many things they would do eventually.
                  He merely had to bide his time.
                 
                  Somehow Alley had slept peacefully. She had fallen asleep imagining that she was in Justin’s arms and she hadn’t waken until Charlie meowed repeatedly in her ear just after eight thirty.
                  She rolled over and scratched his ears. “Hungry, aren’t you boy? Why did you let me sleep so late then?”
                  Dragging herself out of bed, she stuffed her feet into a pair of slippers. Yawning, she went