Marcus in Retrograde

by S A Sommers

  I yanked my phone off the soundboard and swiped it open.

  Seventeen messages.

  Chaser: On our way! MC is a good kitty.

  Chaser: MC doesn’t seem to like dogs that are not Pollux.

  Chaser: We’re in the room!

  Chaser: I hope your meeting is going well.

  Chaser: Ooh, MC doesn’t like the vet!

  Chaser: Marcus, can you call me?

  Chaser: Please call me as soon as you can.

  Chaser: Marcus, I don’t want to make these decisions on my own.

  Chaser: MC has cancer. Please call me.

  Chaser: The vet thinks we can treat it.

  Chaser: Oh, my god the cost.

  Chaser: He wants to run more tests on her. I need you to call me, Marc. Please.

  Chaser: He wants to know if we’re going to leave the kittens with her or take them home. I need help with kittens!

  Chaser: Marcus?

  Chaser: I’m taking the kittens home. We have the KMR. MC is going to stay for more tests.

  Chaser: I can’t make the decision to put her down.

  Chaser: Marcus, please…

  Oh, God, I’d fucked that up big time. I always fucked up when it came to Ed Roberts.

  Marcus302: I’m so sorry, Chase. I got stuck in a meeting. Don’t put MC down. I’ll help with the kittens. We’ll figure out what to do.

  I rubbed a hand over my eyes, and Jerry was still staring at me.

  “Okay?”

  “We rescued cats out of the wall last night, and the mother cat apparently has cancer. I was supposed to be returning the live updates. I hope Chase doesn’t hate me for that.”

  “You clearly had a rough day” he nodded. “So, you’re still on my team, and I don’t give a rats ass what Ed Roberts thinks. You missed the fun part where he tried to get his people to walk, and his boss just shot his ass out of the sky with a close-range missile. ‘You liked his work a week ago, Ed. Now you find out he’s someone you don’t like personally and you want to walk? We’re signing you up for professional courtesy classes. Sit your ass down.’ It really was glorious, because I’d gotten the ‘shithead’ vibe from him as soon as he opened his mouth.”

  “Well, I appreciate that—”

  “And,” he said, slicing into my words, “now that I know you’ve got legal issues with Ed Roberts, we are going to put a rider on the contract that requires him to inform us if he is coming on premises so we can arrange to have you elsewhere, even if I have to send you down to Katz’s for a fucking sandwich.”

  He stood. “I hope you like corned beef.”

  “You don’t have to do that—”

  “I do, because you are one of the best investments I’ve made in years. Shut up, take the compliment and check on your boyfriend and the cats.”

  “He’s not my boyfriend.”

  Jerry stopped in the door. “Friends don’t make you smile at your crotch in meetings.”

  I knocked on the door. “Chase?”

  He whipped the door open, and his eyes were bright red. He’d clearly been crying. He had a small black kitten stuck to his shirt and a creamy beige one sitting on his shoulder.

  Chase looked fucking adorable.

  “I am so sorry,” I managed.

  Huffing angrily, he walked back into the kitchen to the left, and I guessed I was supposed to follow him.

  I clicked the door closed and found him mixing up more KMR for the furballs. Pollux was licking one of the others that was inside a box on the floor.

  He finally whirled around, holding the kittens to him and railed at me. “What the hell happened? You couldn’t even sneak out to send me a quick message? I could not handle being told this stupid cat we pulled out of a wall last night was dying of cancer and I had to make decisions—”

  I took his face in my hands and kissed him, hard. He tasted just as amazing as I remembered from the night before and it took only a moment for him to go from angry to pliant and slip his tongue along mine.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered over his lips. “I am. Shit went down at work, and I never meant to ignore you.”

  He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I was freaking out at the cancer diagnosis.”

  My lips quirked in a smile. “It’s going to be fine. I promise. We might not be able to treat her, but we’ll make her comfortable, okay?”

  He nodded. “Okay. Do you think we should bring her home and let her nurse the kittens?”

  “If she’s able to, yes, absolutely.”

  Chase slumped against the counter, picking up a third kitten and dropping her on his shoulder. “I just felt so bad that Mother Cat was so sick. She’s so sweet, Marcus. I’m going to keep her if I can.”

  “Good,” I answered. “If we can’t get her cured, she’ll have a lovely few months or years with you.” I picked up the creamy tabby from his arms. “We need to feed these fuzz buckets?”

  “Yes, they’re all hungry,” he said. “The vet said the KMR is good, but they can have a slurry to start weaning them. I can’t keep all of them…so I need to find homes for three of them.”

  He looked at me and sighed. “I’m sorry if I freaked you out. We only had barn cats growing up. If the kittens didn’t make it, they didn’t make it. We weren’t allowed to bring the cats in. Cats were for…”

  “I get it,” I said.

  “I hope I didn’t get you in trouble at work?”

  “Nah, not at all. That was the asshole rolling up from my nightmares.”

  Chase handed me a bottle and a cat, and motioned to the table, for me to sit. “Nightmares?” He grabbed two more bottles and sat at the table with me. Putting the kittens on the table, he quickly moved the bottles to where they could grab on to the nipples. “What nightmares?”

  “I…kinda don’t want to talk about it?” I cocked my head. “It took up too much of my headspace today and I’m done with it. The situation has been handled and it should be fine.”

  He nodded, but I could tell he wanted to know more. I had literally lost five hours to that shit and didn’t want to tell him the whole story. “Can we suffice to say that it happened in college and that’s why I’m not further in my career? And the cause of it all walked into my office this morning.”

  “Okay, yes, I don’t mean to pry. We’ve just been getting to know each other so well and this is the first time we’ve hit a wall.”

  I nodded and flipped my kitten over to rub his full tummy while he kept on drinking. “I know. Just give me time.”

  Chase nodded.

  “So. Tell me about MC?”

  CHASE

  I HAD CRIED ALL THE WAY BACK to the apartment after deciding not to make a decision on MC. I wanted someone, anyone, there with me to make the decision.

  My worst crime, to my father, was my soft spot. No good red-blooded American male should get upset over a dumb animal. Not even their own dog.

  And never ever ask what happened to the animals behind the barn.

  But here were these tiny little kittens and their kitty mama, handed a shit start to life and MC wound up with cancer. I immediately asked for the price on her care, to get her in remission or cured.

  However, the vet explained that was a worst-case scenario and there were many other possibilities. I trusted her care to him, and took the kittens home. They crawled all over me, looking for their mom, crying until I finally got the KMR mixed up.

  “How much do they know about her condition?” Marcus asked.

  “Just that there’s a mass by her spleen and her white blood count was through the roof,” I answered. “If you go with me tomorrow, we can figure out what I need to do.”

  “What we need to do,” he corrected. “I’m partly responsible for these guys. My dingbat dog found them, and we pulled them out of your wall together. If we pool our resources, we might be able to get a little bit further.”

  “You don’t—”

  Holding up his hand, he stopped me. “I want to help, Chase. They’re adorable an
d if MC is going to get a good home with you, then I’m happy to help.” He tickled the kitten on his lap until she hiccupped and burped.

  Marcus was seriously hot. It had freaked me out a bit the night before when I realized we’d somehow forged the connection I needed to start having feelings for him. It had been utterly effortless with him, and that he hadn’t realized we were doing it either was adorable.

  Once he’d left the night before, I realized he was right—I had needed time to process what I was feeling for him. It hadn’t been out of the blue, but that we allowed it to go that far all of a sudden was blowing my mind.

  The only thing I was used to feeling was horny with no real desire toward anyone person. Suddenly wanting Marcus overwhelmed me, but at the same time it was right. It was the first time in a long time that I’d felt a spark.

  More than a spark.

  Marcus was a good man, he was smart, and he was damn good-looking. I wanted to know more. I wanted a repeat of the carpet sex from last night.

  “We need to fix the hole in the wall,” I said, having no idea why my brain decided on that.

  “I know.” He nodded. “I’ll get the stuff from the hardware store tomorrow, either before or after the vet visit, and we’ll have it patched up quick.”

  I looked at the two kittens now wrestling on the table, and glanced at the one that Pollux had decided he was going to watch over in the box. “Are we still on for dinner?”

  “If you feel up to it.”

  I peered at him. “I feel more than up to it.”

  His smirk was delightful. He stood and put the little half asleep ball of fuzz in the box with her brother. “How about if we order in, and see what comes up.”

  Smirking back, I canted my head and stared him dead in the eye. “I know what’s going to come up. It’s going to be my cock. And I hope you have plans for that.”

  “Yes, duh?” He laughed. “Okay, then. I think maybe we should go out and get food. Because I have feeling that if we stay in, your sheets are going to be a sticky mess.”

  “I certainly hope so.” Oh, I forgot that sex-driven me had absolutely no filter.

  Marcus didn’t seem to be offended by that. He tossed his head back and laughed. “That’s a side I didn’t see before!”

  I rolled my eyes at myself. “I guess I should have warned you.”

  “Oh, no. No no. This is way more fun.” He looked at the kitten in the box. “He’s been fed?”

  “He was the first one,” I said. “Pollux, could you stop licking the kitten, please? It’s not a lollypop.”

  He plunked his ass down and stared up at me balefully. I shook my head. “I’ll say this, he’s an exceptionally smart dog. He actually listens. We only had barking idiots on the farm.”

  “Oh, he’s a barking idiot.” Marcus laughed. “After all he barked at the wall for weeks.”

  “Yeah, but he was barking at the kittens, so I’ll forgive him.”

  Marcus took the two milk drunk fuzz balls from my arms, placing them in the box. “Let’s go get something to eat. I need food, and you do too.”

  “I need sex.”

  He laughed, and cupped my chin. “Chase. Make no mistake, I want to sleep with you. But just because we’ve gotten to the point where your demi isn’t an obstacle, doesn’t mean we stop getting to know each other.”

  I hated that he made sense. I just wanted him to fuck me, and soon. It had been way too long since I’d been at this point.

  He brushed his lips over mine. “Trust me, Chase. You will not regret having dinner with me.”

  “Foodie foreplay?”

  Shaking his head ruefully, Marcus looked at me through his lashes. “Why do I have the feeling that I’m going to be really, really sore for work on Monday.”

  I clapped my hands like an overstimulated seal—I needed to get myself under control—and startled the kittens, who started crying for their mother. I felt terrible—for about a minute until Pollux, who looked distressed, climbed into the box and started licking all of them.

  “Christ, my dog is going to have a hairball.”

  Marcus picked an adorable restaurant just north of Washington Square. It was a little, higher end American fusion place I hadn’t realized was there, and they were open late. Which was necessary on a Friday night in New York City.

  Marcus didn’t even open the menu. “I’ve been coming here way too often after work for a to go order,” he admitted. “Now that things have settled in the office, I need to go back to buying and cooking my own food. Mr. Abramovich probably misses me and my hydrant-fouling beast.”

  “Mr. Abramovich hoses that thing off every day,” I answered. “Because your dog isn’t the only one peesseeng on it. He also hate when dogs takes sheets in front of his produce.”

  “And, he has the best produce,” Marcus said. “I can’t afford to keep eating out like this. At some point, my food budget is going to outpace my rent.”

  I nodded. “I’ve been trying to be good. Pollux has actually helped me. When you were working late and the poor guy needed out, I was always popping into Abramovich’s for some veggies and protein that I could whip together really fast. It’s been good.”

  Marcus grabbed my hand. “You have no idea how grateful I am that you were there and willing to walk him. I know Missy has the key, but she has a really bad knee and her walking him would have been too much for her.”

  “Eh, I like animals.” I raised an eyebrow. “Clearly demonstrated by my hysterics over a cat I’d pulled out of a wall less than twenty-four hours earlier.”

  The waiter poured some wine for us while Marcus laughed. “I’m not much better, you know. I can get pretty hysterical over some pretty dumb stuff.”

  I studied the light in the wine glass. “But I’ll bet you crying over a dead squirrel didn’t get you punished.”

  “Not ever.” He nodded. “My dad is a man’s man, but he’s not about that toxicity. I was raised to be as caring and careful as my sisters. And both of my sisters can beat the tar out of an attacker and change their own oil.”

  “Nice!” I said, toasting him.

  Tapping his glass against mine, we both took a sip. He nodded, clearly liking the wine.

  “Your dad?” he asked.

  It was easy to tell by the tone of his voice he knew it was a touchy subject. I stared at my glass, and tried to figure out how to approach that mess. “I’m not the prodigal son,” I said. “There would be no fatted calf if I showed up at the front door of their house. Mom keeps trying, but it’s not happening. Haven’t been home in twelve years. Don’t plan on changing that.”

  “Sounds like a plan.” He smiled, and toasted me.

  And just like that, I fell for Marcus Romano.

  I had already been falling. His patient, kind manner. His willingness to figure out why Pollux was nuts. His sincere apology when he couldn’t make it the night we shifted my apartment around. His fun, innocent, non-flirty texts. The nights we spent chatting and eating good or bad take out in the past week.

  He really got me. He could tell I wasn’t about to give him more than that for a moment in time. We didn’t need more than that right now. We were getting to know each other and there was time for deep philosophical questions about our families later.

  “Don’t you have an audiobook lined up soon?” I asked.

  “Oh, I had to ask the author to change the due date on one, because of that mess. But I’m almost caught up with my schedule and I can start on some new projects. I’m taking on a…” He looked around. “Cishet straight romance.”

  I stage-gasped, “No!”

  “Right?” He waggled his eyebrows. “It’s a deliciously filthy BDSM story, though, and I had trouble getting through it without a cold shower.”

  “Did you take the shower?”

  “Yes, but it was warm and there was a lot of soap.”

  I nearly choked on the piece of bread I had just taken a bite of. After a moment to recover, I laughed and shook my head. “I though
t my newly awakened libido was going to be the problem tonight.”

  “I’m pretty much constant sexual innuendo if I’m in a good mood,” Marcus said. “It’s gotten me in trouble. In fact you almost got me in trouble today for smiling at my crotch during the meeting.”

  “Why…why were you smiling at your crotch?”

  “Because you were sitting there.”

  “Wait…”

  “My phone. Before things went bad, I had you perched on my dick so I could feel it when you texted me.”

  I nodded solemnly. “Better than a Fleshlight.”

  He choked on the wine this time. “Okay, I deserved that.”

  The whole meal was like that. Just innuendo after innuendo, and I hadn’t laughed that hard in a very long time. Marcus didn’t want anything more than for us to eat and get to know each other a little more. It was a relief in a way, because even though I desperately wanted in his pants, he wasn’t clawing after the demisexual gay man hoping for a lucky break.

  It was so hard to find people like Kieran and Marcus, and that one of them had a spark that attracted me was even better.

  Abramovich’s store was shut up tight by the time we headed back to the apartments. We headed up the stairs and into my apartment, to check on Pollux and the kittens. They were all sound asleep, but it had been nearly five hours since their last feeding and we had to wake them up.

  “I’ll take Pollux out for a short walk, and you get all the KMR mixed up. I’ll come back and help you feed them,” Marcus said, grabbing the dog’s leash from the back of the front door.

  And sure enough, just about the time I had finished with the formula, he walked back in and the bottles were ready.

  “That was a really short walk,” I said.

  “He just needs to stretch his legs, maybe leave me something I have to scoop and that’s about it. He’s good about dark means in.”

  I picked up two of the kittens and handed them to him, then put all four bottles on the table. I picked up the other two kittens and a blanket and got everything arranged to get them on the nipples.

  These little balls of fur were too adorable for me. That they were living in a wall with their mother just blew my mind. I wondered how they got in there, and how they would have gotten out. I was happy they were all in good health and that I could help their mother in whatever way I could.