by Terry Spear
"I bet he's lost," Ted said, smiling. "Ricky always adds a bit of fun to every adventure. I guess his stint at the haunted house is over."
“You didn’t sign up for that?” Stella asked.
“Are you kidding? I’m on a date.”
She was glad Ted felt that way with her because seeing everything at the party wouldn’t have been the same without him.
When they found the wicked witch of the north, they laughed. Only her black boots and green and black striped stockings were showing under a big bale of hay. And the ruby slippers were sitting on top of the haystack. Stella had to hold them up to show she was Dorothy, and the ruby slippers were hers. After Ted took a picture of them, they finally found their way out of the maze and saw a woman hurrying after Ricky, the cougar, carrying his clothes.
"That's Ricky’s wife, Mandy, and she's a nurse at the clinic, if you recall seeing her."
"I do and she’s pregnant, so no jumping over the cornstalks looking for an easy way out of the maze for her if that’s what had happened," Stella said.
Then Ricky and Mandy went into the ranch house and Stella figured he was shifting and getting dressed in there.
Sheriff Dan was standing nearby and said, “Mandy and Ricky got turned around in the maze, she was telling me. She told Ricky to shift and find a way out for them because she was getting hungry, but by the time he leaped out of the corn maze, she had already found the exit.”
Stella and Ted laughed.
Then Dan tipped his Stetson and hurried off to join his deputy sheriff wife, Addie, and their kids.
"This has been so much fun, Ted. I've really had a ball," Stella said.
“I’m glad you’re enjoying it. Just so you know, Kolby is staying with his brother and Mandy in town for the weekend. The other two ranch hands are staying up at the main house in one of the guest rooms.”
Stella was glad that she and Ted would have the bunkhouse to themselves this weekend and was thankful to everyone who had made that possible.
"Are you ready for a hayride?" Ted asked her, offering to help her up onto the wagon.
"Yeah, I am." With her big flouncy skirt, she truly felt like a princess.
He climbed in after her, and with the wagon filled with partygoers, they took off for a long ride around a maze of haystacks and through the pumpkin patch filled with scarecrows.
"It must have taken forever to make all of the rest of those scarecrows," she said.
"Yeah, I even had the kids’ help, but you know little ones. After a while, they were done with the newness and off to chase each other around the maze."
"You did all the rest by yourself?" She would have loved to have helped him with the others.
"Kolby, Addie, Dan, Shannon, and Chase came and helped. It's all fun. The preparations, the actual party, and taking down everything, we do it as a big cougar family."
"Well, I might not have helped to set this up, but I'll certainly help you to take things down."
"You don’t have to, but any assistance will be appreciated. We'll have a big barbecue for everyone who helps. That's how we celebrate too. We make it fun."
She squeezed Ted’s hand, thinking about the situation when she was shot, even though she should have just been thoroughly enjoying the festivities and not been thinking about that, but she worried about it. "So what do we say about me parking my Jeep on the other side of the fence?"
"How about that you ran out of gas? They won't know any differently. We did have your Jeep towed. It was headed in the direction of the ranch.”
"If I ran out of gas, someone could have brought a portable gas can out to the Jeep, especially if I was coming to visit you all. Not only that, but I wasn't just parked off the side of the road, but way in on the old wagon road."
"You were afraid if anyone saw your Jeep on the road, it would be vandalized. It had some mechanical problem? And we had to have it towed? You thought you could make it on the old wagon road to the ranch, GPS messed you up maybe?"
"Oh, yeah, mechanical issue. That could work. Why I drove it off the main road was because I thought there could be a shortcut to the ranch, a gate, and I could call you and have you come tow the Jeep. Then when I reached the fence, my cell phone had no reception, or it had died on me and I didn’t have the charger with me, you know, just one of those days. And I had to climb over the fence and walk to the ranch. Then I thought you were in the barn, went in there, and before we could have my Jeep towed, the hunters were shooting at the barn, and I was hit."
"Sounds plausible, and we can practice the story. Really, you did a lot of that. Parked your Jeep at the fence, leaped over it, albeit as a cougar, and headed to the ranch, and hid in the barn. So except for a few human additions, that works."
"And the Jeep trouble?"
"Transmission issues. We'll have a mechanic in town verify he took care of your Jeep. And that's only if you have to say anything about that. They probably won't bring it up because obviously you weren't trespassing on the ranch land."
She smiled. "Not as a cougar."
"Right, and you were friends with us, so it wouldn't make sense that they'd mention it. But just in case, we'll have a story for them. Though I'm sure the prosecution will call the question irrelevant before you'd have to answer it."
"Okay, good, I'd rather not have to say anything about it at all."
"I agree. Even the smallest lies can get a person into trouble."
After the hayride, Larry Pierce came over to speak with them then, as if he thought it was the perfect opportunity. "I’m glad you’re coming to work for me.”
“I’m excited to get started and have the opportunity to work for you. I'll give my notice on Monday, and if you can wait for two weeks, I'll start working for you then," Stella said.
"You can’t know how pleased I am to hear it. That certainly works for me."
She exchanged phone numbers with him, and Larry gave her a handshake and she shook his hand back.
"When Ted came to see me about updating his will, I asked him how you were feeling after what had happened out at the ranch. He told me you were fine and that you were a paralegal and that set the ball rolling for me to hire you right away."
Stella slipped her arm around Ted's waist and squeezed. "I'm glad Ted talked to you about it and you wanted to hire me."
"See you in a couple of weeks then. I'm off to see my sister." Then Larry headed across the grounds.
"That's Yvonne Mueller, Larry's sister, and she's a former FBI agent and now a bank loan officer in Yuma Town. Her husband is also a former FBI agent and the bank president."
"That's so cool." Stella sighed. "I can't thank you enough for everything everyone has done for me here."
"It's just part of who we are. We see a cougar in need, and we do everything we can to help out."
And keep them there too? Which for her, worked out perfectly.
Chapter 13
Later that night after the Halloween activities ended, Ted and Stella ran with other cougars across the pastureland, and then when they returned, Ted and Stella said goodnight to everyone as families left with little ones and some of the mated couples still hung around visiting, but Stella was ready to call it a night with Ted. She'd been missing him and wanted to just chill out. Sure, tomorrow, she would help to clean up things, but she wanted to make love to Ted.
The two weeks she had left at work would go by quickly as she made plans to move, but still, she wished she'd already done it and she was here and staying and not returning.
She'd had so much fun and seeing Ted again made her realize that her thinking about him hadn't been just a euphoric delusion.
"I can't believe how much you've opened my world up to the cougar happenings, and how fun it has been," she said.
"I'm more than glad you're joining us for good. And me, especially."
Ted was thrilled that Stella was having such a delightful time with him at the Halloween festivities. He'd about knocked himself out trying to get everyt
hing ready, more than he had at any past event, wanting to thrill her and wanting her to come here to stay here. With him.
He couldn't thank Tracey enough for renovating the bunkhouse and making it a place that appealed to Stella too, enough so that she could stay there with him until they finalized other plans.
Once they were in his bedroom, that he was now seeing as their bedroom, he pulled off her cowgirl boots, glad she had picked them out for the dance, and they would be great for riding Celestina. He began to help Stella out of her long dress and smiled at the full slip she was wearing that had made her skirt have the fullness. Then she was all legs and bikini panties, not pantaloons like the ladies would have worn in the old days.
He pulled off her socks and then she helped him off with his boots. Then she was tackling his big buckle featuring a cougar, naturally, and once she'd unbuckled his belt, she slid his zipper down and he was so ready for her. Even dancing with her had turned him on, and he could have danced the night away with her.
She tugged his jeans down his hips, and he pulled them off the rest of the way. Socks were yanked off and tossed aside. Then he began kissing her again, his hands cupping her face, but she was still busy undressing him as if she couldn't wait to take this to the bed.
She was unbuttoning his vest and then pulling it off his shoulders and arms. Then she was working on the snaps on his western shirt, while he was kissing her again. He reached up and pulled her hair loose from the clip that was holding it on top of her head, letting the silky dark strands fall over her shoulders. He ran his fingers through the soft curls but had to relinquish the task when she started to unsnap the snaps on his long sleeves. First one, then the other.
Her bra was next to go, a pretty, blue lacy creation that hugged her breasts like he was about to do. Once he'd freed her of the lace, he placed his hands on her breasts and gently squeezed. She sighed against his mouth and he teased her tongue with his.
For a moment, they were caught up in the kiss, his hands on her buttocks, pulling her body closer and her hands on his face, as if she cherished him like he cherished her.
But then she slid her hands done his sides and reached for his waistband and pulled his boxer briefs down his legs until he could kick them aside. Then he was sliding her blue lace panties off her and ready to take this to the mattress. He lifted her up, her legs wrapping around him as he moved onto the bed. He was so eager to penetrate her slick sheath, but he needed to make sure she was just as ready for him as he was for her.
He began kissing her mouth again, loving her warmth and sweetness and softness. Loving her.
Stella was so ready to be Ted's one and only, just as she was ready for him to be her one true love. He was everything she had dreamed the perfect—well, not that everyone was perfect—but close to it—mate would be—with the added benefit? Her dream hero was a real cowboy. And man, did working on the ranch make him ripped in all the right places. She loved that about him, running her hands over his sculpted chest, feeling his biceps tightening as he swept his hand down her breast, her belly, and worked his way down to the area between her legs that was aching for his touch, his penetration.
He began to stroke her, tentatively at first, then firmer, faster while he watched her face, looking to see her response. She was lost in his touching her nub, the way he was working her, trying to bring her to pleasure, before he began kissing her again, as if satisfied he was doing it right. As if he was hitting the right erotic spot with enough vigor and determination to make sure he attended to her needs.
The intimacy between them escalated. She kissed him back more passionately, seeking and gaining entrance, stroking his tongue and pulling back, enticing him to do the same with her. And he obliged as if they already knew each other's every move. Their pheromones were all over the place, the musky smell of their sex encouraging them to take this further, to keep going, to not stop for anything.
As if he were stopping, or as if anyone would call on him to stop, she figured. This was their time and the way they conquered it would be the beginning of a beautiful relationship that had begun with pain and terror.
This was what she needed in her life. Him. A cougar who saw her as being beautiful, no matter what color fur she wore.
"I love you," he said against her mouth, his fingers still working the magic down below.
“I love you too.” She felt like she was climbing to the top of the cliffs, eager to crest them. To feel the exhilaration of Ted's touch. To see the world in a different way. She was sliding her hands over his body, feeling the heat against her fingertips, the muscles rippling with effort. He was beautiful on the outside, just as much as he was on the inside.
His scruffy whiskers brushed against her cheek as he nuzzled her, and then he was kissing her again, his blue eyes like pools of deep water, heavily lidded, his every enhanced cougar sense taking everything in like hers were. His erection was pressing against her leg, steel rod and ready for action and she was ready for him. Wet. Hot. Eager.
Just a little bit more and she would reach the top of the cliffs. Just a little bit more and—she cried out, the orgasm hitting her before she was ready and she smiled at him and he kissed her mouth, moving his hand to her breast and cupping it.
"Are you ready?" he asked, in a husky, turned-on way.
"Yeah, always." And that earned her one of his sexy smiles.
He pushed her legs aside and began to penetrate her with the tip of his weeping penis, and then he was in all the way, and then thrusting hard.
Oh, yes, this was what she had dreamed of at night. Being with Ted in the throes of passion, but it wasn't anything like the real thing—of feeling his body sliding against hers and his stiff erection plunging deep inside her. Or his fingers stroking her to climax first.
She breathed in his manly scent, tasted the sweet treats he'd eaten at the party on his tongue and mouth, felt the heavenly way his hand swept down her side and then brushed away a curl on her cheek and he kissed her there. He didn't ease up on thrusting into her as if he couldn't stop himself if he tried, and she didn't want him to. And then he was slowing and thrusting hard as if he was near the end.
"Oh, Stella, yeah," he said, exploding deep inside her, groaning out the words, "you are mine."
She smiled at him and hugged him close. "I'm not giving you up for anything, yet, there are a bunch of women at work who would switch places with me in a heartbeat."
He finally moved off her and he draped his arm across her chest, smiling at her, looking as satiated as she imagined she looked. "They would never fill your shoes."
"No one would ever fill your cowboy boots either." And they snuggled for a long time, just enjoying the aftermath of their lovemaking.
She realized by making love to him, telling him she loved him, and his telling her he loved her, everything had changed between them. Now, she was truly eager to resign her job.
It was finally time to just sleep, to dream about the changes in Ted’s life, the good changes that would last forever.
He was glad he'd found Stella to be his mate and that she'd felt the same way about him as he snuggled in bed with her for the rest of the night. He did think of all the chores the other guys would have to do without him while he was having a vacation of sorts with Stella, but this was important too and he wouldn't give this up for anything.
When he awoke in the morning, despite having felt her leg across his legs, or her arm across his chest, her head resting on his chest, as if she were afraid—like him—that the dream would end and they wouldn't be together, he realized she was here with him, perfectly happy like he was. He thought of getting up and starting their breakfast, the early riser that he was, but he couldn't move a muscle in that direction. He loved feeling her snuggling against him and didn't want to wake her. Usually, when he woke, he was out of bed in a flash, no two ways about it.
But with her, he had a damn good reason to stay in bed with her. Before he knew it, he had drifted off to sleep again, and this
time when he woke, she was smiling at him.
He chuckled. "I woke earlier and thought to get us some breakfast. But skipped that notion to cuddle with you longer."
"And fell back to sleep."
"Yeah, which proved to me I needed to stay in bed with you longer anyway."
"I've been awake for a while and thought to get up and make us breakfast, but I know you don't sleep late in the mornings and no way was I going to wake you because of it."
He smiled and leaned over and kissed her forehead. "Why don't we get up and have breakfast and go for a ride then?"
"Oh, yeah, I'd like that." But we need to clean up the Halloween stuff."
"Yeah, but not until a little later. Everyone will be getting up in a bit after having such a late night." But then he got a call from Hal and hoped it wasn’t work related.
“Hey, Ted, you know the offer still stands on the 150 acres. We have 800 acres. 650 is good enough for us. You carve out a section of land and build a house on it if you and Stella are heading in that direction," Hal said.
"Yeah, we are, and we're mated. We'd like a parcel of land down by the river, but high enough elevation that when we have floods, the house will be safe. You know the area I mean that I showed you before, if that's all right with you."
"Hell, yeah. You know in truth, having another home on the acreage will help to provide more eyes on the property. And more room at the bunkhouse for the two new hires we have."
"Thanks, Hal."
"Tracey and I wanted you to have it. Ever since you became part of our family, I've wanted to give you the acreage. Nothing's changed except you are mated and you need a homestead to call your own."
"Okay, well we sure appreciate it."
"Oh, and congratulations on the mating. I think you worked even faster at it than I did."
Ted laughed. "I thought you worked fast." Then they ended the call and Ted told Stella, "Hey, honey, we've got our own homestead."