Seducing Samantha

by R. E. Butler

  He said goodbye and got into his squad car parked on the street. When she started her car again, he waved to her to pull out ahead of him, and she was touched by his concern that she get out of the ice-filled parking lot safely.

  He followed her for several blocks before turning a different direction. She headed home, her mind a jumble.

  As she let herself into her one-bedroom apartment, she started to laugh. Aaron had said she was beautiful. Grant had been more of a gentleman to her in ten minutes than any other man she’d ever dated. And she already knew that Aaron was a good father because Ben spoke so highly of him.

  Well, she didn’t really know what to do about her two potential dates, but she did know one thing: she wanted to get to know the two sexy brothers better. Her stomach fluttered as she thought about their sexy smiles, muscular builds, and big hands.

  Was there any harm in going out on first dates with both men? Well, as long as they were okay with it, maybe she could be, too. And in the process, she might figure out which one she’d like to see more. The thought of one of them leaving her suddenly made her feel very cold, and she hopped into her hot shower to warm up, not sure what to make of the very strange feelings she was developing so quickly for the two alluring Fallon men.

  Chapter 2

  Grant took the stairs three at a time to the second floor of the boarding house he shared with his extended family, almost mowing down his tawny-headed son, Brian, in the process. Catching him before he hit the wood stairs and got hurt, Grant swung Brian up over his shoulder and carried him upstairs.

  “Daddy!” Brian laughed, a giggling, infectious laugh that filled Grant’s heart with love.

  “Almost got away from me,” he said as he opened the door to his bedroom on the second floor and tossed Brian onto the large bed. Brian bounced once with another laugh and said, “You’re home early. I thought you were going to help Uncle Rhett?”

  Grant worked on his older brother Rhett’s farm in Ashland. While there wasn’t field work to do in the winter, there was always something that needed to be repaired or looked at. Right now, he was helping Rhett build a new utility barn.

  He tossed his jacket on the chair in the corner. “I’ve got a date tonight, B.”

  His oldest son Kevin, who was now ten, came running from the bedroom across the hall that he shared with Brian. “Did you say you have a date? With a real woman?”

  He laughed. Ruffling Kevin’s dark hair, he chucked him under the chin. “You bet, pal. She’s a teacher at your school. Miss Thomas?”

  Brian’s eyes went wide. “Oh, she’s pretty, Daddy. Do you think you’ll marry her?”

  He’d known that when he told them he had a date, they would jump to conclusions, but he couldn’t help but enjoy that little glimmer of hope that was shining in his own mind about Sam. He felt something when he saw her, as if his mountain lion were awakening for the first time. He’d been out on a couple of dates since they had left the pride and their hometown of King, Pennsylvania, but he’d never been so affected by a woman as he had with Sam. He was completely captivated and nearly struck dumb at the sight of her. Fortunately, his mouth had worked even though his brain had completely stalled out, and he’d managed to get her number and ask her on a date.

  He sat down on the bed and put his arm around Brian. “Now listen, guys, it doesn’t happen like that. This is just our first date. I want you to promise me that you’ll act respectfully towards her at school, no matter what happens.”

  “Promise, Daddy,” they both answered. Kevin, the more serious of the two, looked thoughtful and said, “You look happy, Dad. You should wear the black sweater that Aunt Lisa got you for Christmas.”

  He pulled his son in for a quick hug and kissed the top of his head. “Thanks, Son. You two head out, I’m going to get ready.”

  He watched his sons leave, shutting the door behind them, and went to the closet to find the sweater they were talking about. He pulled it free, pairing it with dress slacks, and laid the clothes on the bed while he went to shower.

  He’d grown up in a mountain lion pride in the small mountain town of King, and he’d spent his entire life there. Their kind was different among shifter groups in that the males and females didn’t form lasting bonds. The females were cold and emotionless to the point of cruelty. They were willing to mate to have children with the males, but they were unwilling to have any sort of relationship or familiarity with the males they bred children with. And they refused to acknowledge the children they bore.

  No one knew why the females were that way. The males had always picked up the slack for the nurturing the children were missing from their lives. When a male was ready to become a father, he approached the female of his choice. When she carried the cub to full term, she signed her parental rights away and never paid attention to the child again. When he was twenty-three, he began to wish he could have a family of his own, but the females refused to allow the males to pursue relationships with humans or other were-groups. The females would attack the other women and drive them away. He knew he was facing becoming a single-parent, but the support of the males in his pride would help to fill in the gaps.

  What he hadn’t counted on, when Kevin was born that next year, was that he would yearn even more for a female to love, to share the love that he felt was overflowing from his own heart. Even though he knew it was fruitless, he asked Paula, the mother of both Kevin and Brian, if she would become his permanent mate, and she had laughed in his face. Now, she was … who knew where?

  Callie, married to his twin nephews Ethan and Eryx, was a werewolf and had come crashing into their lives when they still lived in King. The boys knew she was meant to be their mate, and after convincing her to take both of them as her mates, they had spent weeks protecting her from the females’ attacks before finally moving away. It had only taken a month before the rest of their family joined them. Grant had been thrilled to leave King behind because Ashland became the potential for a whole new world for their kind. Not too long ago, the females who had all stayed on in King had attacked the human girlfriend of one of the male pride members and she killed two of them when they tried to kill her. The females had scattered, including Grant’s niece Jilly who was just now sixteen. Her father, John, was beside himself with worry over where she was, but he’d known that she would walk away from the family at sixteen when she was able to shift into her mountain lion form. For some unknown reason, when they were young, the females became detached from everyone except the other females, and it was heartbreaking and devastating for the males.

  He shook his head free of the dark thoughts as he finished shaving and turned his thoughts to Sam. Man, she was a stunner. More than a half foot shorter than him, she had long hair like spun gold that reached just past her shoulders, wide blue eyes, and a delicate, lovely face. And that body with those dangerous curves … he was a goner.

  But more than that, he knew, was that he already felt connected to her on a level he hadn’t expected. His fingers still tingled from where they had touched; his hand remembered the weight of her elbow as he made sure she didn’t slip in the parking lot.

  “Grant?” He was jerked from his lusty thoughts by his brother Aaron. At thirty-seven, Aaron had three children and was three years older than Grant.

  “In here.” He rinsed and dried his face, checking his reflection in the mirror that he had done a good job.

  Aaron, wearing his black sheriff’s deputy uniform, leaned against the door jam and folded his arms. He wore a smile, but there was a hint of worry in his eyes.

  Turning, Grant leaned against the counter. “What’s up?”

  “First, I wanted to thank you for picking up Ben.”

  “It was no trouble.”

  “And second,” he paused, clearing his throat, “I wanted to tell you that I met a woman today and asked her out on a date.”

  “Yeah?” Grant grinned. “That’s great!”

  “It’s Sam, Grant.”

  Grant paused
in the congratulatory hug he was about to bestow on his brother. While Grant had been on a few dates, Aaron had not.

  Before Grant could think on the significance of what Aaron told him, he continued, “Apparently my boys schemed together for Ben to miss the bus and wait for Sam to leave school and ask her for help so that I would show up to get him and meet her. When you showed up instead, Ben was devastated. I had no idea about the setup, and it was just a coincidence that on her way home from school her car got stuck pulling into the gas station, and I happened to be driving by and called a tow for her.”

  As Aaron paused in his story, Grant felt the blood drain from his face. He loved his brother and he wanted him to be happy, but not as his own expense. “I feel connected to her, Aaron. Me and my cat.”

  Aaron’s brow furrowed slightly. “I do, too, Grant. When she told me that she already had a date with you, I told her I wanted to take her out, too, and left it up to her. She hasn’t called me yet, but I think she will. I think she felt a connection to me, too.”

  Grant put his hands on the counter behind him and frowned in thought. “It’s like my cat is prowling in my mind to get close to her. It reminds me of what Ethan and Eryx said they felt when they first met Callie.”

  Aaron nodded, his rigid posture relaxing some. Grant realized that he’d probably expected him to argue, and at first, he would have. But now, knowing that Aaron felt a primal connection to Sam, he couldn’t ignore that it was entirely possible that they were both drawn to the same woman. “Would it be possible for us to share a mate, like Ethan and Eryx do? Do you think our cats would do that?”

  “I think anything’s possible now that we’re free of the females. In all honesty, I came in here tonight to warn you not to get too attached to her because I expected our date tomorrow night to prove that she was meant to be my mate. Now, knowing that you feel the same, I’m not really sure what to do.”

  “She’s human, though. And humans can be twitchy about things with weres. I don’t even know if she knows we’re lions,” Grant said and moved past his brother to grab his clothes.

  He heard the bed creak slightly as Aaron sat down on the edge. “You go out tonight with her. I’ll go out with her tomorrow night, and we’ll see where that leaves us. Maybe I made a mistake, or maybe you did. She’s gorgeous, and any man would want her.”

  Grant slipped the sweater over his head and turned to his brother, feeling a sudden sense of camaraderie he hadn’t experienced before. His lion purred in agreement in his head, and he knew then that either they would both have her together, or neither of them would.

  “I don’t think we made a mistake, Aaron.”

  Relief washed over his face, and Grant caught just the hint of shining hope in Aaron’s blue eyes that he knew was in his own. “Thanks, brother.”

  Glancing at the clock, he knew he needed to get going so he wasn’t late for this very important first date. “I’ll see you when I get home.” Before Aaron walked away Grant said, “Is Ben okay?”

  Aaron smiled and said, “He’s cautiously optimistic. I think the possibility of maybe finally having a woman love him is more than he dares to dream about.”

  Grant knew his own boys were feeling the same.

  As Grant left to pick up Sam for their date, he felt like all was right in their world. A fix-up attempt by his nephew had turned into him and his brother finding a mate to share. Before Ethan and Eryx had mated their wife Callie, he had never considered sharing as a lifestyle, but when it worked, it worked.

  He tucked the small rosebud inside his jacket to protect it from the cold and climbed the steps to the second floor of the two-story apartment building. Taking the rosebud out of his jacket, he knocked on her door, hearing the click of heels on tile just a moment before the door opened and his perfect, blonde goddess stood in the open door.

  She stood before him in a violet sweater that hung off one shoulder and a slinky, short black skirt. Her hair was curled, and her blue eyes seemed larger and darker somehow, but what he noticed right away was that her pretty, peach and pink mouth was curved downward into a frown.

  Confusion sparked in him, but it lasted for only a moment until she reached her hand out and touched his cheek. His cat growled happily in his mind, and the sound spilled from his throat before he could stop it.

  “I can’t do it,” she murmured, almost so low he didn’t catch it.

  Grasping her hand to his cheek, he rasped, “Do what, sweetheart?”

  “I can’t tell you no, either.”

  He knew she was talking about Aaron. He eased inside her apartment, brushing against her body as he did, before shutting the door. He meant to tell her that he and Aaron had already talked. He meant to tell her that he was a mountain lion. And he definitely meant to tell her that he wanted her to be his forever, to be theirs forever. But all he could do was wrap his arms around her and pull her against his body, crush her lush curves against his hard muscles and lower his mouth to hers. The rose fell to the floor, forgotten.

  Electricity coursed over him as their mouths met, hers parting on a sigh that sounded like she’d been waiting for the kiss as long as he had. Tongues touched, danced, tasted. His fingers slid under the edge of her sweater to touch her back, feeling the hot satin of her skin under his rough hand. She whimpered in her throat, her hands sliding from the tight hold she had on his arms up his shoulders to his neck, where she fisted the short, dark hair on his head and drew him even closer.

  Her hips angled, brushing against his erection, and he groaned, reaching behind her blindly until he felt the wall and braced himself on it. Shivering, she stroked her tongue into his mouth, and they tasted each other until his body throbbed and his skin felt like it would melt from his bones.

  “Oh, Grant,” she moaned, her nails scraping against his skull.

  He reined in his cat and his raging libido, but only by a thin margin. He loved to hear his name on her lips. And he’d love to hear it screamed to the sky when she fell apart in his arms.

  “Sam, Sam,” he whispered, pulling her against his chest with both arms, “my beautiful Sam.”

  She stiffened, and he eased away from her, still holding her but allowing him to see her face. She looked stricken, almost ill. Once more he remembered what needed to be said.

  Without a word, he led her to the couch in the main room and sat next to her. “Go ahead, sweetheart, tell me what’s on your mind.”

  Without any further prompting, she spilled the story that he already knew, how she’d met his brother earlier and how he’d asked her for a date. What he and Aaron didn’t know was that she’d spent the rest of the afternoon torn in half, trying to decide if she should go out with him or Aaron. He felt sorry that she’d been so torn up, but the fact that she hadn’t been able to make a decision even after just a few short hours and nothing more than a handshake between them all gave him another shot of assurance that they were really meant to be together.

  She buried her head in her hands and took a trembling breath. She lifted eyes that were bright with unshed tears and said, “You smell so good, Grant, and I want you so badly that I think I might burst into flames right now on this couch and take the whole apartment complex with me. But it’s not right. It can’t be right.”

  Brushing a strand of her golden hair from her shoulder, he smiled reassuringly. “What’s not right, sweetheart?”

  “To want the two of you so much, so quickly.” She shivered. “I can’t come between you. And you both have kids for goodness sakes!”

  He couldn’t help but fall in love with her a little bit right then. She looked like a cross between a vixen and a sinner waiting for confession. Sexy as hell … guilty as hell.

  Stroking her hand gently, he told her about his conversation with Aaron, and more importantly about their mountain-lion natures. He shared the electric connection he felt to her, the way his beast was reacting, and that they had both decided to see how things went after their dates.

  She listened quietly
to everything he said. She hadn’t been disgusted or afraid to learn that they were mountain lions, which was the way some humans reacted. Ashland was an almost entirely human town until their pride showed up, and there were some residents — not many — who looked at the lions as if they were more animal than human.

  “That’s not going to work,” she said finally.

  His heart stopped beating for what felt like a full minute and then cracked, hard. He’d never felt such loss so quickly in his life. His lion roared in his mind. He couldn’t even form words to express how he felt.

  Finally, just because he had to know before his head exploded, he managed, “Why?”

  “Because we’re not leaving, so this isn’t going to be a first date. Not one with clothes, anyhow.” Her mouth curved up into stunning smile, and his lion sat down in his mind with a confused whimper.

  She leaned forward, walking her fingers up his chest and hooking them behind his neck. “I don’t know what’s going on between us, Grant, but I’m so hot I’m going to melt and I just … I just want to make love to you right now. Will you take me to bed?”

  That may very well have been the most important question that any woman had ever asked any man, and Grant felt supremely lucky to have been the one asked. Cupping her face with his hands, he stroked her cheeks with his thumbs and pulled her to him. He wanted to say something incredibly romantic. He wanted to say something, anything at all, but all conscious thought fled from his mind.

  Scooping her up in his arms, he stood from the couch and followed her pointing hand towards her bedroom. He set her on her feet in her room as their mouths met once more, and she shoved his coat off his shoulders. Her fingers were trembling as she raised the edge of his sweater, and he picked them up with his hands and kissed her fingertips and then pulled his sweater over his head.

  Her mouth fell open in pleased surprise, and she brushed her fingers across his pecs, seemingly mesmerized, and the scent of her arousal heated the air around them. Pride wove through him, that his body was turning her on so much so quickly.