“Please hear me out, Kim.” His gut clenched when she opened her door and didn’t reply. “At least let me apologize?”
Finally she paused and shook her head. “If that’s the only reason you’re here, then fine. You’ve apologized. You can now feel better about yourself, put your guilty conscience at ease, and go back to chasing skirts.”
He flinched, unable to deny the low blow hadn’t been deserved.
“That’s not the only reason I’m here.” Frustrated that she wouldn’t turn around, he rasped, “Look, will you at least look at me?”
Her shoulders went stiff before she slowly turned to face him. Her chin was high and her lips were pursed. It was the unshed tears glittering in her eyes that damn near broke him.
His heart clenched and he took another step toward her. “I’m sorry. So damn sorry I didn’t contact you. But not calling women the morning after is what I do.”
She gave a disbelieving laugh and her gaze hardened.
“I’m a good guy, Kim, anyone will vouch for that. But I’m shitty with women.” He paused. “Unfortunately, they’ll vouch for that too.”
“This is like the worst apology ever. Can I please leave?”
“Not yet.” He took another step, until they were just inches apart. “It was different this time, though, because I wanted to call you. Everyday. To text you. To have some kind of communication with you.”
“Then why the hell didn’t you?” Each grated word she issued hit him like a knife in the stomach.
“I was scared. So damn scared after I told you I loved you.” He reached out to touch her cheek with unsteady hands. “I’ve never told any woman besides my mom that I loved her.”
She swallowed visibly. “Well it’s not as if you meant it. It was during sex. That practically strikes it from the record.”
“The thing is, I’m not sure there wasn’t some truth to it.” He lifted his other hand to her cheek, cradling her face and waiting for her to pull away. She didn’t. “I know we barely know each other, but I want to change that. I want a second chance.”
She shook her head. “That’s a helluva request.”
“I know it is. But I want to get to know every little thing about you. To prove to myself, to you, to the whole damn world, that this notion of loving you so fast isn’t just a fluke.”
He brushed his thumb over her trembling bottom lip. “If we need to put in a required amount of days before it makes it okay for me to say I love you, then fine. But please, look beyond the fact that I was a panicked asshole and give us a chance.”
Her gaze searched his, and he saw the hope there, the flicker in her eyes that said maybe he wasn’t the only one who’d felt like they were falling in love.
“Just...don’t hurt me again,” she whispered brokenly.
Relief nearly crushed him and he groaned with relief before lowering his head to kiss her. To convey his apology and how he felt about her without words.
Her arms slid around his neck and she stood on her tiptoes. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her flush against him. The warmth of her soft body was a balm to the need to have her in his arms again.
He lifted his head and stared down at her, the taste of her minty mouth still on his tongue.
“I don’t care how crazy it is, I still think I might love you,” he muttered. “And you’re just going to have to put up with my crazy notion and accept it.”
She gave a soft laugh. “I think I can handle that. But I might have a favor to ask of you in return...”
***
Lucas watched Kim move about the condo, setting up finishing touches on the engagement party they were throwing for his fellow firefighter Shannon, who’d just gotten proposed to by her boyfriend over the Fourth of July weekend.
He’d loved having Kim in the house for the past six months, and hadn’t even flinched when she’d asked if she could move in for a few weeks while she searched for an apartment.
She’d moved in and he’d convinced her to stop looking for an apartment, and to stay. He loved having her here. They were well suited in and out of the bedroom. And he knew the love thing wasn’t a fluke. He hadn’t stopped saying it, and didn’t plan on doing so anytime soon.
“The place looks great, Kim. You can relax for a bit.” He caught her arm as she made to rush by him.
“Thanks, baby, I just need to check on the crockpot meatballs.” She didn’t pull away though, and leaned up to kiss him on the lips. “Can’t wait to get you alone tonight.”
He held her when she tried to flee and kissed her deeper, until she went soft in his arms and kissed him back.
“Love you,” he whispered.
“I love you too.” She sighed and started to kiss him again, and then shook her head. “Meatballs. Must check the meatballs.”
He watched her scurry back into the kitchen and smiled. His mind shifted to his dresser drawer upstairs and the ring he’d picked out a few days ago. He wanted Kim as his wife. As the mother of his kids. He just wanted everything with her, and the sooner the better. But Shannon had gotten proposed to before Lucas could ask Kim, and he wasn’t about to steal his co-worker’s thunder.
“Meatballs are awesome,” she shouted from the kitchen.
He’d propose in the next few weeks. Already had the perfect romantic scenario involved.
As Shannon and her fiancé Russ arrived, he let them in with a smile, shaking hands and giving hugs of congratulations.
He caught Kim’s eye across the room and they exchanged an intimate, tender and silent moment. Without a doubt, he knew she’d say yes.
And that day couldn’t come soon enough.
The End
About the Author
Shelli is a New York Times Bestselling Author who read her first romance novel when she snatched it off her mother’s bookshelf at the age of eleven. One taste and she was forever hooked. It wasn’t until many years later that she decided to pursue writing stories of her own. By then she’d acknowledged the voices in her head didn’t make her crazy, they made her a writer. Shelli currently lives in the Pacific Northwest with her daughter where she writes various genres of romance. She’s a compulsive volunteer, and has been known to spontaneously burst into song.
www.shellistevens.com
Cougar’s First Christmas
by Jessie Donovan
Sean wants to mate his human girlfriend, Lauren, but on the way to obtain her parents’ approval, a car runs them off the road. Now, he must fight the anti-shifter group for his freedom or risk losing both his mate-to-be and his life.
Chapter One
Sean Fisher was putting the last few sprinkles on his slightly burnt, reindeer-shaped sugar cookies when his cell phone went off. He looked at the screen, saw it was his older sister, Danika, and clicked receive. “Hey, kitty cat, what’s up?”
His sister growled over the line. “I’ll make sure to call you kitten every chance I get if you ever let me meet your human girlfriend.”
Sean glanced at the clock. “Introducing Lauren to a group of cougar-shifters is bad enough. Introducing her to you is like a nightmare.”
“Hey, if she can’t stand up to me, she doesn’t deserve my baby brother. The Fisher family protects its own.”
Despite having heard his sister say that sentence ten thousand times before, he still smiled. “Is there a reason you’re calling? I have special plans for my female tonight, and you’re kind of taking away time from my awesome preparations.”
“I’m calling because I just heard through the grapevine about you meeting the human’s parents tomorrow. Are you sure that’s a smart idea? If this isn’t serious, Sean, then don’t risk both yourself and this Lauren woman, especially since Human Purity is looking for targets in the Seattle area.”
Of course his sister had heard about his plans. Danika Fisher kept the pulse of the clan to such a degree he wouldn’t be surprised if she knew everyone’s darkest secrets.
Still, her concerns about Human Purity wer
e valid. They were a group of religious and secular protesters who believed humans and shifters should be segregated. “Look, Dani, I’m twenty-five years old and I can take care of myself. You’re the one who trained me as a teenager, after all. So unless you doubt your own skills, trust me for once.”
“It’s not a matter of trusting you, Sean. They’re starting to kidnap shifters and make videos showing their torture and killings. One cougar-shifter doesn’t stand a chance against a gang from Purity armed with tranquilizers.”
“Of course I know that, Dani, but meeting her family tomorrow is important. I love Lauren Spencer with every cell in my body, and I want her to be my mate.”
He hadn’t meant for that secret to come out, but there it was.
The line went silent for a few seconds. Then Dani said, “Matings and marriages between shifters and humans are illegal, little brother.”
He turned away from the sugar cookies on the kitchen counter and clenched his free hand. “I don’t care. She’s mine, and if I have to wait ten years for the law to change in order to make it official, then so be it.”
“If that’s what you want, then go for it. Just don’t expect me to be all sugary nice when I first meet her. If she runs from me, then she’s not worth the trouble or possible jail time, Sean.”
While he was ninety-eight percent sure Lauren would do just fine with his sister and his clan, he wasn’t about to let his sister know there was any doubt at all. “We’ll see if you don’t end up running from her. After all, she knows the correct dosages to knock a shifter unconscious before she pulls out all your teeth.”
His sister snorted. “Only you could make being a dental student sound scary.”
Smiling, Sean glanced to the clock. “I really need to go, Dani. Lauren will be here any minute. I’ll call you after the Winter Celebration.”
“Just be extra careful, Sean. And give a growl in greeting to your female.”
He gave his sister a growl. “I threw it back at you instead. Bye, Dani.”
He tossed the phone aside. His sister’s warnings were valid, but Lauren’s parents only lived about an hour from Seattle, in a city called Lakewood. Since they would be on I-5, the major freeway, almost the entire time, they would be fine.
Pushing his sister’s worries aside, he took one last look around his small apartment to make sure everything was ready. Presents were wrapped under his very first, and somewhat lopsided, Christmas tree. Lauren’s fuzzy, red and white stocking, which held his most important gift, was atop the coffee table since he didn’t have a fireplace. Lights danced around the ceiling, reflecting off the glass snowflakes he’d found today at the last minute. And finally, his sugar cookies, made from a box mix, were decorated and waiting.
To him, it looked more like a Christmas bomb had exploded inside his apartment, but Lauren would like it.
Over the last six months, his female had done so much to accept his shifter ways, such as accepting him in cat-form and allowing him to scent-mark her apartment. So this was his way of trying to accept her human traditions. After all, shifters didn’t celebrate Christmas, but rather held a winter celebration instead.
Since he fully intended to have Lauren as his mate, he needed to prove to her that he could make her happy. Giving her a great Christmas, her favorite holiday, was only the start.
Meeting her family tomorrow was just as important since it would allow her to see what she was getting into. Lauren was close to her family, and it would tear her apart if they didn’t accept him.
His inner cougar growled at his uncertainty. It will be fine. She is ours. She is strong.
Pacing the living room, he realized his cougar was right. Over the last six months, they’d faced death threats and censure everywhere they went. Hell, just being his girlfriend and spending the night at his apartment could get her arrested.
Lauren wasn’t a weak human. No, she had a hidden strength that both man and cougar admired.
Still, he was nervous. If tomorrow didn’t go well and her family rejected him, she might leave him.
Stop it, asshole. Everything would be fine. His little human loved him, and damn it, he would try his best to ensure they had a future together.
***
Lauren Spencer pulled into the parking lot of Sean’s apartment building and turned off the ignition. Glancing at the rearview mirror, she waited to see if the blue sedan that had been tailing her from the university would pull in after her. She counted to sixty, but no other cars pulled into the lot. She brushed off the car as coincidence.
Being paranoid sucked big-time, but her choice of boyfriend made her the target of some very dangerous people, such as Human Purity. And Purity had a hatred of shifters unlike anything since the Nazi’s hatred of the Jews in World War II.
Not that she would trade Sean for anything. Just thinking about her boyfriend in his beautiful tan-furred and blue-eyed cougar form as she stroked his back, or the way he loved to nuzzle her neck while in human form before he kissed her, warmed Lauren’s heart. How her blabbing during his emergency visit to her dental school six months ago, and asking to see his feline teeth no less, had led to this point in her life, she didn’t know. But she had no regrets, and tomorrow she looked forward to finally introducing Sean to her parents and brother.
Realizing tomorrow was Christmas Eve, Lauren’s thoughts about Human Purity vanished, and she felt a rush of giddiness. Ever since she’d been a child, Lauren had loved Christmas. Not because of receiving presents or stuffing her face at Christmas dinner, but because of the gathering of the family and all of their crazy traditions. No doubt her mother would have the same fifteen different types of cookies she made every year stashed in the freezer, off limits to everyone until Christmas Day. Not even her shifter boyfriend would be able to sneak one past her mother’s careful watch.
She only hoped her mother liked Sean. If he were human, she’d be fine with it even though Sean was white and she was black, but shifters were a whole other group. Not everyone approved of their animal sides and believed them little better than beasts to be tamed.
Stop it, Lauren. Mom will love him like you do. Holding that thought close, Lauren exited the car with her duffel bag in hand, ascended the stairs to Sean’s third floor apartment, and knocked.
A small part of her wished she had a key, but a key to a shifter’s apartment could land her in jail. After all, they weren’t legally supposed to live together. Some cops would look the other way, but Sean hadn’t wanted to risk it. As such, they only spent the night together on special occasions, like tonight.
And she intended to make it count.
The lock clicked and Sean’s head poked through the opening. Instead of inviting her in, he grinned at her, and she instantly grew suspicious. “Okay, what are you hiding?”
His look turned to one of mock innocence. “Who says I’m hiding anything?”
She poked his nose with her forefinger. “I know you, Sean Fisher, and you’re hiding something. If you don’t let me in, I’ll just find somewhere else to sleep tonight and you’ll miss out on my two Christmas presents for you.”
“Presents?”
She couldn’t help but smile as his cougar’s curiosity shined out of his eyes. “Yep, both are one of a kind and are Lauren Spencer originals.”
He started to open the door but then stopped as he shook his head. “No, I want to give you my surprise first since it’s all set up. The instant you come inside, the surprise will be ruined. Close your eyes and I’ll guide you. Then you can give me yours afterward.”
Her heart skipped a few beats. She teased Sean for loving surprises, but she was no different.
Still, she knew her cougar-shifter well enough to clarify a few things. “This surprise doesn’t involve a white coat, handcuffs, and a vibrator does it?”
Laughing, he held out a hand to her. “No, not this time. Now, give me your hand, baby. It’s killing me to have you here and not show you my surprise.”
Placing her hand in
his, she grinned. “Well, someone has to keep your silly-ass antics in check.”
Sean squeezed her hand and his touch sent a little thrill through her body. His hands were large and warm, and could be very naughty when the man put his mind to it.
Just last night, those fingers had made her come twice before he’d even thrust his cock inside her.
A whistle shattered her memory of last night’s steamy sex. The instant she met his gaze again, Sean’s eyes flashed cougar blue. His voice was low and husky when he said, “Whatever you’re thinking about, stop it. If you become any wetter, I won’t be able to focus long enough to do this properly.”
Of course. She should know by now that Sean could scent when she was aroused. Although, she wasn’t quite sure she’d call it a drawback...
She banished the images of Sean and his thick, naughty fingers and closed her eyes. “Okay, I’m ready. The sooner you give me my surprise, the sooner I can give you yours.”
She heard a grunt, and then felt Sean tug her forward as he placed a hand on her lower back. After taking a few awkward steps, Sean moved his hand from her back to her neck and squeezed lightly. “Open your eyes, Lauren.”
As soon as she opened her eyes, Lauren gasped. Sean’s entire apartment was decked out for Christmas.
On the far side of the room, the lopsided Christmas tree was adorable, as was the haphazard way he’d hung the ornaments and the garland. Lights lined the ceiling, flashing in some kind of pattern that sparkled off the glass snowflakes hanging nearby. There were even two giant, red stockings laying on the coffee table next to a stuffed Christmas bear. The plate of slightly burnt cookies in the shape of reindeers made her heart squeeze; Sean didn’t cook often, but he’d attempted to make cookies for her.
Sean’s voice filled her ears. “Well? How did I do?”
Turning back toward him, she said, “Oh, Sean. It’s amazing.”
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