by Marie Harte
Quince leaned down for a kiss, which changed from exploratory and lazy to deeper, more passionate.
And then his cell phone rang.
“Do you have to get that?” Joy asked between kisses.
“Probably.” He sighed and rolled over her to grab his phone.
“Well, hurry up. My pussy is hungry.”
“I love when you talk dirty.” He tensed when she gripped his semi-hard cock then stroked him. “Oh, man. I’m going to make you pay for that.”
“Can’t wait.”
“Hello?” he said into his cell, breathless. He wouldn’t have answered, except everyone knew not to bother him, only in case of an emergency. Miles’s and Joy’s orders.
“Hey big bro! Congrats. I heard you’ve taken over the pride.”
“Zoe?” He sat straighter and swallowed hard when Joy ran her hands down his shaft to cup his balls. “I was just talking about you.”
“All good, right?” She laughed. “Well, I’m coming home. And don’t worry about running the pride anymore. I’m ready to take over.”
“Take over?” He was losing his train of thought as Joy slithered down between his legs and followed her hands with her tongue.
“Yeah. I’ve learned all I needed. I’m prepared to run the pride now, just like Michael said I’d be.”
“Huh?” He silently groaned when Joy engulfed him. Definitely not time to be talking to anyone right now, let alone his sister. “Can’t talk.”
“Cat got your tongue, eh?” She chuckled. “Tell the guys I said hi. Can’t wait to see everyone again. I’ll be there in a few weeks. Mama too. Love you.”
She disconnected, but Quince couldn’t focus past the need to bury himself in his mate once more. “Oh my God. If I haven’t said it enough, I’ll say it again.” He groaned and ran his fingers through her hair as she laved him with her tongue. “Joy is great.”
Zoe, Esmeralda Castille’s pride and joy, turned to her and nodded. “Yep. Past time we went back. You were right. Big brother needs me, Mama. All that crap with Michael passing and then that asshole Lex must have worn him thin. He didn’t sound right on the phone.”
“He’s a protector, you know that.” Esmie adjusted the strap on her deep-green bikini and lazed next to her daughter, conscious of the male attention focused on them. Rio was by far the most beautiful beach they’d visited, but as she’d known for a while now, it was time to go home. Time to visit her boy’s new mate. Time for the future to come to pass.
Esmie knew things. The way her mother and grandmother had. Like Quince, her daughter had a destiny just waiting for her. In Zoe’s case, a big, blond-haired destiny with an attitude and a need for the right woman to fix him but good. She smiled at her daughter, proud and a touch arrogant that she’d had a part in creating such a beautiful feline with such style. Such power.
Problem was the girl had too much energy for most men to handle. But not him—the one Esmie had been dreaming about for months. She’d known their time neared. Now she just had to get the two of them together and watch the fireworks explode. Time for a few grandchildren. She might look thirty, but truth to tell, Esmie was beginning to feel all of her fifty-three years.
“Honey, there’s something I need to tell you.” She would miss this time with her daughter, but Zoe had the training and knowhow to do what needed to be done. With the encroaching raptors flying close to Miami’s shores, the pride would need a strong leader. Someone different than those who’d come before, to lead them in a fight that would either end the pride or make them twice as strong.
“Yes?” Zoe rolled to her back, and Esmie noticed another man not too far away nod to his friend before pointing at Zoe. Not a bad looking human. But still, he wasn’t Ac-taw.
Esmie sighed. “Nothing. Enjoy yourself while you can. I have a feeling that when we get back home and settle down where we belong, you’re going to have your work cut out for you. You know they won’t easily accept a woman taking charge.”
Typical, Zoe shrugged away her mother’s worries and eased into her lounger, basking in the sun. “Too bad. I’m not taking no for an answer. It’s my destiny, Mama. You know that.”
Esmie shielded her eyes against the glare of the water and grinned. “And so is he.”
“What?”
“Nothing. Enjoy the sun, chica. And let your mama dream about fireworks.”
“Whatever makes you happy,” Zoe mumbled and dozed while Esmie watched the men watching her daughter and thought about the dream she’d had of Zoe’s blond-haired babies in Miles Bermin’s strong arms.
About the Author
Marie Harte is an avid reader who loves all things sci-fi, fantasy and paranormal. Reading romances since she was twelve, she fell in love with books and knew writing was her calling. Twenty-plus years later, the Marine Corps, a foray through Information Technology, and children, and her dream has finally come true. Marie lives in Oregon with her family and loves hearing from readers.
You can contact her at [email protected].
To read more about Marie, visit www.marieharte.com.
Look for these titles by Marie Harte
Now Available:
A Scorching Seduction
Enjoying the Show
Closing the Deal
Raising the Bar
Cougar Falls:
Rachel’s Totem
In Plain Sight
Foxy Lady
Outfoxed
A Matter of Pride
Right Wolf, Right Time
By the Tail
Ethereal Foes:
The Dragons’ Demon
Duncan’s Descent
Westlake Enterprises:
To Hunt a Sainte
Storming His Heart
Love In Electric Blue
Coming Soon:
Prey & Prejudice
Making the Grade
Print Anthologies:
Sins of Summer
I Dream of Dragons, Vol. 1
When a cat tries to outsmart a sexy fox, only love can save him.
Outfoxed
© 2012 Marie Harte
A Cougar Falls Story
Grady Chastell, Shifter extraordinaire, wants to take a mate—the delectable Gabby Easton. She’s sexy, kind, and has the extraordinary ability to shift into two animal spirits, cat and fox. There’s just one problem.
Gabby won’t take him seriously.
He’s at his wits’ end trying to convince her to give him a chance when trouble comes knocking at his door. Before he knows it, he’s unwittingly party to one whopper of a lie that finally has Gabby where he wants her…but will she feel the same when she realizes she’s been duped?
It will take all his cunning, the help of the pride, and a good bit of mutual trickery to convince his foxy lady to forgive and forget. And more, to love him—the cat born to be hers.
Warning: Arrogant cats who think they can outsmart the slyest of foxes. A cat war, devious siblings, hijinks with consequences, and the threat of sexualized danger as a foxy feline turns the tables on a man who likes to tell tales
Enjoy the following excerpt for Outfoxed.
“You guys aren’t taking that bet seriously.”
“As a heart attack.” Monty nodded to the full house on the green, felt-covered table. “Read ’em and weep.”
Grady Chastell stared at his pridemate with alarm. Monty wasn’t budging. “Dean?” Surely his brother would have his back. Dean knew how badly he needed to not screw up his chances—any more than he already had—with the delectable Gabby Easton.
“Sorry, bro. All that smack talk last week and the best you can come up with is a pair of eights? You lost the bet—time to pay up.”
The other Ac-taw around the table watched with expectant curiosity, more than willing to watch Grady make a fool of himself in front of the only woman who mattered.
Annoying shapeshifters. Not a one of them had a decent sense of humor except Dean. But after this, even he was starting to look suspect
. “Come on. Guys, don’t do this to me. Please?”
Dean’s golden eyes glinted, his inner cat more than amused at playing with his older brother’s feelings. “It pains me, it really does. But a bet’s a bet. Can’t have it said the Chastells welsh, now can we?”
Grady cursed the lot of them under his breath and ignored the new bets being placed. Somehow, Thursday night poker had been replaced with let’s see how miserable we can make Grady night. ’Course, winning a friggin’ game might have alleviated his run of bad luck when it came to Gabby Easton.
He stripped down to nothing and shifted into his animal spirit, his bones and sinew reshaping into the form of a large, tawny catamount. King of the mountain, he was a savvy hunter with extraordinary senses…and an asshole of a younger brother.
He grunted his displeasure at Dean, who grinned at him. Then he hissed at the rest of the table.
The birds and wolf flipped him off. The bear grunted back. The lone fox tipped back his hat and waited for the fallout. Too bad the fox happened to be the sheriff, or Grady might have chewed on the others before spitting them out.
“Oh Gab-by,” Dean called out in a singsong voice. “Honey, could you come here for a minute?”
The predators around the table waited with bated breath. Monty slipped an elastic bow tie around Grady’s thick neck and shoved a top hat on his head, then poised a finger over his MP3 player, all-too-coincidentally plugged into portable speakers.
Grady caught the scent of her before she walked in. A new addition to the Catamount Pride, Gabrielle Easton was the hottest thing on two feet or four. He’d seen her around town for years, of course, but he’d never gotten close to the fox Shifter. The pride tended to keep to themselves. But then came the news Gabby could shift into not one, but two animal spirits—fox and puma—and his cat had fallen in complete and utter lust.
The man had too, but it was more than that—Gabby captivated him. The grace of her movements, the sheer excitement that glowed on her face during a hunt, the pleasure she had just being near her family… The woman had somehow found a place in his heart, and he worked like a demon to conceal that fact from his family. Bad enough they knew he wanted the woman. If they found out he was falling for her, they’d try to help, end up interfering and screw up his chances for good.
Not to mention he’d find himself the butt of too many jokes. In a family of pranksters, he knew better than to let his guard down. Unfortunately, the worst joke happened to be on him, because for some reason, Gabby didn’t take him seriously. Him, Grady Chastell, the Great Spirit’s gift to women. He wanted her, and she laughed at him. He didn’t understand it.
Gabby walked in without making a sound. Thick strands of her wine-red hair curled around her breasts, which emphasized the flat plane of her stomach. The faded jeans she wore clung to her luscious ass and those long, toned thighs. A low growl eased from his mouth.
“Down, boy.” Monty snickered and turned on the music.
Jimi Hendrix’s Foxy Lady played through Bose speakers, and Gabby stopped in the middle of the room, looking less than pleased. She groaned. “Not again. It’s been three months, guys. Honestly, could you get a little more creative?”
“We could and did.” Dean beamed and pointed to Grady.
He glared at his brother and slowly walked over to meet Gabby, so she could see him make a fool of himself without the table in the way. Trust Dean to include full view of the dance in the bet.
“Go on, boy,” Monty encouraged. “Gabby, to go with your personal theme song, a magnificent serenade.”
The wolf had to have set him up. After his loss, Monty had produced those speakers awfully quick. And really, when had the wolf swallowed a dictionary? Magnificent serenade? He glared at the canine, who lifted a brow and motioned for him to begin.
To his mortification, Grady was forced to shake his feline moneymaker. Talk about a show—a cougar dancing to Hendrix in front of the woman he wanted to make his mate. She started laughing hysterically, which brought the rest of the pride’s sharp-eared women, his older brother and pride leader, Burke, and a few more visiting birds into the room.
Why the hell had they merged movie night with poker night, anyway? So more witnesses could watch him make a giant ass of himself as he grooved to ‘Foxy Lady’? Sure as the good Lord had gifted him with a tail, whiskers and fangs, Grady couldn’t dance a lick.
Everyone was talking and laughing, so Grady shook off the top hat and smoothly separated Gabby from the pack. He nudged her into the kitchen, away from the dining room, before he shifted back.
“Please, Gabby. Marry me and take me away from all this.” He meant every word, but as usual, the stubborn woman refused to take him seriously.
“Thanks, I needed the laugh.” She chuckled and tried to escape, but he pressed forward until he’d backed her against the counter and put his arms on either side of her. “Julia keeps renting these god-awful dramadies. This one is about some woman looking for love with a mannequin who comes to life and leaves her. Ech.”
“Hmm.” He loved the way she smelled. Wild, a mixture of fox and feline his cat found fascinating.
She flushed, and he knew she wasn’t as unaware of him as she seemed. He stepped closer, wanting nothing more than to show her how he really felt.
His brother Burke entered and covered his eyes with his hand. “Jesus, Grady. Stop molesting Gabby in the kitchen. What is it with you? I’m really tired of staring at your lily white ass.”
“So I should molest her in another room?”
Gabby looked anywhere but down. Most Shifters were casual about clothing, so her discomfort gave him hope. He thought he scented the faint perfume of desire and would have pushed her for more, regardless of the others just a room away, when Burke grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and pulled him back.
“Shift back, now,” Burke growled.
Grady swore but changed back into his cat, frustrated, horny and heartsick that he couldn’t seem to control himself when it came to Gabby.
She glanced at his neck and bit her lip. If her face turned any redder, she might explode.
He meowed his apology, but she shook her head.
Burke touched her shoulder, and Grady wanted to claw the offending hand away. “Gabby, honey, I’m sorry if—”
She burst into laughter, so loud that a few of the poker players drifted into the kitchen to see what was going on, again. “I can’t help it,” she gasped. “That bow tie is killing me! I can’t believe he was dancing to ‘Foxy Lady’. A great big cat with no rhythm.” Tears streamed down her cheeks.
Fucking Monty and his stupid bets. And fuck Dean too. Grady snorted and snapped his tail before slinking away. He walked into the adjoining mudroom and clamped his teeth around the modified door handle specially crafted for them when in shifted form. Exiting into a brisk June night, he morosely wondered where to go from here.
Stretching out his limbs, he decided to run, in the mood to kill something.
Gabby didn’t seem to realize he was courting her. Ever since Burke had mated and married Rachel, Grady had been feeling the urge to settle down. But his animal spirit called out for a kindred soul, a cat. The only pride in Cougar Falls was theirs, made up of the Chastell cats, a bear and his wife, a few foxes, and a wolf. The Catamount Pride were few but tolerant of others. If you were a respectable Shifter, Burke had a home for you.
Grady couldn’t complain. He liked those in the pride. Well, except for Dean and Monty. And lately Burke had become a huge pain in the ass, watching over Gabby like he was her fucking father.
With a snarl, Grady scared a trio of foxes deeper into the woods and clawed a nearby tree to mark his passage. My territory. My pride. My female, he wanted to yell.
But no one was out here to listen, and the only woman who needed to hear it didn’t take him seriously. Burke had warned him that heavy-handed wouldn’t work with Gabby. Then he’d overheard Gabby tell her sister how tired she was of all the grabby males in town wanting her
now that it was known she could shift into two animals—a trait that gave her celebrity status among their kind. Not wanting to be like all the others, he’d tried the light approach.
Hell, he’d even gone so far as to politely ask her out on an honest-to-God date, but she’d patted him on the head like a dog and told him it wasn’t necessary. A thanks but no thanks he didn’t understand.
He needed to change his strategy with the female before some other hungry Shifter snapped her up. But except for tying her down and forcing her to accept his sincerity, he didn’t know what the hell to do. How could he find a future with her when she sure as hell wasn’t seeing him as anything but a comedian, an embarrassing feline no better than a dancing bear?
Pride goeth before his fall.
A Matter of Pride
© 2012 Marie Harte
A Cougar Falls Story
Dean Chastell has a reputation for being a troublemaker and something of a lady’s man. It’s not his fault he’s attractive, funny and hell on wheels between the sheets…or that his pranks often leave his victims smarting. But not even he deserves to get saddled with Stacey Bermin for his sins. There’s no denying the woman is gorgeous. She’s sexy as hell and aggravating in the extreme. She’s also prideful, pampered, calls him hillbilly and needs a swift kiss…err, kick, in the pants.
And she’s in grave danger.
He never thought they’d manage to spend a few hours, much less a few days, alone without going for each other’s throats, but when trouble comes calling, Dean finds he’ll do anything to keep her safe. She’s not nearly as cold as she seems. In fact, the princess brings out the prince in him he never knew existed. And he’ll move heaven and earth to keep her safe, out of danger…and in his arms, no matter the cost.
Warning: A trickster cat finally meets his match in a proud feline used to getting her way. Hunters, hijinks and danger abound as the pride comes together for one heck of a battle.