The Cougar's Wish (Desert Guards)

by Holley Trent

  Belle came back with two cups. She set one on the nightstand atop his tray and climbed onto the bed with the other.

  Steven cut her a look as he dipped the corner of his toast into egg yolk.

  She scooted closer to him, coffee and tablet in hand, and sipped. Scrolled.

  Sipped and scrolled, with her robe sagging open and putting her goodies on display like it was the most natural thing in the world.

  Well, you ain’t gotta look. Scoffing yet again, he pinned his sights on eggs and toast. “So ...”

  “If you’re going to complain about me being too close, you’re going to have to just suck it up.” She sipped some more and seemed to be settling in to examine one particular article.

  “I don’t know if complain was going to be the word I’d use, but I gotta tell you, you’ve got my brain in knots right now.”

  “If you weren’t eating, I’d probably be on your lap.”

  “Oh yeah?” He forced a swallow down his tight, dry throat.

  Maybe he’d like that a little too much. Didn’t even matter which way she faced. He’d find a way to make sure every part of him was comfortable. Even the pokey parts.

  She shrugged. “Can’t help it. I mean I can fight the impulses, but I’m less cranky if I just give in to them. Fighting them constantly is exhausting. Sometimes I just want to let the cat in me do what she wants.”

  “And the impulses will pass soon, huh? When you’re out of heat.”

  She sipped some more and swished her fingers over the tablet screen. “They’ll change. For a while, anyway.”

  “So ... you’ll just be pinned to me all day. That’ll make your inner cat happy.”

  “Not quite. Both halves of me would be most satisfied in knowing that you’re content. If you’re not content, I’ll probably get angry.”

  “You’re scary. You know that right?”

  She shrugged again. “I get it from both sides of my family. It was bound to happen. Sorry you happened to be the sucker who steered his ship too close to a whirlpool.”

  “Feeling more like Oedipus on his ship trying to avoid the sirens.” He snorted. “In fact, more often than not in my life, I seem to be steering straight toward them.”

  “Siren, huh?” She narrowed her eyes at him and tapped her chin contemplatively. “I guess I’ve been called worse things.”

  “And I imagine the dipshits who called you those things probably kept coming back for another round.”

  She bobbed her eyebrows and quickly pulled her gaze away.

  Nope, that’s not suspicious at all.

  He ground his teeth and damn near bent his fork out of shape. “Anyone I’ve met?”

  “Dunno. I can’t possibly know of every person you encountered while you were stalking me.”

  “I was not stalking you. I was keeping you out of trouble.”

  “How’d that work out for you? Looks like you’re in a lot of trouble right now.” She brought the coffee cup to her lips yet again and narrowed her eyes seductively.

  He dropped his fork and groaned.

  Yeah, he was in trouble. Everyone seemed to know it. And the thing was, he wasn’t so sure he minded so much. Maybe the trauma of the past day was keeping him from thinking clearly—keeping him from quickly determining traps and pitfalls like he might have normally done.

  He didn’t see a problem with getting ensnared by Belle. There had to be a problem.

  Maybe I’m the problem.

  She leaned in close and brushed a crumb of toast out of the scruff of his chin. Taking care of him when it should have been the other way around.

  “Belle—”

  “Eat. Cold eggs are gross. Eat all the fruit, too. You probably need the sugar.”

  He ate. Didn’t want to argue with her because she was the one in the room who had her shit together at the moment.

  He was definitely the problem.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  “I can tell you’re not really reading.” Belle reached across Steven’s body and grabbed the remote control from the nightstand.

  He didn’t try to grope or grab onto her as her body brushed against his. He was behaving so well, and that needed to change. She didn’t want to be the one to make the first move. Normally, she might not have cared, but Steven was a special case. He needed acclimatizing, and she was trying desperately to be good. She didn’t know how long she’d be able to keep that up.

  He let out a breath as she settled back next to him and laid the papers across his chest. “You’re right. My eyes are crossing, and my brain doesn’t want to cooperate. Maybe I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed, but normally, it wouldn’t take me half an hour to read three pages.”

  “Need another cup of coffee?” She trailed her fingers up the smattering of hair on his chest and paused at his collar. If she went any farther, she couldn’t be sure which part of her brain would drive her actions. The cat part of her was a lot more brazen than the part of her that was lady, and the lady wasn’t all that inhibited, either.

  “Probably. I can get it, though.”

  She shook her head and lazily rolled atop him. She rested her elbows atop his chest, propped her chin on her fists, and peered down at him. “You know I’m not going to let you do that.”

  Groaning, he draped one arm slowly across the small of her back.

  So careful. So chaste.

  She rolled her eyes. If she thought prancing around naked would do the job, she might have tried it, but he’d seen her naked more times than she could count. Obviously, he had his own requirements for arousal and she wasn’t meeting them.

  “I can’t stay in this bed all day,” he said.

  “I let you go to the bathroom. You even showered.”

  “Yeah. I smell like blueberries and vanilla ’cause I couldn’t even bathe with my own stuff. And then you wouldn’t let me dress afterward.”

  “I gave you underwear and a T-shirt.”

  He nodded, and that jackass twinkle that had been missing from his eyes all morning finally returned.

  She was pretty sure that was a good thing.

  “And that was gracious of you, cupcake, but I really do need to get moving.”

  “Mm-hmm.”

  “I need to call work.”

  “I could call them for you.”

  He pushed up an eyebrow. “And tell them what? That you’re holding me captive as a sex slave?”

  “I’m not a liar. That would be a lie.” No sex happening here. She somehow managed to suppress a hiss, even though he deserved one.

  “Give me the phone.”

  “No.”

  “Come on, Belle. At least tell me what you did with it.”

  “Not until you’re calm.”

  “I’m perfectly calm. I ate bacon and everything. Bacon’s practically the southerner’s Prozac.”

  “No, you’re not calm.” She danced her fingertips over his heart and rolled her gaze up to his. “You’re just pushing it down deeper. Ignoring it as if that’ll make it go away. I can’t do anything for it when it’s that deep.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Your anxiety—the heaviness you brought out of the hellmouth with you.”

  “Okay, let’s not—” He put his hands to her waist and tried to relocate her, but she was a horsewoman. She dug her knees into the sides of his thighs and held on. “Belle,” he ground out through clenched teeth.

  “Steven,” she hissed.

  “Let me go.”

  “Let you run?” She shook her head. “Nah.”

  “Whether I go or not isn’t up to you.”

  She pushed up an eyebrow. “Really, now? That sounds like something you might have said to me a few days ago when I told you to leave me alone.”

  “That was different.”

  “Your bullshit always sounds so musical. I think it’s your accent.”

  He sighed. “What do you want from me? Tell me what I need to do. I have to get back to work.”

  “Yo
u don’t want to go back to work. Every time you talk about work, you get all tied up inside, and it makes the cat part of me nervous as hell because I guess my brain is interpreting that to mean you don’t really like going there.”

  “I like my job just fine.”

  “Don’t lie to me, Steven. That’s a big lie. Maybe I can’t tell when you’re telling me little ones, but I can feel the big ones. Don’t even try. I’m right on top of you.”

  “Get off me so I can lie in peace, then.”

  “No. You don’t want to lie to me. You want to tell me the truth, but you’re scared to.”

  “What are you, some kind of living, breathing lie detector?”

  “No. I’m just a Cougar with a particular skill set, and that skill set’s always going to be weirdest when I’m around my mate.”

  “About that mate thing—”

  “What about it?” She entwined her fingers, intending to stop them from fidgeting, but ended up cracking her knuckles. “You don’t want to be my mate?”

  She could feel him working up the lie, but she kept her mouth shut until she could hear what was going to come out of his. She might need that lie for ammunition later.

  Her phone rang before he could say whatever it was going to be.

  Growling, she snatched it off the nightstand. “What?” she snarled at Mason.

  Ellery laughed. “It’s me. My phone’s dead, so I’m using your brother’s.”

  “Sorry.” Belle cringed. She didn’t want to disrespect Ellery. She liked the lady, and—yeah—Ellery outranked her in the glaring. Insubordination wasn’t going to earn Belle any brownie points with the witch. “You know what they do to me.”

  “Yeah, I’ve got a front-row seat to the Foye soap opera. Everything all right there? Do I need to send Lola over? She’s bobbing around at your mother’s house waiting on pie. I’m sure I can get her on her own to tell her what’s happening if I need to.”

  “I think everything’s okay.” Belle cut her gaze to Steven who was staring right back at her with his forehead furrowed. She cleared her throat and fiddled with the television remote. “So. What’s going on there?”

  “Nothing, for the moment, besides your mother being on the verge of pulling every single hair out of her head for being short-staffed.”

  “I’ll talk to her about that. I’ve got some ideas.”

  “Ranch ideas?”

  “Well, yeah. Unlike the knucklehead you’re marrying, I actually know stuff about ranch management.”

  “Please call her. The occupants are getting restless.”

  “You mean hungry. She hasn’t started dinner, huh?”

  Ellery laughed again. “You pegged that. With there being so many people here right now, I imagine the situation is more overwhelming than usual. It’s one thing to cook for just you guys and the ranch hands, but not for a bunch of supernatural whack-a-doos who have bottomless stomachs and also picky witches who are experimenting with veganism to better understand the main character in this month’s book club selection.”

  Sheesh. “Did you tell Mason about the letter?”

  Ellery let out a long breath.

  Steven took the letter back from Belle as if to finally read it.

  About damn time.

  “No, we haven’t told him, and here’s why,” Ellery said. “If we tell him about one part of it, we’ll have to fess up about the rest—about what happened last night. We’re not so sure how to handle that.”

  “And I guess you don’t just mean that Mason’s going to yell at you for sneaking around behind his back.”

  “I can handle Mason. He’s going to be pissed, sure, but what we’re more worried about are the repercussions of closing that thing off if there are more entities down there who are being held there against their wills like Dawn was.”

  “She claims there are. She says messengers like her go missing all the time, and because they’re more or less disposable, no one goes looking.”

  “That’s not fair,” Ellery said.

  “I guess it’s the risk they bear when taking the job. Still, if we can do something for them— either now or in the future—it doesn’t seem like a good idea to completely seal off our easy access point.”

  “But aren’t those things supposed to be like doors that only open and close for people who have the right keys?”

  “Supposed to be, yes, but what happened to that one was the paranormal equivalent of someone using dynamite to open a screen door. There are people who could open and close them on their whims, right? People we could ask to do that if we need to?”

  “Like those angels? Yeah. I see what you’re getting at. Personally, I think it’s a good idea, but I’ll see what Gail and Claude think. We’re going to have to talk about that letter, and I’m wondering if we should do it before or after dinner.”

  “What time were they planning on sealing the portal?” Belle asked.

  “I believe they were going to try at around midnight.”

  Belle squinted at the clock on the nightstand. It was around four, so that gave her a little time to take care of some business before dinner, especially if her mother was running behind.

  “Jesus,” Steven muttered, his gaze tracking back and forth across the handwritten pages.

  “Yep,” Belle said to him.

  He bobbed his eyebrows. “I’ve read fiction less incredible than this.”

  “Welcome to the world of the freaks, babe.” She gave his knee a squeeze and turned her attention back to the phone. “I guess we should leave Dawn here, huh?”

  “You coming over?” Ellery asked.

  “Yeah. No reason to stay away, right? If anything tries to possess me”—Steven let out a choked breath, and Belle squeezed his knee again—“Claude’ll be around and he’ll know it. I need to be in the loop.”

  “Okay. Yeah, I’d say you should leave Dawn there if you’ve got someone to watch her. Not only would she be one less body to keep track of, but I suspect she wouldn’t have a positive reaction to seeing her more powerful peers.”

  “She’s Lily’s tagalong right now, and I don’t think Lily would mind keeping an eye on her for a little while longer. Dawn’s not really high maintenance. Just clingy.”

  “What time are you going to be here?”

  “In couple of hours.” Belle let her gaze track down what she could see of Steven’s body, tangled in the sheets. “I need to ... do something first.”

  “Do you, now?” Steven muttered.

  Belle pressed her hand over his mouth. “We should be there on the tail end of dinner, if my math is right.”

  “See you then. Don’t forget to bring that letter.”

  “I won’t. Bye.”

  Belle ended the call, set the phone on the nightstand, and gently extricated the letter from Steven’s fingers. She folded it, set it atop her phone, and got onto her hands and knees.

  She crawled toward him, daring him with her gaze to say something she didn’t like ... which would have been pretty much anything.

  He said nothing. He kept his lips pinched and his focus on her body as it neared him.

  Typical man.

  She couldn’t really get too upset about it, though. The part of her that was cat liked being watched. Ignoring her would have gotten him into so much more trouble.

  She straddled his hips and pressed her palms to his chest.

  He made eye contact with her—briefly—before his gaze fell to her chest, which was admittedly right there. She knew what she was doing.

  “Before the phone rang, I believe you were in the process of shaping up some kind of nasty lie to tell me,” she said.

  He put his hands firmly on her waist, and for a moment, she thought he was going to lift her off of him, but then he slid them around to the small of her back and down into the backs of her panties. “Wasn’t gonna lie to you.”

  “Yes you were. I could tell, just like I could tell you just lied to me.”

  “It was barely a lie.” His fingers
notched into her backside and he let out a breath. “Just a little white one.”

  “Doesn’t matter. A lie’s a lie.”

  “Can’t get away with anything with you, can I? Can’t keep anything to myself?”

  “Why would you want to?”

  “Self-preservation.”

  “I think you’d live longer if you didn’t lie to me.”

  “You’re scary, you know that?”

  “According to you. You keep telling me.” She lowered herself slowly until her lips were a centimeter from his. If he wanted more, he’d have to take it.

  His fingers dug even deeper into her flesh as he adjusted her seating atop him. And that only made him hiss. She was affecting him, and that had been her intention.

  There was no magic in sex—at least as far as she knew—but she usually made pretty good hunches. Her gut said if they went there, he wouldn’t go away. He wouldn’t stay because she was so good or so alluring, but because it was hard to leave someone behind when you’d given them a piece of you that you hadn’t intended to let go of in the first place. He already had a big chunk of her—whether he knew it or not. The damned cat in her had practically thrown it at him like a football the moment she first saw him.

  And why not?

  He was gorgeous, sure, but more important than that, he had things to say, and he was a safe bet. He’d take care of her, in his own way. Those weren’t things to be discounted.

  “You are reckless,” he said softly, his breath tickling her lips.

  “I’ve heard the same thing about you.”

  “Yeah?” He worked his hips beneath her, rubbing the hard, thick length of his shaft against her sex. “I’m sure my legend has spread far and wide, and some of it might even be true.”

  “Mmm. I dunno. Maybe we should compare notes. Hannah says you’re a bit of a daredevil.”

  “Maybe I used to be.”

  “I think you still are. I seem to remember you throwing yourself off a motorcycle a couple of days ago.”

  “And that reminds me—someone needs to fix my bike.”

  “I’m sure Sean will take care of it.”

  “Think so?”

  “Mm-hmm. Might take him a while, though. We’re so…busy.” She ground against Steven, and a rattling breath sounded through his parted lips.