Chasing His Puma (Big Bad Bunnies Book 3)

by Golden Angel

  From what he remembered, a first date kiss was supposed to come at the end of the date, so he was going to have to wait.

  At least they’d be watching kids’ movies though. He couldn’t get too turned on watching kids movies, right?

  ******

  Somehow—and Doc still wasn’t quite sure how—her test had backfired.

  Then again, this was the first time she was watching Disney movies with a guy that literally hadn’t seen any of the movies before. He didn’t have the smallest idea what they were about because he hadn’t even seen the trailers for them or heard anyone talking about them. She’d specifically chosen newer movies because she knew Brock hadn’t seen them but… well… she just hadn’t expected him to enjoy them quite so much.

  Definitely not the point where his entire focus was completely on the screen and not even a little bit on her. During Brave she hadn’t minded too much. For Princess and the Frog she’d kept an eye on him, just waiting for him to at least look at her. By the time they’d started watching Tangled she’d started feeling pretty pouty. And now they were halfway through Frozen, her last movie planned for the night and his eyes were still glued to the screen.

  Doc shifted closer to him.

  Nothing. No reaction at all. He didn’t even glance at her.

  Show him tail!

  Her puma’s suggestions were actually starting to sound good, which really should worry her.

  She’d wanted him to come over to see if he was only interested in sex with her and nothing more. Now she was kind of worried he wasn’t even interested in that.

  Shifting again, she finally got a reaction from him as their bodies touched.

  Brock’s head turned to look at her, a slight furrow in the middle of his brow and she smiled at him. His gaze dropped to her lips and then back up to her eyes while Elsa let it go.

  Yeah, Doc wasn’t sure she could hold it back anymore either… sing on, girlfriend.

  She leaned in closer and Brock coughed, suddenly jumping to his feet and she practically fell into the warm spot where he’d been sitting.

  “Uh, I have to go to the bathroom, I’ll be right back.”

  And he practically ran from the room.

  Scowling, Doc sat up and grabbed the remote. If it was possible to grumpily hit a pause button, that’s what she did.

  Should have shown him tail.

  The chiding superiority in her puma’s mental voice made Doc feel even grumpier.

  What had gone wrong?

  This wasn't the most awkward date she'd ever been on but it was close. The fact that it was even close was a little disturbing. She'd once gone on a date with a guy only to end up going with him to pick up his cousin at the airport. Then they'd both spent dinner trying to impress her. When they'd gotten to the movie theater, they'd sat down on either side of her, and halfway through the movie both of them ended up putting their hands on her knees and shooting daggers at each other over her head.

  Although this wasn't quite as awkward, she was starting to think it could maybe get there. She supposed it would depend on what happened next. Maybe she should just ignore how Brock was behaving... but that wasn't really how she rolled. Besides, that would probably just be even more awkward and she'd also spend the entire rest of the night making herself anxious.

  A few minutes later when Brock came back into the room, looking almost sheepish, Doc summoned up her courage as he sat down—on the opposite side of the couch this time.

  “Brock…” Yup, that was as far as she got. Apparently her ability to summon courage was somewhat deficient.

  He looked over at her quizzically, waiting for a long moment. “What?”

  Say something. Impress him. Don’t lose him! Her puma sounded almost plaintive.

  Right. Say something. She could do that without sounding like a twit.

  “Do you like me?”

  Okay, apparently she couldn’t say something without sounding like a twit. A needy one at that.

  Brock looked surprised. “Yes.”

  She waited for a moment, but apparently that was all she was getting from him. The infuriatingly hard-to-read man just sat on the other side of the couch watching her like she was a science experiment and he was waiting to see if she was going to explode. With all the frustration bubbling up inside of her, it was starting to feel like a definite possibility.

  “So this is a date, right?” Yup, totally sounding less needy. Good job, Doc.

  “Yes.”

  It was a good thing she really liked the guy or she’d be tempted to launch herself across the couch and strangle him. Or straddle him and rub herself against him until he couldn’t resist her. So either murder-y or rape-y. Great. This date was going awesome.

  “Then why won’t you touch me?” she asked, doing her best to stay calm and keep her voice even.

  “Is that allowed?” he asked a little hesitantly.

  Her heart broke a little. Frustration—gone. Funny how just one small question could do that. Funny and sad.

  “It’s encouraged,” she said, moving across the couch toward him.

  This time, instead of just pressing into his side, she lifted his arm and then snuggled up into the nook between his shoulder and chest, getting wonderfully comfortable. She’d grabbed the remote on her way so she could press play again, now in a much more enjoyable position. Okay, so she was going to have to lead the way a little bit with what she wanted from him on dates. Now she knew. Doc settled in.

  Mmm. Nice. Smells good. Unsurprisingly, her puma wasn’t all that interested in the movie.

  ******

  Caught somewhere between heaven and hell, Brock did his best to focus on the movie and not on how much he wanted to be kissing Doc. Heck, this would have been his dream situation in high school, before he’d been kidnapped by The Company. Hot woman cuddled up to him on the couch… his teenage self would have been totally convinced it was make-out time.

  Now he wasn’t sure that was the right move.

  It would have been for a teenager, but with the rules Brady had laid down adult relationships were obviously more complicated.

  Plus… he’d be lying if he said he didn’t want to know how the movie ended.

  So sue him. Some of the Disney movies weren’t half bad. While he might not be as fanatic as Doc was, he was still definitely enjoying himself. He especially liked when she got caught up in the movie, bouncing in her seat or making little noises of either encouragement or distress next to him. Even though he hadn’t taken his eyes away from the screen, he felt like he’d been hyper-focused on her reactions.

  Which, sometimes she’d given away when something really good or really bad was going to happen before it actually did, but he still found it cute.

  Being snuggled up on the couch like this… well it was something he didn’t have any experience with. He liked it though. So did his bugaboo; the big beast was sleepy and cozy inside of Brock’s head, just happily quiet as he breathed in Doc’s scent.

  If he didn’t have a raging erection, the whole thing would have been entirely enjoyable.

  They finished watching the movie and by the end of it Doc was yawning.

  “So,” she said, eyes sparkling a little as she sat up and looked at him. “Disney’s not so bad, huh?”

  “It’s not so bad,” he said. “I even liked a lot of it. I think they’ve gotten better over the years. I definitely don’t remember the ones my sisters being obsessed with being that good.”

  “I still love the classics, but… in a lot of ways the newer ones have better entertainment value for adults, I will concede that one point,” she said teasingly.

  She was so pretty, her eyes sparkling, hair rumpled from leaning against him, he just had to lean forward and kiss her.

  Not that she avoided his kiss. Doc met him halfway and leaned into it, parting her lips so they could taste each other. Brock cupped the back of her neck, sliding his fingers into her hair so he could hold her without actually holding her. Because
if he started holding her, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to let go.

  His bugaboo rumbled with approval as they kissed.

  Of course, his bugaboo also wasn’t particularly happy when he let go and pulled away.

  Doc’s greenish-hazel eyes were practically glowing as she looked back at him, her head still slightly tilted for more kissing.

  “I should go,” he said, his voice husky.

  “Okay,” she said, nodding. “Thank you for coming over.”

  “It was my pleasure.”

  There were a few more kisses as she walked Brock to the door. And at the door. Although not after she opened the door to let him out.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow?” he asked, hanging in the doorway, feeling reluctant to leave.

  “I don’t know,” she teased. “Will you?”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, with resolution. “I’ll bring you lunch again.”

  “Only if you promise to stay and eat it with me,” she said, leaning against the door, her hand on the knob propping her up.

  “It’s a date,” he said, grinning as he leaned in and stole a last kiss.

  ******

  Lunch was a lot less awkward than the night before.

  In fact, it seemed almost natural after Brock came in with a bag lunch from the cafeteria for both of them—something she hadn’t expected, she’d half had it in her mind that they would just go and eat together but the privacy was very much appreciated. He sat across from her and they chatted and ate.

  They did talk some about the movies they’d watched the night before, but other things too. They spent a little bit of time theorizing what might have happened to the missing skunk shifters, but that was a little too grim so they quickly moved on to other topics. Hopefully Eli would find out where the surfeit was now, but until then there was nothing they could do.

  Brock told her a little bit about what it had been like for him and his siblings when they were growing up, before The Company had taken them, as well some of what it had been like after. She’d talked about her mom and the times she remembered being happy, but hadn’t brought up her father or Becky again. Although she did tell him some funny stories from the shifter medical school. Which was different from human medical school because doctors in shifter communities were much more catch-all and shifters healed differently than humans.

  She’d told him about some of her epically bad dates—fortunately she didn’t have any stories about the guys he knew in Steele’s pack, but she had plenty to make up for that. Brock nearly choked when she told him about the guy who had blurted out in the middle of his date with her that he’d had sex with his sister.

  “No…” Brock said, looking absolutely horrified.

  “Yup.”

  “What did you say?”

  “I just asked if it had effected their relationship. I couldn’t think of anything else to say.”

  “And what did he say?” The disgusted fascination on Brock’s face was exactly how Doc had felt when it was happening. Even though she hadn’t really wanted to know, once it was out there she had just had to ask.

  “That it made family reunions awkward.”

  “You’re making that up.”

  “I so, so wish I was,” she said fervently. That had probably been one of her top ten worst dates.

  That conversation led to him saying something about the 'three date rule' and Doc finally realized why he'd been so standoffish the night before.

  When he left, she got another scorching kiss that heated up her whole body and made her puma purr. She also felt reasonably reassured that this definitely wasn't just sex for him. Brock was trying to do everything right.

  Doc decided lunch counted as date number two.

  So when she invited him over for dinner again—promising he could choose the movies this time—that would make date number three as far as she was concerned. Was she kind of jumping into things? Yes. But she felt closer to Brock than any other man she'd met. Not to mention her puma was thrilled by this turn of events.

  Some part of her was still nervous it was all going to blow up in her face, but one thing she knew for sure was that Brock wasn't the type to fake interest. He was inherently honest. If something bored him, he would say so. If he wasn't interested in her, he definitely would have said so.

  Instead, he was putting effort into getting to know her and doing cute and sweet things for her. Right now she had the collage he'd made her set up on her dresser where she could see it every morning. And evening. All of which made her even more attracted to him than she had been before.

  Like, seriously, how was she supposed to resist the adorably thoughtful Brock now emerging from underneath his usual gruff exterior? He reminded her so much of the Beast it was a little disconcerting.

  She wanted to rub herself all over him. Or maybe that was her puma. But Doc wasn't opposed. Whatever she could do to make the other females in the Peak know he was taken. The best way to do that was to make sure his scent was fairly well mingled with hers, something which happened when shifters spent a lot of time being intimate together. Prey animal shifters actually blended scents completely when they mated, rather than leaving bite marks like the predator animal shifters. Predators mingled scents, but they didn't actually smell the same once they were mated.

  Yeah, she was definitely feeling a little territorial. Maybe more than a little.

  So basically she had a whole host of reasons why she wanted to jump him. Even better—since he was apparently trying to adhere to the three date rule, she had an excuse.

  Stopping by the cafeteria on her way back to her rooms, she picked up dinner there so she wouldn't have to worry about cooking. Lasagna and salad, which was perfect because she could just keep the salad in the fridge and the lasagna could easily be reheated in the oven. Doc had an agenda for tonight and she didn't want to have to worry about the food being hot.

  Tonight she skipped the t-shirt. She also skipped the pants. Although she did do her hair in soft waves again and put on some makeup. Then she shimmied into a light green silk and lace teddy that made the most of her breasts and skimmed along the rest of her body to the hemline just below her butt. Twisting back and forth in the mirror, Doc grinned.

  Yup, she looked good.

  Knocking on the door had her squealing as she hurried barefoot down the hallway. Skidding to a stop, she posed provocatively as she threw open the door.

  Brock gaped, his eyes dropping down to her barely-there outfit, sucking in a shocked breath of air. Heat and desire filled his gaze as he lingered over the lace covering her breasts. He was wearing another button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, dark grey this time, and jeans. There was a bouquet of flowers in his hand—and the stems were getting a little crushed by his tightening grip, but that just made Doc smile even more vixenishly.

  "What..." His voice trailed off.

  Pounce!

  "Happy third date," she said. And she jumped him.

  Chapter 9

  When Doc launched herself at him Brock wasn't ready for it, but he recovered quickly. Dropping the flowers he'd been holding, he managed to catch her as she wrapped herself around him. The silky thing she was wearing was so short his hands gripped bare butt as her legs securely squeezed his waist, her arms around his neck.

  "I told you so!"

  The excited voice in the hall had Brock half-turning before he realized doing so would show off a pretty good view of Doc. A view he wasn't sure he wanted to share. So he jerked his body to a halt even as his head continued to turn.

  About twenty feet down the hall were Vivian March and Lacy King, two out of the three older ladies who had helped Steele run the pack before he'd mated Bethany. They were sweet, gossipy, and considered themselves the matchmakers of the pack. They both grinned at him with sheer delight.

  As Doc buried her face in his shoulder, half-giggling and half-moaning in embarrassment, Brock gave them a formal nod.

  "Ladies. Sorry for ah, crowding the h
allway. Please excuse us," he said, ready to hurry into Doc's home and away from the all-too-pleased eyes of the two ladies. His bugaboo wanted to get inside too, although not because of the ladies. If Brock did what the bugaboo wanted to do, the two women would be getting quite the show right now. But his beast understood there was no way Brock was going to use the corridor wall in that manner, so it wanted to get inside.

  "Oh don't mind us," Vivian said airily, waving her hand, ignoring the elbow in the side from Lacy. "We've certainly seen worse in our day."

  From the way both bright-eyed ladies smiled at him, Brock had the unsettling feeling they'd be completely unperturbed seeing even more of him and Doc as well. Definitely not going to happen.

  "Would you get us out of here?" Doc hissed into his ear, still giggling madly.

  Not knowing what to say, Brock just gave the two women another nod and strode into Doc's house, carrying her in front of him, and kicked the door shut behind him.

  Practically snorting with laughter, Doc was still clinging to him, shaking because she was laughing so hard. Even Brock had to chuckle, shaking his head. When someone knocked on the door, she let out a little gasping laugh of disbelief.

  "Now what?" she whispered.

  "You left your flowers out here!" Vivian hollered through the door. Considering how well insulated the dwellings in the Peak were, she was literally shouting to be heard. Ignoring her would likely just lead to more shouting on her part as she assumed they couldn't hear her.

  Sighing, Brock let Doc drop down to her feet where she swayed, covering her hands with her mouth to stifle her hilarity. Turning, he quickly opened the door.

  "Thank you," he said, smiling widely and snatching the flowers from Vivian's hand. Both she and Lacy were still grinning widely, although Lacy was several steps back from Vivian, as if she hadn't wanted to be too near the door. He didn't see what they were so happy about.

  As he closed the door, he and Doc could both hear Vivian's final remark to her friend. "I knew they were going to get together! Edith owes me—"