Cougar Needs [Cougarlicious 2] (Siren Publishing Classic)
Page 1
Cougarlicious 2
Cougar Needs
During her girls-only weekend with her two best friends, Stacy Covey states she needs a hero who can love her and whom she can trust with her heart, body, and soul. Months later, when her car is vandalized in front of her house, she calls the police, not realizing that, with that one phone call, her life would change forever.
Police sergeant and cougar shifter KJ Katz has just about given up on finding his mate, until he arrives at the scene of a car break-in. As he approaches the house, he realizes that the mate he has been looking for all his adult life is inside.
After being hurt so many times in the past, will she let him into her future? Will she let him be her hero? Will he have a problem because she is eight years older than he is?
Genre: May-December, Paranormal, Shape-shifter
Length: 22,873 words
COUGAR NEEDS
Cougarlicious 2
Cooper McKenzie
EROTIC ROMANCE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Erotic Romance
COUGAR NEEDS
Copyright © 2013 by Cooper McKenzie
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62740-201-9
First E-book Publication: June 2013
Cover design by Harris Channing
All cover art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
Dear Readers,
If you have purchased this copy of Cougar Needs by Cooper McKenzie from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.
Regarding E-book Piracy
This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.
The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.
This is Cooper McKenzie’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ms. McKenzie’s right to earn a living from her work.
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www.SirenPublishing.com
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DEDICATION
To Stacy Wilson, who began as a fan and has become a soul sister.
COUGAR NEEDS
Cougarlicious 2
COOPER MCKENZIE
Copyright © 2013
Prologue
“What’s wrong with men?” Kimber Jordan asked, sounding irritated at the world.
Stacy Covey frowned at her friend, whose comment broke into the middle of Gwen’s telling of her son’s latest misadventures in life and love. “What do you mean?”
They were on their semi-annual Girls Weekend when they stepped away from their lives and became the three troublemakers again. Only these days they did not get in trouble as they had a couple decades ago, but instead spent the time catching up, advising, and consoling one another.
Stacy needed her friends’ consolation this weekend. She had broken up with yet another man of “an appropriate age” who had claimed to be a lonely widower looking for the last love of his life. When his answers began to contradict one another, Stacy did an Internet search and found out the lying SOB had a criminal record for assault and battery, rape and DWIs, and three ex-wives in addition to a current one.
Once again, her faith in the male half of the species had been soundly shaken.
Would she ever meet the right man? Her list of wants and needs were simple.
She needed a man to love her.
A man she could trust with her heart, her body, and her soul.
She needed man who would not hurt her.
“Why is it men our age and older feel the overwhelming urge to chase after sweet young things? What’s wrong with us? None of us look like we’re forty. We’re not dried-up old crones, and we’re all successful in our own right.”
Stacy stared at Kimber with concern. She knew they were all alone and lonely for male companionship, but it sounded like her friend had done what she’d been threatening to do for years—jump off the cliff into the pit of Crazy.
“Well, if they can do it, why can’t we?” Kimber continued after a few seconds.
“What are you saying, Kimber? You want to start dating boys my son’s age?” Gwen Ford, the third member of the trio, asked after taking a long drink from her large strawberry daiquiri.
“Maybe not that young, but I’m just saying I’m tired of being proper. I’m tired of waiting for an appropriate man to fall at my feet. I think it’s time we were bad. And if dating younger men makes me bad, then okay, I’ll be a cougar and a bad girl.”
Stacy smiled when she started to understand where Kimber was heading with her rant. She agreed with her friend. If men their age lusted after, dated, hell, even married women half their ages, why could not they as women look at the younger generation for a change? Then another thought hit her.
“And younger men have stamina and the ability to get it up more than once a week,” she added with a very un-forty-like giggle.
“Stacy!” Gwen sounded outraged for a few seconds. Then she turned to look at Kimber “So, how young are we talking?”
She sounded hesitant and skeptical. But that was Gwen’s way. While Kimber was the creative one and the ringleader of the trio, Gwen was the voice of reason and sanity. Stacy was the practical one. She was happy to follow wherever adventurous Kimber led, but would be sure to pack a GPS and a picnic lunch, just in case they got lost along the way.
Needing more information about being a cougar, Stacy reached into her jeans’ pocket and pulled out her do-everything-but-make-breakfast phone that was many times smarter than she was. After doing a search, she went to the first website that looked like it offered the information she was looking for.
Squinting at the tiny screen, she read aloud, “Cougars are older, usually s
uccessful woman who date younger men.”
“Yeah, we got that part already. Isn’t there some formula or rule about how young a younger man is appropriate and how young is jailbait?” Kimber asked, sounding more impatient than normal.
“Hang on.” Stacy kept scrolling down the website. “Okay, here it is. The rule for true cougars is to date no younger than half your age plus seven years. So in our case we’re talking”—she paused a second to do the math—“twenty-seven.”
“Twenty-seven?” Gwen squeaked and visibly shivered with distaste. “That’s a hell of a lot closer to Grant’s age than mine. There’s no way I can look at anyone that young.”
“So, how young would you be willing to go?” Stacy asked as she slipped the phone back into the front left pocket of her blue jeans.
“Um, well, I’ve never thought about going younger. I’ve always dated older men.”
“Well, think about it,” Kimber encouraged, trying but failing to sound gentle and encouraging. “Just remember a younger man will be better able to handle your power surges.”
“Yeah, then maybe you won’t blow through vibrators as fast as you do,” Stacy teased with a giggle.
Gwen blushed and dropped her head forward. “Why did I ever tell you guys about that?”
She began to giggle. Kimber joined in a few seconds later. They continued laughing until they had to wipe tears from their cheeks.
Once she had regained control, Stacy answered her friends question seriously. “Because we have been best friends since the second day of seventh grade and you tell us everything.”
They had stood up at each other’s weddings.
When she had shown up at one of their gatherings ten years earlier with a black eye, split lip, and three broken ribs thanks to her ex-husband’s displeasure at her going away for the weekend, Gwen and Kimber spent the weekend tending her injuries while convincing her she had to get out, divorce the rat bastard, and start over.
When Gwen’s husband dropped dead from an aneurysm while doing yard work on Saturday afternoon, she called them with the news before calling her family.
When Kimber had left the advertising world to follow her dream of being an artist, she and Gwen were the only ones who applauded her decision. They also helped her survive her husband walking out on her shortly afterward.
Stacy was closer to these two women than she was to her own family, even if she only saw them twice a year.
Finally Gwen said, “Thirty. I don’t think I can go any younger than thirty.”
Kimber nodded and turned to her. “Sounds good. Stacy? What about you? How young are you willing to go?”
Stacy smiled wistfully, her pussy clenching at the thought of a young hard cock filling it without the need of little blue pills or other artificial aids. She knew she looked younger than her age, but her heart and soul had been scarred, not only by her ex-husband, but also every man she had occasionally dared to date over the last ten years. Would a younger man treat her differently? Could someone younger love her?
Finally, she answered from her heart. “I don’t care how young or old he is as long as he treats me right and makes me laugh. How about you?”
Kimber hesitated about three seconds before saying, “Whatever it takes. My biggest challenge will be actually meeting someone. Sometimes working at home in my pajamas isn’t all the glory that it could be. Especially when you live in a town full of retirees.”
Hearing the bitterness in her friend’s voice, the ever-comforting Stacy reached out and patted her friend’s hand. “Don’t worry, someone will pop into your life when you least expect it. Just keep your eyes open, keep the faith, and keep putting together those hot, sexy, kickass covers.”
“I think for our next weekend together we should break with tradition and bring our hot young studs with us. Since it’s Kimber’s turn to play hostess, maybe we should rent a beach house with lots of room and lots of privacy.” Gwen looked more excited by the prospect of this new challenge.
Stacy nodded in agreement though she silently wondered if she would have such a man to bring with her. She did not want to go into this new challenge with a defeatist attitude, but it was difficult to look at things positively. She had grown so strong in the past years she had been surprised when a couple of the men she had dated complained that she was too strong, too independent, and too controlling for them. Others had informed her that they preferred women who were less constricted by morality. Just because they already had a wife or girlfriend did not mean they were not willing to have a sexual relationship with her.
Would she be able to meet a good man in the next six months? Would she be able to let down the walls that guarded her heart and let him in? Would she be able to trust him enough to give him her body?
Chapter 1
Stacy looked through the pile of paperwork for the third time, but the catalog she had been searching her office for over the last ten minutes was nowhere to be found.
“Damn, girl, if you’re not careful, Gwen and Kimber are gonna have you tested for Alzheimer’s,” she muttered to herself as she headed down the stairs from her over-the-garage office. “You’ve got to get better organized if you’re serious about doubling the size of this business in the next two years.”
At the side door that led to the driveway, she slipped her feet into the pair of purple flip-flops that waited there for just such occasions. Though she would never admit it, she was not nearly as organized or put together as her two best friends and clients thought. She kept the disorganization hidden from the world behind the closed door of her home office, though the rest of the house was not in much better shape these days.
Since she was just going to be outside for a minute, she did not bother to pull on the old, stretched-out, white sweater that hung from the hook next to the door. At four o’clock in the morning, none of her neighbors would be awake. Besides, her sleep shirt fell to mid-thigh so all her bits and pieces were covered if someone did happen to see her.
Grabbing her key ring, she opened the door. “I’ll right back, sweetheart,” she called over her shoulder
“Be right here!” Tookie, her gray-and-white cockatiel, replied from his large cage in the great room where she was the feathered queen of all she could see, which was most of the main part of the house.
The interchange was a routine they went through every time Stacy left the house. The only thing that changed was the length of time Stacy said she would be gone.
Stepping outside, she was surprised at the weather that met her. It was the middle of summer, but nights in central Pennsylvania were never this humid. Tilting her head back, she noted the lack of stars and the mottled look to the clouds overhead.
“Oh great, the last thing I need today is rain. I’ve got errands and client meetings all day.”
Dropping her head forward again, she looked at the Jeep Wrangler she had backed into the driveway and frowned in confusion.
Why is the dome light on? she mentally asked herself as she approached the passenger’s side. Instead of pushing the unlock button on the key in her hand, she slowly approached the vehicle. When something crunched under her flip-flops, she looked down and her confusion deepened.
It took another few seconds to put together the glass under her feet with the fact that the passenger’s door glass was missing and the door stood half open.
“What the fuck?” she muttered. She automatically reached for her left hip where her cell phone resided. When her hand came up empty, she realized the phone was in her office, plugged into the charger, and she was not wearing pants.
All at once, fear exploded. Her chest tightened, and every muscle in her body tensed. Though she wanted to run, she backed away slowly as she looked around the yard then up and down the street beyond. But the shadows yielded nothing except that she needed to make time to do some yard work.
When she reached the steps that led to the house, she turned and ran, stopping only long enough to close and lock the door behind her. She
threw the deadbolt for extra protection. Then she hurried to her office and her phone. Checking it, she saw it was fully charged, so she unplugged it before dialing nine-one-one with fingers that shook. By the time she hit send, her entire body trembled. Feeling exposed even though she knew no one could see her up here, Stacy sat down and leaned against the side of her desk.
After reporting the break-in to a woman who sounded less than impressed, she agreed that she would not be going anywhere in the next few minutes. Hanging up the phone, she pulled her legs to her chest, wrapped her arms around them, and, while she waited for someone to show up, tried to figure out who would do such a thing to her.
* * * *
Police Sergeant KJ Katz listened as the dispatcher asked for anyone in the area to respond to a destruction of property call only a few blocks from where he sat finishing up his hated computer work. Normally he assisted, consulted, and provided backup for the other more junior officers working, but at this hour, he needed something to take his mind off the fact that he was lonely, bored, and exhausted. Besides, he was only a couple of blocks from the call.
Keying his microphone, he said, “Dispatch, this is Charlie fifty-two responding.”
Once the dispatcher answered and confirmed he was en route, KJ turned the next corner and hit the gas. Taking a deep breath, he shifted into the warrior mindset he used on the job while his eyes scanned the neighborhood he drove through, looking for anything or anyone that was out of place.