Cougar Needs [Cougarlicious 2] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Cooper McKenzie

  His legs went weak and then numb and he landed on his knees and then collapsed until he was lying on the floor unable to move or breathe for nearly a minute.

  “If that’s what it’s like just thinking about her, I cannot wait to claim her,” he whispered hoarsely.

  So let’s go get her, his cat demanded.

  “Soon. Very soon,” KJ promised. “But first things first. And first is a shower and breakfast.”

  His cougar did not like to be denied but knowing they would be seeing her again, settled down to wait.

  * * * *

  The car exchange happened quickly and without either one mentioning the kiss. After assuring her that he would be fine transportation-wise and promising to call her as soon as he knew when he would return her car, KJ drove away in her Jeep. His cock was once again painfully erect, and his cougar paced with frustration.

  Chapter 3

  By the time KJ called to tell her that her car was repaired three days later, Stacy was beginning to wonder if the kiss had really happened or if it had just been her long-denied libido deluding her. He had called the first evening to tell her that it would take a couple days for his friend to fix her car.

  The second evening he called just to chat. They talked about everything. All the first-date, getting-to-know-you subjects people usually held over drinks or a quick first-date lunch. Though the conversations were long, they were often interrupted as KJ received one call or another since he was on duty. Stacy carefully refrained from two subjects—her previous disastrous experiences with men and her age. Since he had seen her driver’s license, she was certain he had figured out she was now forty. She wondered how old he was, but refrained from asking.

  His phone calls did little to keep her from thinking about him when she was awake, and dreaming of him when sleeping. Not since her first boyfriend when she was in seventh grade had she felt so obsessed with someone to the point that she was beginning to neglect her work.

  When he called at lunchtime to tell her the Jeep was fixed and he would be pick it up late that afternoon, Stacy gave in to a wild impulse and invited him to dinner. He immediately agreed then quickly ended the conversation, saying he needed to get back to sleep.

  Instead of working on several proposals for prospective clients, Stacy spent the afternoon cooking and cleaning, trying to ignore the graffiti she had found the morning before spray painted on the back of her house. She could not imagine who would do such a thing and tried not to think the hateful words had anything to do with the break-in. Who would do such a thing? That was also the reason she had not reported it to the police.

  By the time KJ pulled into her driveway and parked her Jeep next to his Mustang, Stacy had worked herself into a nervous tizzy. She had dated in the years since divorcing her ex-husband but never had she wanted a non-date date to go as well as she hoped this one would.

  KJ had told her he was off for the next two nights, and she secretly hoped, though knew he would probably not be interested in spending at least one of them with her. But that would only happen if she could get past the distrust and fear of every man she ever crossed paths with.

  Forcing a smile on her face, she opened the door as he climbed the steps. “Welcome. And thank you,” she said, her smile turning genuine as soon as she saw him.

  He had dressed casual as she had instructed, in jeans and an event T-shirt advertising a local triathlon. “Did you finish?” she asked, nodding toward the shirt.

  He looked at her quizzically, then looked down and laughed. “Nope. Didn’t even run. I worked security, and they gave me a shirt as a thank-you. I wasn’t sure if you preferred beer or wine, so I brought both,” he said, lifting the two plastic grocery bags he carried in one hand.

  Stacy led the way to the kitchen. “I drink either. Or both, I guess, depending on which way you look at it.”

  KJ handed her the bags, and she stowed the drinks in the refrigerator. She was surprised when she closed the door that he was right there next to her.

  “I promised myself I wouldn’t be too forward, but I can’t seem to help myself,” he said as he slid his hands around her waist and hugged her.

  “Uh,” was the only response Stacy could get out. The moment he touched her, the functioning part of her brain frizzed and seemed to disconnect from the rest of her.

  Her arms lifted and wrapped around his shoulders automatically, and she laid her head on his shoulder, taking a deep breath and sighing at the wonderful woodsy cologne that surrounded her. His arms held her securely, and his arms tightened around her when she lifted her head and tried to step back and break the hug.

  Looking up at him, she found him staring over her shoulder and out the kitchen window. Without turning to see, she knew exactly what put the tight-lipped expression on his face. That window perfectly framed the graffiti spray-painted on the back of the house.

  “What the hell happened?” he asked as he released her and stepped around her in a single motion. Before she could stop him, he had moved to the window where he could see the entire scope of the graffiti artist’s vocabulary. “When did this happen?”

  “I found it when I came home the evening after my car was broken into,” she admitted softly before taking a deep breath and slowly moving back until almost half the kitchen separated them.

  KJ turned and frowned at her, his expression dark as a summer thundercloud. “And you didn’t think to call it in?” He did not sound angry. Instead, he sounded calm, a little too calm for Stacy’s comfort.

  Her heart thumping hard, she took another step back as her hand went to touch the left front pocket of her jeans where her cell phone lived. Yes, it was.

  She moved automatically when KJ took a step away from the window. She matched him step for step until she ran into the wall beside the door that led to the dining room. Somehow, being stalked into the corner gave her enough gumption to hesitantly say, “Uh…I…um…well, I didn’t want to be a bother.”

  When he continued to move closer, she worked to keep her head up, shoulders back, and eyes locked on his. She needed to appear strong and confident when what she wanted to do was curl up in a ball, apologize, and beg him not to hurt her.

  She was able to control her breathing and keep from whimpering as he moved closer and closer. She could not help but admire his graceful movements as he closed in, stopping when only a few inches separated their bodies.

  When he laid his hands on her shoulders, she flinched, which caused his frown to deepen. “You’re frightened. Someone’s hurt you in the past?”

  Closing her eyes, she dropped her head and nodded, resting her chin on her chest. “Yes,” she whispered as tears filled her eyes.

  * * * *

  Rage shot through KJ at the thought of someone in her past causing Stacy pain, but he pushed it down, determined not to frighten her any more than she already was.

  “Look at me, sweet Stacy,” he said, pressing his fingers into tense shoulders, gently massaging the flesh to try and relax her. “Please look at me.”

  Slowly her head came up, and then her eyes opened, showing him the near-panicked state she was in. “I’ll swear on anything you want me to swear on that I will never, ever hit you in anger,” he said, his voice as gentle and comforting as he could make it.

  She studied his expression, looking deep into his eyes, for a long moment before nodding. “I’m sorry,” she whispered so soft that he might have missed it if not for his shifter-sharp hearing.

  “There is nothing to be sorry for. Next time something happens, I expect you to call me immediately.”

  “But I didn’t want to bother you,” she said, her voice a little stronger.

  Moving so his forehead and nose touched hers, he said, “Baby, I am a cop. Keeping you safe is my job. Besides, you don’t know how much you bother me without even trying. Especially since we’ve only known each other for two and a half days.”

  Tilting his head to the right, he kissed her. She tensed under his fingers for a few secon
ds before her hands came up, wrapped his middle, and pulled him closer. With her body pressed solidly between his and the wall, she felt safe, not trapped as she had with other men who had put her in the same position.

  KJ worked to keep the kiss slow and easy, but Stacy seemed to have other ideas. Her hands began to roam his body as her lips parted and invited him in. The kisses continued, and the hands that had been stroking began to grope and tug at clothing. KJ realized they needed to get horizontal and preferably not on the kitchen floor.

  “Hang on, baby,” he said. “It’s time to change venues.”

  Before he could make another move, a buzzer sounded loud and insistent. Lifting his head, KJ looked at the dazed woman as she leaned against the wall. “What’s that?”

  Stacy blinked before frowning, and then her expression cleared. “The chicken’s ready.”

  “And it smells too good to let go to waste. We will continue this a little later.”

  He and his cougar held their collective breaths until she nodded in agreement.

  * * * *

  Stacy’s libido was wound so tight she thought her head would pop off. If the oven timer had not gone off when it did, they would be in her bedroom, breaking in the queen-size bed she had bought only a few months before. Instead, she was agreeing to pick things up where they had been interrupted, later, after dinner. She only hoped KJ felt like hanging around after they ate.

  “It will be about five minutes, if you want to look around,” she said as she stepped around him to hurry to the oven and silence the annoying buzzing. He did not respond. After pulling the pan of chicken from the oven, she looked around and found she was alone as she heard a door slide open.

  She watched through the window as he stood on the deck, his expression furious as he studied the graffiti. He then pulled out his phone and took several pictures of the filth.

  Forcing herself to concentrate on finishing dinner, Stacy carried the chicken to the table then returned for the vegetable medley casserole that had also been baking. Next came the green salad from the refrigerator along with the four kinds of dressing she had and dinner was on the table.

  Looking outside, she found the deck empty.

  She peeked into the living room and saw KJ standing in front of her bookshelves, his head cocked to the side as he read some of the titles of her eclectic library. He shifted just as she realized he was looking at the shelf of erotic romance paperbacks. He reached out and touched several spines as he skimmed the titles.

  Her face burning, she cleared her throat before asking, “What would you like to drink?”

  He did not jump or act guilty, instead just looked over his shoulder with a smile that screamed sex. Once she went down her list of drink options, to include the beer and wine he brought, he said, “A beer would be fine if you’ll have one with me. Or we could open the wine.”

  Stacy thought about it for a quick second and decided that, for tonight, she would relax her rule about not drinking beer with a new date. Different types of alcohol affected her in very different ways. Wine mellowed her to the point she would sit in the corner and smile. Whiskey, rum, and vodka made her as rowdy a troublemaker as a cowboy after a long cattle drive, bold as brass, and willing to dare just about anything.

  Beer, though, was her true nemesis. Beer made her horny. Two beers on one of their girls’ only weekends soon after her divorce and Kimber ended up having to step in before she agreed to go off with a trio of horny Marines who had just returned to the country after a six-month deployment.

  “Beer sounds great,” she replied as her face pinked up. “Dinner’s ready.”

  * * * *

  As she retrieved the beers, KJ finished perusing her reading preferences. Once he was sure she was out of sight again, he reached down to adjust his hard-as-steel cock once more. She had a number of books about shape-shifters, both erotic and non-erotic in her collection. Would reading fictional accounts of shifters, mates, and mating make her more receptive to the idea of mating a cougar-shifter?

  Sure, she was older than he was, but KJ did not care. She could have been eighty and in a wheelchair and he would still be drawn to her. She was, after all, his mate. She was the one he was to spend the rest of his life with.

  His stomach knotting with hunger for both food and his mate, he turned away from the books and headed for the kitchen as he wondered if dinner would taste as good as it smelled.

  Chapter 4

  Over dinner, the sexual tension eased but only to the point that Stacy was able to stop squirming in her chair. Getting-to-know-you conversation from the night before continued, bouncing from how they got into their careers to childhood dreams and secret teenage crushes.

  Stacy was surprised at how comfortable KJ made her feel and how much they had in common. She relaxed to the point that she even admitted to her ex-husband’s abuse when he gently asked who had hurt her in the past. KJ grew solemn for a moment as he digested that information before changing subjects to ask about her favorite singing group.

  After dinner, she was not surprised when KJ helped clear the table. He even put the dishes into the dishwasher as she dealt with the leftovers.

  Once the baking dishes were set in the sink to soak, Stacy was at a loss as to how to proceed. While tempted to just grab KJ by the considerable bulge pressing at the zipper of his jeans and say, “Fuck me,” she did not want to appear as desperate and out of control as she felt.

  Grabbing the edge of the counter for strength, she tried to rein in the wild feelings racing through her faster than she could process them. KJ’s hands coming to rest on her shoulders just added fuel to her horny fire.

  “How you doing?” he asked softly.

  Before she could squeak out an answer, he took her earlobe between his lips and sucked gently. Then he licked a line down the side of her neck and sucked gently at the spot where neck and shoulder came together.

  Instead of answering, Stacy dropped her head back against his shoulder before angling it to the side to give him more room as she moaned a long, low sound of need. Never before had she felt such intense want for a man, any man. But something about KJ brought out an almost animalistic desire to drag him to her bedroom and not let him leave until he had to go to work.

  He chuckled softly before licking his way back up her neck. “I’ll take that as you’re feeling the same hunger that I am.”

  Stacy swallowed and licked her lips before she could breathe, “Uh-huh.” Her hand slid behind her back and between them to cup the front of his jeans. The bulge she had glimpsed earlier was real.

  When he stepped back, she turned. Keeping her hand cupped over his cock and balls, she closed the distance between them once more. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’ve never been like this before.”

  He smiled as if he knew the answer. His eyes glowed blue fire, but he did not respond. He pulled her closer until a thread would not fit between their bodies. Then he kissed her, and in seconds they were right back to where they were before dinner interrupted. She purred against his lips as his hands stroked down either side of her spine to cup her ass cheeks and then began to massage them.

  * * * *

  Lifting his lips from hers, KJ stared at her to try and gauge her responsive to his advances. She met his inquiring gaze with mossy green eyes that burned with her arousal. He saw no hesitation, no fear, no second thoughts. It was definitely time to move this party somewhere they could get naked before his cock exploded.

  “Hang on while I get us somewhere more comfortable,” he ordered, his voice low and growly.

  Following his instructions without hesitation, Stacy wrapped her arms around his shoulders and her legs around his hips, clinging like an ivy vine to a brick house.

  His need just as great as he suspected hers to be, KJ headed across the house. He had noticed a door on the other side of the living room led to a minimalistically feminine master suite while looking around her house. He also found a stairway that led to the balcony overlooki
ng the main room where the other bedrooms must be located. But he did not care about anything except getting his mate to a bedroom.

  He stopped just inside the doorway and looked around, taking the moment to try and regain some kind of control over his beast. His cougar was snarling and pacing and ready to shred the cage he kept it locked in. His animal side wanted, needed, demanded to couple with its mate ASAP. But KJ, the man, was in control, and he refused to attack like an animal, no matter what KJ, the cougar, wanted.

  The queen-size bed with its burgundy silk comforter and collection of frilly pillows called to him, but the more open space on the floor in front of the bed looked even more enticing. Plenty of room for what he had in mind. The barely beige carpet looked soft and cushiony as well, and if things got too passionate between them, there would be no fear of rolling off the floor.

  And he had a feeling things might get very wild.

  He kissed her again as he peeled her limbs from around him. As soon as she was standing on her own and somewhat balanced, he began to work on the buttons of her shirt. As he worked his way down her shirt, he kissed a line down the exposed skin at the center of her body.

  Once he slipped the last button through its hole, he straightened and pushed the shirt off her shoulders and down her arms until it floated to the floor behind her. Then he turned his attention to her jeans. In less than a minute he had her stripped bare of bra and thong as well. When she reached for him, he shook his head as he stepped back, pulling off own clothes off as fast as he could and damn near ripping them in his haste. He was too close to the limits of his control. If she started touching him like he had just touched her, his cat would go wild and he might hurt her. And that was the last thing he wanted to do, especially after the vow he had taken not so many minutes earlier.