Dating A Cougar

by Donna McDonald

  Dating A Cougar

  Book One of the Never Too Late Series

  by

  Donna McDonald

  * * * * *

  SMASHWORDS EDITION

  Copyright 2011 by Donna McDonald

  Cover by Dara England

  Edited by Toby Minton

  Smashwords Edition License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is coincidental.

  This book contains content that may not be suitable for young readers 17 and under.

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  Acknowledgements

  I would like to thank RA Bettez for taking the time to read this book several times and provide feedback. Your effort at helping me with the content was second only to propping me up emotionally when I really, really, really needed moral support to keep writing.

  I would like to thank my fiancée, Bruce McDonald, for being my real life Marine inspiration. You taught me there are two things to say to our soldiers after their service, and I now say them to you with utmost gratitude. “Thank you for your service to our country” and “Welcome Home”. You are every hero to me. Semper fi.

  I would also like to thank in advance every reader thirty-five or younger who reads this story with an open mind about what it means to be older and in love. I wrote this book for you so down the road when you are living where I am, you will have least have heard this from one other perfectly average woman. Love and sex are great at any age.

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  Prologue

  All Alexa Ranger wanted in the whole world was a hot bath and an early night’s sleep. Days like today where she ended up arguing with her entire staff made her seriously question why at fifty she still wanted to be the creative force behind her lingerie designs. She should be soothing herself with jazz music and bubbles. Instead, she was heading to a cocktail party still dressed in her work clothes, even though last minute socializing was not her idea of fun anymore.

  But then who was she kidding? Nothing was fun anymore. Her moods shifted from contented to maudlin in the blink of an eye because of it. She hadn’t been able to wine, dine, or pleasure the restlessness away in a very long time.

  Angry at herself for agreeing to something she didn’t want to do, she frowned as she pulled into the parking lot of Seth Carter’s condo, her mind finally slowing down enough to think about checking her appearance. She parked and flipped down a mirrored visor that had seen a lot of use.

  Pulling a lip gloss from her purse, she quickly and expertly dashed it across the generous lines of her mouth.

  Mascara and eyes still looked okay at least. No need to add more, she decided.

  Her mineral powder seemed to still be keeping down the shine on her face; thank goodness for great foundation.

  Alexa pondered her reflection, finally deciding against brushing her hair and making it flatter. Instead, she finger combed it until she had achieved what she considered to be an attractively disheveled look falling somewhere between slutty-just-out-of-bed and alluring come-mess-me-up-further.

  Or if not, at least the lush hair she invested in maintaining would partially save her this evening from looking like frump mom in jeans and a shirt with a coffee stain decorating one breast.

  Maybe she dreaded this evening because the crowd inside was just Seth’s business acquaintances. They weren’t even friends of Jenna’s.

  But in the end it hadn’t mattered who they were. Alexa had caved because her twenty-seven-year-old daughter rarely asked for anything from her these days. Stop by and meet Seth’s cousin Casey, Jenna had encouraged. Two minutes—that’s all, she had promised.

  And it wouldn’t kill her to make the effort to meet Seth’s only remaining family, Alexa had reasoned, when she could no longer think of excuses to put off stopping by.

  Unfortunately, her motherhood righteousness didn’t even last the whole trip down the sidewalk. She rolled her eyes at the loud throbbing music as she neared the front door. Great, Alexa thought, feeling the vibrations in her teeth. She was tempted—very tempted—to turn right around and call Jenna from the parking lot.

  Before the idea of avoiding the torture could take stronger root, Alexa made herself push the doorbell. The person standing nearest to the door immediately opened it for her.

  Alexa smiled in thanks and moved inside slowly, scanning for Jenna or Seth. Not seeing either, and not remembering where anything was from her one previous visit, she moved through the mash of bodies in the living area toward what appeared to be the kitchen.

  *** *** ***

  Casey’s first thought when he saw Alexa Ranger heading toward the kitchen and him was how much she looked like Jenna at first glance. His gaze lingered to study her as she wound her way through the people leaning against the sides of the hallway.

  Males she passed either discreetly, or not so discreetly, followed her progress down the hall. Women stopped talking to frown as she moved by, especially when they noticed the men they were talking to being distracted by the attractive, older woman.

  Trained by the military to be a keen observer, Casey smiled at both the wariness of the females, and the predatory glint in the gazes of the males. Jenna’s mother had to be at least a decade older, possibly two in some cases, than most of the people Seth had invited.

  Not that he was immune to her allure either, Casey thought, despite the fact she was at least a decade older than he as well. It was damn impressive to watch the woman move her tall, curvy body through the crowd. Along with every other male she passed by, he couldn’t help noticing aging ex-model Alexa Ranger was even better looking in person than online or in the papers.

  Jenna had definitely come from a master mold.

  Once in the kitchen, Alexa sighed with what Casey could see was genuine relief to be in the clear of the people crush.

  “Hi,” she said to him breathlessly. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen Jenna Ranger or Seth Carter, have you?”

  “They’re around somewhere, but it’s probably safer and less trouble in this crowd to let them find you,” Casey told her with a casual smile. “I’m your bartender this evening. Can I get you a drink while you wait?”

  “Got a bottled water?” Alexa asked, smiling back.

  “We’ve got filtered on the rocks or carbonated with just a hint of lime,” Casey said teasing. She was much more appealing than he’d imagined she would be from Jenna’s descriptions of her.

  “Filtered—straight up, no rocks,” Alexa said, joking in return. “I need the hard stuff. It’s been one of those days.”

  Casey nodded and filled a glass of cold filtered water from the refrigerator door. Behind him, he heard her laugh at the unglamorous source of her drink. She was smiling and obviously amused when he handed the full glass across the counter to her.

  He watched her take a couple sips before she spoke to him again.

  “Thanks,” Alexa said finally. “I’m Alexa Ranger by the way—Jenna’s mother.”

  “You know I figured that out already. She looks a lot like you. I’m Casey Carter,” he said, introducing himself.

  Casey put one hand on the counter to brace himself and support his bad leg
as he reached the other hand over it for Alexa to shake. He smiled when Alexa set down her water glass and leaned her long body partially over the wide counter as well to make it easier for him to reach her.

  “Casey? You’re the reason I stopped by. Well, it’s nice to meet you, fin—finally,” Alexa said, stumbling a little over the words.

  When Casey slid his palm across Alexa Ranger’s, he was surprised at the electrical current that shot through him. He almost laughed when Alexa’s startled gaze locked itself to his. Looks like she felt it too, he thought.

  How long had it been? Two years, he decided. Two years since he’d felt anything for a woman, much less an attraction that made his blood rush. Alexa’s pupils dilated, and Casey felt a tremble in the slender fingers wrapped around his palm.

  He was as keenly aware of her reaction as he was of his own, but Casey could think of nothing sensible to say in reply to her introduction, mostly because he was too distracted by what was happening to the lower half of him under the counter. If it continued, he was going to have to adjust himself as soon as he dropped her hand. Not that he would mind, he wasn’t the kind of man who embarrassed easily, but Alexa might be a little shocked at the reaction she’d caused.

  He tightened his hold on her hand just a little and watched her eyes darken to the color of storm clouds. Her breathing grew a little erratic, but she never looked away. As they looked at each other, suddenly an image of kissing Alexa Ranger flashed through Casey’s mind. The sigh he’d been holding in came out like a breathless groan of anticipation.

  Casey never would have dreamed in a million years Alexa would respond to that kind of mating signal from him, but she drew in sharp breath and blushed. His erection hardened even further, confirming the intense attraction.

  When Alexa lowered her gaze to their still joined hands, it took every ounce of his self-control not run his thumb over her knuckles just to see what she would say or do.

  She caught her bottom lip in her teeth, sucked it in thoughtfully, and swallowed hard when she released it. She cleared her throat, opened her mouth to speak, met his gaze again, and—said nothing. It made him want to laugh.

  By now, Casey was guessing thirty seconds had passed with nothing more than a tight hand grip between them. She still wasn’t tugging her hand away, and he wasn’t moving to end the contact either. He still held tightly enough to keep her body stretched across the counter. Casey thought Alexa looked little afraid he was going to yank her over it the rest of the way, which actually seemed a pretty natural next step to him, he admitted.

  He opened his mouth, intending to tell her what was happening to him, to ask what was happening to her. One of them needed to say something, at least acknowledge the situation.

  “Oh, good. You found each other,” Jenna declared loudly, entering the kitchen. Her gaze went immediately to his and Alexa’s clasped hands, and she smiled.

  Casey let go at last, shocked further by his reluctance to do so. He heard the echo of Jenna’s words in his head as he considered how close he had been to making a serious pass at her mother.

  Yeah, we found each other all right, he thought.

  Casey watched Alexa take a large step back from the counter. Her face was a fascinating shade of embarrassed pink. Casey knew with the tiniest bit of honesty that he could probably cause it to darken several more shades.

  Jenna put a hand to her mother’s face. “Mama, are you okay? Your face is so flushed.”

  “I’m fine, Jenna,” Alexa protested, pulling Jenna’s hand from her forehead.

  Alexa looked at Casey, and then turned her attention to Jenna and shook her head.

  “I’m fine,” Alexa repeated. “Just a rough day. I need to make it an early night.”

  “Okay. Let’s find Seth, and then you can go,” Jenna said, looping her arm through her mother’s. “Thanks for coming by to meet Casey.”

  “Of course. It was nice to meet you—Casey,” Alexa said, pronouncing his name very carefully.

  Casey could tell Alexa forced her gaze to meet his once more even though awareness of their attraction colored her face still.

  “It was good to meet you too,” Casey said, smiling in approval of her nerve. “I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other.”

  Alexa nodded absently, which told Casey she was already trying to rationalize away what passed between them.

  Too bad, he thought. He wasn’t willing to forget it so quickly. Thanks to her, Casey now knew for sure the trauma of the last two years hadn’t made him impotent. And he wanted to know how Alexa Ranger had simply touched his hand and turned him to stone.

  Picking up the glass of water Alexa had left behind, Casey put his lips where her lips had touched the glass, right over the lipstick marks he licked with his tongue. He drained the contents and lectured his body about this intimacy being all it was ever going to get of Jenna’s mother. His body’s response to the command was to ignore it completely.

  Laughing at the irony of his intense arousal to an inappropriate woman, Casey sighed and adjusted himself beneath the counter.

  Chapter 1

  “Why so glum, gorgeous?” Sydney asked, unwrapping his own sandwich with great anticipation. “Trust me. I made sure you got double avocado.”

  Something was up, Sydney thought. Normally, Alexa would have been three bites of ahead of him by now.

  “I don’t know. Do you think fifty is old, Sydney?”

  Alexa Ranger watched her thirty-five-year-old assistant and good friend take a giant bite of his club sandwich and swing his gaze to hers in shock at the same time. Then she watched him pound his chest to keep from choking as he attempted to swallow the bite around a coughing fit.

  At six two with a trim waist and shoulders like a football player, the brown-haired, brown-eyed Sydney could easily be the most handsome man Alexa had ever known. He designed and wore his own line of clothes and looked like a male model himself.

  When Sydney didn’t answer right away with one of his usual smart-ass quips, Alexa concluded he was really surprised by the question. Surprise was okay. If he looked at her with pity, she would probably throw her sandwich at him.

  “It’s all about the quality of the preservation,” Sydney said at last, joking to give himself time to think.

  In the ten years he had known and worked for Alexa, Sydney had never known the woman to be truly insecure about anything, especially her age. Not that Alexa hadn’t let herself go a little bit in the last couple of years. A lack of male companionship had taken a negative toll on her. She hadn’t shown any real interest in anyone specific in some time, nor in making a fashion statement. Most days the woman wore jeans and a shirt, which in Sydney’s mind was barely better than a uniform.

  Still—insecure? Alexa was not the type of person to worry about much of anything for long. Alexa was brash, boastful, demanding, and many, many other things, but the woman was not at heart insecure.

  Pulling himself from his contemplation, Sydney noticed Alexa was intently waiting for his reply to her question. Sydney made himself focus on the possibility of being fifty. Naturally, his stunning life partner came immediately to mind.

  “Do I think fifty is old?” Sydney said, repeating her question. “Well, Paul is fifty-two. I certainly don’t consider him old. The man just gets sexier with each passing year.”

  Despite being starved, Sydney took a smaller bite of his sandwich this time just in case Alexa shocked him again.

  “It’s different for men,” Alexa said with a wave of her hand, hating the self-pity in her voice and the dark cloud of female worry over her head. “Men get better with age, and Paul is proof. Women—well, women just get old, Sydney. Even women like me.”

  “Okay, this is too weird,” Sydney said, putting down his sandwich. “That was definitely self-pity I heard in your voice. What’s wrong with you today, Alexa? Years of good maintenance are paying off big-time for you, honey. You look great.”

  Alexa shrugged her shoulders. She enjoyed her looks. I
n fact, she built her business on her looks. The problem was that looking younger at fifty didn’t make her feel as good as it had in her thirties or forties.

  Now, regardless of how she looked on the outside, inside Alexa felt fifty.

  “Oh, never mind me. Forget I said anything. I don’t mean to whine—you know I hate whining.” Sighing over her depressing thoughts, Alexa took another bite of her sandwich

  Sydney hurriedly finished his last bite and leaned back in the chair. “When was the last time you had a date?” Sydney asked, inspiration striking. “I mean a real date where you dressed up and went out somewhere nice.”

  “Don’t remember,” Alexa said around a bite. “It’s been a while I guess. Nine months, maybe? It’s harder at my age to find someone interesting.”

  Which was mostly true, Alexa thought, if you didn’t count the attraction she’d felt shaking hands with Casey Carter last month. The retired Marine was appealing, but definitely too young, and definitely too related to her daughter’s boyfriend. Her life was talk show worthy enough as it was—she certainly didn’t need to add to it.

  “I can’t believe turning fifty is making me this crazy. Most women have their mid-life crisis at thirty or forty,” Alexa protested.

  Sydney laughed. “Needing sex is not a crisis, honey. It’s a highly solvable problem,” he told Alexa, studying the shifting expressions on her face with a frown.

  “Who says I need sex?” Alexa asked, rolling her eyes at the statement.

  Okay, so maybe it had been nine months ago with a friend, and who knew how long ago with a man she genuinely desired. Maybe, Alex thought, maybe she even secretly worried on some level about never wanting sex again, because not dating had been a relief instead of a sacrifice. Determined not to sink into an even deeper funk dwelling on her voluntary celibacy, Alexa took a big bite of her awesome sandwich and chewed.