Cougar's Gift: Pacific Northwest Cougars: (Shifter Romance) (8 page)

L
ibby had never come
in front of another human being, but she was on full overload and trusted Stryker to keep her safe. Her body locked and she ground down against his cock finding the friction to send her over the edge.

She heard him groan low and his hands tightened on her breasts, it was just what she needed as her body exploded and sweet bliss poured out of every inch of her skin. She could hear herself scream, it was hoarse and loud, but there was no stopping it.

Her body continued to shudder and jerk over him, her pussy clenching and trembling. Libby sought out every drop of pleasure until she fell limp onto his chest.

“That was fucking beautiful, mouse,” he said, giving her soft kisses along her temple.

His cougar was fucking pleased as hell that they’d gotten their mate off. And if she could come that hard with her clothes on, Stryker could only imagine what she’d be like when he got her in a proper bed.

After having her come on his lap, he realized there was no way he was going to be an IF in her life. He was going to be the one and only in her life. He’d keep her so weak with pleasure she would never regret giving herself to him.

Libby was trying to make her brain function. She was breathing heavily, her heart pounding a mile a minute.

Stryker’s hard cock was still pressed against her now sensitive mound. He hadn’t gotten off, but she sure had. There probably wasn’t an animal within a mile that didn’t run scared from all the noise she made.

She knew she should be embarrassed, but Stryker was kissing and petting her, telling her how amazing she was. It was hard to not let a little of that soak in.

“Baby, look at me,” he encouraged. Stryker didn’t want her hiding from him. He needed to see her eyes after she came like that. He wanted to memorize that look. Save it for rough days or when he missed her.

Libby tilted her head back and managed to crack her eyelids open to him. Stryker brushed the hair around her face that had become dislodged back and started chuckling. Libby’s eyes shot open then, was he laughing at her?

“No, not at you,” he said like he was reading her mind. “You look fuck drunk, darlin’. It’s a good look on you. One that I wouldn’t mind seeing often,” he amended.

“I don’t think that’s a word,” she mumbled after her feelings were appeased that he wasn’t making fun of her.

“It is when I’m talking about you. God damn, you’re sweet, baby. Thank you for trusting me with that,” he said, holding her tight.

“It’s not like it was a million bucks, Stryker,” she scoffed.

“It was better,” he answered. He had a million bucks. What he didn’t have before today was a sweet as hell mate who was sexy, could come like a rocket, and was a virgin to boot.

“Hmmph,” she answered him. She could only imagine the books she could buy with a million dollars.

“Let me hold you for a while then I’ll take you back. Do you want to text your parents? Let them know where you are?”

“Nah, no cell service out here.” She didn’t mention she didn’t even have a phone. “They probably won’t notice I’m not in my room until dinner time,” she assured him.

“Am I invited?” he asked. Might as well push ahead with their relationship. Get meeting the parents out of the way.

Libby laughed, “And tell them what? Mom, Dad, this is Stryker. He’s new in town and we decided to start dating today?”

“Sounds good,” he said, honestly.

“No, sounds crazy, Stryker. We just met!” she said, her voice rising.

“Yeah, and you just rode my dick until you came on my lap. I’m gonna have a zipper imprint from you,” he said roughly, although he sounded pretty pleased with the idea.

Libby looked at him to assess whether he was really serious about meeting her parents.

Shouldn’t they date for a while? A few months or so before she subjected him to her parents? How do you explain Freedom and Primrose to a guy who looks like he’s more comfortable inside a bar, or under a car?

“Tell me about them,” he asked. Maybe if she got some of her concerns out of the way she’d be more inclined to invite him over.

Where the heck did she start? At the beginning she decided.

She told him about her parents, their quest for serenity or nirvana, or whatever. How they changed their names and changed their lifestyle.

She told him how her dad was a doctor and her mom the town witch. Not really, but Libby thought it sounded better than crazy garden lady.

“They sound nice, kooky, but nice. I think they’d like me,” Stryker declared confidently.

Libby gave him a look of doubt and decided she was offering up a lot about herself. Time to turn the tables.

“What about you? What’s your family like?”

Stryker mentally did a quick edit of the facts and started in. “Mom is Lilibeth. Dad is Sebastian. They run a fruit farm in California.

Oldest brother Dax lives in Washington state and runs a farm up there. Sister Mackenzie lives in Washington and is a stay-at-home mom with my new nephew Kingston.

Brother Everett is the one that I told you about that just got married. He lives in Las Vegas now. Then there’s me,” he finished. That was the truth, altered slightly.

“They sound nice,” she remarked. She was ashamed to admit that she didn’t expect him to have such a normal sounding family. She had dreamed up all sorts of scenarios. Orphaned, on the road, looking for forgiveness.

Yeah, she totally read too many books. But he sounded like a normal guy. Weird, because nothing about him seemed normal.

“They aren’t too bad. Mom’s a nut, but you just have to know how to deal with her. Heard she had a run-in with my brother’s new wife. I guess she’s seen the light about welcoming spouses into the family,” he said with a laugh.

Libby couldn’t help the little twinge in the region of her heart when he said the word spouse. She’d never said it out loud, but she’d always wanted to get married and start a family.

She didn’t have grand plans to be a businesswoman or do some really important job that would change the course of history.

She didn’t fault anyone for those goals, in fact she looked up to them. The girls she went to school with had such huge plans. They were goal oriented and focused. Libby was just counting the days until she could head back home.

She just wanted to be Libby. Read lots of books, teach her children and the community’s kids to love books.

She wanted someone to come home to. To cook for, cuddle with and talk to. Those were her big aspirations. They sounded simple and boring, so she never really shared them with anyone.

“Well, my parents still think I’m twelve so I don’t think they would know what to do with a gentleman caller,” she joked.

“Oh, sweetheart, I’m no gentleman,” he said.

“You know what I mean,” she replied.

“I do and you can call me whatever you’re comfortable with. Guy I’m dating, boyfriend, lover, but it doesn’t change what I really am,” he said softly.

“And what are you?” she whispered back.

“I’m yours, Libby.”

D
id he mean that
? How could he say something like that after a few hours?

Libby was confused and feeling very out of her element. He talked like one of the heroes in her favorite books.

Sexy strong alpha males that took what they wanted and didn’t apologize. But those were make-believe. Real men did not talk or act that way.

Libby was thinking that there was a distinct possibility she may be suffering from a brain tumor and this was all some horrible, awesome hallucination.

“How can you know?” It seemed a reasonable question. He’d only known her for the sum total of half a day.

“How do you know?” he returned.

“What do you mean? I don’t know anything yet,” she said, affronted at the turn of questioning.

“Yes you do, don’t lie to me, mouse. I can already tell you aren’t the kind of person to follow a stranger out into the woods. You’d have to trust that person, know that he’d keep you safe. How do you know?”

Darn, she didn’t have an answer to that, just her instincts telling her that she didn’t need to perform fight or flight in this situation.

In fact, if she took a moment, she realized she was supremely comfortable sitting on his lap just having climaxed. He hadn’t stopped touching her since they met. She liked his constant attention.

And she’d only briefly considered herself crazy for her actions so far. That was those after school specials talking, not how she truly felt.

“I feel it,” she finally answered him.

“Same with me. I feel it, I’m sure of it in a way that is hard to express. I know that I’m going to have to drop you back off at your house and go home alone.

I know that I’m going to spend every waking hour and probably into my dreams thinking about you. Worrying about you and missing you. I know that in my soul,” he told her this staring deep into her eyes.

“That’s deep,” she teased.

“I know and fuck me if I’ve ever said that shit to anyone,” he admitted.

“So after tonight, then what?”

“I’ll be waiting for you tomorrow morning. We’ll have lunch together and I’ll try to convince you again to let me come to dinner and meet your parents.

If you won’t invite me, maybe I can show you where I live? I don’t want to come across as too mysterious. If I don’t talk about myself or my life it’s just because I don’t think it’s very interesting. I like things simple.”

He was stroking her waist and he shifted a bit to give himself some relief from the constant hard-on he’d been sporting.

Realizing he was moving because of her, she offered, “Oh shoot, do you need me to move? I’m sorry I’ve been sitting here so comfy. You must be miserable.”

“No, mouse, not miserable at all. Very fucking content to tell you the truth,” he said with a slightly pained laugh.

He was content but his dick was not. He was already thinking ahead of being able to take care of business the minute he got home. He’d be jerking off until he saw her again. That was a pleasant fucking thought.

“I should probably take you back. I’m going to have to rethink the bike though, it’s getting colder and I didn’t see you driving around,” he mentioned as he scooted her down his legs and helped her stand before following her.

He helped dust off her skirt and made sure they both weren’t sporting any stray forest bits.

“No, I usually walk. Sometimes ride my bike. I had a pretty nifty scooter when I was in college. I sold it before I came home though. It was noisy and I didn’t think my neighbors would like it.”

“You think they like the motorcycles riding through town?” he asked, amazed she’d worry so much about a neighbor or two. That would never make him sell his bike.

“Well, my neighbors are old. By the time I’m getting ready and leaving for work it’s their first nap of the day. I’d hate to disturb them,” she laughed.

“Huh,” he grunted.

Stryker swung her back into his arms again and started stomping through the woods back to his motorcycle.

He added the topic of family cars to things he wanted to talk to Dax about. His mate was human so he knew all about breaking the secret and getting her to accept.

He was pretty sure his brother didn’t finesse his way into his mate Effie’s acceptance of him. Knowing Dax he fucking bungled the shit out of it. Stryker wanted to avoid that if he could.

Reaching his ride he put her down on her feet and reached for the helmet. “So, dinner tomorrow?” he asked, settling the helmet on her head.

Laughing Libby said, “Not tomorrow.”

“Oh, so the next day? That works better with my busy schedule,” he murmured.

“You have a busy schedule?”

“Sure do, I work for a living you know. Then there’s this sweet piece I just met and I’m trying to get in good with her, so I need to stock up on junk food to woo her with,” he said seriously.

“Did you just say woo?”

“Maybe,” he said, ignoring her smile.

Libby broke into giggles holding her stomach as she replayed him saying “woo” in her head over and over.

“Well, I think the girl you met likes all junk food. Except corn nuts, those things are tooth crackers. But anything else is fair game,” she encouraged.

“Understood,” he said formally. He swung his leg over the seat and then reached for Libby, settling her behind him.

He started up the motor and then realized he’d forgotten the skirt maneuver before she got on. Leaning around, he eyeballed the skirt then her. Libby got the hint and twisted the material and sat on it. Hoping that would keep her from flashing the town.

Stryker rode back into Port May, dreading the minute he’d have to let her go. Libby pointed to streets once they hit the edge of town directing him which way to go.

They finally pulled up to an old farm house that had an odd air of abandoned and lived in by clowns feel about it. Brightly colored glass reflected out of the garden on the side. Wind chimes clanged in the breeze. The ornate cornices of the peaks were all painted a different color. It was odd yet whimsical.

Stryker killed the engine and helped Libby off with a hand to steady her until she was balanced. He swung off next and pulled her into his arms. He felt her stiffen and knew that there was a good chance her parents heard the roar of his bike and were possibly watching them even now.

“Hey, this is going to happen, baby. Don’t worry, they’ll love me,” he tried to soothe her.

Libby snorted, “Yeah right, your confidence astounds me.”

“I know that I’m not going to let anything get in my way of being with you. Parents, work, or nosy neighbors, nothing. So we might as well get started so we can move past it,” he declared.

He made it sound so easy. Just throw yourself to the lions and hope to come out on the other side. Sure, excellent plan she thought.

“Maybe just not today? I’m a little overwhelmed and have a feeling I might have a tiny breakdown once I think about the events of the day. I don’t need to add parent drama to that too,” she begged.

“I’ll give you today, maybe even tomorrow. But hear me, mouse, this—us—it’s non-negotiable.”

Wow, that was bossy she thought. And kinda hot she amended.

“I’ll take tonight, thank you,” she said, deciding to not look a gift horse in the mouth.

Stryker gave her a small smile and leaned down wrapping her in his arms and claiming her mouth in a hard kiss. Libby gave over and let him kiss her until her toes curled.

When he finally released her she was panting, her cheeks were rosy and she could see his eyes getting shiny again. Strange.

She started to shrug off his leather and he stopped her. “Give it to me tomorrow.”

Nodding, because she really didn’t want to give up his yummy smelling jacket, she offered a tiny wave and walked towards the house.

She knew she was going to look back. There wasn’t a force on this earth that could have stopped her from seeing if he was watching her.

Sure enough, he was standing with hands at his hips. White t-shirt stretched over his firm chest. Brown hair tousled from the ride and freaking sexy as hell. She made a tiny whimper and she saw him smile like he heard her.

Turning back she made it to the door, went inside and it closed behind her before she heard the roar of his bike and him speeding away.