Cougar's Mate (11 page)

She shook her head. “I’ll be all right. Thanks.”

Chase pointed at the oak coffee table. "Dan brought some movies up for us to watch that you might like better. Compliments of Dottie. She also sent a spare hairbrush and hair dryer. Dan also asked if we would like to have dinner with a couple in town tomorrow night."

Shannon eyed Chase a little warily.

"We don't have to go if you don't want. It was just an offer, but we're under no obligation."

"All right," she said. “We can go.”

He thought his saying they were under no obligation to go was what made her agree. He would have to remember that if they got any more invitations, and knowing everyone like he did, he suspected they might.

***

Now this was awkward. Chase was waiting for Shannon to return to her room, but he stood near enough to her door that when she opened it, he would see that she’d rearranged the furniture. She didn’t want him to believe it was because she was scared. When she just stood there, hoping he’d move along to his own bedroom, he finally reached around her and opened the door to her room for her.

He paused for a moment, considering her, not the room, and then he suddenly said, “Wait, let me get you something.” He stalked off down the hall to his bedroom.

When she saw the cell phone in his hand, she was hopeful that she could look up the news on the Internet.

“I want you to take my cell phone. I’ve got another that Dan assigned to me for police work. My number is listed under contacts in my phone. When I’m out working on the cabins or anytime you want to call me, feel free.”

He had no intention of monitoring her every move? She felt a sense of liberation in that instance and she really appreciated him for that. Though she was a little surprised he really was giving her free rein to do as she pleased. “Thanks,” she said, “for everything.”

He glanced at the armoire she’d had a devil of a time moving against the window. The bedside table was next to the door, so he might have assumed she had shoved it against the only door to the room before she went to sleep. Which made her seem paranoid.

“Good night. If you need anything at all, just come get me. For breakfast, I’ll fix us some ham and cheese omelets.”

She was grateful he didn’t mention anything about her moving furniture when she had really expected him to. But then she realized that he must have carried her to bed earlier and already seen that she’d moved the furniture!

Then he gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. She couldn’t figure him out. He was so good to her when he didn’t know her at all.

“Did… you want to sleep with me instead?” he asked. When her jaw dropped a little, he quickly added, “If you thought you could sleep better because you felt safer.”

Then she laughed. “Yeah, right.”

He gave her one of his charming, dimpled smiles, and he looked absolutely delighted that he’d made her laugh. “Are you sure? If you’re having nightmares—“

“Thanks, I think I’ll be safer in my own bed. But I really appreciate the offer.” She smiled a little and stepped into the room. He closed the door for her. She had to admit she would have felt safer in his arms, at least as far as worrying about anyone breaking into his place and trying to kill her. But on a purely physical level, sleeping with Chase would
not
be safe.

Not with the way she was already attracted to him. Just the way they’d wrestled on the kitchen floor of Hal Haverton’s house and she’d felt the way he’d become aroused and she hadn’t been able to hide hers any more than he could his, and then the kiss she and Chase had shared that hadn’t been exactly chaste—she couldn’t see sleeping with him as anything more than asking for trouble.

She moved the bedside table in front of the door and then climbed into bed. With the light on and the covers tucked under her chin, she stared at the ceiling and wondered where Hennessey and his brother and uncle were now if all three of them were after her. If all three were involved in the illegal stuff that Ted was into, she figured that his brother and uncle would want her dead just as much. Were they tracking her as cougars? She had believed they would, but then how would they be able to get to her if she did end up doing this? Rejoining the human population?

Unless they were waiting for word of her suddenly showing up somewhere as a human again.

Eager to learn if her picture was plastered all over the news as a person of interest in the murder of her cop boyfriend, she opened the phone and frowned at it. The cell phone was an older model, which meant? No Internet!

***

Early the next morning, Chase was torn between wanting to wait for Shannon to wake and serve her a hearty breakfast, worried if he didn’t, she wouldn’t eat enough, and wanting to ensure she was okay with him leaving her alone while he worked on one of the rental cabin’s roofs. He hoped she was having the best sleep of her life. He knew she needed it more than anything else right now after what she must have endured.

Unable to quit worrying about her, he tried to peek into the room to see if she was still in there. The door was locked. Not that he was surprised. He went outside and surveyed the window. The armoire was still blocking it.

Believing she wasn’t going to get up anytime soon and attempting to set aside his concern, he fixed himself a piece of toast and honey, then headed out to work. He was just ready to climb onto the roof when Dan called. Immediately, Chase was apprehensive.

He hated that every time his friend phoned him now that Chase would think the worst. That Dan had learned some horrible news concerning Shannon, and they'd have to arrest her. And he was already contemplating how he was going to hide her away.

"Yeah, what's up?" Chase asked.

"We couldn’t lift any prints off the wine glasses. They were too smudged. We’ll have to try at the Muellers’ dinner. Or you can make the attempt again at your place. We're still looking for any clue as to who she is and what trouble she's in. Anything from your end?"

"Not yet," Chase said. “I’m going to work on some repairs to a roof. She’s sleeping right now.”

Pause.

“You still there?” Chase knew Dan thought he should keep an eye on her every minute of the day, but he still felt the best way to learn who she was and what was going on was to earn her trust.

“Do you think that’s wise?”

“She's exhausted with all the running she's done. She needs to take it easy. I figure she'll talk about it when she's ready."

"Which may be too late."

"I know. That's why I'm trying to ease her into it. Trying to be her friend first."

"Just be careful you're not thinking with your heart instead of your head," Dan warned. “It is a go on dinner with the Muellers, right?”

"Yeah, she was good with it. I’ve got to get to work on the roof. The sooner I get to it, the sooner I’ll be back at the main house. Let me know if you learn anything later."

"Will do."

Chase tried not to think of Shannon while he concentrated on the roof, or he could take a misstep and end up landing on his backside below. That’s all he would need—to injure himself when he was supposed to be protecting the lady. But he couldn’t quit thinking about her. About the way she was so scared—not just from the way in which she had rearranged the furniture, which had been telling enough, but leaving a light on in the room, as if to warn anyone away who might think she was asleep, and then peeking out the living room curtains when she heard noises outside.

She’d seemed to sleep well when she was cuddled with him on the couch, and that got him to thinking again about her sleeping with him in his bed. After the kiss they shared? Not a good idea.

And yet, he couldn’t quit mulling it over. Between listening for any sign of anyone else approaching the cabins, and wary that she might decide to sneak out, he really was having a devil of a time concentrating on his work.

He was just finishing up the repairs on one section of the roof, when his phone rang. He fished it out of his shirt pocket, sure Dan had some devastating news if he was calling again this soon. For a second, he saw his name and cell phone number in the caller ID, confusing him, and it took him a minute to realize Shannon was calling him. He smiled. He didn't know why it pleased him so much to get a call from her, but it did.

"Hey, did you finally get a good sleep?" he asked. He sincerely hoped so.

"I’ve been awake for a while, but I saw you headed to one of the cabins with roofing materials in hand, and I didn’t want to distract you when I know you have work to do. I wondered if you'd like for me to fix you something to eat for lunch when you're at a good stopping point."

"I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

She laughed. "You must be hungry. What if I make something that doesn’t appeal?"

"I'm starving. I'll love it, whatever it is."

Within ten minutes, he headed back to his cabin. He really was trying to give her more time, but he was at a point that worked well for him to quit, he
was
hungry, and he was thrilled that she seemed to want to stay put for the moment. Not wanting to alarm her, he unlocked and opened the door, calling out, “It’s just me.”

The fragrance of chocolate baking in the kitchen filled the air. “Hot damn, now this is the way I wish my cabin always smelled when I finish some repairs on the cabins.”

She chuckled.

His stomach began rumbling as he walked into the kitchen. Shannon smiled at him. She looked ravishing, her dark hair cascading softly over her shoulders in silky curls. Her golden eyes were bright and her smile contagious.

The aroma of roasted chicken made his mouth water. "Besides the chicken, which smells divine, I smell chocolate," he said, wondering what she was making.

"I baked a cake for tonight for when we go to your friends' house." She motioned to the cake cooling on the slate counter.

He felt guilty all over again knowing some of the reason the Muellers wanted to see them was to lift her prints off something she used while at their home, if they could. "They'll love it, though the cake might not make it out the door."

She smiled at him again, and she seemed to be much more rested today. She was wearing the black sweater and the jeans again and though she looked good in it, he was thinking about that hot pink sweater and how much he’d like to see her wearing it.

Then he got to thinking about her comment that she’d seen him head over to the cabin to work on it, and he wondered if she had slept much at all. He had hoped she’d been sacked out all this time. "Did you finally sleep well?"

"Much better.”

“Good.”

“So how's the roofing going?" She served up the chicken and baked potato and carried it to the dining table.

He grabbed glasses of water and set them on the table, and then returned for the bowl of salad. "Good. Another couple of hours and I’ll have the cabin’s roof patched. Did you need anything before I go back over there and finish it?"

They took their seats. She shook her head. "Just resting up."

"I take it if you're making cake for tonight, you feel all right about going over there." He shouldn’t have said anything more about it, but he didn’t want her to feel pressured into going.

"Yeah. I've been running for so long and avoiding people—natural instinct when running as a cougar—but after shopping yesterday, I must have met half your townspeople, so I figured what's the difference if I meet one more couple?"

All the difference in the world, if they got lucky and could identify who she was and what had happened to make her run. He wished he could quash the guilt he was feeling. But they had to know how to help her if she was in danger. And it appeared from her every action that she was. He would be perfectly upfront with her, if he wasn’t afraid she’d feel the need to run. Instead, he worried what little trust she had in him would be shattered once she learned the truth.

***

At dinner that night, Shannon met Yvonne and Rick Mueller, both blond with blue eyes and the friendliest smiles. They, and everyone else in town, had been so genuinely eager to meet her. Though she suspected a lot had to do with wanting to know in the worst way why she'd come here the way in which she had. But everyone was being ultra-polite in not asking the question straight out. And she appreciated it more than they could ever know.

She was somewhat apprehensive to see the sheriff’s car there. The last time she’d seen him, she’d assaulted him, knocking him flat on his back. But he never had said anything about charging her with it, so she finally relaxed—a little. She still felt she was under a magnifying glass since Dan and Chase were lawmen. No matter how much she wanted to see Chase as just a nice and helpful guy, she had to remind herself he had a badge, her cop boyfriend was dead, she would be a murder suspect, and cops stood together when it came to one of their own.

They'd talked about the weather and all kinds of inane subjects and Shannon finally asked, "So do you have any hobbies?"

Everyone just looked at her and then at each other. She didn't mean for it to be such an abrupt conversation stopper. She shrugged. "I used to do a lot of photography—for a hobby. I’m not a professional photographer or anything."

"Photography," Yvonne said. "Now I can get into that. Love to do it, but like you, just a hobby."

"Fishing," both Dan and Rick said.

"Me, too," Chase said.

Silence.

"I love reading. Haven't done any in a while, though," Shannon said.

"We have a nice library," Yvonne offered.

"We can run by sometime this week and get you a library card," Chase said.

She smiled a little. She wasn't setting down roots. She didn’t even have any ID, though she suspected that the local library would still give her access to the books if the sheriff and his deputy vouched for her. She guessed no one read much, so she didn’t mention what she liked to read.

Silence.

"We're glad you found your way here. It's the perfect place to raise one of our kind," Yvonne said.

As if Shannon was ready to have kids even. "I won't be staying," Shannon said. She couldn't lie about it.