Cougar's Mate (25 page)

“I had some clothes I was soaking in the kitchen sink,” she said.

“Taken care of,” Dan said, winking at her.

So he had known. “Did they get washed out okay?”

“Chase said to get you a new pair.”

She couldn’t help it—she thought the world of the guys.

“I did. I know you really don’t care for gray, so I had Millicent get you a couple of other colors to wear to lounge in,” Chase said.

“But I could have used those to paint in.”

Everyone chuckled.

She realized her sopping wet paint-covered sweats must have been the topic of conversation among the men while she and Chase were recuperating at the clinic. She was glad they had something to laugh about after all that had happened. It made her feel a little better, too.

Hal had already started a fast action thriller, but Chase knew they weren’t really watching the action. He hoped that Shannon would get her mind off everything that had happened, but he and the other guys needed to figure out a permanent solution to this problem for her.

The doorbell rang and Dan got up to answer it. Shannon’s expression instantly turned to worry. Chase and his friends all pulled guns.

“Pizza delivery,” Dan reassured everyone.

Everyone holstered their guns, then grabbed slices of pizza and took their seats to watch the movie and eat.

“You didn’t get a license number on the vehicle they had at your place by chance, did you Chase?” Dan asked.

“Yeah, right. A little too busy at the time or I would have disabled the damn vehicle, too,” Chase said, wishing he could have and killed all three of the bastards at the same time and then this wouldn’t be an issue.

Shannon snuggled closer to Chase as if she wanted to let him know she understood he was trying to reach her and save her life and hadn’t had time for anything else. He squeezed her tighter against him in a hug. ”You saved my life,” she said, as if the others needed to be reminded of that. “That’s all that matters. But Hennessey is a hard man and will seek revenge if he could kill his own brother for cheating him out of some money. His pursuit of me has cost him his other brother’s life and by tangling with you all, he’s wanted by the FBI and is now on the run.

“He has to be pissed beyond measure. For now, I’m afraid he’ll bide his time. He knows people in his line of work—the kind that are into shady dealings. I assume he’ll be able to keep out of the reach of the police and FBI. He can gain a new identity. Become a ghost. And he won’t have to run as a cougar like I had to, either.”

Everyone was quiet while staring at the TV screen as if watching the movie, but Chase knew better. They were taking in her words, knowing she knew Hennessey better than any of them there did.

Then Shannon suddenly said, “What can I bring to the Thanksgiving dinner?”

With losing three days at the clinic, he hadn’t realized Thanksgiving was tomorrow already.

“Chocolate cake,” both Dan and Chase said.

Hal and Stryker smiled. “We heard you baked a mean chocolate cake for Rick and Yvonne’s dinner,” Stryker said.

“I’m ready for it,” Hal said.

“If she starts baking it here, we won’t want her to take it over there,” Chase said, smiling.

They finally got into the action of the rest of the movie and finished off the pizzas. When the movie ended, Chase wasn’t sure what to say. He knew the guys would want to discuss Hennessey further, but were reluctant to in front of Shannon. She kissed Chase’s cheek, then stretched like a sexy she-cat, and got off the couch.

Chase joined her.

“I’m going to take a shower before you all use up the hot water,” she said.

They all smiled at her.

Chase walked her back to the bedroom and kissed her. “I’ll come to bed in a little while.”

“Sure. Just don’t stay up too late.”

“No. I’ll be in bed with you before you know it,” he promised, wanting to join her before she fell asleep. He released her. She headed into the bedroom to get her things, and then he rejoined the men in the living room, waiting for Shannon to go to the bathroom before they began to talk.

***

When Shannon walked inside the bedroom, she was rewarded with the fragrance of roses and other sweet flowers that people had so graciously sent her, and she began reading the cards. Despite the fact that Chase had been injured so badly that he had been hospitalized along with her, he had ordered three dozen red roses for her. She vowed the first chance she got, she’d make him a special chocolate cake just for him. She saw a couple of bags and inside were several days’ worth of clothing. Everyone had thought of everything for them.

Shannon knew he and the other guys intended to talk about Hennessey and what they were going to do about him. She didn’t know why they didn’t want to discuss the situation in front of her, maybe because she was a civilian, but she didn’t care. She just hoped their plan was a good one because she didn’t have a clue as to what she would do if she had to face Hennessey down alone.

She’d attempt to kill him, of course, with teeth and claws, or if she could get hold of a gun, she’d use that on him, but she really was hoping it wouldn’t come to that because if she thought Roger was hard to fight—and she would never have lasted fighting him if she hadn’t made an escape—Hennessey was bigger, stronger, and lots more scary.

She peeked out the curtains to see the fresh fallen snow again. They’d get it in the Texas Panhandle, but she loved to see it here and everything looked so crisp and clean and… Christmassy. And when she thought of that, she realized she and Chase would be spending their first Christmas together.

If she wasn’t still so worried about Hennessey, she would have been cheered by the notion. No sense in worrying about what she could do nothing about, she told herself, and headed for the bathroom.

Everyone talked about the weather and what they were doing for Christmas while Shannon took her shower. Chase hadn’t even discussed Christmas with her. Or what they would do. For the first time in years, he wanted a Christmas tree, lights, decorations, and wassail cooking on the stove, pies, and a turkey.

All the guys were looking at him while he was lost in a Christmas wonderland and he lost the smile. “What?”

Hal grinned and shook his head. “I would love to know what you were thinking about.”

Dan and Stryker were smiling just as broadly. Getting in some hot loving with the she-cat, he figured they were thinking.

“Christmas with Shannon,” Chase said, and everyone quickly sobered. Chase had avoided Christmas celebrations for the four years he’d lived there. The same as far as Thanksgiving went. They knew how hard it had been for him to lose his wife and child and how Christmas had never seemed the same after that. “I hadn’t even thought about it until she brought up Thanksgiving dinner.” He suddenly felt uncomfortable with the silence.

Dan nodded. “She’s good for you, Chase. I’m so glad for the two of you.”

Hal snorted. “It could have been me.”

“Hell,” Stryker said to Dan, “the one time you forced me to take a vacation and I missed everything—the excitement, the glory, but most of all, the hot she-cat.”

Hearing them, Shannon walked out of the bathroom, smiling at them, her wet hair in a towel, while she wore a fresh pair of sweats---only these were turquoise and he was glad he’d gotten them for her as much as she loved them. “Night, guys.”

“Join you in bed soon,” Chase said.

Her cheeks colored, she nodded, and the guys all said good night. She slipped into the room down the hall, situated between the one Hal was staying in and Dan’s. Stryker planned to sleep on the couch tonight.

Chase took in a deep breath and then let it out. “Okay, we need to decide how we’re going to do this.”

“Track him down?” Dan asked.

Hal took another swig of beer. “Or lay in wait?”

“If Shannon’s right, I’d have to agree he’ll have the resources to bide his time. On the other hand, when he came after her initially, he had tracked her to my place, but he didn’t realize just how dedicated our people are in protecting our own. He didn’t count on there being so many of us and that at a moment’s notice, we would band together. If we go after him, I’m sure he’ll lead us on a merry chase. But I suspect that he doesn’t want to hang around here forever, risking that some of us will spot him or his uncle. He has to know we expect him to return out of vengeance, for no other reason, and we’ll be waiting for him,” Chase said.

“So we lay in wait,” Dan said. “Or maybe you think he’s not going to come.”

“He wants the money that Ted absconded with and if it’s sizeable enough, that’ll keep him coming after her if nothing else. He might leave the area for a while and return when we least expect it,” Chase said.

Dan frowned. “Christmas Day. He might decide to attack the two of you when you are up at your cabin for the holidays. Everyone else would be busy with their own Christmas Day activities. That would be far enough in the future that we might figure he’s given up on Shannon.”

“What if he sends someone else to do his dirty work?” Stryker asked.

“That’s always a possibility. But if he wants the money, I doubt he’ll want anyone else to know about it. What I don’t understand is how come Roger, his triplet brother, seemed eager to kill her,” Chase said.

Dan cleared his throat. “She was injured. What if they wanted to injure her badly enough that she couldn’t run? Then they would have forced her to tell them where the money was and after that killed her.”

Hating the scenario, Chase nodded. “What are we going to do in the meantime? We can’t spend a month here camped out at your place.”

“Sure you can,” Dan said.

Hal said, “I’m good for it.”

Stryker said, “I’ll be headed to my place after tonight. But you know I’m only a call away.”

“Okay, then we’ll plan for some kind of an ambush for Christmas,” Dan said. “And we’ll keep watching for any signs of them in the meantime. If they come back, we’ll be on it.”

Chase bid everyone good night, though everyone else remained in the living room while Hal put on another movie, and turned it up nice and loud.

Chase smiled. They had his back. At least so he could have some quality time with Shannon in relative privacy.

Chase closed the door to the bedroom and noticed the damp towel hanging over a chair back and her turquoise sweats spread out on the seat of the chair.

Her shoulders were bare and her eyes were watching him in the semi-dark, a greenish gold glow to them. Cat’s eyes. He began stripping out of his clothes. Not saying a word. He could have lost her this last time and as long as she was feeling up to it, he wanted to make love to her, to share the connection he’d felt ever since he’d tackled her as a cat near the river and then again when he’d pinned her to the kitchen floor at Hal’s place.

As soon as he was stark naked and seeing the way she was watching him with a speculative gleam in her eye, his dick stood at attention. Which made her smile.

But then she frowned a little as he pulled the covers aside and climbed into bed with her. “We’re not going to make love, are we? Just cuddle?” she asked.

She reached over and ran the palm of her hand over his nipple and the warm, soft sensation against his sensitive nipple made it harden in appreciation. She licked the hollow of his neck, her dark hair tickling his chest.

“They turned up the TV so that we could be as noisy as we want,” Chase said, lifting her face so he could kiss her mouth.

“They’ll hear anyway.”

“If you want, I’ll ask them to go outside and make snow angels or a snowman until we’re done, but I’m making love to you, no matter what. Unless you don’t want me to.”

Shannon shared the most wickedly devilish expression with him. “Would you? Make them go outside? Would they do it?”

He chuckled and kissed her instead, ignoring the shouts and battle cries going on between armored men and the blue-painted Picts in the movie on TV—instead, concentrating on Shannon, every soft curve, her dark hair, her sweet and already musky scent, the sound of her heart ratcheting up a few notches.

He still hadn’t gotten over the fear of having nearly lost her. Even though it had been three days ago, he’d been out of it for most of that time. So it seemed to him like it had only been yesterday.

He kissed her mouth again, cupping a breast as her hands held onto his shoulders, and she kissed him back. With Shannon, starting slow didn’t seem to work as he planned.

Whether it was because she was afraid the movie would grow quiet and the men would hear them or some other reason, Shannon’s sweet kisses turned passionate in a heartbeat and before he knew what to expect, she climbed onto his lap, facing him, spreading herself to him.

Once again, she was showing that side of her that was so wildly unpredictable, and he loved her for it.

His back was pressed against the soft padded headboard, her legs bent at the knees and spread outward, her dark curly short hairs already wet for him.

He took handfuls of her silky long hair and luxuriated in the feel of it as he breathed in her scent, tasted the spices on her tongue, heard the rapid beat of her heart—felt her alive and wanting and real. She was like a dream that he had captured from the moment he’d shot her with the tranquilizer dart and taken her in. As much as she had meant to run away, he had held her heart hostage, whether she was ready to freely admit it or not, just as much as she had held his hostage.

Even now, he remembered the way he’d been shivering in the cold, naked, his head pounding from the slight concussion she’d given him, but instead of running off and abandoning him to his fate, she’d stayed with him, protecting him like she’d protected the boy, no matter what the risk had been to her own safety.

He kissed her hard on the mouth with the kind of passion that said he had claimed her body and soul, before he began to stroke her into climax.

She reached between them and began to stroke his cock and that had him groaning against her mouth as she stopped only long enough to run her thumb over the head with an erotic sweep. Then he continued the assault on her senses—inserting two fingers into her tight sheath, running his thumb over her swollen nub.