The Cougar's Bargain (16 page)

Sean even made an appreciative grunt.

“You're doing that travel nurse thing you said you'd never do?” Steven asked.

“No. Just doing some …
consulting
.”

Sean gave her the thumbs-up, and mouthed, “Good one.”

She winked.

“When are you going to be back?” Steven asked.

She flinched, and the movement pulled at the tight scar on her cheek. She pressed her fingertips to the permanent reminder of her new condition.

Sean pulled them away gently, shook his head, and whispered, “Don't dwell on it.”

“Can't not dwell once I remember it.” She sighed, closed her eyes, and held her phone tighter to her ear. “I'm not coming back, Steven. That's what I told Dad. I meant it.”

“I don't understand. That's not like you. You wouldn't just up and leave. You plan things weeks and months in advance. You're not the kind of person who'd abandon her life at the spur of the moment to go off adventuring.”

“Do you really know so much about what kind of person I am? The last I recall, you just took Mom's and Dad's words for things.”

“That's not fair.”

“It is what it is. Listen, I gotta go.”

“Who are you with, Hannah?”

“Who did I come here with? Miles and Ellery.” Again, close enough to the truth. “Anything else do you need to know to placate that brotherly guilt that'll go away long before you cut into my birthday cake?”

“There's no cake. Mom bought pies this year. I think she saw some sort of buffet thing in
Southern Living
that she wanted to try.”

Hannah must have been white-knuckling her phone to the point Sean thought she was going to do it some permanent harm, because he took it from her, gently, and gave his head a slight shake.

“I think he's joking, blondie,” he whispered.

“You can hear him?”

“At this distance, most of it. Your hearing will improve in time, I'm guessing.”

She groaned. He'd heard every pathetic word on both ends and probably knew the full extent of her family drama now.

Taking a bracing breath, she took the phone back and said to Steven, “Don't worry. I'm safe, and I'm not alone.”

“Let me talk to whoever you're with.”

“Ste—” She couldn't balk. She wanted to, but she literally couldn't because Sean took the phone.

“Dude, she said she's fine.”

“Um …” She couldn't hear anything from the other end. She wedged herself closer to Sean and put her ear closer to the phone, which put them close indeed.
Too
close. She wanted to cling to him like cat hair, now that she was there. She put a bracing hand against his chest and tried to tell herself that her heart beating that fast didn't mean anything.

“Who the hell are you?” Steven asked.

“I go by many names,” Sean said in a funny little accent.

Dear Lord.
Hannah suppressed a snort and gave the toe of his boot a little warning kick. In response, he looped a leg tightly around hers, locking them in place, and slung his free arm around her back.

“Dammit,” she muttered against his chest. She clawed ineffectually against him. Unlike the first day that they'd met when he and his brothers had hijacked her tent, her fight or flight instinct didn't seem to be functioning as it should. Her inner cougar was lounging on her side and licking her paws without a care in the world.

Steven said something or other, and Sean responded with, “Mm-hmm. Yep, we're working together, but I can assure you, I'm soiling her virtue every chance I get.”

“
Sean
,” she warned.

“You know, I don't take kindly to being threatened. I seriously doubt you're in any position to make that kind of claim,” Steven said.

“He's blowing smoke,” she whispered. There was nothing Steven could do from half a country away. Not a
damned
thing.

“Hey, I will if I want to,” Sean said. “I mean, we're two consenting adults, and if it suits me, I'm gonna get all up into her personal space until she tells me to fuck off.”

“I'm pretty sure I
have
told you that on several occasions,” she whispered.

He covered the phone's mouthpiece and held the device at arm's length away from her. “That didn't count. You were trying to rough up the guy who kidnapped you and not the guy who's gonna keep you from going berserk on a group of shifters we know next to nothing about. And you're not telling me no right now, are you, blondie?” He wriggled his eyebrows.

“Ugh!” She squirmed away from him and took a few large steps back.

He grinned, leaned onto his bike, and put the phone back to his ear.

“You're such a dick,” she muttered.

“Less of a dick than your brothers, apparently. Oops, did I say that out loud?”

Even Hannah could hear Steven's bombastic protest on the other end. She swooped in to snatch the phone, but Sean was too quick, and had gotten ten feet away before she could straighten her spine to rebound.

“Don't worry,” he said. “If anything happens, I'll make sure she's taken care of. I'll even marry her if it comes down to it, but that's such an old-fashioned institution, you know? I just can't imagine Hannah in a white dress and carrying a bouquet. I've got a pretty phat white suit, though, that I picked up in Miami about six years ago. I could wear that and she could wear black. Why be traditional, you know?”

“Give me the phone,” Hannah hissed.

Sean shook his head and sprinted toward the sidewalk.

“Give me the phone!”

“And twinning happens pretty frequently in our family. The chances are pretty high she'll be super-bloated by the time she realizes she's pregnant, anyway, and she's going to want to wear something dark.”

“You asshole.” She could only imagine what Steven must have been saying. She jumped on Sean's back and tried to make another grab for the phone, but he wrenched it away from her, laughing, and hit the speaker button.

“She probably wouldn't even let me buy her a ring. Don't you think she should have a ring?”

“For what?” Steven shouted. “You're talking in hypotheticals. You said you were just working with her. I think you're a little nuts, dude. If you touch my sister—”

Hannah growled.

“You'll what, Steven?” Sean asked.

She gave his waist a punishing squeeze between her thighs that had him reaching around to swat her.

“Are you going to track me down so you can come wag your finger at me? Hey, if that's what floats your boat, go for it. I wish I could say I had all the time in the world to entertain you, but I'd be lying. I'm a busy guy. Full-time job. Community responsibilities. You know how it goes.”

He shimmied and almost dislodged Hannah from his back, but she wouldn't have made much of a motorcycle rider if she didn't know how to hang on. She gripped him even tighter between her thighs.

“I couldn't give a damn about how busy you are,” Steven said. “Hannah, you there? That guy messin' with you?”

“No.”

Sean swiveled his hips and leaned sideways, chuckling all the while.

She clung to him like a sloth from a tree branch. “He annoys the everloving shit out of me, but I can't say he's—
oomph
!”

Sean dropped her ass onto the asphalt and threw his hands up in triumph.

She bared her fangs at him, which only made him stick out his tongue and wag it at her.

“Hannah?” Steven shouted.

Sean turned off the speaker and put the phone to his ear. “She's fine. Aren't you fine, blondie?” He held the phone out to Hannah, who was rolling onto all fours. “Shout it for him.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she said.

“See, she's fine. And I don't really care if you don't believe it. You want to take it up with me in person?”

“Sean,” she warned.
Oh, hell no.
She scrambled to her feet then clapped the gravel from her hands as she lunged at him. “Don't tempt him. He'll take you up on it.”

Even running backwards, Sean was faster than her.

Dick.

“Name's Sean Foye. You can probably find out everything you need to know about me at our business website. Just search for Foye Woodworks in New Mexico. Accept no substitutions. When it comes to quality, the Foyes have got you covered, and yada yada yada. Oh, you're going to catch the first flight out and kick my ass?” Sean winked at her and kept bobbing and weaving. “Come at me, bro. Let me know your flight number. I'll even send my mom to the airport to pick you up.”

“No!” Hannah leaped at him and somehow managed to catch him by the waist and send him toppling backwards. She hit the ground with him, banging her elbows against the asphalt so hard that she saw stars and nearly peed, and yet he kept talking.

“Just send Hannah a text,” he said, laughing. “I'm sure she'll respond when she feels like it. Buh-bye, now.” He held the phone to his ear for moment, grinned, then handed it down to Hannah.

She snatched it from him and put it to her ear. “Hello?”

No response. Steven had already disconnected.

Pulse pounding in her ears and breathing ragged, she tried to pull in a calming breath as she fixed her gaze on Sean. “You. Idiot.”

He pushed up onto his forearms and had the temerity to shrug. “It was always going to come down to that. I'm helping you rip the Band-Aid off the wound.”

“It wasn't your place,” she snarled.

The smirk fell away, and before she caught the slightest hint of movement, he'd rolled them, swapping positions so she was on her back with him straddling her. He pinned her wrists against her heart and whispered, “Wasn't it, though?”

“No. It's none of your business.”

“It
is
my business. You're a member of
my
brother's glaring, and I'm not going to risk us being exposed to outsiders with some situation we can't manage. You've got to control the chaos. If your brother is anything like me and my brothers, he's going to want proof his sister isn't getting fucked over, and he's not going to take your word for it. He's going to want to see it for himself. You make him an ally
now
, so when he goes home he'll lie for you. They'll believe him even if they don't believe you.”

“How do you know he's coming alone? What if he brings my other brothers or my father?”

“He won't. He wants to believe you. He also wants to earn your trust, so he's not gonna rally up the troops to back him up. It's just gonna be him. You're gonna show him what you are, who you're with, and what you're doing.”

“Oh, I am, am I?”
No way.
She didn't even
know
what she was doing.

“Yep. You will. Assuming your intention is to remain in the glaring. If you leave, it won't matter. You can do whatever the fuck you want, but you're not going to leave my family and glaring exposed.” He gave her wrists a squeeze that managed to convey a warning and gentleness at the same time.

That seemed to be Sean in a nutshell, though. Passive until he didn't have to be. Dangerous when necessary.

The part of her that was beast, not woman, reached out to him. It was curious about him. It kept Hannah still on her back with her gaze locked on the man on top of her, and made her fidgeting hands still. It made her heart beat even faster and her cheeks burn, and not with the anger she was so used to, but … some quieter sentiment she couldn't quite grasp.

“What's it gonna be, Hannah?” His voice was more purr than words, as if he already knew her compliance was a sure thing and that hearing the confirmation was just a formality.

“I'm staying,” she said. “But you knew that. You know I can't leave now.” Didn't
want
to leave, really. Her friends were in the glaring and she liked the busyness of being a part of the group, even if she didn't fit into it completely yet. The busyness distracted her from not fitting.

“But are you going to
behave
?”

She shook her head. She wasn't going to lie to him, and wasn't sure if she even could. “Not always.”

“But for this?”

“I will.”

“Good.” He gave her a chaste peck on the forehead, pulled her to her feet, swatted the gravel off her back, and waved at the innkeeper as he walked past suspiciously pushing a rolling mop bucket.

“Freakin' hipsters,” the innkeeper muttered.

Hannah rolled her eyes and shouted, “Can you fix the frickin' air conditioning? I woke up with icicles on my tits.”

Sean hated to admit it, but watching Hannah mastermind a plan was almost as entertaining as seeing her drunk. She muttered to herself as she paced, and when she wasn't pacing, she scratched random bits of information onto a notepad, scribbling lines through facts she didn't deem important enough before he'd even had a chance to read them.

For the most part, he was just trying to stay out of her way, but given his inner cougar's increasingly desperate need to run off some energy and Sean's anxiety whenever he moved more than ten paces from the woman, he couldn't go too far. She was the only thing keeping him from shifting at the moment.

If she was distracted by his presence, however, she didn't mention it.

“You know what, I think I'm gentling you.” He laced his fingers behind his head against the wall and crossed his legs at the ankles.

Hannah stopped pacing at the bedside and locked one of those malevolent brown glares on him. They seemed to be losing their power, though. A month ago, he might have grimaced. Now he just blinked.

“You're not gentling me. You're just wearing me down.”

“You make that sound like a bad thing.”

“Go away.”

“Nah. I think your bed is a little more comfortable than mine. Fewer springs digging into my backside.”