Page 49 of Claiming Her Cougar
We dry off, and Liam pulls on clean boxer briefs he had in his bag as I enter my bedroom to grab clean clothes.
“Do you want me to stay?”he asks.
I sigh.“Will you be offended if I say no?It’s nothing personal.It’s just…this is awkward, and I don’t know what Mom’s going to say or what Dad knows.”
“I get it.This isn’t the first impression I wanted to make on your parents, anyway.”He sits on the corner of my bed to pull on his socks and shoes.He bounces slightly and grins.“The mattress feels good.Hope to test it in the future.”
My cheeks flush, the curse of being a redhead.There’s no hiding my embarrassment.
“If you don’t get out of here before my parents return, you may not be alive to try it out.”I say while stepping into black yoga pants.I grab a hoodie that says, “Addicted to Love Stories” and pull it on, taking a moment before popping my head through in hopes the flush to my cheeks subsides.
Liam is fully dressed and running his fingers through his hair to give it some order.
“Your hair curls!I love it!”Reaching up, I finger one of the curls forming along his neck.This time it’s his turn to blush.
“Yeah, when it gets too long, it does that.I need to get it cut.”
“No!”I cry.“It’s adorable.”I imagine a little boy with copper-tinged brown curls and bright blue eyes and—I gasp.No, no, no, no.I can’t think about precious little boys with curls and mischievous glints in their eyes.Not going to happen.Can’t happen.
“You okay, Mallory?”Liam asks, concern clear in his voice.
I cough to clear the frog that has leaped into my throat.“I’m fine.”I don’t think my smile is convincing, but Liam lets it go.
“Okay, I’m going to head out.Text or call me later?”Grabbing my hand and leaning forward, he brushes a quick kiss across my lips.
It’s too quick.I wish we could linger.My parents have the worst timing.I guess it’s better they came home when we were only in the shower and not in the middle of making the most of my mattress.
“I’ll walk you out.”I lead the way down the back stairs, stopping at the bottom to look around and make sure we’re alone.
“They aren’t here,” Liam says behind me.“I’d smell them.If I wasn’t distracted earlier, I would have noticed your mom as soon as she entered the house.I’m sure she scented me right away.”
Great.She has to know he’s a cougar.Not bad enough to have a man in my shower, but for him to be a cougar shifter will bring some questions, I’m sure.
“Right.”I pull open the back door and turn to Liam.“You can get to the rink okay?It’s right through the trees there.You have your keys and stuff?”
He steps closer to me and wraps the arm not carrying his bag around me.“Give me a kiss, and I’ll have all I need.”
I stand on tiptoe to press a kiss to his jaw.He tightens his grip and adjusts the angle of his head to kiss my lips, lingering.With a sigh, I reach up and run my fingers through his damp curls.I open my lips and run my tongue along his bottom lip.I hear a rumble, almost like a purr, and it makes me smile.Instead of accepting my invitation to deepen the embrace, he breaks it and steps past me to the deck outside the kitchen door.In his eyes, I can see his reluctance to leave warring with his determination
“I’ll see you tomorrow night.Call me.Please.”He gives a sheepish grin.He’s learning commands don’t work on me.
“Yeah, see you tomorrow.Drive home safely.”
He lopes off toward the rink, stopping at the tree line to look back at me and wave.I raise my hand to return the gesture and watch him slip into the trees.Just a minute or two later, I hear the powerful engine of his Bronco come to life and watch the headlights as they drive through the early twilight December brings to southern New Jersey.I close the door and sigh.My parents will be home soon, and I am not looking forward to that conversation.
19
LIAM
Well,that didn’t go how I expected.Not that I was expecting to see Mallory or have sex when I went to the rink.I didn’t know she’d be there.But after we came to our “friends with benefits” agreement and got rid of my family, I was expecting something more than some soapy shower time fun and an interruption from her parents.
I start my Bronco and drive through the woods in the winter twilight.It’s nice out here.I grew up in a well-to-do suburban neighborhood, so I’ve never lived somewhere this rural.It’s incredible how much of a difference a few miles make, even in the same town.Shifting Pines goes from marshes and coastland to deep forest in the Pine Barrens, farms to housing developments, houses older than the United States to mansions.It’s so incredibly varied.I wonder what it was like to grow up with space like this.Did they have free rein to run all through the woods?Kendall and I could shift and run around on our property, but that was just a couple acres, nothing like having a forest at your disposal.Logan’s lucky.He has the entire sky to fly in.We land shifters are limited to the land available.
I bet they had snowmobiles and ATVs growing up so they could zoom around the woods.Mallory probably kicked ass racing, and it would be something they could include her in without shifting.I’ll have to ask her about it.
Maybe that’s something we could do together.
She doesn’t want to date and be out in public.We can’t spend all our time in bed.Or in the shower.Well, we could, but regardless of what Mallory thinks, there’s more to us than a physical relationship.I’ll be patient, but my plan is to convert this no-strings friends-with-benefits thing to a genuine relationship with a future.
