The Cougar's Bargain (24 page)

Sean woke feeling more energized than he had in months, and knew it was due to the still-sleeping woman next to him. Hannah was on her back with lips parted in slumber and hair a mess on the pillow beneath her.

He couldn't resist touching her with her being so close, so he skated his fingers along her jaw and dragged his thumb over her soft lips.

He hadn't been surprised that she would draw away a bit when she learned what had happened with him and his family. Nobody talked about it anymore—they all pretended it was water under the bridge, but Sean knew they probably resented him, and he didn't blame them if they did.

His mother kept saying that sometimes people needed to do what they had to do to keep their heads above water, but he couldn't shake the feeling that his brothers thought he wouldn't come through when he needed to. He wasn't the first person they called when they were in a bind, even when he was
right there
on the ranch and accessible.

That hurt.

He knew better than anyone that Cougars held long grudges. He'd probably spend the rest of his life proving that he'd do the right thing.

Hannah jolted upright clawing at the covers and breathing hard. Her pupils were huge and skin flushed. “The—the—”

“Hey, it's all right. You're okay. No new monsters here. Just Sean.”

He pushed his fingers through the back of her sweat-sodden hair and kept her still. He watched her until her pupils shrank and the red in her cheeks dissipated.

She swallowed. “Sean.”

“Yeah. Just me.”

“You were there, too. You … you were …”

“Dead?” he offered softly.

“No, just—just there. It was chaotic and there was screaming. I don't …” She gave her head a hard shake and smoothed her hand down her face. “All right. Uh. What time is it?”

He stared a while longer until satisfied her dream's grip had loosened on her, then he grabbed his phone from the bedside table. “It's seven. I'm going to jump in the shower. Your brother will probably be awake soon since his body is on East Coast time. I'd like to be presentable before he tries to kick my ass.”

She sighed and rubbed her eyes. “I'm not going to let him kick your ass. I can fight my own battles for the most part.”

“So, you're saying
you're
going to kick my ass.”

“No one's kicking anyone's ass.
Yet
.”

Her words weren't exactly comforting, but he'd take what he could get from her.

She slid off the end of the bed, stood holding his discarded undershirt, shimmied into it, and walked to the door between the adjoined rooms.

And, like a lecher, he sat up and watched. He'd yet to see her in all her splendor in the light of day, and with the curtains drawn still wasn't getting that great a view, but all the right curves and shadows were there, and they triggered all the right hormones. Those hormones were making him hurt, and that was a distraction he needed to douse immediately.

He waited until she'd stepped into the other room before walking to the bathroom. If he hadn't, she probably would have thought he only ever had sex on the brain in addition to having a reputation for being unreliable. Not exactly a winning combination.

He'd barely gotten himself into the shower and had just put his hand around the base of his cock to slake off a little physical angst when the bathroom door opened.

The colder air from the bedroom swirled in and pushed the thin, plastic curtain against his legs. He nudged it back to find Hannah peeking in.

“Mason's on the phone,” she said.

Fuck. Checking up on me, probably.
Sean reached for the soap. “What does he want?”

“Want me to put him on speaker?”

“Go ahead.” Sean started scrubbing in earnest, bypassing the area he'd
thought
he needed to pay attention to. The threat of a conversation with either of his brothers would have put a damper on even the most enduring erection.

“Sean, you there?” Mason asked.

“Yep. I'm in the shower.”

“Yeah, Hannah told me. I wanted to relay some news before you got too far into the day. You keep doing what you're doing, and I'll keep talking.”

“What's up?”

“Good news and bad news. I'll give you the bad news first. There's something seriously weird going on with Belle and that hellmouth. She can't stay away from it. With us being a little more sensitive to spirits and unseen forces than the average critters, Ellery's brothers-in-law suspect she might be getting pulled by something just on the other side of the portal. Obviously, we're motivated to get that shit sealed off as soon as possible.”

“Damn. What do you want me to do?”

“Don't worry about it. We've got folks tailing her for the moment. Mom's not letting her go anywhere alone, and if she has to be at work, there are a few Cougars taking turns keeping their eyes on her.”

“I can't
not
worry about it, Mason. How would you like it if I said that shit to you? Do you think I don't care?”

“Get off it, man. I
know
you care. I never insinuated you that you didn't. What I said was
don't worry about it
. That's an alpha's order. You understand me?”

Sean rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Any other fantastic news I shouldn't worry about?”

“Keep up with the mouth and you're going to earn yourself a swift kick to the ass when you get back. I owe you a few for being an insufferable shit, anyway, and I've just been waiting for a reason to do it. Don't try me.”

“Do what you gotta do, man.” Sean reached for the teensy shampoo bottle and ducked his head under the shower spray.

“Remember you said that, because when I fuck you up, I'm not going to give you a warning or a head start. And, on to the good news now. Gulielmus is officially awake. The magic finally worked.”

“No shit?”

“Yep. There's a problem, though.”

“Of course there is. Good news in the Land of Foye always comes with caveats. How big of a problem?”

“We're still trying to find out. He doesn't remember anything.”

Which put them at exactly the same place as they had been before he'd woken—nowhere.

“Un-
fucking
-believable,” Sean muttered.

The plan Ellery's brothers-in-law had proposed to seal off the hellmouth involved putting three of a particular kind of angel at the entrance and letting them work their magic. The angels, or ex-angels in the case of Gulielmus and his associates, could open and close portals between realms. Beings like him weren't exactly common, and he'd been in an odd sort of coma since around the time the hellmouth had opened.

“Mason, are you kidding me? That zillion-year-old creature can't remember what he is?”

“His sons are trying to figure out now what he knows, so just FYI. His friends say it might not be necessary that he remember what he is, so they're considering just getting him to the hellmouth and putting him in place. They think they can do the rest from there. Won't be easy with just the two of them working actively, but they're confident. They want to wait a little while before trying.”

“How long is a little while?”

“Don't know. Ellery is with them right now. She said she'd let me know before the end of the day.”

“Thanks for filling me in.”

“How are things going out there?”

“Well—”

Before he could tell Mason about his excellent evening, the phone beeped. Sean nudged back the curtain and watched Hannah put the phone to her ear. She shook her head slightly at him and left, closing the door behind her.

Hannah
is going to deal with Mason?

They so had that backward. And of course, Sean wanted to know what she was going to tell him. Would she tell him that Steven was there and that he'd seen Sean shift?

Incentivized to scrub a little faster, Sean got himself out of the shower in record speed and dressed, leaving his wet hair flopping into his face. He walked into the adjoining room to find Steven sitting on the edge of the bed. Steven looked up from the big black knife he'd been studying and cut a glare to Sean.

Water drumming in the bathroom revealed Hannah must have been in the shower at the moment.

Steven tossed the knife from hand to hand and ground his teeth. Even sitting on the edge of the bed in purple boxer shorts printed with East Carolina University pirate logos, the guy had a
Try me
vibe, and Sean was in the kind of mood where he might have considered it.

Sean leaned against the dresser edge, crossed his arms over his chest, and stared right back.

Steven narrowed his eyes. “I should kill you.”

“Well, there we go. Blondie said you don't form soft opinions, and I guess she wasn't exaggerating.”

“You did something to my sister.”

“Yeah, I kidnapped her. I guess you don't remember last night's story hour?”

“Motherfucker.” Steven kept flipping that knife.

Sean wriggled his eyebrows. “I had to. You know, because of a curse.”

Steven flicked his gaze to the bathroom and then back to Sean as if he were wondering if he had enough time to do something with that knife.

“But, you know, if I had to have a mate because of a curse, she's a good one to have. I'm keeping her if she'll do me the same favor.”

“Thankfully, that's
her
choice.”

“With that tone of voice you use, you make it sound like it's
your
choice.”

“Sometimes people need help making decisions.”

“Help, huh? Is that what your family calls it?”

“You don't need to worry about what happens in our family.”

“And you don't need to worry about what happens in mine. In case this wasn't evident to you, the reason you're here is pretty much a family problem.
My
family. And Hannah called you for advice. I figured it'd be a good thing to rip the bandage off and tell you what happened to her.”

“So I can lie for you?”

“Yep.” Sean canted his head toward the door. “You might have been a hair shy of truly drunk last night, but you saw what I was. That was no illusion. I was born that way, and that's what Hannah is now, too. You understand why she can't go home.”

“She could go home. We'd figure out a way to—”

Sean slashed a hand through the air. “Come off it, man.”

Steven closed his eyes and let out a long, ragged breath. “They wouldn't get it. It'd be her fault, somehow.”

“You don't need to protect her from herself. That's my job.”

Steven pushed up an eyebrow.

“
Your
job is to protect her from your family, especially since you've done such a bang-up job of it in the past twenty-nine years.”

“They thought they were doing the best thing for her, raising her like one of the boys.”

“Does she look like a boy to you? Act like a boy?”

Steven shook his head and chuckled. “Nah. Didn't rub off the way my dad hoped. She's a pretty damn good shot and has a mean right hook, but she's still got that estrogen problem. Hannah was emo long before it became a pop culture thing.”

“I don't see it as a problem. It didn't have to be a problem, but now she's confused about whether or not it is one.”

“I think my mother went along with it at first because she's just not inclined to argue with my father, and then after a while, she started thinking it was normal. I know it's not, and I've seen how hard it is for her to make friends. I don't know how to fix it, though.”

The water went off in the bathroom, and Sean watched the door until it opened. Hannah emerged wrapped in two towels—one around her body and the second around her hair—and gave the men in the room an assessing look.

“I don't see any blood,” she said, her gaze falling to the knife in Steven's hands.

“Maybe because I couldn't say for sure if I'd win if I started something,” he said.

She rolled her eyes.

“Give me some credit. I had a rough night and my morning's not going much better. I'm going to hop in the shower and hope my brain reboots in the time it takes me to finish waking up. I've got a kernel of an idea in there about how to handle your situation, but with circumstances being what they are, I'm not quite sure what follow-up questions I should ask. Give me thirty minutes and a cup of coffee and I'll get it together.”

“We can all go get coffee,” she said. “And something with sausage or bacon. Probably a gallon or so of Gatorade, too. I think I've been drinking more booze than water since coming down here.”

“Glad I didn't indulge,” Sean muttered.

Hannah cut him a glare. “Not in beer, anyway.”

Steven, on his feet and sheathing that wicked-looking knife, raised his eyebrows.

“Ignore her,” Sean said.

“I'm going to. Not because you told me to, but because if I don't piss soon, I'm going to dislodge vital organs in my midsection.” Steven didn't exactly
run
to the bathroom, but if he'd been moving any faster he might have had a chance at setting a new world record, just like Sean had in the shower.

After the bathroom door had closed and the lock had clicked, Hannah gripped the towel by the knot over her chest and bent over her bag. She said nothing while she rooted, and she took so long deciding between white ankle socks and black ones that Sean decided he was being pointedly ignored.

“I can take a hint,” he said.

“Don't be so sensitive. That's what my family always tells me.”

“If you're going to give me the cold shoulder, I'd at least like to know what specific thing I did that caused it. I'm sure there are so many. I don't think licking you until you came apart is the culprit.”