Fated to a Cougar: 4 (Cougar Surrender) (5 page)

“Are you sure? You’ve been through so much.”

In way of answer, Sage went on tiptoes and kissed him. She
pushed her tongue past his lips and thoroughly tasted him. Her grip on his
waist tightened as she tugged him closer so their bodies met. Some guys would
have done their best to stop what was about to happen based on principle, but
Grady wasn’t even going to try. If it was something she needed from him, then
he’d give it to her.

He wrapped his arms around Sage and took over their kiss. He
licked and sucked, pushing inside her mouth. It didn’t take much to have his
cock fully engorged. What they’d shared at her house before she’d been informed
about her sister… He remembered all too well what she’d looked like as she’d
come apart in his embrace. He wanted to make her come again, but this time
while his cock was buried deep inside her.

Grady slowly stripped away her clothes one at a time,
learning her body with each inch of skin he exposed. Once he had Sage
completely naked, she helped him undress. Now as naked as she, he pulled her
close again. The feel of her skin-to-skin caused his cock to jerk between them.
He sucked in a sharp breath as she reached down and put her hand around it. She
pumped up and down, squeezing tight.

He let her stroke him a few more times before he gently
pulled out of her grasp and lifted her onto the bed. He came down beside her,
running his hand down her body until he reached her pussy.

Purrs rumbled out of him. “You’re so wet.”

“I don’t want to wait anymore. I want you inside me. Show me
I’m not alone.”

Grady gently kissed her as he shifted to lie between her
thighs. “I’m right here for you.”

He nudged the head of his erection into her pussy. He pulled
back, then sank a little deeper until he’d worked his full length inside her.
Sage moaned as he set a pace that was sure to bring them both to release. She
lifted her bent legs to either side of his hips and matched his strokes. Her
inner walls tightly hugged his shaft as he surged in and out of her.

Grady purred again, unable to hold it back. Making love to
Sage didn’t compare to other women he’d been with. He was more in tune with
her, wanting to make this good for her, to show her this was all for her.

He thrust into her faster, loving the feel of her taking
him. She panted and moaned, clutching his biceps after he lifted his upper body
off her. He sank deeper, his cock growing even harder.

As her pussy tightened around his plunging shaft, then
clutched and released it as Sage climaxed, Grady’s point of no return rushed to
the surface. He growled like the cat he was and surged into her one final time
before his orgasm overtook him.

Once he’d given her all he had and she’d settled beneath
him, Grady lowered himself on top of her, bracing on his elbows so she didn’t
have to take his full weight. He kissed her gently. He pulled out of her and
rolled onto his back, bringing Sage up against his side with her head resting
on his chest. He ran a caressing hand up and down her back. She slowly, by
degrees, relaxed. She reached for his pendant and closed her fingers around it.

Grady kissed Sage’s forehead and saw her eyes were shut and
her breathing had evened out. He’d lie there with her for a while to make sure
she stayed asleep, then he’d get up and see how Josh was doing.

Grady gave Sage one last look before he headed out his
bedroom door. She was sound asleep. He’d gently eased out from under her and
gotten out of bed without waking her up. Now dressed, he went downstairs to see
how his other guest was doing.

He found Josh being showered with attention from his mom and
Katarina in the living room. They had a thick blanket on the floor, which the
baby lay on as the women sat on either side of him, smiling and laughing at
what he did. Jase and his father were on the couch watching them.

“You two are going to spoil him if you’re not careful,”
Grady said as he went to join Katrina and his mom.

His mother looked at him and smiled. “You can’t pay too much
attention to a baby. Is Sage asleep?”

“Yes, but I have to wake her up in a few hours. She has to
go to the funeral home with her brother-in-law’s parents to make arrangements
for Macy and Hank.”

“Will you go with her?” his dad asked.

“If she’ll let me. I already know none of you will have a
problem looking after Josh for us.”

“Of course we won’t,” his mom said. “Jase and Katarina were
telling your father and me how you met Sage, and that she’s a police officer.”

“Yes, she’s a cop. And I suppose you also know Caleb got the
jump on me.”

His dad nodded. “And Jase told me about your assumption of
what he could have been doing meeting a human in the middle of the night in a
parking lot. I have a feeling if we don’t capture him soon he’s going to leave
the country and we’ll be lucky if we find him again.”

“I know. Draven is working on something that will hopefully
help us find him. I don’t know how he plans to do it, and quite frankly, I’m
not going to ask since I’m sure it’ll be illegal.”

Josh whimpered, and Grady went and picked him up. The baby
smiled and rubbed a hand wet with drool over Grady’s face. He didn’t care.
During the night when he couldn’t get Josh back to sleep right away, he’d had
lots of time with him. He’d grown attached to him, as he had Josh’s aunt.

His mother sighed. “What?” Grady asked.

“Seeing you holding a baby, it makes me want grandchildren.”
She then grew serious. “You feel something for Sage, don’t you? For only
knowing her a short time, you’ve taken on a role of a mate for her by standing
with her during a bad time in her life. And for someone who has never looked
after a baby before, that didn’t stop you from taking care of Josh all night.
Plus, you brought them both into our home so you can continue to look after
them.”

Grady kissed Josh’s cheek. “I’ll admit I’m falling for Sage.
And I have no trouble with Josh being a part of her life. I’m just not sure how
she feels about me yet.”

Jase chuckled. “Well, from your scent, which smells like sex
and Sage, she has to have some feelings for you if she slept with you,
especially considering the state of mind she’s in.”

“Jase,” Katarina said as a rebuke.

“It’s okay,” Grady reassured her. “She at first wanted to
cancel our date, but she reluctantly invited me into her place. Now, losing her
sister who was her only relative, I think she feels as if she’s alone. I’ll do
everything I can to show her she isn’t, that I’ll be here for her.”

“Don’t be surprised if she sets off your pendant,” his dad
said. “It already sounds as if you’re falling in love with her.”

Grady didn’t dislike the idea of that. The few short hours
he’d been with her and then helping her through her loss, he had to agree with
his dad that he truly was falling for Sage.

His brother chuckled. “If that happens, Grady will be an
instant father and Mom will be a grandmother like she wants.”

“True,” he said. Then softly laughed as he pried his cougar
head pendant out of Josh’s grasp before the baby put it in his mouth. “He’s
always trying to put drool all over my pendant or tugging on it. Sage is the
same, minus the drool. She fell asleep on me before I came downstairs. I had to
get it out of her hand. She has a tendency to want to hold it too.”

Katarina smiled. “I have a feeling she’s your mate. Aspen,
Harley and me have been talking about what it’s like being human and mated to a
cougar shifter. All of us agreed about one thing—we were all drawn to our
mate’s pendant, wanting to touch it, claim it, even before we set off the magic
inside. We also found it warm, warmer than it should be just from normal body
temperature.”

“Interesting,” said his mother. “Cougar shifter females
don’t experience anything like that when we first meet our mates. I guess a
human mate must affect the magic differently.” She then turned to Grady. “If
what Katarina says is what’s happening to Sage, how do you feel about that?”

“I would want her as my mate, and I would accept Josh as
mine as well.”

“Then you’ll have to let her know what you are either before
she sets off the pendant or after.”

“I know. The only problem is when to do it. Right now she
already has too many emotional things to handle. Me telling her I’m a cougar
shifter might just push her over the edge. She’s barely hanging on as it is.
She’s fighting to stay strong and won’t let herself mourn her sister yet.”

“That will come,” his mother said. “I think you’re right
about now not being the time to tell her. I’d wait until after the funeral,
which I’m sure will be sometime this week.”

“I would imagine so.”

Grady kept hold of Josh and sat in the armchair kitty-corner
to the couch. He could handle being a father. And if what Katarina said was
true about Sage possibly being his mate, he was all prepared to settle down
with her and the baby. All that remained to see was if she did set off the
magic in his pendant.

* * * * *

Sage awoke from a bad dream, calling her sister’s name. She
snapped open her eyes and looked around. It took her a few seconds to remember
where she was. She sat up and glanced at the clock on the bedside table next to
her. According to it, she’d only been sleeping for an hour, and she seriously
doubted she’d be able to go back to sleep.

She rubbed her eyes, remembering what she’d dreamed about.
She’d been calling for Macy, searching for her, knowing she had to find her.
When she did, her sister lay bloody and broken, her eyes staring sightlessly at
Sage. Tears threatened to rise to the surface, but she pushed them back. There
was too much to do. She had to call Hank’s parents in an hour to arrange a time
with them to go to the funeral home. She dreaded it.

Sage lay back on her side and clutched the other pillow to
her chest. It smelled like Grady. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Without him, she didn’t know how she would have been able to keep it together.
And making love to him had her not wanting to lose him. For the first time in
her life, she wanted to depend on a man.

Even though her emotions were in turmoil, Sage was falling
for Grady. After having the kind of father she’d had, she’d never believed she
would be able to fall in love with someone so quickly, or even at all. Macy had
found it with Hank, but Sage hadn’t thought she’d ever have it for herself.
That was part of the reason she’d focused so much on a career that a
relationship came last.

Now she didn’t know how she was going to handle being a cop
and raising Josh. There was no way she could continue working the night shift.
He’d lost his parents, he didn’t need her being absent most of the time. At
least she’d be given time off because she’d lost a family member, and more
after that since Josh was now hers. She could get maternity leave, she hoped.
It wasn’t something she paid too close attention to.

Giving up on sleep, Sage threw back the covers and got out
of bed. She’d changed her clothes before leaving with Grady, but she hadn’t had
a chance to take a shower. She didn’t think he would mind if she took one. It
would help wake her up.

Sage took her first good look around Grady’s room. It was
huge. There was a small sitting area complete with a couch, side table and
brass floor lamp. She figured there would be an en suite bathroom since this
was more like an apartment than a regular bedroom. The first closed door she
tried opened up to a large walk-in closet. Grady’s clothes took half the space.
The second door ended up being the bathroom.

Like the rest of the room, its proportions were huge. There
was a two-person whirlpool tub at one end, two sinks set in a granite
countertop and a glassed-in shower stall that had been done in black-veined
white marble.

Sage found some fluffy bath towels on a shelf near the
shower along with shampoo, conditioner and a bar of soap. Already naked, she
stepped into the stall and closed the door behind her. Once she had the water
at just the right temperature, she ducked her head under the spray. She didn’t
take very long to wash her hair and body. The water did help wake her up. She
turned off the faucet, then stepped out and dried herself.

As she walked out into the bedroom Grady came in from the
hall. She gave him a small smile. “I hope you don’t mind. I took a shower.”

He closed the distance between them and gave her a kiss. “Of
course I don’t. What’s mine is yours while you’re here. I was only coming to
check on you. I figured I’d let you sleep for another hour.”

“I couldn’t sleep anymore. Do you have a comb I can borrow?”

He took her hand and led her over to the dresser, then
handed her the one that sat on it. “Here.”

“How’s Josh?”

Grady smiled. “Fine, and getting spoiled rotten by my mom
and sister-in-law. They’ve pretty much claimed him as their own and won’t let
anyone else have him.”

Sage nodded. “Would you mind watching him again while I go
to the funeral home? I don’t want to take him there.”

“How about I have my mom and Katarina look after Josh and I
go with you? You shouldn’t deal with that alone.”

“Hank’s parents will be there.”

“I know, but they have each other to lean on. I want you to
feel you can do that with me.”

She finished with her hair and put the comb on the dresser
before she turned to face Grady. “I’d like that. I’ve always been strong, but
going through this shows I’m not all the time. I thought it was hard when my
parents died. I was just a teenager then.”

“What happened to them?”

“My dad killed my mother, then killed himself. He was
abusive and didn’t like the fact she’d left him.”

“That would have been rough.”

“It was, but it also made me want to be a cop so I could
protect other women from suffering the same fate as my mother. I just wish I
could have done that for Macy.”

Grady tugged Sage into his arms with the side of her face
pressed against his chest. She reached up and held on to his cougar head
pendant. Holding it made her feel more connected to him for some reason. A part
of her wanted to take it from him and put it around her neck so she’d have
something of his on her all the time. The old her before her sister’s death
would have told her to smarten her ass up and not be so needy, but this new her
didn’t care if it made her appear weak.

“How about you get dressed, then I’ll take you downstairs
for something to eat. The last thing you ate was the pizza we had last night.”

Sage lifted her head and kissed Grady’s chin. “All right,
though I’m not very hungry. I’ll force myself to eat. I can’t be passing out
from lack of food. Not when I have Josh to think about.” She kissed him again
when he angled his mouth in her direction.

“No, that wouldn’t be good.”

“Thanks for looking after us.”

“You’re welcome. I’m glad I can help.”

With her free hand, Sage reached up and traced Grady’s lips
with her fingertip. “I probably shouldn’t be saying anything right now, but
having lost Macy, I’ve come to realize how quickly I can lose someone. I don’t
want it to happen before I get a chance to tell a person in my life how I
really felt about them.” She paused for a few seconds. “Don’t take this the
wrong way, thinking I’m usually this quick when it comes to relationships,
because I’m not. Grady, I want you to be a part of my life. For the first time,
I have strong feelings for a man.”

He cupped her face and smiled. “I feel the same way about
you. When it’s right, it’s right.”

“Really? I didn’t think you would since I tried to get rid
of you last night.”

Grady chuckled. “I didn’t let you, though. I think I started
falling for you when you stopped me from getting my head bashed in and tried to
take care of me.”

Sage let go of his pendant and with both hands angled
Grady’s head down. She ran her fingers through his hair along the spot where
he’d been hit. Much to her surprise, there was nothing there, not even a
scabbed-over cut. It’d only been two days. There was no way it would have
healed that quickly, even if it had been minor as he’d told her last night.

She pulled her hands away and met his gaze when he lifted
his head. “There’s nothing there. I can’t feel where your wound was. That
shouldn’t be possible.”

Grady ran the backs of his fingers along her cheek. “For me
it is. It’s something we can talk about, but not right now. Let’s wait until
after you’ve gone through what you have to do for your sister.”

“Tonight. We’ll talk about it tonight.”

“I don’t think you’ll be in the right frame of mind for it.”

“I’m going to be up front with you. I can’t stand being lied
to or have people keep secrets from me when it’ll affect me. You do either of
those things, we won’t work out, and I don’t want to regret accepting you into
my life.”

“Then tonight we’ll talk. And if you don’t mind, I want my
family there when we do.”

“Okay.”

“Now get dressed.” Grady stepped away. “I’ll wait for you in
the hall because if I stay in here I can’t promise I won’t take you to bed
again, and that wouldn’t be good.”

Sage smiled. “You’d make me late. I won’t be long.”