The Cougar's Wish (Desert Guards) (3 page)

Lily sighed. “I’m twenty-three. I’m the old lady of the house. I’ll have you know I have Mason’s Netflix password, and so I’ve seen every
X-Files
episode, and all the ones with Nicholas Lea twice. He looks like my high school ex. Maybe it’s the murderous glint in his eyes. Dad hated him.” She shrugged again. “Anyway, after my legendary travails with that guy, Dad decided I couldn’t make good choices, but I think I learned how not to open the door to strangers by the time I was ten. You don’t have to be a Mensa member to figure that out.”

“I wouldn’t have guessed twenty-three. You look sixteen or seventeen. No offense, but you look like jailbait.” At least to a thirty-one-year-old who actually had some common sense, in spite of what his sister asserted on occasion.

Alex nudged Lily with her elbow. “I think that’s a compliment. Say thank you.”

“Thank you,” Lily said blandly. She stretched her arms over her head and let out a long yawn. “I’m going back to bed. If I don’t get enough sleep, I’m not going to be able to feign pleasantness at work tomorrow. I need to be able to put sunshine in my voice when I’m answering the phone and responding to the same damn questions again and again.” She shuffled down the hall, grumbling.

Alex rocked back on her heels. “Well, I’ll leave you to it. If I don’t get enough sleep, I’ll keep dropping trays at the diner, and I can’t afford to break any more dishes this month.”

“Can you show me where the bathroom is before you go?”

It was a small house. He imagined there’d only be one, and if there were a second one, it’d probably be attached to the master, which he guessed Lily would have claimed. All the same, he didn’t want to go opening doors and stumbling into things he wasn’t meant to see.

“Come this way.” She gestured toward the hall, and pointed to the first door on the left as she approached. “Right there. If you need towels or whatever, the linen closet is there.” She pointed to the narrow door across the hall.

“And where’s the secondary exit for this house? I know you’ve gotta have one.”

“We do have one. It’s in the kitchen, but if you’re worried about Belle sneaking through it, you shouldn’t be. The door is behind a little bookcase and is painted shut. None of us have been able to unstick it. Not even Belle, and she’s stronger than we are thanks to her shifter weirdness.”

“And how do you feel about her shifter weirdness?”

Alex gave a dismissive wave. “Ah, I’ve always known about it. I’d say most folks in town know about the weirdos, and I think the ones who don’t know are being purposefully oblivious. Fun fact: most of the maternal side of Belle’s family moved away after Belle’s mom and dad bought out the ranch, but Lily’s dad stayed in the area.”

“So, I take it that the folks on that side of the family aren’t shifters.”

“Nope.” Belle stuck her head out of her bedroom door and glowered at the two of them in the hallway. “Mom’s normal and so are the rest of her family. If you’re going to hash out my life story, maybe you’d like to consult me for fact-checking.”

Alex sighed and moved past her roommate. “We’re just talkin’, Belle. Thought you were asleep.”

“Who could sleep with all the noise?”

“Whether you can or not, you need to try. We’re on opening shift tomorrow, and there isn’t enough coffee in the world to keep my ass from dragging if I don’t get at least six hours. So, I bid adieu to you and you.” Alex curtsied, walked into a dark room at the end of the hall, and shut the door.

Belle shifted her cold gaze to Steven, rolled her eyes, and then retreated to her own room, closing the door with a resounding slam.

Groaning, Steven lifted his baseball cap, scraped his hair back beneath it, and turned on his heel.

In spite of what Alex said, he needed to check that kitchen door, anyway. Depending on the functionality of the windows, the ladies not having an alternate exit route in case of fire was possibly illegal for their landlord, not that Steven had any intentions of ratting the guy out. At the moment, he was doing Steven a favor. After that hellmouth had been sealed off and Belle had stopped trying to run into it, maybe he’d confront him and ask, “What the fuck, dude?” but for the moment, Belle having fewer exits made his job easier.

He pushed the dinky little bookcase aside, undid the deadbolt, and gave the knob a hard tug. As Alex had said, the door had no give.

He bent and squinted at the seams, checking the connection, and running his fingertips down the side of the doorframe. The asshat had nailed the door in place through the trim, probably to keep squatters out during a period of vacancy. “Idiot.”

Oh well.

At least Belle wouldn’t be able to get out without running past him.

Maybe not
.

Halfway to the living room, he stopped.

She had a window in her bedroom, and he had to check it.

He rapped on her door, and at the sound of her frustrated, “What?” he opened it and strode immediately across the room to the window.

She pulled the blankets up over herself, and snarled at him. “Ex
cuse
you?”

“Checking your window.”

“Go ahead and waste your time, and you’ll find out the same thing Mason already has.”

All the same, Steven pulled open the curtains and raised the blinds.

Bars.
She had bars in her window.

“Surprise,” she said. “I guess the guy who owns the house covered some of your bases for you.”

Steven let the curtains fall back into place and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “Why are you so hostile to people who are trying to help you?”

“Because I don’t need the help.”

“Really?” He knelt beside the bed and narrowed his eyes at her. “You don’t need help? So that means either you have some plan of how to close off that hole to hell that you haven’t informed anyone else of, or you’ve got a death wish.”

“Either way, it’s none of your business.”

“Oh, I think it is. For one thing, I made a promise to Hannah and to your mother and brothers that I was going to keep you away from that portal.”

“What do you want, a medal for valor?”

“I don’t need any fucking medals. I’ve got enough medals piled into boxes and shoved under my bed at home. You keep the kudos, and I’ll keep my promises.”

“You’d best keep them from afar unless you’re equipped to deal with the consequences.”

“What consequences? And I tried staying back, honey, and you keep slipping through my fingers like the sneaky cat you are. I think your family has been too generous in letting you out to work and run around, to be honest.”

“It’s a good thing your opinion doesn’t matter.”

He sputtered his lips. “Hey, you’re right. It doesn’t matter, but I guess I take that
protect and serve
credo to heart and even apply it to the folks who’d prefer that I go fuck myself.”

That
made her cringe.

Ha
.

He was glad
something
could affect the unflinching Belle Foye. She was a lot like her mother, Glenda. As far as Steven had witnessed to that point, nothing scared that lady, not even the shit that scared
him
. Like demons coming out of that portal on her ranch. He’d been praying nonstop during that chase through the desert that nothing came out of the damned thing. If something had, chances were very high he would have left Belle to it. Being shot at repeatedly in Afghanistan hadn’t caused his PTSD. The entity that had tried to choke him in his sleep every night managed that.

It had happened to him every night for weeks, and since no one else in his unit seemed affected, he’d kept his mouth shut. He’d wanted to finish his stint in the Marines with an honorable discharge, not being escorted into a room with padded walls and handed a cup of pills to swallow.

Fuck that.

“Get some rest, doll.” He clucked his tongue and stood. “I hear you have to get up early, and I know you’ve been burning it at both ends lately, what with your adventures into the desert and all.”

“Don’t call me doll. Do I look like a doll to you?”

With her eyes narrowed at him like they were, and her wet, red hair falling into her face, she looked more like an evil mermaid trapped on land than a doll.

She certainly had the makings of a mermaid body. Long and lean, curves where they mattered.

Not that he’d been looking.

Well, he’d maybe looked a little. It was hard not to look with her running naked all the damn time before she shifted into her cat form.

Looking was one thing.
Admiring
was another, and he wasn’t going to be doing any of that.

He wouldn’t mess with her even if she were ten years older. He preferred that his girlfriends be firmly entrenched on the “nope” end of the supernatural spectrum. Less drama that way, and he had a knack for pulling the most dramatic fish out of the sea of eligible bachelorettes as it was.

He closed the door on the way out of her room and let his exhalation sputter his lips. Where he went, drama followed. Seemed pointless to try to escape it.

Halfway back to the living room, he turned on his heel yet again. He had a burning question and wouldn’t be able to sleep until he got an answer, so he returned to Belle’s room and didn’t even bother knocking first.

“Ugh!” She turned off the bedside lamp as he stepped in and yanked the covers up once more. Not that he saw anything.

He folded his arms over his chest. “I gotta ask, Belle. Everyone keeps asking, and you won’t give a straight answer. Why can’t you just stay away from the hellmouth? I know you cats are sensitive to the paranormal shit, but if it’s as simple as staying off the ranch, why don’t you just stay away from it?”

“What’s it to you? I didn’t ask for anyone’s help in keeping me away from it.”

“So, what are you up to? Are you just going to run into it on purpose and have a little look around?”

She shrugged. “Maybe. Someone should.”

“What, precisely, are you trying to learn? I’m probably walking the winding path to hell already, and I certainly don’t want to get there early. What are you trying to achieve? I damn sure don’t believe it’s just a matter of curiosity.”

Once more, she shrugged. “Believe what you want.”

“So you’re not gonna talk? Not even gonna try to explain it?”

“Most men would want me to talk
less
. There’s something wrong with you, I think.”

Grinding his teeth, he lifted his hat and gave his hair a tug.

He kept meaning to get a haircut, but the length drove his father nuts, and Steven enjoyed watching the man turn red in the face far more than a good son should have. Obviously, he wasn’t a good son.

“All right. There’s something wrong with me,” he said, “which makes me fit in just fine around here, the way I see it. I guess you should count your lucky stars they’re gonna close that portal in a couple of days, and you won’t have to worry about me being in your face anymore.”

She sat up a little straighter. Her irises were mirrors of gold in the dimness instead of their usual copper color. The part of her that was cat obviously saw better in the dark. “What do you mean, they’re closing it? No one’s said anything to me.”

“Maybe because you won’t have an adult conversation with anyone.”

“I speak to my mother every day.”

“And Glenda knows for sure what’s going on.”

“I think you’re bullshitting me.”

“To what end?”

“To try to get a rise out of me, just like all the Cougar men do. They get some sick, perverse thrill out of getting my temper up and making me scream.”

“Okay, newsflash, dumpling—I ain’t a Cougar. All the mess that affects y’all with all the pheromones and hormones and whatnot? I don’t have it. If you’re pissed at me, it’s because you just want someone to be pissed at, and I’m sorry if I have the pesky habit of telling the truth about things. Not gonna lie to ya. Sorry.”

When the comeback he expected of her didn’t come, he looked at her closely and found her eyelids half fallen, her lips parted, and head tilting back.

“Belle?”

Nobody fell asleep that fast, but then again, she
was
a cat. They seemed to have a knack for impressive sleep antics.

“For Pete’s sake.” He put the back of his hand against her cheek and, finding it ice cold, gave her a frantic shake. “Belle!”

Her eyelids snapped up, body jerked, and eyes slowly focused on him. Growling, she pushed his hand aside. “Ugh, go away.”

“Are you kidding me? You just blacked out, didn’t you? What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing. I’m fine.”

“Bullshit.”

“I said
go. Away.
Do I need to beg you like I do to my brothers, or are you actually going to respect my wishes and get the hell away from me?”

“Seriously? Okay. You know what?” He stood and put up his hands. “Fine. Poking at a hostile, hissing cat isn’t my idea of a good time, and I’m too tired to try to sweeten you up.”

“Good luck with that, anyway. You’ve been around long enough to have heard female Cougars can’t be tamed or trained, and you’d be stupid to try.”

“Good thing I don’t plan to, then. I’m doing just as you asked, and am going to go away.” He jiggled her foot through the covers. “But when I do, I want you to give some thought to why you think you can’t tell anyone what’s going on with you.”

“Thanks, but no thanks, for the therapy session. Do you enjoy spilling your guts to strangers? Personally, I only share with people I can trust.”

“You don’t trust me?” Try as he might have, he couldn’t stop his laugh from bubbling up. There weren’t all that many ways to offend him, but she’d gone and found one without much effort at all. He bent over backward every damn day of his life to be a team player, and he didn’t appreciate the implication that he wasn’t worthy of confidence. He didn’t make a habit of letting folks down.

“So, it doesn’t matter that your momma does or that your brothers do, I guess,” he said. “Seems that their judgment isn’t keen enough for you.”

“This has nothing to do with them. Or
you
, in case that wasn’t clear.”

“Nuh-uh, sweetness. Obviously it does have something to do with them, because we’re talking about a portal that’s been a problem for every last one of you for a year. It’s suddenly not their problem?”