You Had Me at Cougar (Heart of the Cougar #9) - Terry Spear Page 0,4
underneath his Bermuda shorts. And a gorgeously bared chest. He waded out into the warm water. She frowned. Where did he think he was going?
She wanted, needed solitude before she began to give up her psychic secrets. The problem with her serving as a fortune teller was that she made an awful actress. Keeping a straight face, if she thought something bad was going to happen to someone, and just making up something else that would be lame and not upset anyone wasn’t something she could do—and make it believable. Part of the problem was they were all cougars and could smell fear or deception on someone.
She sighed. Even when she had seen Chet stripping out of his clothes, she had envisioned him wearing form-fitting boxer briefs, or…ahem, nothing at all and her mouth had gaped wide open. She was sure, if he’d seen her surprised expression, he would have been amused.
He began swimming out to her, powerful muscles flexing as he pulled the water past him and drew closer. If he’d been her boyfriend, she could imagine him reaching her, pulling her from her float into his arms, and kissing the daylights out of her. It was a good thing he couldn’t read her mind and didn’t have any psychic abilities whatsoever. But after Chet had worked with Bridget, who could read minds, he had become a firm believer in psychics. Which she appreciated. Skeptics were one thing. She understood when they wouldn't believe in her abilities. But when they tried to say she was a charlatan, that was another thing.
Maybe he was going to tell her that he had found a place to bunk, other than her place. Now she felt guilty for ignoring him when he was calling out to her from the beach.
When he reached her, he sent ripples of water her way, rocking her float, but it was in a lulling manner and that was nice.
“Hey, sorry about putting you out when you have to give me a place to stay for the weekend, but I really appreciate it,” he said.
For the whole weekend? She sighed. “No problem.” So much for getting a reprieve.
“Ava said that after spending the day with a lot of people, you need time to recuperate.”
“I do, thanks, when I have psychic visions. It just wears me out. Baking in a hot kitchen does too.” Which made her seem lame—here she was a powerful cougar with lots of stamina. Not only that but he had some tough cases to handle and here she was talking about being worn out from baking cookies and cakes? He must have thought she was an idiot.
“I’ll spend some time with the guys I work with and come to your place just to sleep then.”
Now she felt really guilty. “You can, if that’s what you want to do, but if it doesn’t work out, you’re free to come and have a bite to eat with me at my house tonight, watch TV, or whatever you want to do.” What was the matter with her? He just gave her an out, and she was telling him it was okay to forgo other plans and chill out with her? When it was the furthest thing from what she wanted to do?
“We’ll see.” He was treading water next to her, being nice, which he should be, considering she was giving him a free room for a couple of nights, and she felt grouchy—but mostly because all of a sudden she had to be a gypsy fortune teller and now allow a near stranger—male cougar hot—to stay with her. “Can I pay you something for the stay?”
Yes. He made a lot more money than she did as a special agent of the CSF when she just worked as a baker. But that wouldn't be very nice to make him pay for his stay. Though if he'd stayed at a hotel or one of the cabins, he would have paid top dollar for the summer. “No, thanks. I appreciate the offer though.”
If he had been her boyfriend, and she had to admit he had the looks that counted—blond hair, blue eyes that peered right into her soul, and a nicely manly chin, and the rest of him wasn’t shabby either, especially the rest of him—she could envision his arms resting on her float, his chin on top of them as he smiled up at her.
But he wasn’t her boyfriend, and he wasn’t touching the float or smiling. She would say he