• • •
The lecture wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It was mostly Beau reaming Josh out for being reckless and Josh accepting it without any protest, his arms wrapped around my waist as I sat in his lap. There was nothing Beau could say that we didn’t already know, and by the time he finished venting, the two brothers were laughing and easy once more.
“Can I go home with my woman now?” Josh said. “You’re wearing her out, and she’s still fragile from turning.”
Beau sighed heavily and rubbed his forehead. He looked as if he’d aged five years in the last few weeks. “Go home. Are you two going to be staying with us at the ranch?”
The arm around my waist tightened. “Actually, I thought I’d move in with Marie, if she’d have me.”
“Marie would,” I said in a pert voice, “except that Marie is probably going to lose her apartment now that she’s unemployed. I understand that Bath had to make a point that the client information is safe, but it puts me in the unemployment line.”
Beau nodded and looked at Josh. “This one, too, unfortunately. He’s not going to be in much demand as a vampire bodyguard now that word’s getting out about Andre. On the other hand, we will need an Alliance liaison to work with the vampire liaison. It needs to be someone charming but familiar with vampire bullshit. And having someone they’re a little intimidated by would be helpful.”
“That sounds like me,” Josh said lazily. “Tall. Sexy. Intimidating. Good with vampires. I’ll do it.”
I snorted.
“I haven’t given you the job yet,” Beau threatened.
“Nah, but you will,” Josh said with a grin. “You don’t want me and Marie living on your couch.”
“Great,” I muttered.
“Actually,” Beau began, then he crossed his arms and studied me. “I need an assistant, and I want someone in our clan because it requires confidentiality and trust. I thought about approaching Savannah, but Bathsheba’s hired her on full-time at the agency, and she seems to enjoy it. Things are getting a little hectic back at the security office, and I’d rather spend my evenings with my mate, instead of handling all the Alliance paperwork myself.”
I smiled, feeling hopeful. “I’m pretty good with paperwork.”
“She’s also pretty good at flaying people with her tongue,” Josh said mildly.
I pinched him.
“I imagine that’ll come in handy, given some of the people that call me on a regular basis,” Beau said in a dry voice. “When can you start?”
“When do you need me?”
“Hold on,” Josh said, moving protectively in front of me and raising his hands. “She’s my mate, and she’s still recovering from her illness. She needs a few weeks of rest before she thinks about going back to work.”
“A few weeks is fine for her,” Beau said. “You start on Monday. We have a little issue with the vampires that needs smoothing over.”
Josh grinned. “I’m your man.”
• • •
While Beau and Josh talked, I listened with only half an ear. I was sleepy, but it was a good kind of sleepy —not the terrible, dreadful kind of sleepy that meant I was going to have another bad night of insomnia. I yawned, enjoying the sensation.
Josh abruptly stood, taking my hand in his. “We’ll finish this conversation later, Beau. My mate’s tired.”
“Oh, but I’m not—”
Josh gave me a direct, meaningful look. A rather scorching one.
I shut my mouth.
Beau chuckled. “Just call me when the weekend’s over. We’ll see about moving your stuff. Both of you go get some sleep. I’m going to go home to my mate. It’s been a long day for all of us.”
As we left the courthouse, I had the tiniest bit of fear that we’d be ambushed in the parking lot by the angry lynx alpha, that this wasn’t just going to blow over.
Josh paused, staring into the parking lot.
My heart stuttered. “What is it?”
He gave me a wry grin. “My car’s not here. I forgot that I rode with Ramsey.”
“Oh. And I rode with Sara. Looks like we’re stranded.”
“Nah, wait here.” Josh returned a few minutes later with a pair of keys and jangled them at me. “We’re taking Beau’s Viper. Bath’s swinging by to pick him up.”
My eyes widened as we approached the sleek sports car. “He’s letting us take his Viper?”
He grinned. “I think he’s worried that if we linger, Bath is going to want to chat about the new plans for the agency, and he’d rather just take her home and kiss the hell out of her. Like I plan on doing to you.”
That sounded awfully good. “Let’s get going, then.”
As we drove, Josh told me about what he’d learned while being under house arrest with Ramsey.
It seemed that poor Lily was not so poor anymore. The Alliance vampires were horrified at Andre’s actions, and the bodyguard we’d tied up had corroborated our story enough that Lily’s crime of staking Andre was quickly swept under the rug. As hush money, the vampires had given her half of Andre’s fortune in a trust account. The other half had been given to the local reigning vampire lord.
My father’s name had never been mentioned in connection with the incident, which relieved me.
“That doesn’t fix Lily’s problems, though,” Josh told me. “She’s basically under house arrest until we figure out what to do with her. No one trusts her not to tell her side of the story, and she already ran once. When she’s free, she’ll be a rich woman. So we need to decide what to do with her until then.”
Poor dirty, frightened Lily. “I want to help her. Any way we can. I feel responsible for her.”
“The twins are watching her,” Josh assured me. “But we’ll go visit tomorrow, if you like, and make sure everything is okay.”
• • •
We drove back to my place in record time and parked the car, then Josh swung me into his arms and carried me up the stairs. I clung to his shoulders as he unlocked the door, pushed inside, kicked it shut behind us, then moved straight for the bedroom.
I chuckled and leaned in to kiss his neck, inhaling his scent. He smelled different now that I was were- cougar. Delicious and rich and full of woodsy notes that tickled my nostrils like perfume. No one smelled as good as Josh. I ran my tongue along the cords of his neck. “You taste as good as you smell.”
“You’re going to find that a lot of your senses are more sensitive now that you’re a were-cougar.”
“Mmm, sounds good to me. Is there a downside to this?”
“An intense attraction to fuzzy mice, tuna, and an inability to tell the alpha no.”
That didn’t sound so bad to me, since Beau was the alpha of our small group. “It’s a trade-off, I suppose,” I said lightly, running my fingers along the inside of his collar, then nipping at his neck. “I saw my mate mark.”
“You like it?” he asked in a husky voice, depositing me on the bed.
I curled my hands into his shirt and dragged him down next to me so I could keep kissing him. “I do. Do female shifters give them to their mates?”
“Sometimes,” he said, sliding a hand over my hips and resting it on the curve of my ass. “Did you see Ramsey’s neck? It’s covered.”
I shook my head. The big were-bear wore his blond hair long and shaggy. I’d check for it next time. “I guess Sara likes him a lot.”
“You could say that.”
I ran my fingers along his neck. “So can I mark you? Lay claim so all those other nasty were-cougars in the area keep their paws off?”
“Well, seeing as how the only were-cougars in this area are either male or related, I don’t think that’s an issue. But I’m more than happy for you to mark me and declare me all yours.”
I crawled over him, fascinated by touching him, the feel of his pulse underneath his skin. The scent of him was intoxicating. I moved in and licked his neck again, testing for just the right spot to mark him, and was rewarded with his groan of pleasure. “Am I going to like being a were-cougar?”
