Cougar's Victory (8 page)

“Where to?” Dax asked as they walked down the stairs.

“601 Industrial,” Effie replied casually as she got into the car.

“Nice part of town, we going for a mugging?”

“Don’t be snooty, you’ll have fun I promise,” Effie chided.

Dax closed the door and strode to the driver’s side and got in. “I’ll have fun because I’m with you. Just want to make sure I don’t need to be packing heat for our date.”

“Do you even own a gun?” Effie scoffed.

“No, but I’m sure I could procure one if necessary,” Dax sniffed dramatically.

Effie burst out laughing. She was sure Dax Hayes could handle himself in the less than desirable part of town. Him putting on airs was hysterical.

“Think I’m funny do ya?”

“Absolutely,” she agreed.

They drove for a bit, when Dax remembered to ask her about the guy on the street.

“Oh him,” Effie sighed.

“Do you know him?” Dax asked worried.

“Yup, unfortunately I use to date him. I dumped him to the curb and he was gone for a while. Now he’s taken up standing on my curb. I don’t really know what he wants and I don’t care. He’s ancient history. He’ll catch a clue sooner or later. He never stuck with anything before, I doubt he’ll put much effort into bugging me,” Effie confided.

“Do you think he’s dangerous?” Dax asked, keeping his eyes on the road and his hands firmly gripping the steering wheel. The idea of that asshole touching his mate made his cat crazy. It’s not like he thought Effie had been living in a nunnery. But his cougar was loudly giving him his opinion on the idea of another man even sharing the same air as their mate. Dax totally agreed.

“Well…” Effie hedged when she delayed answering his question.

Pulling the car over to the side of the road, Dax slammed it into park and turned to face Effie. “Has he hurt you?” he asked angrily, his hands reaching up gently to her face. He didn’t want to scare her but he’s was enraged at the thought of her being touched.

“Not really, I mean that’s why I broke up with him. He grabbed me one night, tried to choke me, but Cass got him off of me and I kicked him out. I hadn’t seen him again for over a month. I figured he was long gone,” she said quietly, dropping her eyes.

She was ashamed to admit she was with such a loser, but she didn’t seem to want to hold back from telling him the truth. Some part of her knew it was better to have Dax looking out for her as long as Chris was lurking about.

Dax’s eyes were focused on her neck. Thinking of that man putting his hands on his mate with the intent to hurt her, had his claws itching to spring out. He knew his cat was in his eyes and he was struggling to push him back. He didn’t want to frighten Effie.

Taking long slow breaths, he filled his lungs with her scent and slowly calmed himself and his cat, down to a low simmer.

Pushing Effie’s chin up so she was looking at him, he spoke very softly and slowly to her. “Effie, I don’t care who you used to date. I don’t care that he turned out to be a loser. That has nothing to do with who you are. I do care that, that man put his hands on you with the intent to hurt you. I do care that this man is still trying to be in your life. And I very much care that he is a danger to you. I want you to tell me everything about him and I want you to trust me to handle it. Okay?”

Effie let out the breath she was holding. Yup, Dax was awesome.

She told him how they met, how much of a loser he was and how much she put up with. She explained that one time was the only time he’d touched her in anger. And she told him where he worked and where he lived when he wasn’t mooching off of some poor girl. He had a small hunting cabin his parents left him when they died. It didn’t have running water or electricity so he never went there. He’d also crash at his buddy’s shop if he couldn’t find some easy mark to suck cable and a couch from.

Dax listened, asked a few questions then when Effie finished talking he gave her a long slow kiss. “I’ve got this, sweetness.”

“Okay,” she answered and was relieved to say it.

Dax pulled back out onto the road and within minutes was at a large warehouse in a dreary part of town. The windows were boarded up, there were a few cars in the parking lot. There were no signs of life other than a mysteriously open steel door with an old tire propped against it.

“Time for some fun!” Effie called out, glad that they were going to be thoroughly distracted from ugly topics in just a few moments. She bounded out of the car before Dax could reach her side.

She grabbed his hand and dragged him towards the open door. As he walked in Dax had to let his eyes adjust to the darkness of the interior. Effie was talking to a large man near the door and handing him money and for some reason gave him a fist bump also.

Dax let his eyes scan the interior and saw bleachers set up around an oval wood track. Were they running tiny horses?

Looking confused he gave Effie an eyebrow lift and then she explained.

“Roller derby!” she screamed, throwing a hand up with devil horns.

The large man at the door started laughing and offered a, “Hells yeah.”

“I can honestly say I’ve never seen roller derby before. You’ll have to explain it to me,” Dax laughed. As Effie dragged him to their seats she explained the rules and how they had to eat popcorn and drink beer and yell for their team to win.

Dax handled the beer and popcorn and found out they were rooting for the Apple Dumplings, the local team. The other team, The Screaming Mimi’s, were apparently the ‘bad guys’.

As the match started, Dax watched amazed at how easily Effie fit in here. She knew most of the spectators and she was happy to introduce him to everyone. They drank beer, spilled popcorn, and Dax had a surprisingly good time.

The Apple Dumplings had a resounding victory and he had to catch Effie more than once from falling off the bleachers when she was jumping up and down.

“Did you like it? Wasn’t it awesome?” Effie said, her joy and enthusiasm was infectious.

“That was time well spent,” Dax agreed. “Fun sport and just enough blood to keep it interesting.”

“Yeah, these girls do not play around. Wanna go grab something to eat? I’m thinking tacos,” Effie said jumping down from the last row of bleachers.

“Tacos it is, I’m guessing you know the hip happening place to get them, right? No fast food, greasy spoon type place?”

“I know the only place to get tacos around here. Gas station parking lot, come on you’re buying!” Effie headed towards the door. She high-fived a few of the derby girls walking by. Dax stood back and appreciated the swaying curve of her ass in those tight pants. Giving his rapidly swelling cock an adjustment, he followed behind quickly to grab the door for his woman.

Effie pointed him in the direction of the gas station after they got in the car. She was right, there was a taco truck serving up amazing steak tacos, covered in onions and cilantro. They ate them on a picnic table next to the truck. They laughed and talked, joking with each other about how many tacos the other was consuming. Dax’s count was at six, Effie managed only four.

“I’m stuffed, what now?” Effie said leaning over the table, giving Dax her sleepy contented gaze.

Dax could think of a lot of things he wanted to do. But not on a full stomach.

“How about we head back to my house, I have a pool. We could go skinny dipping?” he half joked with her.

“Hmm, where I’m from we call it chunky dunking. How about we swing back by my place, I grab a suit and then we go swimming. That should give us the recommended hour after eating before swimming safety requirement.”

“Fine, but if my trunks fall off sometime during the swim, it will be totally accidental,” Dax said, smiling devilishly at her.

“Oh, I bet. You’re a smooth one,” Effie laughed. Damn she liked him. Two days and
she
was the smitten kitten. She really needed a BFF conference, but hadn’t had the time. Mentally, she penciled in a talk with Cass as soon as possible.

Dax drove them back to her house. Luckily there was no sign of Chris and his scent had faded. That gave Dax’s cat some solace. Effie ran up and grabbed her suit and a change of clothes and then thinking twice, she grabbed her toiletry bag just to freshen up after the pool.

Leaning against his car when she got back down stairs, Effie took her fill of Dax again. It was easy to appreciate such a strong confident man. He looked relaxed leaning against his sports car. Nobody would guess he’d spent the day in a dank warehouse watching girls beat each other up on roller skates and then he dined on Clark’s finest tacos in a gas station parking lot. For a rich guy, Dax was pretty down to earth.

Dax settled her back into the car and sped off towards his house. Reaching the driveway, he pulled into the garage and turned off the engine.

“Wow, nice house,” Effie said. The house wasn’t huge, but it was newer and clearly professionally maintained by the perfectly cut grass and precisely trimmed hedges.

“It’s a rental. The house that came with the vineyard was the original owner’s farmhouse. Not that I couldn’t appreciate the charm, but I was a little concerned with falling through the floor or getting something toxic from the plumbing.”

“Makes sense,” Effie offered, getting out of the car.

“I think I might tear it down and build something I want. Not too big, not too small, but something that fits in with the brand of the company. Since the house will be visible from the winery I want it to eventually feel like Tuscany. Once we have a few years of successful bottling under our belts I want to rebuild the warehouse. Industrial blue metal isn’t the brand image I’m thinking of.”

Effie could imagine what that property would look like. A beautiful owner’s villa looking over the property. A stucco building to house the state of the art processing facility. It would be amazing.

“I’d love to see that when it’s finished,” Effie admitted.

“Oh you will,” Dax said confidently, cupping her elbow and leading her into the house.

“I will warn you that the house is rented and so is the furniture. So please don’t think my world revolves around beige, because that’s all you’ll see inside,” he joked.

Effie laughed at his clear embarrassment of his surroundings. She lived in a second floor shack with curbside furniture. She doubted his bland house could be shocking.

Walking in, she looked around and took in a large living room with vaulted ceilings. Double French doors led out to the pool. There was a large bright kitchen. White cabinets and white appliances. But he was right, not even a throw pillow to break up the color palette.

“It’s a really nice house, Dax. Not you, but still very nice,” Effie said with a smile.

“I’m glad you like it. I want you to be comfortable here, at least until I figure out something more permanent.”

Effie figured he wouldn’t mind if she snooped around. There were three bedrooms. All with a queen bed and nightstand. Very bland, even the towels were beige. Finding what she figured was the master bedroom, Effie turned to find Dax watching her.

“Mind if I change in here?” she asked coyly.

“Of course not, need any help?” he said, his eyes sweeping the length of her.

Effie laughed, it was nice to see a man not hide his desire for her. It was radiating from Dax Hayes. He didn’t want to swim, he clearly had other things on his mind.

“I think I can handle this. How about you grab your trunks and I’ll meet you by the pool?”

“If I must,” Dax sighed and slowly walked into the closet dragging his feet and came back with a pair of swim trunks.

When he was almost to the door, Effie stopped him.

“Dax?”

Turning around he saw that she was slowly unbuttoning her shirt. “I might need a little help later getting my wet swimsuit off. Do you think you might be able to help me out with that?” she asked in her best sing-song voice.

Dax’s eyes flashed a strange yellow color that Effie figured must be a trick of the light. But the growl she heard come out of him was clear as day.

“Oh, I’ll be more than happy to provide any disrobing service you may need, sweetness.”

“Hmm, wonderful,” she cooed, then sashayed into the bathroom.

Once she shut the door, Effie covered her mouth as she laughed. Wow, she was having way too much fun. She quickly disrobed and slipped on her one piece with the side cut out. It was a daring suit for a girl her size, but she liked that the cutouts were right over her hips and made her bum look great.

Grabbing her sarong, she tied it around her waist and walked out to the living area. There she took a moment to watch as Dax stood by the pool wearing nothing but his trunks, his hands on his hips and looking out into the distance. He was muscled, but not bulky. His back was broad and tan, his arms thickly muscled but not huge. Effie wanted to lick straight up his spine.

He was tan, toned, muscles forming perfect smooth planes over his chests and shoulders. His abs were defined, cut deep. He had very little hair on his upper body, his leg hair was light colored which matched the pictures she’d seen of him. As he stood she could see his muscles flex under his skin.

Moving towards the open French doors, Dax turned around to take his first look at her in a swimsuit. Granted he’d had his head between her naked thighs just yesterday, but swimsuits were a bit of a fetish of his. They were meant to cover a woman’s nakedness but all it did was enhance every possible curve. He’d smelled her the minute she came out of his bedroom. His cat was thrilled that her scent would still linger there even after she left.

He knew she was looking at him. Dax was content to give her the time. Whatever his mate wanted was what he was going to give her. And if she wanted to stare at his body and hopefully get her libido ramped up, then he was a very patient man.

“Damn you look amazing,” he said low, his voice rumbling out of him. Her suit was white, with large cutouts over her sides that made his cat set up yowling in his head. She’d left the bandana in her hair and had slipped on a pair of large cat-eye sunglasses. She looked like a pin-up girl.

“You don’t look bad yourself, handsome,” she said, walking up to him. She raised her hand and ran it down the firm plane of his chest, letting her nails drag lightly over his skin. She watched him shudder and smiled up at him.

“Minx,” he hissed.

“Let’s swim,” she said, walking towards the shallow end. She carefully dropped into the pool. Dax noted this as she was clearly keeping her hair dry. He made sure to get in just as carefully and not splash her. Swimming up to her he wrapped her in his arms. Effie circled her arms around his neck and leaned in for a kiss.

Dax gave her what she was seeking. He kissed her hard, and let his hands skim down and cup her ass. Effie responded by swinging her legs around his waist and locking them behind his back.

Dax growled into her mouth as his cock surged to life between them. Effie wasn’t shocked, in fact she ground herself against him, seeking out more stimulation for their kiss.

Pulling back, Dax sipped at her lips as he said, “I thought we were swimming?”

“We are, well you are. I guess it depends if your feet are touching the ground,” she teased.

“My feet are on the ground, but yours aren’t.”

“Mmm, no they aren’t, they’re wrapped tight around this hunky guy I hooked up with yesterday. And right now there is a very hard reason for me to stay right where I am.” Effie leaned up to give him a slow, wet teasing kiss. She used her teeth to tug and nip at his lips.

Dax walked them up so that Effie was backed up to the wall of the pool. “We need to talk, Effie,” he said, moving his kisses down to her neck, giving his cat a taste of her skin. He dragged his teeth over her slick flesh, tormenting them both with the idea of biting into her smooth shoulder. Tasting her blood and bonding them for eternity was an all consuming drive.

Effie didn’t want to talk, she was happy, content and very horny. She wanted to keep rubbing up against the hard length of him in the pool until she came. She was simple girl.

“Don’t wanna talk,” she breathed into his ear. She leaned down and gave it a nip. She felt his arms tighten around her.

“Effie,” he warned. If she kept that up he’d take her in the pool and worse he might not be able to control himself and not bond with her. He needed her to understand what having sex with him meant. She had to make the choice of forever with him. For him it was a done deal. She would always be his One. For a human, it was a much more complicated process.

Effie was still wiggling her hot pussy against his cock and he was losing the battle with his cat and his dick on the same side against him.