The Cougar's Wish (Desert Guards) (8 page)

“Not until we know you’re okay.”

“I’m
fine
.”

“You sure? If we send Steven back to the diner with you, are we guaranteed to not have any issues?”

“Y’all, she’s
fine
.” Steven shouldered his way into the cluster and slung an arm around her shoulders. “She’s fuckin’ with you, and you all fell for it.” He gave the side of her arm a discreet pinch.

Suppressing a yelp, she bobbed her eyebrows at the cluster of cats. “That’s what you get for nagging me. But, um ... maybe you shouldn’t send him back with me. I’m in heat.”

Steven stiffened at her side, but she didn’t dare look up. If he was covering for
whatever
she’d done, she wasn’t going to be so ungrateful as to give alert the others something was amiss.

“Half the town is going to find out soon enough, anyway,” she said. “It’s all fun and games right now, but it’s probably not a good idea for him to be around me indefinitely. Who knows, I might ...” Well, she couldn’t very well say what she was going to do when she still didn’t know what it was that she’d
done
. “I might ...”

“Whatever you’re going to do,” Steven said low, “I don’t think you’ll be so sensational as to stick your hands in my pants again.”

Shit.
Her pulse pounded in her ears, and her face burned hot with shame. She wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole. Or maybe a hellmouth. That’d kill two birds with one stone.

That wasn’t me. I didn’t do that. There is something in me ...

But all the Cougars staring at her seemed to think it had been Belle, and for whatever reason, Steven was covering for her.

Mason opened his mouth to say something, but before he could get it out, Steven turned Belle in the general direction of the diner.

“Your hands are colder than Queen Elsa’s, by the way. If that inner cat of yours wants to grope me, maybe y’all can discuss chafing those suckers until they’re warm first.”

“
Steven
,” Hannah scolded.

Steven kept Belle moving. “She’s all right. Going back to work now. I’ll call you if she’s being stupid. Go do avenger stuff. Bye.”

He kept her moving at a rapid clip until the cats were out of earshot, and then Belle pulled her arm away. “I’m fine.”

“No, you
aren’t
.”

She tried to walk away from him, but he grabbed the back pocket of her jeans and pulled her right on back. “There is something
wrong
with you.”

“Okay!
Ugh
.” She swatted his hand away and laughed until she couldn’t breathe. There was nothing funny about her situation, but so often lately, her body’s reflexes didn’t match her brain’s sentiments. “There’s something in me, okay? Simple as that. And whatever it is seems to be capitalizing on my blackouts to compel me. I’ll deal with it. There’s no use belaboring it.”

“We ain’t started belaboring yet, honey. All I’m doing is trying to find out a little something about it so I know why I’m lying for you.”

“I’d like to know why you’re lying for me, too. I didn’t ask you to.”

“Are you kidding me? I just did you a favor, and you’re going to show me how grateful you are by telling me that you didn’t ask me to do it?”

She drew in a breath through clenched teeth and pounded her fists against her thighs. “Thank you, but you don’t have to do me any favors. You can go
home
, Steven. You don’t need to be here, and you know that. Hannah’s fine.”

“But you’re not.”

The truth had a way of wounding worse than almost any lie. Fortunately, being behind her, he couldn’t see her flinch—couldn’t read in her expression how uneasy she was about it. She had no idea how to fix it, but she would somehow.
Had
to, along with everything else she had to do.

“What do you intend to do about it, Belle? Do you have a plan, or are you going to act like what’s happening to you is normal?”

That had always worked in the past. She could just pretend everything was fine. But she
wouldn’t
be able to pretend the next time she shoved her hands into his pants that it was only because of the ghost. Next time, it would be the cat, and the cat was just the part of Belle that had fewer restraints and less concern of social niceties.

She walked briskly the rest of the way to the diner with him on her heels, saying nothing, but he didn’t have to say anything. His proximity made her spine tingle and stomach upset. It tangled her tongue and muddled her brain. That didn’t seem like the side effect of Cougar heat to her. That seemed like ... a
crush
, and she didn’t do crushes.

Crushes were for women who didn’t have fangs.

Gods.

She pushed through the diner’s side door, and at the sound of the bells jingling, Alex perked up at the counter. “Hi, Steven!” she called out brightly.

Belle was evidently going to have little to no success at ignoring the man with Alex around.

Maybe we should have a little chat.

“Got lunch for me?” Steven asked Alex.

“Not yet, but I saved you a stool.” Alex pointed to the one unoccupied stool as if Steven couldn’t discern on his own which spot she’d referred to.

He climbed onto it, and Alex pushed a glass of iced tea across the counter at him.

Belle walked around the back of the counter, grabbing her apron from under the shelf as she went, and fisted the ties of Alex’s apron when she passed her.

She pulled Alex back into the kitchen and propped her fists onto her hips.

“What are you doing?” Belle asked.

“Being nice. As always.”

Belle narrowed her eyes at her friend. “Yeah?”

Alex stuffed her hands into her apron pockets and canted her head demurely. “If you won’t, I will.”

“What are you talking about?”

“He’s a nice guy, and he’s single. I confirmed it.”

“Who cares and with whom?”

Alex giggled. “You care, and wouldn’t
you
like to know.”

Actually, Belle
did
want to know, but she wasn’t going to ask. Alex had always had a knack for drawing information out of people who wouldn’t have otherwise talked.

“Why would I care?”

“He’d be good for you.”

See,
chided Belle’s inner cat. If the beast could have knocked her lady half on the side of the head, she would have. “Not that I’m entertaining that ridiculous idea at all, but what makes you think that?”

“Order’s up,” the cook shouted at them. Since he was standing five feet away, the volume was unnecessary, but Belle got the point—they needed to quit yammering and get back to work.

Alex gave her brother the finger.

He squinted at her and mumbled something about wishing he’d had the good sense to not work in the same place as his sister.

Alex tucked some escaped locks back into her lopsided ponytail and wrapped her arm around Belle’s shoulders. She slowly moved Belle toward the door and whispered, “Listen, he makes sense.”

See?
the cat repeated. Intrigued, the lady part of Belle asked, “How so?”

“He knows what you are, for one thing.”

“In general terms, maybe. And you say that as if it were a positive point.”

“Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. But look—you’re not going to do any better.”

“Oh, that’s not insulting at all.”

“I’m serious. I’m not trying to be offensive. I’m just telling you the truth as I see it. I’ve known you forever, and I think sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees.”

“Yeah? How’s that forest looking?”

“You tell me. I mean, have you ever had a conversation with the guy? And have you ever
looked
at him?”

“Of course I have.”

“Which?”

“Both.”

“Order’s
up
,” Chet said.

“Keep your panties on, Chet. We’re moving,” Alex said.

“Move faster, or we’re gonna get slammed, and there’s only so many hamburgers I can fit on the griddle at once. The heating element on the right side blew out.”

“Maybe you should call the repair tech.”

“Thank you, Einstein. I wouldn’t have thought of that on my own.”

Alex rolled her eyes and gave Belle a nudge with her elbow. “
Which
?”

“Both. Like I said. Of course I’ve looked at him.”

“Through the sides of your squinted eyes.”

“Not only that way,” Belle said low. He wore baggy athletic shorts sexier than any man she’d ever seen, and he had a penchant for pickup games with Tito and Darnell at the court down the street from her house. She knew there were cartoon wolves on his underwear because he had a habit of pulling up his T-shirt to wipe his sweaty face and his shorts sagged on his hips. On the day she’d made that discovery, she’d stormed down to the court to tell him that she was sick of seeing him on her street. The cat in her must have been hypnotized by the pretty muscles of his back or the nice pop of his ass or something, because she’d forgotten what it was she was going to tell him and ran off before he could turn around.

Alex picked up a water bottle from the counter and splashed some of the contents into Belle’s face.

“Hey!” Belle flailed and reached blindly for a kitchen towel. “What the hell did you do that for?”

“I’m talking to you.”

“And I’m
listening
.”

“So answer me. What kind of stuff did you talk about?”

“Gods, I don’t know. One lecture sounds pretty much like another after a while. When certain people around me open their mouths, everything sounds like
womp-womp-womp
. I’ll be adding you to that number soon.”

Alex groaned. “So, you haven’t talked to him. You should get to know him.”

“Okay.”

“Is that sarcasm? I’m just trying to help you, Belle.”

“I know you are, but ... there’s a lot in play you don’t understand.” Belle pulled open the door, stepped back out into the front of the diner, and then went to the sink to wash her hands.

Alex shrugged and grabbed her order pad. “If you say so. Steven’s stool is one of yours, by the way.”

Belle suppressed a sigh and made her way to the end of the counter. She drummed the end of her pen against the metal trim and waited for him to look up from his phone. He was scowling at it. Whatever was on the screen must have been particularly bothersome, because he wasn’t much of a scowler. In fact, he was probably one of the most easygoing men she knew.

“You’re not actually hungry, are you?” she asked him.

“I could eat,” he said.

Just to prove to herself that she could, she met his gaze right on.

Easy as pie.

Chocolate pie.

His eyes were a rich brown and
old
. She never knew what it meant for someone to have “old eyes” until recently when her mother attributed that trait to Lola. There was a depth of wisdom in the goddess’s bottomless dark gaze that couldn’t have been easy to come by. Belle knew for certain Steven was nowhere near as old, but a similar depth was there. Maybe he’d seen things ... and she wondered what.

She tapped her pen some more and gnawed at her bottom lip.

The bells on the front door chimed, and Alex hurried over to the trio of customers and got them seated at one of her window tables. Alex already had enough tables, but she probably thought she was doing Belle a favor.

Typical Alex.

“How’s the corned beef hash?” Steven asked. “I’m still feeling the pull toward breakfast.”

Swallowing, Belle pulled her gaze back to him, and thankfully, he was looking at the menu and not her. “I wouldn’t recommend it,” she said. “To me, it’s too salty, but as a cat, my taste buds probably aren’t reliable.”

He laced his fingers together and looked up at her.

Gods.

Of course she had to look back.

She closed her eyes against the onslaught of his intensity.
Why did I look?

She was giving her damned inner cat more fodder—more reasons to fight against her—and once that animal made her decision, there’d be no negotiation. Steven would be it, and Belle would be dogged in her pursuit of him. That wasn’t a cat’s heat—it was just the animal wanting what she wanted.

“I think I’ll risk it,” he said. “I’m used to it being salty, but I come from a place where hams aren’t any good unless you have to soak them for a day to get the excess sodium out. If it’s not salty, I’ll probably think there’s something wrong with it.”

“If that’s what you want.”

“Unless you can think of something better.”

Deputy Carlson on the stool beside Steven put his finger on Steven’s menu on top of the breakfast burrito picture. “That’s better. Sweartagod, it’s heaven.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“That’s my least favorite thing on the menu,” Belle said. “Chet throws everything but the kitchen sink into it.”

“I
know
!” Carson said. “That’s what makes it so good. The first time I had it, I was—” The guy pressed his lips together and picked up an end to his sandwich. “Well. No need to self-incriminate.”

Steven scoffed and closed the menu. “I hope you were off the clock.”

“Of course I was. And it wasn’t my fault, anyway. Some Coyote brought in a tray of brownies to the station, and like a dumb ass, I grabbed a couple on the way out.”

Belle cringed. Pot brownie gifting was a common scheme of the Coyotes. They distributed them to people who they needed to be a bit more susceptible. Then they robbed them, usually. With the cops, they’d probably just been screwing around. “You should have known better, Deputy.”

“I didn’t know who’d brought them until the next time I went in. I should have known there was a reason no one else had touched them. Those things had me frolicking through the streets for a good six hours.”

Steven raised his eyebrows and looked at Belle. “I guess Mason isn’t the only one dealing with Coyote shenanigans.”

“Individually, they don’t get into a whole lot of trouble,” Belle said with a shrug. “But as a gang, they create more than their fair share of chaos. It’s in their natures.”

The deputy pointed to Belle, then to Steven. “Did I just say too much?”

Belle shook her head. “Nah. He knows the Coyotes aren’t just a biker gang.”